Why the plan was never executed it is hard to say. Charles II. kept the designs for some time and then returned them, begging Wren to keep them carefully; but the moment for their use never arrived.
Though he was not allowed to honour King Charles, curiously enough, it fell to Wren’s lot to provide a tomb for two other murdered Princes of England.
THE REMAINS OF THE PRINCES.
Some repairs were being made in the Tower of London under the orders of Wren, who was at that time repairing what is known as the White Tower, one of the oldest parts of the fortress. As the workmen were removing some stairs which led from the Royal lodgings to S. John’s Chapel, they came upon a wooden chest, which proved to contain the remains of two children, exactly corresponding in age and state of decay with the date of the murder of Edward V. and his brother Richard Duke of York in 1573. The place also corresponded in every respect with the traditions respecting the murder:[156] it was said to have been done in the Bloody Tower—the spot where the bones were found is but seventy yards distant; they were always said to have been buried in consecrated ground by the Priest of the Tower—the place where the remains were was just within S. John’s Chapel. The discovery caused considerable interest, and was fully represented to the King, who desired that the bones should be laid, under the Surveyor’s directions, in Henry VII.’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey in a white marble coffin with a suitable monument. Wren designed a pedestal and urn of white marble surmounted by twin crowns and palms. No doubt the monument accords better with the taste of the age in which it was erected than with that of the building in which it is placed, but it has an interest of its own. By the King’s wish a mulberry-tree was planted on the spot where the bones were discovered, but subsequent buildings at the Tower destroyed the tree, and even its stump has perished.
CHAPTER IX.
1677–1682.
EMMANUEL COLLEGE—GREENWICH OBSERVATORY—BIRTH OF JANE AND WILLIAM WREN—S. BARTHOLOMEW’S—PORTLAND QUARRIES—DR. AND MRS. HOLDER—DEATH OF JANE, LADY WREN—POPISH PLOT—PAPIN’S DIGESTER—SIR J. HOSKYNS—ALLHALLOWS, BREAD STREET—PALACE AT WINCHESTER.
Who taught that heaven-directed spire to rise?—Pope, Moral Essays.