LON 
'PvVich may be tranflated in the following words: 
“Beneath is buried the Builder of this Church and of 
the City, Christopher Wren, who lived above ninety 
years, not for himfelf, but for the public good. Reader, 
jf thou feekelt for his monument, look around.” 
The lublimity of the thought which terminates the epi¬ 
taph is too obvious to need expatiating upon ; we are only 
furprifed that the high-minded author lhould have amufed 
himfelf with the trilling conceit and alliteration between 
the words “Conditur” and “ Conditor;” a jeu de mots un¬ 
worthy not only of the reft of the infcription, but Hill 
more fo of its author, if it be, as Pennant afferts, the ori¬ 
ginal conception of fir Chriflopher Wren’s own fon. The 
epitaph has been, within thefe few years, placed at the 
entrance into the choir, under the organ-loft. The let¬ 
ters are raifed in brafs gilt, on a large flab of white mar¬ 
ble; and the whole is, of courfe, confpicuous; but per¬ 
haps more fo from the novelty of placing fuch an infcrip¬ 
tion there, than from any other caufe. Indeed, we muft 
beg leave to fay that it does not agree with the hint Mr. 
Pennant had given twenty years before on the fubjedt. 
In the fir ft place, the word “ circumfpice,” which re¬ 
minds us of the famous fpondaic line of Virgil, (AEn. 
book xi.) where the preterit circumfpcxit expreffes fo well 
the flow and wondering look which Sinon calts around 
upon the Trojans who encircle him ;—certainly this word 
fuppofes the reader to Itand in the middle, or near the 
centre, of the edifice, and looking about; whereas the en¬ 
trance into the choir is one of the molt confined fpots in 
the whole plan of the building, and chiefly one from which 
it is impoflible to look around. Secondly, we do not re¬ 
collect ever to have feen a funeral infcription over the 
door of a choir in any Gothic or Grecian edifice. Pennant 
intimates that a cenotaph might be placed under the dome ; 
we fnould objedt molt ltrenuoully to this, unlefs he means 
nothing more than a flat ftone level with the floor, as we 
^are fully convinced that a raifed monument would take 
much from the beautiful uniformity of the area. But we 
have an unexceptionable inltance of an infcription round 
the infide of the lower part of a dome. No traveller of 
learning and of tafte, who vifits the famous bafilica of St. 
Peter at Rome, ever fails to obferve with how much gran¬ 
deur, magnificence, and propriety, the well-applied quo¬ 
tation of the words of Chrift, alluding to the formation of 
the fpiritual and material church, runs round the loweft 
interior belt of the valt cupola. It is as follow’s: Tu es 
Petrus, et super hanc petram edificabo Ecclesiam 
meam. Which text cannot be mandated otherwife than 
by tne following words, in which the original Afiatic allu- 
fion entirely vanilhes: “Thou art Peter, (the word in He¬ 
brew means a Jlone ;) and upon this rock (of ftone) will I 
build my church.” Now, if the fublime epitaph of fir 
Ghriftopher Wren had been infcribed in this manner within 
the interior compafs of the dome, between the whifpering- 
gallery and the loweft plinth, in large brafs letters, or 
under the cupola, on the ground, in a circular line around 
the open brafs plate in the form of a rofe, the reader then 
would'have been not only invited, but literally forced, to 
“ look around,” and thereby to furvey, as if tvnconfci- 
cus, the more-than-maufolean grandeur of the monument 
which this great architedt raifed to his own and inoft de- 
ferving memory. 
Perhaps a monument in honour of fir James Thornhill 
would not be unwelcome in this edifice. His paintings 
in chiarofcuro, within the cupola, were not without me¬ 
rit ; but, we are forry to fay, are now confiderably falling 
<off from what they may have been a century ago. Some 
parts are even fcaling off; and, if not properly reftored, 
and foon, will vanifh entirely from the diftant eye of the 
beholder. We need not repeat here the well-known anec¬ 
dote of his ftarting from the painting to the verge of the 
fcaffold, to fee the effect of a bold touch, and of his be¬ 
ing in the immediate danger of falling from a tremendous 
height, when a friend, with a lucky prefence of mind, 
tfarew a pencil or brulh againft the fpot the painter was 
D O N. 40 7 
looking at, and thus faved the.artift’s life by bringing 
him forward to a fafer place. 
