BY 
 
 HHM R C K M U R D O, H R I B R 
 
 18 8 3 
 
 C.FILLEN. SUNNYSIDE .ORPINGTON , KENT. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/wrenscitychurcheOOmack 
 
WREN'S CITY CHURCHES. 
 
 i 
 
FIHM n C K M U R D O, RRI B H. 
 
 18 8 3 
 
 J.RLLEN,SUNNYSIDE, ORPINGTON, KENT. 
 
PRiNTEn nv 
 
 HAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, LIMITED, 
 LONDON AND AYLESP.URY 
 
PRE FACE. 
 
 " I "HE origin and main body of this essay 
 framed a lecture given at the Rev. S. 
 Brooke's College, at a time when I was 
 impelled by double motives to choose this 
 subject, — one its own intrinsic interest, the 
 other its opportuneness. For at the time of 
 its delivery, the representatives of the English 
 Church were trying to pass through Parlia- 
 ment, a bill for the destruction of these City 
 Churches. Along therefore with others, zealous 
 and active in awaking public interest on their 
 behalf, I used each occasion that offered to help 
 save a cause whose knell was loudly sounding in 
 our ears — a knell that was, indeed, the tolling 
 of the Church's own fabric's funeral. 
 
 Happily, the bill for their destruction is 
 no longer before the House; yet there is 
 
nothing to prevent its being brought forward 
 again at any time. For this, then, and the 
 following reason, we must not be too sanguine 
 of their safety. For it is clear, the preser- 
 vation of these buildings can be ensured by 
 means only of their general appreciation, — a 
 means so difficult, and distant in attainment, 
 that these churches' life must still for some 
 time be considered in jeopardy. 
 
 It is of little service to say, ' Such and 
 such a building ought to be preserved,' since 
 it is a fact patent to all, that a people will 
 only keep, and maintain, those monuments 
 which it really appreciates and gladly cares 
 to keep. The monuments must, in fact, be 
 their own guardians and self- advocates ; they 
 must appeal, not to a people's veneration for 
 antiquity, neither to its knowledge of history, 
 nor again to its regard for ecclesiastical senti- 
 ment; but they must have the power of 
 making appeal to a people's heart, without 
 force of fashion, or play of affectation ; they 
 must be cared for and appreciated, solely on 
 
Preface. V 
 
 account of their own beauty or service. 
 Hence, merely because they are ancient monu- 
 ments I do not desire they should be 
 preserved, nor because they are churches do 
 I cherish their keeping; but I do greatly care 
 for their conservation, because their beauty 
 is a reality to me, and to many, — because 
 I know^ how much this city, we cockneys 
 may justly be so proud of, at the present 
 day owes in architectural interest to these 
 buildings : and lastly, I desire their preserva- 
 tion, because in a future generation, when 
 the battle of the styles has been fought, 
 and the people are catholic in thought and 
 taste, I can well imagine how much they 
 may be appreciated and praised of all. 
 
 For this reason, then, deeming it better 
 these buildings be regarded purely for their 
 artistic merit, and intrinsic value, rather than 
 associated interest; I have, in this essay, not 
 dwelt on their archaeological aspect — an aspect 
 not greatly interesting to me, beside being 
 one that may be treated by some other 
 
vi Preface, 
 
 more glad and more competent. Accordingly, 
 thus much only of their monumental history, 
 as is necessary for this simple appreciation, 
 have I introduced into the descriptive essay ; 
 so much only, as will enable them to be 
 linked in the mind, with all those other 
 sources of pleasure and beauty, born of the 
 same age ; with all other kindred conceptions 
 in sister arts and sciences, that become helpful 
 through their interpretive power. And further, 
 by the synopses placed at the end of this 
 work, I have . likewise linked them with all 
 companion events, that are as similar bubbles 
 bursting in the same great brain-wave flowing 
 over Europe ; common in their origin and 
 correlated in their nature. 
 
 Concerning any details that tell of Wren's" 
 private life, I have, as on points of archaeology, 
 again been silent, since this essay does not 
 pretend to give any other biographical sketch 
 of the architect, than is to be read in his 
 own life's work. 
 
 Those who would know the man, the 
 
Preface. vii 
 
 manner of his life, and treasure of his mind, 
 can gather certain knowledge, only from this 
 sure and untinged source — from his works ; 
 which retain, to this day, all that was great, 
 gentle and undying in the man's life, and are for 
 ever the unerring expression of his own deepest 
 feeling, the bodied image of his own soul's 
 fondest thought : thus illustrating Tickell's 
 lines, — 
 
 "The lifeless rocks each various thought betray'd, 
 And all the soul was in the stone display'd." 
 
 For further information as to the detail of 
 his life, and extent of his work, I would refer 
 the reader to the works enumerated below,* in 
 which much reliable information will doubtless 
 be found. 
 
