He was plain and unpretending in manner; and, as became so great a man, above all little affectations in society, which, however, he liked and relished. Under his own roof he was distinguished by hospitality and kindliness of spirit; and his house was frequently the resort of men who had won renown in art, science, or literature.
[SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN.]
The architectural skill and superiority of this illustrious man were most conspicuously displayed in the age which his rich genius adorned. A multitude of buildings bore honorable testimony to the fertility of his brain, and the success of his undertakings, at a time when a terrible devastation had rendered such services as he rendered to his country peculiarly necessary; and later generations have confessed with high pride and admiration, that the inscription, “Si quæris monumentum circumspice,” has lost none of its point.
The pious architect of so many churches was closely connected by birth with the ecclesiastical establishment, whose edifices he did so much to improve and beautify. The family to which he belonged was of Danish extraction, but had been settled on English ground long ere it produced the most famous representative of the name. From a branch planted in Warwickshire came Sir Christopher’s grandfather, who traded and flourished as a mercer in the city of London, and left two sons. The elder obtained the bishopric of Ely, suffered and survived persecution, and went down to the grave in peace, after many trials and vicissitudes. The ambition of the other was seemingly less lofty in degree, and his existence less checkered. However, he became a royal chaplain, dean of Windsor, and rector of Knoyle, in Wiltshire, and had the good fortune to marry one of those young ladies known and sighed for as heiresses. In due time, on the 20th of October, 1632, Christopher Wren was born at East Knoyle.
Like many destined to eminence, the future architect was an exceedingly weak, small, and delicate child; and more than ordinary care was required in rearing him. From this cause he was for several years educated by a domestic tutor in his father’s house, which at this period received in its oak hall the Elector Palatine. Wren took care to recall to memory the pretty long visit, when he afterward addressed to that prince a rather high-flown epistle, calling attention to some of his youthful inventions, among which were the instrument for writing with two pens and the machine for sowing corn. The boy showed much fondness for classical learning, and was sent to Westminster School to pursue his studies for a while, under the auspices of Dr. Busby. There he exhibited his remarkable powers of mind, as well as a strong liking for the pursuits of mathematics and astronomy, rather than the useful art with which his name was afterward associated. But his father was a man of talent and ingenuity, and of such architectural taste as to have attracted the notice of Charles the First, to whom he was chaplain in ordinary. This circumstance, in all probability, gave Wren’s mind a bias toward the profession in which he achieved the triumphs on which his fame chiefly rests, and led to his raising up, in the face of the world, visible and enduring monuments of his greatness. Every step of his juvenile career, however, was marked by the vigor, prudence, and intelligence befitting one destined for European celebrity.
At the age of fourteen Wren was removed to Oxford and entered at Wadham College, where he was speedily recognized as “a rare and early prodigy of universal science,” and distinguished by much attention. He proved his mathematical knowledge by writing on spherical trigonometry; he invented several instruments; he translated Oughtred’s “Geometrical Dialling” into Latin; and at the instance of Sir Charles Scarborough, a celebrated physician and mathematician, he formed some admirable architectural models from pasteboard. In his eighteenth year he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and soon after published an algebraical tract relating to the Julian period. While he was thus achieving academic distinction, Wren’s pillow was visited by a dream, which Aubrey deemed not unworthy of being chronicled and recorded. He was staying at his father’s residence in Wiltshire, in the year 1651; and one night, among the visions which his brain conjured up in sleep, he saw a great battle in a market-place unknown to him. He marked the bloody strife for victory, the rapid flight for safety, and the keen pursuit for vengeance; and among those who sought to escape the cruel carnage he perceived a young cousin of his own, who had formerly gone with the king into Scotland. Probably, on waking, he thought little more of the matter; but next evening, the kinsman, whose retreating form had been so strangely presented to his sleeping fancy, appeared unexpectedly, after dusk, at the rectory-house, and surprised its inmates with the startling news of the king’s forces having sustained a defeat at Worcester, where he had been. Surprise was, of course, depicted on the fair and intelligent countenance of the Oxford scholar, at an occurrence which seemed so natural a sequel to his dream of the previous night.
But Wren wasted not much time in musing over dreams. He was so busy and enthusiastic in the pursuit of knowledge, and so dexterous in turning it to account, that he was spoken of as a “miracle of a youth.” He soon took the degree of Master of Arts, and was elected a Fellow of All Souls. He was exemplary in his conduct, and regular and temperate in his habits.
The great abilities and scientific acquirements of the Wiltshire miracle becoming widely known, he was, about his twenty-fifth year, appointed Professor of Astronomy in the Gresham College. About the time of his entrance upon its duties, this blushing youth, as he frankly described himself in one of his lectures, had a memorable interview with Cromwell, whose son-in-law, being fond of mathematics, had sought the learned professor’s acquaintance, and cultivated it by frequent invitations to his house. While dining there one day, he suddenly found himself face to face with the mighty Protector, who stalked in without ceremony, and took his place at table. After a while he fixed his eyes on the future architect to the kings of the house of Stuart.