The next in majesty; in both the last.
The force of nature could no further go,
To make a third she joined the other two.
Here also it is supposed that Sir Isaac Newton was buried, though the exact spot was not known.
Wren built on the old site a stone church of considerable beauty, whose tall pinnacled tower had a singular grace of its own. All, alas! destroyed, the ancient site desecrated, and the materials sold, no matter for what purpose.
CHURCH BUILDING.
S. Peter’s, Cornhill, a small compact brick and stone church with a low tower and a key for its vane and camerated roof, was rebuilt in this year. Several small charitable legacies belong to this church: Sir B. Thorowgood settled three shops, at the west end of the churchyard, upon the parish for the maintenance of an organist to play on Sundays and Holydays for ever. In 1700 these shops were all three let for 24l.!
S. Clement Danes in the Strand, which had been patched up in 1674, was taken down and rebuilt, being finished in 1682. Sir Christopher, who received the moderate salary of 100l. for the rebuilding of the City churches, had nothing necessarily to do with S. Clement’s, but yet, as is recorded on a marble slab on the north side of the chancel, he ‘freely and generously bestowed his great care towards the contriving and building.’ It stands in too frequented a place and is too well known to need description, and will, I think, be readily admitted to bear Wren’s mark. Evelyn calls it ‘that pretty and well-contrived church.’ The steeple surmounting the tower was added by Wren’s pupil Gibbs[181] in 1719. S. Antholin’s, Watling Street, was entirely consumed by the fire, so that all its registers perished, a misfortune which happened to but few of the churches. Sir Christopher spent especial care upon it. The roof was a cupola adorned with rich festoons; the octagonal spire was built of freestone, with three circles of windows and considerably ornamented, was the chief feature of this beautiful little church. At the time of its building the spire was much remarked, and must have formed a pleasant contrast to the little neighbouring church of S. Augustine in the same street, with its tower cupola and small steeple, which was added in 1695. This church was finished in 1683 and survives S. Antholin’s, which has shared the evil fate of All Hallows, Bread Street.
The hunting palace at Newmarket, of which mention has been made, was accidentally burnt down, and this made King Charles more anxious to have a palace in the ancient city of Winchester. Lands were bought for a park, a river was to have been brought from the downs with a thirty-foot cascade in the park, and a broad street planned to lead to the cathedral from the future palace. Wren designed a magnificent palace,[182] with a great cupola which would have been seen far out at sea, and laid the first stone on March 23, 1683. The work was much pressed forward both by King Charles and by the Duke of York, who frequently stayed at Winchester for a considerable time watching the progress of the building, and hunting in the forest. At such times the King was lodged in the Deanery and his train in the houses of the close, where most of them were sufficiently incongruous inmates. Ken, then a prebendary of the Cathedral, utterly refused to give a lodging in his house to the notorious Nell Gwynne.