 Respecting his works, it is enough here 
 to speak of the City Churches,— those works, 
 
 * " Life of Sir C. Wren," by Lucy Phillimore. "Sir 
 C. Wren and his Times," also " Life and Works of Sir 
 C. Wren," by J. Elmes. " Works of Sir C. Wren," 
 by J. Clayton. 
 
that I do not doubt one day being justified 
 for calling, the most perfect embodiments of 
 fine imagination and culture, which England 
 at present possesses. A justification that will 
 be given by the more intelligent public, when 
 the London merchant cares first and most, how 
 to enjoy the pleasures of a fuller life, instead 
 of first and mostly caring how to gain the 
 means of a hungering life he scarcely lives : 
 for then, he will not fail to find leisure in 
 which to look at works worthy his admiration, 
 and no longer be content to hurry by them, 
 as regardless of their beauty, as is the hack 
 horse of his cab. For, know that the charmed 
 wiles, and full power of beauty belonging to 
 architecture, are only to be shown to those 
 that love all art for her own loveliness* sake, 
 and to those who by pain, and many pains, 
 have sought to discipline, and culture their 
 taste, for receipt of her favour and enjoyment 
 of her gifts. 
 
 Arthur H. 'Mackmurdo. 
 
 28, Southampton Street, Strand, W.C. 
 
WREN'S CITY CHURCHES. 
 
 A LONE in the art of a people long since 
 ^ ^ past away, do we get given us the entirety 
 of its nerve life, its expression, by own tongue 
 and hand, of pulse beats and throes of heart, 
 its elating joys and saddening sorrows, its grief 
 gloom and gleam of glory. So, silent though 
 it seems to be, even architecture, reading lightly 
 its lithic language, we find fraught with high 
 strung human feeling, as impassioned and full of 
 character as poetry or painting may be. But to 
 gain the swift strong appeal of any art, the art 
 of any time or people, a responsive chord of 
 kindred feeling is needed in our own natures, 
 which, for tuning to full harmony ot response, 
 the imagination must first picture to itself the 
 salient conditions of that public lite, or mind 
 movement, which gave birth to this art. For 
 
2 W rens City Churches. 
 
 • 
 
 who can appreciate form or feature of any artistic 
 production, its sense or sentiment, but he that 
 consciously or unconsciously acquires the par- 
 ticular habit of feeling that was native to the 
 artist, and gave by its expression peculiar mould 
 to his work ? Who, but he that feels the beauty 
 of their spirit, understands the purport of their 
 form-being, can appreciate the works which are 
 the subject of this essay — the city churches of 
 Sir Christopher Wren — these living memorials of 
 the seventeenth century, which, as all art crea- 
 tions, not only flood us with the fulness of 
 individual character, but bring straight down to 
 us the impress of that formative power, moulding 
 the man, and the men of a day long dead — the 
 soul-greatness of the age. For, if the mind be 
 of that homogeneous nature we suppose it to be, 
 there must be such a strong similarity between 
 the art or expression of feeling, and the literature 
 and polity — or exponents of thought, common 
 to the time, that each may be taken as the inter- 
 changeable term of the other. It must likewise 
 follow, from this homogeneity of the mind, that 
 thought and feeling develop simultaneously, each 
 acquiring gradually the same characteristic of 
 increasing completeness ; and as a result giving 
 to ideas greater complexity and unity, to feeling 
 
IV ren s City Churches. 
 
 subtler sensitiveness and intensity. Further, a 
 synthetic study of the seventeenth century soon 
 shovv^s us that this v^as so. For what otherwise 
 — as example — was the meaning of the birth of 
 politics at this time, if it did not mean that 
 man, now for the first time, while grasping 
 more completely the idea of his own indi- 
 viduality, was able to conceive a larger unity of 
 which he was an essential and integral part ? 
 What, again, was the meaning of the effort on 
 the part of Milton, to write a pure lyric poem, 
 and prose treatises based on classic models, if 
 it did not mean the expression of a desire for 
 increased finesse of form, for a larger and less 
 broken unity in all imaginative productions.? 
 
 What was the meaning — in regions religious 
 and scientific — of the general desire to gain indi- 
 vidual liberty, and recognize as willingly universal 
 law, if it did not mean the natural exercise of a 
 mind conscious of increased capacity for independ- 
 ent thought, and possessed with the concomitant 
 power of forming greater generalizations.? So, 
 when we come to the art, the best art of the 
 day, we find its burden the same : we find its 
 chief characteristic to be finish of detail and 
 largeness of conception. ^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Thus the art of this, as of any past period. 
 
4 rens City Churches. 
 
 becomes interesting in the greatest degree ; being 
 literally the love lay of a people's pleasure, a 
 visible and tangible record, telling past history of 
 present passions, a memorial of all most human 
 in the genius of the age, as embodied, not only 
 in the artists — such as Inigo Jones, Wren, and 
 Bernini, but in all sorts and conditions of men 
 — in Bacon, Galileo, and Kepler; in Harvey, 
 Newton, and Descartes ; in Milton, Shakespeare, 
 and Johnson ; in Gassendi, Spinoza, and Locke ; 
 in Hooker and Dry den ; in Corneille, Racine, and 
 
 Different in many w^ays as these men were, 
 they shared the same mental motive, and were 
 united by a common kinship in thought. All 
 humanists ; their thoughts were centered in 
 man's being, their studies limited to man's 
 environment; each silently saying what one of 
 
 "The proper study of mankind is man." 
 
