THE FIRST DESIGN FOR THE CATHEDRAL 147 



this idea, which fortunately was never carried out. Then came 

 the great fire in 1666, and the problem was simplified, for the 

 fire had left but little to deal with, and it was decided to rebuild. 



The fire wrought a great change in Wren : he was no longer 

 the professor, the virtuoso, but the architect ; for to him fell the 

 duty of rebuilding not only the cathedral, but the numerous city 

 churches which had been destroyed. It is fortunate that old 

 .St Paul's was so completely shattered as to compel its demoli- 

 tion, for although the force necessary to remove the ruins was 

 :such as would have elicited vigorous protests in the present day 

 (gunpowder had to be employed, to the terror of adjacent 

 occupants), yet it resulted in providing Wren with a vacant site 

 whereon he could place a new building, instead of attempting 

 either a mixture of Gothic and classic such as he had formerly 

 contemplated, or his own version of Gothic which would have 

 been even more unpalatable. 



The new St Paul's is one of the finest and most impressive 

 buildings of its kind in Europe ; its dome is unrivalled for purity 

 of outline and aptness of composition. How did a man, who 

 had no practical acquaintance with architecture until he was 

 thirty years old, conceive such a masterpiece within a few years 

 from that time ? Probably nobody but Wren could have done 

 it: he had an extraordinary aptitude for mastering any subject 

 to which he turned his attention. But even he did not pro- 

 duce this great result at one stroke ; he felt his way through 

 many attempts. There were two complete preliminary designs, 

 neither of which had much in common with the other or with 

 the building as erected, beyond the fact that the dominating 

 feature was to be a dome. The first of these is known as 

 Wren's favourite design, the other as the " warrant " design. 



The first was worked out with much care and completeness, 

 and a large model of it was made, which is now preserved in one 

 of the towers of the cathedral (Fig. 97). The plan, however, 

 was so great a departure from the type sanctioned by tradition, 

 that it was rejected by the king and his advisers. Wren there- 

 upon produced the "warrant" design, one of the most extra- 

 ordinary ever made by a serious man, and one of the worst to 

 which a great architect ever set his name. This is a mystery to 

 which no satisfactory solution has yet been found. That a man 

 with the capacity of producing St Paul's as we see it, should 

 have produced the " warrant " design, and seriously submitted it 



