ISi7.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEEII AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



237 



as famous for bassi rilievi; Van Ostal and ArnolJin, who executed the 

 beauliful plastic ornaments and stucco work in the Louvre. 



M'ren returned to England in the spring of IGfiG, to arrange his multi- 

 farious business previous to his intended visit to Italy, and the records of 

 the Royal Society and Greshara College, and the reports of Boyle, Kvelyn, 

 Hooke, and othei- philosophers with whom he was associated, prove how 

 laborious and important they were. The fire of Loudon detained him in 

 his native land, from which he was never after absent. He resumed his 

 labours in the restoration of St. Paul's, which had been plundered by the 

 Oliverian*, its monuments desecrated, and its choir converted into barracks 

 and stables fur their horses and troopers. The great fire, however, put a 

 stop to this and other of Wren's employments in the city. 



Before Wren's visit to Paris, he had been consulted as to the additions 

 to Trinity college, Cambridge, which he completed so elfectually as to 

 elicit the following just encomium from an eminent historian. Dyer, of that 

 university. " Such as know," says this author, "how favourable architec- 

 ture has been, and still is, to the accommodaiious and conveniences of life ; 

 who have followed its progress from Egypt to Greece, from Greece to 

 IJome, and thence to the stales of modern Europe; who have studied the 

 proportions, the appropriate decorations, nice arrangements, and the gradual 

 intermixtures of the Grecian orders, might make a study of this spot. 

 Here it was our great master of Palladian ari hilecture, Sir Christopher 

 Wren, surveyed his own work, and was satisfied. Any aitist, too, might 

 linger here long; and, with a proper exercise for his taste, might receive 

 peculiar delight and proportionable improvement." 



The preliminary works had been proceeding during its architect's ab- 

 sence ; and he recommenced his work, on his return, with vigour. The 

 beautiful western quadrangle, called Nevile's court, from its splendid 

 benefactor, Dr. John Nevile, was then considered an example of excellence 

 in arcliitecture. The celebrity of \\ ren's works at this college have been 

 considerably enhanced by the recent visit of the Queen and her royal con- 

 iort, on the iostallaiiou of the latter as chancellor of the university, and of 

 the magnificent public breakfast given to these illustrious personages and 

 their court, by the master and fellows of this munificently endowed col- 

 lege. 



The following letter, transcribed from the three folio volntoes of manu- 

 scripts and drawings, in All Souls college, Oxford, which the author of 

 this paper copied during his sojourn at that university, for the purpose of 

 collecting materials for his Memoirs of Wren, gives a fair insight into his 

 character as an architect, and of the difficulties with which he had to con- 

 tend. It contains explanations of six designs for various parts of the colle- 

 giate buildings, from which a few extracts may suffice to show how very 

 particular this great architect was in the details of his designs. He in- 

 forms bis correspondent that "a building of that consideration you go 

 about, deserves good care in the design, and able workmen to perform it; 

 and that he who takes the general management upon him may have a 

 prospect of the whole, and make all parts, inside and outside, correspond 

 well together, to this end I have comprised the whole design in six figures " 

 He then describes, in a minute and plain style, each of tlie six designs, such 

 as the consiruction of the walls and staircases, the arrangement of the 

 library and its shelves, and the subdivision of its walls and ceiling with 

 pilasters and panels, so as look best, as he says, in perspective, of which 

 science he was a complete master. He presumes they have good masons, 

 yet, that there may be no mistake, informs him that he shall send drawings 

 of the mouldings the full size. He apologises for his minuteness by stat- 

 ing, " we are scrupulous in small matters, and you must pardon us ; the 

 architects are as great pedants as critics or heralds." 



Within two years after the fire of London, Wren was employed as archi- 

 tect by all the chief authorities in the kingdom. He brought his great 

 work, the Sheldonian theatre at Oxford, nearly to a close, which was opened, 

 as before mentioned, with great ceremony ; and commenced the chapel of 

 Emanuel college, Cambridge, under the auspices of bis munificent friend, 

 Archbishop Sancroft. This edifice is of the Corinthian order, two three- 

 quarter columns in aniis, an arcade between tliem on the ground floor, and 

 the chapel, with_ parallelogrammatic windows between the columns. The 

 necking of the capitals is continued on the walls, and the space between it 

 and the architrave decorated with festoons. The pediment is broken by a 

 clock, the frame of which forms a pedestal for the bell-tower. It is not in 

 Wren's best style. 