 And yet, while each was making special study 
 of man, his actions, or his surroundings, all, by 
 wider knowledge of the world, were beginning 
 to realize man's actual relation to the material 
 universe, and by force of fact acknowledging his 
 subjection to undeviating cosmic laws, in whose 
 
Wrens City Churches. 5 
 
 high -governance man now first discerned a faint 
 glint of glory, destined to bedim cold codes and 
 creeds of soon outworn belief. ^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Thus, aware of the universal sway of law of 
 
 a right method of action, as well as of thought 
 — each in his art was consciously harmonizing 
 spontaneity of emotional expression, with more 
 general laws of form than were before recog- 
 nized ; each in his philosophy, consciously sub- 
 ordinating mental constructions to objective facts ; 
 each in his history, referring individual character 
 to external influence of the day, while acknow- 
 ledging the innate force of the social past. In 
 a word, the world was waking to a wider con- 
 sciousness of man's earth-bound life, and true 
 God-capabilities ; his recognition of the inevitable 
 limitations that condition all being, arousing cor- 
 responding desire for increased sense enjoyment, 
 and bringing with such concentration of thought 
 upon humanity, a new religion ; with such con- 
 sciousness of law, a fuller liberty. ^^^^^^^ 
 
 For a time had come, when, after a long 
 period of self-abasement and self-introspection, 
 during which the development of man's moral 
 nature was evolving itself, his intellectual and 
 emotional requirements felt need of stronger 
 nutriment, with freer exercise; since the mind, 
 
6 W rens City Churches. 
 
 long habituated to turn its mirror upon itself 
 and refer conduct to its own ideal, was now 
 conscientious without effort, and so set free to 
 exercise itself upon objects outside it. Beside, 
 having secured to itself a certain strength of 
 moral discipline, it could henceforth enjoy the 
 fuller liberty of expression for which it longed. 
 
 Hence, the rapid introduction of natural 
 science and emotional art, combined with a 
 dawning devotion to human divinity, which 
 characterized the Renaissance; when the mind 
 sought with eagerness new pasture lands in 
 which it could find the food it craved and the 
 exercise it needed: the former found nowhere 
 more readily than in the art of pagan Greece 
 and Rome, which alone sufficed to provide the 
 necessary aesthetic stimulus ; while the classic 
 literature was universally found fittest material 
 to feed, and stimulate to scientific study, the 
 young vigorous intellect of this waking age. 
 
 Fed by such food, and strengthened by such 
 exercise, this new habit of mind, as it gained 
 strength, could not but powerfully re-act upon 
 the whole nature ; necessitating rapid and radical 
 reforms in well nigh everything that concerned 
 individual, civic, and social life. In government, 
 arbitrary will must henceforth give place to 
 
W rens City Churches. 
 
 rational and national organization, popular power 
 being substituted for divine right of kings ; while 
 in religion, theological dogma would be bound 
 to bend before dictates of general sense experience. 
 In the world of science, theories would be founded 
 more firmly on fact ; the whole habitual working 
 of the mind acquiring that exactness of method, 
 which gave peculiar charm to obedience of law. 
 
 Again, in the arts, order, form, and metrical 
 proportion would be substituted for rule of 
 thumb, caprice, and picturesqueness ; asceticism 
 fulfilling itself in asstheticism ; force of expression 
 giving place to ease of expression — the Goth 
 shouting where the Renascent whispered : while 
 in the yet undefined sphere of commerce, 
 mercantile laws; and in the rising handicrafts, 
 corporate guilds, would be organized in obedience 
 to the same instincts. I say ' instincts,' because, 
 though few were conscious of the nature of 
 the new world that was being opened to them 
 — to the people, to but a portion of the people 
 — it was but a new enchanting influence it 
 knew not what, yet blindly followed. To the 
 remaining portion of the people the new spirit 
 was hardly known, and by it but slightly felt; 
 yet in so far as it did feel the new impulse, 
 it feared the consequence of a blind response to 
 
8 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 its stimulus, and hence endeavoured to sustain 
 the old order of things ; indeed, strained every 
 nerve to resist the strong incoming tide of far 
 
 Thus arose the civil vs^ar, in politics ; the 
 hostile sect, in religion ; the opponent school, 
 in science ; the rival style, in architecture : the 
 new^ forces completing, in their sum, the strong 
 reversion of the age to past types of structural 
 form, and long unused formulas of thought — 
 the age becoming, in fact. Pagan, and in spirit. 
 
