ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.
Sir Christopher Wren was the architect of St. Paul's, and the first stone of the new Cathedral was laid on the site of the old St. Paul's (which had been destroyed by fire in 1666), in June 1671, and thirty-nine years afterward, the last stone was laid at the top of the lantern in 1710, by the son of Sir Christopher Wren, who had succeeded his father as the architect.
As St. Peter's at Rome is considered to be the chief temple of Catholic Christendom, so is St. Paul's entitled to hold the first place in Protestant Christendom. The whole expense of rebuilding St. Paul's was £736,752 2s. 3d. for the Cathedral, and £11,202 0s. 6d. for the stone wall and railings around the Cathedral. The architect received a beggarly £200 a year during its construction, for his services. The same architect afterwards designed fifty churches to take the place of those burnt down in the Great Fire, and they are all standing to-day, I believe.
The dimensions of St. Paul's as compared with St. Peter's at Rome, are as follows:
| St. Paul's. | St. Peter's. | |
| Feet. | Feet. | |
| Length within | 500 | 669 |
| Breadth at entrance | 100 | 226 |
| Front without | 180 | 395 |
| Breadth at cross | 223 | 442 |
| Cupola clear | 108 | 139 |
| Cupola and lantern high | 330 | 432 |
| Church high | 110 | 146 |
| Pillars in front | 40 | 91 |
| Superficial area | 84,025 | 227,069 |
The diameter of the gilt ball is 6 feet 2 inches; the weight 5,600 lbs., and will contain eight persons; the weight of the cross is 3,360 lbs.
The ground on which the present Cathedral stands has, from time immemorial, been sacred to Divine Worship. There was a Christian church here as early as the Second century, built, as it is supposed, by the Romans, which was destroyed during the persecutions of Diocletian, and again rebuilt, and in the Sixth century it was desecrated by the Pagan Saxons, who celebrated their Heathenish mysteries in the church.
It was afterwards richly endowed with lordships by Athelstan, Edgar, Ethelred, Canute, and Edward the Confessor. The Norman barons, when they came, made a raid on the property of the church as they did upon everything they saw in England, and the Saxon priests, half frightened to death by such violence, had their property returned them by Duke William, who gave it a charter on his coronation day, cursing all those who should molest the property of St. Paul's, and blessing those who should augment its revenues.