for acceptance, is astonishing ; but apparently Wren knew his 

 clients, for it was approved and ordered to be carried out under 

 the warrant of the king, dated the I4th May 1675, wherein it is 

 described as " very artificial, proper, and useful." The slight 

 change which time has introduced into the meaning of the first 

 of these adjectives lends, for modern ears, a spice of humour to 

 the description. 



Fortunately, nothing more was heard of this design ; it 

 reposes among the drawings in the All Souls library, and there 

 is nothing to show that any attempt was made to develop 

 it. How Wren managed to drop it completely has not been 

 explained. He had the king's leave to vary it in minor points ; 

 he varied it altogether. It is probable that, the matter being left 

 in his hands, he quietly proceeded, as the years went by, to 

 improve upon his early ideas. The dome of the "warrant" 

 design is its ugliest feature ; among Wren's drawings are many 

 sketches of domes, none of them so bad as this, nor any so good 

 as the final one, nor is there any special sequence of steps to 

 show how the ultimate result was obtained. But it is easy to 

 see that the result was his own work, and that it was only 

 after numerous trials that he at last achieved it. 



The building of St Paul's took many years. The first stone 

 was laid on 2ist June 1675 ; the last stone of the cupola was 

 laid by his son in the old man's presence in 1710. During this 

 period of thirty-five years Wren practically rebuilt the city 

 churches, and was thus continually gaining experience. The 

 great cathedral will always be his chief monument, but the fifty- 

 three churches which he carried out would themselves have 

 made his reputation. The sites were mostly irregular, but of so 

 much value that it was essential to utilise them completely. 

 Wren covered them to the last inch, and yet contrived to get 

 that classic treatment in which symmetry plays so important 

 a part. In many hands symmetry would have meant extrava- 

 gance in space and materials. The problem in planning was 

 new in another respect, for the churches were all designed for 

 the Protestant form of worship, requiring an arrangement 

 different from that of mediaeval churches, and, among other 

 things, a suitable auditorium. 



To his skill in planning he added a constant variety of treat- 

 ment, both inside and out ; and, given a departure from the 

 simple straight lines of a Gothic spire, nothing could exceed the 