 And it is v^ell, before speaking of the marked 
 distinction there is between the tv^o rival styles 
 in architecture, we should refer to this reversion 
 to past types, in order to measure the influences 
 that past forms of art exercise upon new con- 
 ceptions ; for thus only shall we comprehend 
 the meaning of this great change in artistic 
 expression, and understand the reason of so 
 complete and general a substitution of the classic 
 for the Gothic type, in all arts, most markedly 
 
 In studying the history of art, as we approach 
 its later phases we are especially struck with 
 the powerful influence pre-existing forms of art 
 exercise upon the new; an influence so strong, 
 
W re7t s City Churches. 
 
 that in quite modern times it seems as though 
 the conceptions of the past were even a more 
 powerful factor in the evolution of new art 
 forms, than the aspect of external nature — sole 
 parent of primitive art.* ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 Hence, if art be in truth the reflex of the 
 mind's reaction from its surroundings, giving 
 now gratification to desire for something of 
 greater completeness — now, exercise to memory 
 of something of older association, it would 
 be odd indeed, did not the imagination, at 
 a ?ime when the spirit of the long buried 
 past had been resuscitated, receive a new 
 stimulus. And hence, taking into account 
 the cumulative force of art in casting the 
 mould of the imagination, we could not but 
 expect the forms, in which the new conceptions 
 should cast themselves, to be chiefly determined 
 
 * For further development of this theory of art- 
 genius, I would refer the reader to Part II., chap, i., 
 of Alex. Murray's " History of Greek Sculpture," now 
 issuing from the press. (Murray, 1883.) A work 
 which will surely bring the author the gratitude 
 of all students of art history, because of the rare 
 philosophic thought that has been brought to bear 
 upon the mass of carefully investigated facts there 
 connoted. ^^^^^^^^^ 
 
lo Wrens City Churches. 
 
 by those, towards which circumstances were 
 directing the sympathies of the national mind. 
 For, the cumulative power of art, working 
 through continuous generations, at some time 
 equals, and afterward overpowers, the more con- 
 stant force of nature, her progenitor ; attaining 
 its highest pitch of power, when the mind, 
 having ceased to feel any stimulating power in 
 a form of art, grown impotent by familiarity, 
 is introduced to a new type, which, though 
 ancient, comes fresh to a mind in sympathy 
 with its embodied and suggestive spirit. For, 
 thus was it at the Renaissance, when, with the 
 classic literature came classic art, fresh from the 
 storehouse of the hidden past, full of worldly 
 pomp and animal sanity, subject to strict con- 
 ventional rule, yet grandly licentious, and only 
 too well accoutred with graces likely to win 
 the devotion of all sympathetic and searching 
 
 To this new form of art, then, the mind was 
 at once drawn with magnetic force, producing in 
 its first flash of sudden contact these churches 
 of Wren — creations that were the product of 
 the first complete and fully sympathetic union 
 of the Northern mind with Southern art, and 
 not by any means, as has been sometimes said, 
 
W rens City Churches. 
 
 the result of a mere imitation of classic models ; 
 inasmuch as the Renaissance art differed con- 
 siderably from pure classic forms. ^^^^^^^ 
 
 And this was so because what had been 
 inherited from Gothic times could not have 
 been eradicated, had it so been wished, but must 
 perforce be intermingled with the old in forming 
 the new, so far modifying Roman art, as to bring 
 it into harmony with English sentiments, and 
 Northern habits of mind. Thus, this child of 
 the Renaissance partook of the character of both 
 it^ parents, though bearing the form of the one, 
 wielding wider influence for the time being. 
 
 To take Gothic : — In this there was imaged 
 forth the mind of a people marked by strong 
 predilections such as these — predilections peculiar 
 to all simple natures — love of long uplifted lines, 
 and oft repeated repetitions, a leaning to redund- 
 ance of detail, and preference of acute curvature, 
 with vigour of outline, bounding forms made 
 bold by sheer strength of treatment, '^^^^^m 
 
 Classic forms, on the other hand, shadowed 
 forth the character of a people far removed from 
 barbarism, no longer limited to pursuit of trade 
 for employment, nor wage of war for renown ; 
 a people steeped in culture, recreated by intel- 
 lectual pleasures, proud of self-gained power ; 
 
12 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 subject to stern discipline, if linked to worldly 
 force, and made magnificent by pomp of show : 
 yet, having a nature softened and somewhat 
 enervated by a too genial clime, a too generous 
 soil ; a people possessing the oil and the wine 
 of human temperament. Hence their art was 
 large, splendid, and arbitrary ; full of flat surfaces 
 wherever the eye could rest, and if it willed, 
 wander without weariness ; an art, characterized 
 by lines lying low in recumbent position ; curves 
 softly sweet and subtle ; masses measured and 
 metrical ; outlines free from sudden surprise, or 
 fickle change — quiet, grand, and stately, as the 
 movement of a Roman matron, to whom the 
 classic art was in its first birth dedicate, ^^^m 
 In the Renaissance of Wren we get these 
 qualities in all their fulness, but slightly seasoned 
 with the salt of Gothic character; and added to 
 a subtler refinement, there is introduced a play 
 and picturesqueness, unknown in classic archi- 
 tecture, along with an individualism never found 
 in any preceding art. For the outlines of the 
 Renaissance are as dignified, yet more changeful ; 
 its detail as refined, yet more spontaneously 
 varied, than that of its pagan prototype. In a 
 word, the whole body of architecture has grown 
 more muscular, without becoming coarser; more 
 
JVrens City Churches. 13 
 
 scientific without losing sentiment. And as, taken 
 in no narrow sense, all Gothic art was as one 
 intense heart-yearn after some ideal good, — a 
 yearn unsullied in its rapt devotion, undeviating 
 in its one desire, unbroken in its long duration, — 
 so Renaissance art becomes to us, as the grati- 
 fication of the whole man in sense enjoyment 
 of all attainable good; elevated, and disciplined 
 by unceasing effort to extend the limit of worldly 
 wisdom, and make yet fairer all earth beauty. 
 
