Such was Sir Christopher’s care for his grand work: it was intended for the service of God, and therefore was to have no blemish which Wren’s diligence could avoid. He was constantly there and shrank neither from fatigue nor from risk. The famous Duchess of Marlborough, in her quarrels with Vanbrugh over the building of Blenheim, complained bitterly that he asked 300l. a year for himself and a salary for his clerk, ‘when it is well-known that Sir Christopher Wren was content to be dragged up in a basket three or four times a week to the top of S. Paul’s, and at great hazard, for 200l. a year.’ Probably it was because her Grace considered his charges so moderate that, after her last quarrel with Vanbrugh, she engaged Sir Christopher to build Marlborough House, at the corner of Pall Mall. The site presented great difficulties, but the building in red brick and stone was a handsome one, and lately has been much enlarged. Vanbrugh’s first start in life was his being engaged by Wren to act as clerk of the works to the buildings at Greenwich. Gibbs and Hawksmoor were also pupils of Wren’s, and worked under him at some of the innumerable works on which he was engaged. The building of Greenwich was vigorously continued, and in 1705,[219] ‘they began to take in wounded and worn-out seamen, who are exceedingly well provided for.’
At the beginning of 1698, Peter the Great made his extraordinary voyage to England and took possession of Evelyn’s house, Sayes Court, at Deptford, in order to be near the dockyard and inspect the ship-building. He was anything but a desirable tenant. ‘There is a house full of people and right nasty,’ wrote Evelyn’s servant.
‘The Czar lies next your library, and dines in the parlour next your study. He dines at ten o’clock and six at night, is very seldom at home a whole day, very often in the King’s yard, or by water, dressed in several dresses. The King is expected here this day, the best parlour is pretty clean for him to be entertained. The King pays for all he has.’[220]
The Czar’s three months’ occupancy of Sayes Court left it a wreck, and Evelyn got Sir Christopher, and the Royal gardener, Mr. Loudon, to go down and estimate the repairs which would be necessary. They allowed 150l. in their report to the Treasury, but could not by any money replace the beautiful holly hedge through which Peter the Great had been trundled in a wheel-barrow, or repair the garden he had laid waste.
S. DUNSTAN’S SPIRE.
In 1699, Wren finished the last of those City churches which the Fire had injured or destroyed. S. Dunstan’s in the East had suffered severely by the Fire: the walls of the church had not fallen, but the interior had been much damaged and the monument to the famous sailor and discoverer, Sir John Hawkins, who was buried there, perished. The old church had a lofty wooden spire cased with lead, which of course fell and was consumed. When Sir Christopher had repaired the body of the building the parishioners were anxious to have back the spire also, and Dame Dionis Williamson, a Norfolk lady, who had been a great benefactress to S. Mary’s, Bow, gave 400l. towards this object. It is one of the most curious of all Wren’s spires, as it rests on four arches springing from the angles of the tower. Three more such spires exist, two in Scotland and one at Newcastle. Tradition says that the steeple of S. Dunstan’s was the design or the suggestion of Wren’s daughter Jane. Perhaps, like the leaning tower of Pisa, it is more wonderful than satisfactory to the eye, but Sir Christopher was certainly proud of it and confident in its stability. Great crowds assembled to see the supports taken away, and Wren watched with a telescope, says the story, on London Bridge for the rocket which announced that all was safely done, but it is hardly probable that he was anxious about the result.
Four years later, when the tempest known as the ‘great storm’ raged in England, destroying twelve ships in the Royal navy, many merchant vessels, and a great number of buildings, some one came with a long face to tell Sir Christopher, that ‘all the steeples in London had suffered;’ he replied at once, ‘Not S. Dunstan’s, I am sure.’ He was perfectly right, and the account given of the others was an exaggeration.
On February 1, 1699, the Morning Prayer Chapel of S. Paul’s was opened for service. Later in the same month, a fire broke out at the west end of the choir, where ‘Father Smith’ was still at work. It caused considerable alarm, and was got under with some damage, especially to two of the pillars, and to a decorated arch. The gilding also lost some of its brightness. A nameless poem[221] fixes the date of this fire, which has been much disputed. It may have been in consequence of this alarm that Sir Christopher covered all the woodwork of the upper parts of the Cathedral with ‘a fibrous concrete’ said to resist fire so well that faggots might be kindled below it with impunity.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
While S. Paul’s was thus advancing towards its full beauty, the care of Westminster Abbey was assigned to Wren. Little or no attention seems to have been spent on it between the time of Charles I.’s reign and that in which it was handed over to Wren.