Of Wren's works other than those he executed in the metropolis, were the 

 royal hospital for invalided soldiers at Chelsea, that for sailors at Greenwich, 

 the Observatory or Flamstead house at the same place, the chapel of Queen's 

 college, Oxford, a palace for Bishop Morley, who had accompanied Charles II. 



in his exile, and a royal residence at M'inchester for the king, who liking 

 the situation of this city, selected it for a private occupation, when not re- 

 quired by affairs of state to be in London. Winchester had been much de- 

 stroyed by the parliamentary forces after the battle of Naseby; as had been 

 also the neighbouring city of Chichester. Their cathedrals, however, met a 

 differeut fate, for whilst that of Chichester was much destroyed and made 

 into barracks for the troopers, that of Winchester was preserved, by the filia 

 care of Sir William Waller, who having commenced his education at Win- 

 chester school and finished it at New college, Oxford, saved the cathedral 

 of his beloved alma Mater from its intended desecration by his soldiers. 



For these reasons, the king desired Wren to prepare a design for a royal 

 palace. Its extent to the west was 320 feet, and to the south 210 feet. 

 Had the entire design been completed, it would, with its contiguity to the 

 New Forest, and to the sea at Southampton, to which the river was to 

 have been made navigable, have been one of the finest hunting palaces in 

 Europe. The marble columns for the great staircase were presented to 

 C'harles by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. It stands upon a bt-autit'ul rise 

 above the city, and is still known by the name of the King's House. It 

 was used as a barracks for infantry duriug the French revolutionary war. 

 Among Wren's other provincial works, was the .4»hiiioleau Museum, at 

 Oxford; many reparations at Windsor Castle; the large additions to 

 Hampton Court palace for William and Mary, who held Wren in as high 

 esteem as did any of their predecessors; Mordeu College, Blackheath; 

 Isleworth Church, near Brentford; two band^ome mansions in Cliichester, 

 faced with red brick, and stone architraves to the windows, and finished 

 with a Corinthian modiUion cornice, much resembling the one near the 

 south-west angle in St. Paul's Churchjard, also by him ; the reparation of 

 Chichester Cathedral, that had been destroyed by the republicaus, and the 

 rebuilding of the greater part of its spire, which is remarkable for the 

 pendulum stage that he had fixed therein, to counteract the elfects of the 

 south and south westerly gales of wind, which act with considerable power 

 against it, and had forced it from its perpendicularity. By the ignorance 

 of the workmen who had the care of the cathedral prior to 1811, this 

 stage had been made a fixture, and considered to be only a scallblding for 

 the support of the external masonry. This error had again occasioned the 

 spire to deviate much from its perpendicularity, and become consequently 

 fractured. Sir Christopher Wren had carefully marked upon a brass plate 

 in the nave the true centre of the apex of the spire as he l.-fl it, and from 

 which it was found it had inclined considerably towards the north-east. 

 It was taken down and rebuilt, with a perfect restoration of a new pen- 

 dulum stage, affixed like the clapper of a bell to the finial that carries the 

 weathercock, at the expense of the dean and chapter of Chichester, by 

 the author of these columns, in 181314. 



This article being a brief summary of the history of architecture in 

 England, and not a biography of all its architects, it is sufficient to say of 

 Wren, that he was honoured by his sovereign with knighthood, with 

 repeated appointments under the great seal of a royal commissioner for 

 the rebuilding of the city of London, the Cathedral of St. Paul, the 

 restoration and reparation of Westminster Abbey, and other public works. 

 By bis brother philosophers he was elevated to the president's chair of the 

 Koyal Society ; and was twice returned to parliament by his fellow citi- 

 zens. Although Wren commenced his public career at the precocious age 

 of fourteen, he lived in the enjoyment of bodily health, mental vigour, and 

 public employment, to the extraordinary age of ninety-two, when he left 

 this world so quietly, that he can scarcely be said so much to have died as 

 to have been missing from his extensive stage of worldly employments. 



His great works in the metropolis are too numerous, too evident, and 

 too recfent, to need description in a brief memorial like the present. Let 

 it suffice to say, that had the city been laid out entirely by the plan sug- 

 gested by Wren, it would have been the finest and healthiest in Europe. 

 The best parts— that is, the situation of the public buildings— are Wren's ; 

 and the meaner parts— that is, the lanes and alleys, many of which have 

 been recently improved — were the production of the avarice and haste of 

 the citizens. All the parish churches, the companys' halls, many of the 

 mansions of the merchants and aldermen, the Royal Exchange, the Custom 

 House, and other minor buildings of the city, were the productions of 

 Wren's genius. 



Wren, in his St. Paul's, the most splendid of modern buildings, has 

 powerfully exemplified that just and effective imitation which is essential 

 to the character of a pure style in architecture ; and, at the same time, 

 leaves room for all the exercise of legitimate invention. St. Paul's is such 

 a free imitation of St. Peter's as the yEniad is of the Iliad ; and elevates 