 Thus we see the gradual evolution of art, as 
 of all else, wrought out by rhythmic beats of 
 contending impulse; thus we mount the spiral 
 stair of progress, by alternate turns, that take 
 us now toward the East, now toward the West, 
 bringing us periodically over the point we occu- 
 pied long since, yet within closer reach of our 
 high hovering ideal, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^w 
 
 Thus, then, was it, that at a time when the 
 race was rounding the turn of its progressive 
 route, there were in every sphere of life, in every 
 art, in every science, two contending and irrecon- 
 cilable principles, at work and war: principles 
 that had been fought out in Italy and Spain 
 during the fifteenth century, in France during 
 the sixteenth, and now finally to be fought out 
 in England during this seventeenth century. 
 
14 Wrens City Churches, 
 
 For England was certainly late in following the 
 lead of other nations in the Renaissance move- 
 ment : Petrarch had sung his ' Laus Veneris ' two 
 hundred years before Spenser his Marriage Odes ; 
 Macchiavelli wrote his tracts of worldly wisdom 
 a century and a quarter before Thomas Hobbes 
 his ' Leviathan ' philosophy ; Galileo, by his 
 theoretic substitution of the sun for the earth, 
 as centre of our system, practically inaugurated 
 the atheological school of science one hundred 
 years before Newton bore testimony to its 
 teaching in his discovery of the inevitable and 
 unchangeable nature of law. Again, two hundred 
 years had elapsed, before the Cavaliers and 
 Roundheads fought out a battle similar to that 
 in which the Guelf and Ghibelline were ranged 
 each against other on the battlefields of Italy; 
 and lastly, since the commencement of St. Peter's 
 at Rome, one hundred and twenty years had 
 passed by, before we had thought of erecting 
 a single Renaissance building in England. But 
 the tide had long been coming north, and it 
 was bound to beat over the cliffs of England 
 ere long, and be upon us. The influence of 
 Italian culture and civilization was at length 
 making itself felt, softening the rudeness of 
 northern habits, dispelling simplicity of Gothic 
 
Wrens City Churches. 15 
 
 thought; though in so doing not less sapping 
 man's animal vigour to minister to his higher 
 
 Thus, any man of exceptional promise in art 
 was at once sent off to this polished people, 
 among whom dwelt the Muses. And accord- 
 ingly, in 1572, the son of a cloth worker, 
 who showed an early fondness for landscape 
 painting, was despatched to Italy, for study of 
 the ' masters ' ; in no long time to return, 
 vested with the honour of being the first 
 Englishman to introduce classic architecture into 
 
 For, although the Renaissance movement in 
 art had been, some little time since, initiated by 
 Italian and Flemish artists brought by Henry VII. 
 into England; yet Inigo Jones, our next best 
 architect to Wren, was the first through whom 
 the movement showed itself as a national one ; 
 the first after the foreigners to give it real and 
 effective impulse at home. However, to effect 
 this, he had insuperable obstacles in his way, 
 since the romantic spirit of the Gothic peoples 
 was yet in England, untamed and undisciplined, 
 unprepared to receive the rarer spirit of Italian 
 art; willing only to borrow here and there the 
 outward forms and bare nomenclatures of classic 
 
1 6 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 ages, clinging still to its old love of quaint and 
 
 Spenser's ' Fairie Queene ' was but a Christian 
 romance interlarded with classic allusions ; Chap- 
 man's ^ Homer/ an English tale of Grecian 
 heroes ; Milton's ' Paradise Lost/ classic only in 
 its epic form; though here and there, in this 
 early dawn of the new day, we see thought- 
 clouds, that have caught some fleck of the new 
 sun's light, showing up the true colour of man's 
 material necessities, and tinging with hues of 
 heaven, his earth-born desires, each and all, 
 henceforth considered, co-sacred and holy. So 
 again, in architecture, Audley End is but a 
 Gothic palace with cloak of added classic 
 detail; and it is clear, that not till we get 
 Pope for poet, and Wren for architect, are 
 we shown the mature flesh-form of the full 
 
 Inigo Jones, though he freed architecture 
 from vagaries of untutored taste, that were the 
 inseparable accompaniment of an art decadence, 
 could do little more than introduce to his 
 country the outer mould of classic architecture, 
 leaving the task of maturing and nationalizing 
 what he commenced, to Wren his follower. 
 On account of such work, this worthy precursor 
 
Wrens City Churches, 17 
 
 of Wren bears the same relation to his successor, 
 that Bacon bears to Newton, and that Girtin 
 
