Sir Christopher Wren And His Times.

remarked , that the church had suffered more than the church man ; and this was why it became necessary to call in tbe surveyor-general by his assessor to inquire carefully into its condition . Dr . Wren reported that he found the nave piers 6 in . or so out of the perpendicular ; that he discovered them to be built of " rubbish stone and much

mortar within , " and a mere shell of ashlar on the face ; that he found the vaulting to be too heavy for its abutments , and to have been always so .- hence the failure of the walls ; ancl that the tower " leaned manifestly" by the settlement of one of its piers . Ho recommended " new flagging" ( that is to say , stone casing ) for the interior ; he advised it to be done " after a good Eoman manner" ( that is to sayin classic

, style ); and he argued that this could be accomplished quite as easily as any restoration of " the Gothic rudeness of the ¦ old design . " Ho proposed , also , to construct a new roof of timber , plastered , or a lighter shell of stone , or of brick and stucco . He lastly suggested ( referring obviously to the example of St . Peter ' s at Eome ) the substitution of a dome and lantern for the ruinous tower , which he pronounced to

be " a heap of deformities . " At the present day , without committing one's self to more than the mere suggestion of a fact , it may be remarked that a report upon a ruinous Gothic cathedral would be conceived in at least a very different spirit . Although , however , the royal patronage of Dr . Wren ivcnt as yet no farther than this call for his advice Old St .

upon Paul ' s , ancl certainly did not go in any degree to carry it into effect , we find in the same year of 1663 , that private commissions began to assume a much more substantial shape . He produced his designs for the Sheklonian Theatre at Oxford ; as also for a now chapel to Pembroke Hall , Cambridge . As regards the latter , his triumphant uncle , the Bishop of Ely , having at thc Lord ' s leisure come forth from

his twenty years' imprisonment , had resolved to appropriate the greater part of his revenues for the benefit of Pembroke Hall ; the new chapel , therefore , was iu fact a commission from him . And it may be noticed that a few years afterwards , when the bishop , at the ripe age of eighty-one , came at length to rest from his labours , it was here that he was buried , and that with all the pomp which the ancient

university could display , in honour of one who had suffered so much in the cause of what he honestly considered to bo Muscular Christianity . Having now fairly embarked in the practice of an architect , Dr . Wren determined to travel ; for the sources of information and means of study at his command , at home were very limited indeed . The Italian treatises and plates

of Alberti , Palladio , and their followers , the few buildings erected by Inigo Jones , and perha-is a stray * drawing from Paris now and then , if not from Italy itself , handed about recently as a marvel , —these were all . Critics of the modern Gothic school will remind me that he hacl the whole range of the fine monuments of Medicnval England , and that the modern spire or steeple , a feature of his own origination , and of his continual use in exquisite variety of

perfection , proves how much he owed to the study of those remains ; but their need be no disguise about the fact that our doctor of classical learning treated Medianval buildings with very much of straightforward disrespect , and would gladly havo put " new flagging " to the best of them , " after a good Eoman manner , " to conceal " the Gothic rudeness of their old design . " Doubtless the contemplation

with so keen an eye for grace and fitness as his , of the picturesque effects of that style of architecture , did much to form his taste : this is now universally admitted ; but whether ho was aware of it is quite another thing . At all events , a natural anxiety to extend his sphere of study in thc art of his choice , led him to resolve upon a journey to Paris—the Paris of Louis XIY . —and to the Italian cities , the head

quarters of modern art , to examine the works of the great masters . In 1665 , then , our young architect ( for he was now but thirty-three ) journeyed to Paris . I dare say it took him more than twelve hours , ancl no doubt he was much more than two hours on tho Channel . He did not sec the Boulevard de Sebastopol , nor the Eue deEivoli , nor the Madeleine , the

nor Pantheon , nor the Louvre of Louis Napoleon , nor the Bois de Boulogne ; but he saw what was worth quite as

much in his day , and was as much delighted as any one of us now to soe Paris for the first time . To give a fair notion of his impressions and of his doings , of the condition of art at that day , and of his own tastes and principles , there is a well-known letter given in tho I'arentalia , from which let me read some extracts .

( The lecturer then read , an account given at pp . 261 , 262 of the Parentaiia , of Wren ' s visit to Paris in 1665 . ) In the spring of next year , Dr . Wren ( as he was still designated ) returned home . His travels had not been pursued beyond Paris . There are some intellects which do not work on the laborious collection of illustrations , but rather on certain abstracted principles , which are more or less

readily but almost unconsciously grasped . I fancy the intellect of Wren was of this stamp . If so , I can easily understand that he deemed the impressions which he had acquired ' in Baris to be enough for his purpose . "When you have seen one green field , " says Dr . Johnson , " you have seen all green fields ; " just so , to certain minds , when they have seen one great citythey have seen all great cities . At all events

, Wren seems to have been satisfied with the sight of Paris ; books , drawings , and his own fancy would do the rest . And . so they did . And , curiously enough , it has been pointed out , in view of the graceful proportions and carefully moulded details of such a building as St . Paul's , that where this great architect repudiates the fripperies of the school of Bernini , and swerves from what was the precedent of his

day , he leans by some inexplicable instinct invariably towards the then unknown manner of the Greeks ; one of the most remarkable instances on record of that natural elegance of conception which in its modest simplicity and subdued power is the ultimate perfection of the highest art . We are now brought in the course of events to the Great Fire of London and the new St . Paul ' s , and the thence uninterrupted routine of the life of an architect .

On his return from Paris , Dr . Wren was desired to report again upon the ancient cathedral of London . Evelyn , whoheld an official post in connection with Government buildings , was associated with him ; also a Mr . Pratt , and a Mr . Chicheley . Wren ' s proposal for extensive re-edification does not seem to have been palpable ; Pratt and Chicheley persistently opposed it , advocating piecemeal repair . The fact

that the vaulting of the nave had spread and thrust out the walls has already been mentioned : when Wren directed attention to this , the reply of his opponents seems singularly apt as a sample of John Bull logic . This receding of the walls , said these authorities , was but a refinement of design , intended to enhance the perspective effect . This was within a few days of the end of August , 1666 . On the 2 nd day of September fate stepped in very unexpectedly and took up the matter . The Great Fire reduced the fabric to a state of wreck .

The city of London was now in great part laid in ashes ; and here there was presented to our young architect , as has been often said , the finest opportunity for the acquisition of fame which has ever been provided for any man in his walk of life ; for I need not remark that it very soon became appai-ent that the public buildings of the new city were to be committed to his charge as a whole . How this happened ,

allowing all that can be claimed for Wren ' s transcendant merits , those who look at the case as men of business and men of the world can scarcely yet understand . He appears to have had literally no competitor ; and it seems inexpeicable that no individual whatever should have taken advantage of the opportunity to palm off upon somebody a knowledge of stone masonry and the possession of Palladio as a

certificate of qualification , —make a trip to Paris , for instance , to come home a travelled man ; or , what might have been easily done , journeyed forthwith to Eome and Florence , that he might hold his head even higher than that of little Dr . Wren .

It is worthy of note how rapidly projects for rebuilding London came before tho public . The flames raged from September the 2 nd till the Sth ; on the tenth even the whole area was a field of smouldering ruins . But within two days of this 10 th of September , while clouds of stifling smoke mid mantraps of hidden fire must havo been the staple commodities of the unhappy scene , we find a plan presented to the king by Evelyn , officially , for a new city . Exactly a