It is reported that the contract he had made with the 
truftees, or rather with the dean and chapter, to paint the 
dome, was found, in the advancement of the work, to be 
inadequate to his expenfes. He therefore applied fqr an 
increase of the promiled reward ; but found his employers 
deaf to his entreaties. However, he went on cheerfully, 
finilhed his performance, and then applied again. He 
received the lame negative an Aver.—What could he do ? 
An immenfe fcaffold, a foreft of timber, had been eredte.d 
for the perfecting of the work ; and upon fuch a fyfteni 
of geometry, combined with the plain carpenter’s work, 
that it would have been a hard and unprofitable talk forthofe 
who were ftrangers to it, to take it down piece by piece, 
to avoid the danger of being buried under the whole 
eredtion. Sir James left it handing. Application was 
made to him to have it removed : he now became deaf in 
his turn. They applied again; at la'ft he required, for 
taking it down, fuch a price as might cover his expenfes, 
and bring a proper reward for his art; obferving, that in 
his bill he had charged for erecting a fcaffold to paint the 
dome, but not for taking it down again. The parties 
were made confcious that the artift had been ill-treated ; 
and the affair was amicably fettled.—We cannot leave 
this fubjedt without exprefling moft earneftly our wilh, 
which is common with that of all thole who look up to 
the paintings of the cupola, that they may either be re¬ 
paired, or the fubjedts entirely repainted, preferving, out of 
refpedt for the original deligner, the outlines of his com- 
pofitions. But then we would advife to give up the idea 
of chiarofcuro. The dome is rather indifferently light¬ 
ed : therefore, the more glowing the colours might■ be,- 
and the more glaring the ornaments might blaze in bur- 
niflied gold, the greater would be the effect.—Let our 
young and afpiring artifts try fpecimens of that fort of 
painting; let them fludy the deling of the banqueting- 
houfe at Whitehall, and bring down upon their pallet the 
celeftial flame which Rubens has lighted there; and they 
will foon find in the heads of the church a liberal patro¬ 
nage for their art. We are not in want of good artifts ; 
but they lack the opportunity of being properly employed. 
Several years ago it was in contemplation to fill up the 
large fquares which appear fo naked between the pillars, 
and fome other places originally intended for the recep¬ 
tion of the works of the pencil; but, owing to an overfight 
apparently of little confequence in itfelf, the plan was 
fruftrated.—The hiftory of the tranfadtion, with which we 
have been favoured by a perfon who was intimate with 
the parties at that time, and which is far from being ge¬ 
nerally known, is as follows.—Dr. Newton, bifliop of 
tol and dean of St. Paul’s, celebrated for his defervedly- 
efteemed Explanation of the Prophecies, had one day at 
dinner with him, Mr. (afterwards fir Jofhua) Reynolds, 
and Mr. Weft, who was now entering his pidtorial career 
with great eclat, (for he had already painted the death of 
general Wolfe, and feveral other fubjedts through which 
his reputation was rifing and increafing.) In the conver- 
fation between them, the fubjedt happened to be the 
church of St. Paul’s; and they all regretted that the ori¬ 
ginal plan of decoration, laid down by fir Chriftopher 
Wren, and brought before the public in a print there 
lately pubiifhed, had been fo long neglected, or that the 
execution of it had been fufpended by certain puritanical 
principles which had been afloat among fome of the heads 
or the clergy. The dean, moft liberal in his manner of 
thinking, fuggefted, that the places left by the architect 
to be filled up with paintings, might now, without much 
oppofition, receive their intended decorations. Mr. Rey¬ 
nolds diredlly offered to paint a Nativity, for one of the 
receffes; and Mr. Weft as promptly volunteered another 
fubjedt for the oppofite fide: the delign was, if we are not 
miftaken, the Difpenfation of the Law to Mofes—thus 
embracing at once the two principal epochas of the Old 
and New Teftament. The dean, highly pleafed at thefe 
generate 