 The civil war between Charles and the Par- 
 liament was raging high; every man's blood 
 burning with fire of fanaticism, papist or puritan ; 
 seething with heat of political strife, 'twixt royalty 
 and the common weal, when the old Rector 
 of East Knoyle in Wiltshire, was presented with 
 a son, on whom this spirit of the * new Birth ' 
 was destined to fall, with a peculiar intensity, and 
 from whom it was again to be reflected far and 
 wide, through arts and sciences all — these con- 
 tending brain-tempests weaving his swaddling 
 clothes. Yet these sudden storms that raged 
 around his cradle, were but the clearing of a 
 winter sky for the opening spring that was to 
 come, bringing a new vigour to all political, 
 intellectual, and artistic life; and as, after the 
 strong winds of March, the sap flows freer and 
 faster in the rigid trunks and mature tree 
 branches, bringing new life and nutriment to the 
 young spring shoots ; so these storms awakened 
 the vigour of England's intellect, giving it 
 withal fresh sustenance and stirring strength. 
 It would therefore be strange, did we not find, 
 
 2 
 
1 8 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 in the arts of this age, some new life, some 
 strongly marked character, giving graphic index 
 of the mental activity of the time. 
 
 To seek shelter from these passing storms, 
 while the mind might be prepared to enjoy and 
 make use of the day spring that was dawning, 
 all studious men were anxious, and not less so 
 than others, this Dr. Wren, now worthy rector 
 and soon to be royal architect. In this way the 
 times favoured study, while they presented strong 
 incentives to action, and gave new powers for 
 the mind to- wield ; which time opportunities 
 the old rector's son, Christopher, made the most 
 of, — this miracle of a youth, as he was called, — 
 who gave such early promise of his power and 
 marvellous fertility. For, at the early age of 
 fifteen, we find him taking out patents for certain 
 mechanical inventions, and a little later, elected 
 demonstrating assistant at anatomy lectures in 
 Surgeons' Hall ; at twenty-one he is made Fellow 
 of All Souls', Oxford ; at twenty-five. Professor 
 of Astronomy in Gresham College, and when but 
 eight-and- twenty, offered the degree of D.C.L. 
 by both Universities. By victories over the first 
 mathematicians of the age; by his profound 
 mathematical tracts, and astronomical dissertations, 
 by his ingenious inventions, and by his newly 
 
Wrens City Churches. ig 
 
 applied methods of scientific Investigation, Wren 
 was celebrated throughout Europe, ^^^^^^m 
 
 But this Is not all: the Philosophic Club, 
 which after his astronomical lectures, met In 
 Wren's room, soon became, through his Instru- 
 mentality, the Royal Society for the Promotion 
 of National Science and Positive Philosophy, — • 
 he being the one chosen to draw up its royal 
 charter, he being chief among those to whom 
 were presented the various problems sent for 
 solution to the Society, by the savants of Europe. 
 
 It needed but the opportunity, for a man 
 of so severe training and such rare fertility of 
 imagination, to set upon the age the seal of 
 its own powers, and make articulate its highest 
 aspirations. Well then was it, that at the time 
 when the man was awaiting the opportunity, 
 and the opportunity had come, it was not lost, 
 for loss of the man to turn it to best account. 
 Yet, by what ghastly and hideous messengers 
 was this golden opportunity heralded to our 
 
 The Great Fire of 1666 came as a purifying 
 power to cleanse a city fouled by black pestilence, 
 and so infected by fever, that life was scarcely 
 safe within its plague-girt walls. The timber 
 huts, in which the London poor had huddled 
 
20 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 and hovelled for centuries, were fit but for fuel 
 of flames ; yet not so all that was now destroyed, 
 since it so happened, that in the cleansing fire, 
 the old cathedral and eighty-seven parochial 
 churches, were licked up by the flame tongues 
 of this dragon of fiery destruction. ^^^^^^^^ 
 Wren had just returned from Paris, whither he 
 had been bound on a Continental tour ; where, 
 too, he had the good fortune to meet Bernini, 
 who had fired his enthusiasm for the architecture 
 of the " New Birth," by showing him his draw- 
 ings of St. Peter's, Rome, just completed, and 
 of the Louvre, then building. Being Surveyor- 
 General to the King at time of Fire, Wren was 
 without delay summoned to the royal presence, 
 and exercised such speed in the execution of his 
 orders, that a few days only elapsed before he 
 had completed a plan for the rebuilding of the 
 entire city — a plan which, had it been adopted, 
 would have saved us the extensive alterations we 
 are now obliged to make, at so heavy a cost. But 
 no one was far-sighted enough to see the value 
 of his schemes; the old lines of the narrow 
 meandering streets were, therefore, in almost all 
 cases adhered to in the rebuilding. However, 
 in the reconstruction of the cathedral and city 
 churches. Wren was, with little exception, not 
 
