While the discussions were going on whether St. Paul’s Cathedral should be restored, or the entire edifice be rebuilt, the great fire in London, in 1666, not only decided this question, but opened an extensive field for the display of Wren’s talents in various other metropolitan buildings. One of his immediate labors, arising from the conflagration, was a survey of the whole of the ruins, and the preparation of a plan for laying out the devastated space in a regular and commodious manner, with wide streets, and piazzas at intervals, which he laid before Parliament; but his plans were not adopted, and the new streets arose in that dense and intricate maze of narrow lanes, which even now are but slowly disappearing before modern improvements. Furthermore, instead of the line of spacious quays along the Thames which Wren proposed, the river is shut out from view by wharfs and warehouses, to such an extent as to render any adequate scheme for the improvement of its banks hardly practicable. London might have arisen from her ashes the finest city in the world, had Wren’s plans been followed.
ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL.
Wren prepared several designs and models for this great edifice. The composition of his favorite plan was compact and simple, forming a general octagonal mass, surmounted by a cupola, and extended on its west side by a portico, and a short nave or vestibule within. The plan adopted, exhibits an almost opposite mode of treatment, both as to arrangement and proportions. While the first exhibits concentration and uniform spaciousness, the other is more extended as to length, but contracted in other respects, and the diagonal vistas that would have been obtained in the other case, are altogether lost in this. The first stone of the present edifice was laid June 21, 1675; the choir was opened for divine service in December, 1697; and the whole was completed in thirty-five years, the last stone on the summit of the lantern being laid by the architect’s son Christopher, in 1710. Taken altogether, St. Paul’s Cathedral is a truly glorious work, and its cupola is matchless in beauty. There are few churches of the past or present day that can vie with it in richness of design; and St. Peter’s, with its single order and attic, appearing of much smaller dimensions than it really is, cannot be put in comparison with it. For a description of this edifice, see Spooner’s Dictionary of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors, and Architects.
WREN’S DEATH.
This illustrious artist died in 1723, and was buried in the vault of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the most enduring monument of his genius, under the south aisle of the choir. Inscribed upon his tomb are four words “that comprehend,” says Walpole, “his merit and his fame,” sublimely and eloquently expressed: “Si monumentum quæris, circumspice”—“If thou inquirest for a monument, look around thee!”
WREN AND CHARLES II.
Wren’s small stature, and his intimacy with Charles II., are humorously shown in an anecdote preserved by Seward. The king, on walking through his newly erected palace at Newmarket, said, “These rooms are too low.” Wren went up to the king and replied, “An please your majesty, I think them high enough.” Whereupon Charles, stooping down to Sir Christopher’s stature, answered with a smile, “On second thoughts, I think so too.”
THOMAS BANKS, THE ENGLISH SCULPTOR.
Among the friends of this gifted man, were Flaxman, Fuseli, and the talented John Horne Tooke. His friendship with the last nearly proved mischievous to Banks, and perhaps would certainly have been so, had it not been for the uprightness of his character. During those perilous days, when “revolution” and “mad equality” were causing such commotions, suspicion fell upon the politician, who was subjected to an official examination and a trial, Banks being also implicated in the charge, although his offence consisted at most in listening to the other’s declamations. “I remember,” says his daughter Lavinia, “when Tooke, and Hardy, and others were arrested on the charge of high treason, that an officer waited on my father with an order from the Secretary of the State to go to his office. I chanced to be in the next room, and the door being partly open, I heard all that passed. My father only requested to be allowed to go into his study, and give directions to his workmen; this was complied with, and he then accompanied the messenger. I said nothing to my mother of what I had heard, since father had been silent for fear of exciting unnecessary apprehensions; but I sat with much trouble at heart for several hours, when to my inexpressible joy I heard his well known knock at the door, and ran to greet his return—a return rendered doubly happy, since his own simple and manly explanation had acquitted him of all suspicion of treasonable designs, or of a thought injurious to his country.” The intercourse between Banks and his daughter Lavinia was of the most delightful character. His chief pleasure for many years was in her instruction; he superintended her education in all things, and more particularly in drawing; she sat beside him whilst he modeled, accompanied him in his walks, and in the evenings cheered him with music, of which he was passionately fond. A most touching instance of filial and paternal love!