829 



WREN, SIR CHRISTOPHER. 



WREN, SIR CHRISTOPHER. 



830 



ment to grow up afterwards by degrees and under more favourable 

 circumstances. 



Thus frustrated in his idea for planning an entire city, and doomed 

 to see his ' New London ' among the things that might have been, 

 Wren was compelled to confine his ambition within narrower limits, 

 and to turn his attention towards individual edifices. Among the 

 earliest of these were the Royal Exchange, Custom-house (both since 

 destroyed by fire and rebuilt), Temple Bar, the Monument, and some 

 churches, including that of St. Stephen's, Walbrook ; all of which were 

 erected before St. Paul's was begun : and previous to that great 

 event in his professional life, we may here record two incidents in 

 his private one : in 1672 he received the honour of knighthood; 

 and in 1674 married a daughter of Sir John Coghill, after whose 

 decease he took for his second wife a daughter of Viscount Fitz- 

 william, an Irish peer ; and by both these ladies he had issue. 



All this time he had not been idle in regard to the intended cathe- 

 dral, but had prepared various designs and models. The one however 

 which he himself was most solicitous to see adopted was set aside for 

 that now executed ; and even there he was compelled to make several 

 alterations contrary to his judgment. Of this last, plans and other 

 architectural drawings are so common that almost any description of 

 it is superfluous, but it is not so with his own favourite project, 

 which, though invariably referred to, has seldom been explained by any 

 drawings ; on which account we here exhibit the plan as the clearest 

 and briefest description of it : the original, which has been for so long 

 a period almost hidden in the cathedral, but it may now (1857) be 



seen in the South Kensington Museum though it would seem only 

 for a time, the Dtean and Chapter of St. Paul's having only lent it to 

 the government for exhibition for three years it had fallen into a 

 very dilapidated condition, but is being thoroughly repaired. 



The composition is compact and simple, forming a single general 

 octagonal mass, surmounted by a cupola, and extended on its west 

 side by a portico, and a short nave or vestibule within ; and there is 

 also a great deal of play produced by the alternate curved sides of the 

 main body of the edifice. Of this design one great recommendation 

 insisted upon by Wren was that there would be only a single order; 

 yet though this is true as regards avoiding supercolumniation or order 

 over order, there would in fact have been two ordinances (both Corin- 

 thian), a larger one for the portico or west elevation, and one upon a 

 smaller scale (but raised to the same level of entablature, by being 

 placed on a lofty stylobate) in the side elevations, which would have 

 been surmounted only by an attic and balustrade. Such a combina- 

 tion of two ordinances might perhaps have been objected to by some as 

 rather licentious, notwithstanding that there is ample authority for it 

 in the works of Palladio and others of the Italian school ; but it 

 would at all events have produced picturesque variety, and the larger 

 order of the portico would have appeared the more imposing by 

 contrast with the other. It is further to be observed that that 

 ordinance is kept distinct from the other by being confined to a sepa- 

 rata elevation of the building. As to the interior, the parts are 

 beautifully grouped together, so as to produce at once both regularity 

 and intricacy, yet it does not seem by any means particularly well 

 adapted for the Protestant service, there being no space for a collected 

 congregation, except in the circular area beneath the dome, which 



could not be fitted up for such purpose without being further 

 inclosed; whereby also in other respects the grandeur of the ensemble, 

 as is shows itself in the plan, would have been greatly impaired. 



The comparison of that first idea with the one afterwards adopted 

 makes evident almost opposite modes of treatment both as to arrange- 

 ment and proportions. While the first exhibits concentration and 

 uniform spaciousness, the other is more extended as to length, but 

 contracted in other respects, and the diagonal vistas that would have 

 been obtained in the other case are altogether lost. It may be 

 observed too that the" nave, or western arm of the cross, is rendered 

 apparently shorter than the eastern one, externally, being broken BO as 

 to form a second or western transept. 



The first stone of the present edifice was laid June 21, 1675; the 

 choir was opened for divine service in December 1697, and the whole 

 was completed in thirty-five years, the last stone on the summit of the 

 lantern being laid by the architect's son Christopher in 1710. Taken 

 altogether, the present St. Paul's is a truly glorious work its cupola 

 matchless in beauty ; yet all noble as it is, the fabric will not bear to be 

 rigidly scrutinised in the spirit of captious criticism ; and of late years 

 no little of such criticism has been brought to bear against it. Among 

 other faults, it is alleged that its real form and construction are 

 masked, the upper order of the side elevations being merely a screen 

 concealing the buttresses and clerestory windows of the nave ; also 

 that the same is in a great measure the case with the cupola, the ex- 

 ternal dome being considerably loftier than the inner one, being so 

 elevated chiefly for effect : True; and that effect is most admirably 

 accomplished. The last reproach is all the more inconsistent, because 

 it has, if not proceeded from, been repeated by those who, while they 

 censure St. Paul's dome as being larger than the interior actually 

 required, not only tolerate but are in ecstasies with a Gothic spire a 

 feature built altogether for external effect, and quite useless as regards 

 the interior of the structure, otherwise than as giving stability to the 

 tower. Another charge which has now started up against Wren is 

 that he was either ignorant or grossly negligent of the principles of 

 ecclesiastical design of ' symbolism,' 'spiritualism,' ' sacramentality," 

 &c. But Wren simply endeavoured to adapt his churches to Protes- 

 tant congregations, and so far generally showed considerable skill, but 

 it must be confessed very rarely sufficient taste, or aught amounting 

 to architectural character and style. Of his numerous churches in the 

 city, few have any claims to notice for beauty of design. They art 1 , 

 almost without exception, in a heavy uncouth manner, chiefly marked 

 by a number of large arched and small circular windows, the former 

 of which appear little better than so many dismal gaps glazed in the 

 most ordinary manner. There is nothing in any one of them to 

 remind us of the architect of St. Paul's nothing in their external 

 design that will bear comparison with such exquisitely beautiful bits 

 in that structure as the two semicircular porticos of its transepts, 

 worthy models for church fagades. Even in his campanili the far- 

 famed steeples of St. Bride's and Bow Church, the general outline is 

 what is chiefly to be admired, for they are compounds of incongruous 