Wrens City Churches. 21 
 
 interfered with, and fortunate was it for us that 
 such was the case. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 The population, by hideous plague, and civil 
 war, had been considerably thinned; and there 
 needed not to be rebuilt all of the churches 
 destroyed. Wren, therefore, was allowed some 
 liberty in choosing the most advantageous sites 
 on which to erect the fifty- three churches that 
 were to take the place of the eighty-seven that 
 sank in this seething flood of flames. ^^^^^ 
 
 Now, we have spoken of one of the character- 
 istics of this age as a consciousness and enjoy- 
 ment of all-pervading law; giving birth to a 
 state of things when no object was attained but 
 by some conscious principle, no inquiry made 
 but by close . logical method ; the most licentious 
 sentiment expressing itself within rigorous limits 
 of recognized law or conventional principle. A 
 poem is planned out according to the strictest 
 laws of form, metrical harmony, and ideal pro- 
 portion ; the unity in form, the exact relation 
 of line to line and stanza to stanza, being strictly 
 kept throughout, within and under which perfect 
 liberty is enjoyed. Accordingly, the spirit of the 
 age exacts the same care from Wren in planning 
 of his cathedral and design of her daughter 
 churches, — the former of which we may consider 
 
22 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 the most completely developed example of the 
 dramatic form of architecture ; while the playful 
 and individual character, combined with a sim- 
 plicity and intensity of sentiment displayed in 
 the surrounding steeples, stamp them as finest 
 among lyric compositions. 
 
 That these churches of Wren have all the 
 qualities of lyric compositions, will be acknow- 
 ledged by all who give them careful study; 
 their fulness of feeling and strong individuality 
 being the characteristics which give them dis- 
 tinction among all architectural works whatever. 
 
 In Spain, in Italy, and in England there had 
 been a treatment of architecture not dissimilar 
 from that which was the fundamental motive 
 in these. There was at this time, as has always 
 been the case, a ' style ' of architecture about in 
 the air ; a certain definite style always taking 
 form in certain class of work. But none was 
 endowed with that strong personality, none 
 wrought with so much feeling, as was this 
 work of England's ' Michael Angelo. ^^^^^^ 
 
 The Gate of Honour at Cambridge is an 
 exceedingly fine work; Inigo Jones' chapel at 
 Whitehall no less so ; but neither of these 
 will compare, for qualities in question, with 
 St- Martin's, Ludgate Hill, or St. Stephen's, 
 
Wrens City Churches. 23 
 
 Walbrook. The work of Inigo Jones and 
 of John of Padua was of a more abstract 
 
 beauty, like the beauty of Greek art: the 
 
 beauty of the form of man ere he had 
 breathed into his nostrils the .breath of life ;— > 
 which work we may well compare with 
 Wren's, as the lovely Byzantine architecture 
 of the Florentine Baptistry will compare with 
 Brunelleschi's ' Badia,' or Michael Angelo's 
 Medicean Chapel. For in Brunelleschi's dome 
 (Florence cathedral), how much individuality ; 
 in St. Peter's, Rome, how little ! ^^^^^^^ 
 
 So full of an intense, strong personality was 
 Wren's work, that, when he died, architecture 
 fell asleep, as completely as did sculpture when 
 Angelo's breath was no more to quicken dead 
 marble into life. It was not that the movement 
 died ; but he that gave it particular form. 
 
 The general movement which whirls each 
 succeeding age through the heaven of thought, 
 now bringing it under influence of this constel- 
 
 * There is between Brunelleschi's work and Wren's 
 a strong likeness ; and in beauty of proportion, 
 sensitiveness of feeling, and largeness of idea, I know 
 no buildings worthier than Wren's city churches to 
 compare with San Spirito of Florence, and the Badia 
 of Fiesole. 
 
24 
 
 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 lation of ideas, and now under that, goes on in 
 its course, generation after generation ; while it 
 is given only to certain individuals here and 
 there to give articulate expression to the ideas 
 specially influencing the times, ^^^^^^^^^^m 
 The Renaissance movement sped on its per- 
 sistent course after Wren's death, but the form 
 it took in architecture was given to it by one 
 whose great soul's girth compassed centuries ; 
 so that till lapse of these no man was found 
 
 Has it not been so with Blake ? Did he not 
 by intensity of feeling and strength of indi- 
 viduality give form to the modern lyric phase 
 in his paintings and poetry ? When he died, 
 who was there who continued to make it as 
 distinctly articulate as did he ? Yet the new 
 lyric spirit is as active as ever — we are born 
 into it. And thus was it in Wren's day ; 
 though the lyric spirit of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury was not like the lyric spirit of to-day. It 
 is in this nineteenth century fuller and more 
 subtle; for example of which compare Milton's 
 ' Lycidas ' with Shelley's lyric ' A Poet's Dream,' 
 or his ode to 'Night.' These lyrics in stone, 
 then, are but portions of one great complete 
 poetic composition centered in the cathedral. 
 
Wrens City Churches. 25 
 
 As forming together a single group these 
 steeples must therefore always be thought of, 
 each member viewed as having been placed 
 and planned with designed relation to other 
 members around it ; and in conscious and chosen 
 connection with the whole. For each member 
 of this cluster, like each member of the human 
 body, has a peculiar office to fulfil; has its 
 structure determined by its own proper function, 
 and affected by its position with regard to the 
 rest, in obedience to a principle ensuring strict 
 correlation of parts in every composition : a 
 principle newly discerned, and now for the first 
 time in any completeness applied, because 
 hitherto too alien to the temper of the Goth 
 
 The Goth, sternly simple in character, expended 
 himself in vigorous energy of expression, and 
 built instinctively, according to the single im- 
 pulse of his electric enthusiasm ; not by conscious 
 reasoning. He professed obedience to no rule, but 
 the rule of thumb ; hence the want of unity in 
 his design, the doubtful stability of his build, the 
 shirking of science in his construction. This 
 quality of isolation or individual separation is very 
 marked in all early English work ; each structure 
 being, to the Goth, as a thing in and by itself 
 
26 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 complete, each building regarded by him, just 
 as by his religion he regarded himself, as an 
 isolated unit, — a soul self-separate, alone respon- 
 sible for his acts in this world, his salvation in 
 the next, regardless of reference to surroundings, 
 or chance of circumstance. Moreover, had this 
 principle been known before, no single man 
 had ever an opportunity of applying it so fully ; 
 never was presented an opportunity of designing 
 so great and important a group of buildings 
 — a group of buildings extending over the 
 entire area of the greatest city in the world — 
 a group of buildings mighty beyond all in 
 monumental interest, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^m 
 
 Such an opportunity was given to Pheidias, or 
 Palladio, never : such has never been offered any 
 man, since Wren's day. And happy was it, that 
 the good fortune which now gave the opportunity, 
 gave also the man to use it well, ^^m^m^^^^^m^ 
 
 To return : — this characteristic of unity in 
 design, is then the first and most important 
 characteristic of these city churches, — a character- 
 istic which gives to London an interest above 
 that enjoyed by any Continental town; yet an 
 interest and a beauty too little valued because 
 unrecognized but by so few. Few are there who 
 have ever seen this group of churches : this one 
 
Wrens City Churches. 27 
 
 has often seen this church, and that .one another ; 
 but each has looked at the church he knows, 
 as one is in the habit of looking at a modern 
 building, an edifice having reference to none 
 other in its neighbourhood. But these churches 
 are not to be seen in this disconnected and un- 
 associated way. Go and look, I would advise you, 
 at the entire group on your first opportunity ; 
 for from the tower of St. Saviour's, Southwark, 
 the entire group is to be seen, and I know no 
 more magnificent sight. No view lauded by 
 Ciceroni, in town of France, Germany, or Italy: 
 no most favoured sight, in either Cairo or 
 Constantinople, is to be compared with this 
 view of London, wrapt in her day-dark halo 
 of earth cloud, that veils and absorbs into its 
 mystic being the noise and the clamour, the 
 strife and the stir, of the mighty intense human 
 life that throbs below: the pale cathedral lifting 
 itself aloft — a miracle of unmoved dignity, boldly 
 central among her square massive mansions, and 
 huge blocks of seven-storied offices ; its dome 
 as soft in outline, as tender in gradated light, 
 as any summer cloud, yet standing not alone, 
 but surrounded by her daughter churches, whose 
 steeples blazon the sky with pinnacles of sable 
 and silver — monumental symbols of man's soar- 
 
2 8 Wrens City. Churches. 
 
 ing flights of pure ideal desire — indeed a most 
 
 And this united group of church towers, each 
 of which ministers to the other by counterpoint 
 of form, by playing change of outline, and 
 variety of aerial tone. Wren was so careful in 
 planning, that no two similar outlines neighbour 
 one another; seldom even has he placed together 
 two steeples in equal strength of tone, but has 
 beautifully intermingled the varying depth of 
 stone, lead, and brick, to enrich his changing 
 melody of form : so that here we see pale 
 pillars of pearly light, that have cleft their 
 murky way through waves of misty sea; while 
 there, pinnacles have lift heavenward earth's 
 deep gloom and dark despair, to catch on their 
 gilded crest some ray of sun-bright hope. 
 
 Thus the value that each is to its neighbour, 
 in offer of complementary form, at once har- 
 monizing and intensifying intended effects, is 
 only seen when . these steeples are viewed in 
 some such palpable connection, ^^^^^^^^^m 
 
 When, for instance, in walking up Ludgate 
 Hill, we see, 'as maiden 'tween two warriors 
 strong,' pale Martin's tower standing 'mid 
 Paul's stout porch pinnacles ; its sable spire 
 brought clean against the cathedral dome, we 
 
Wrens City Churches. 29 
 
 discern a new majesty in Paul's, a new inimitable 
 elegance in St. Martin's ; we see what scale 
 and distance is given to the building behind, 
 by the dark leaden tone of the steeple in front: 
 we delight to note how its slender form and 
 subtle curves combine in giving such bigness 
 and boldness to the cathedral dome, that it 
 seems now to cover an acre or more of ground, 
 and vie in buoyant grandeur with the domed 
 and pillared clouds above. In return for which 
 good service done, the mother church lends 
 the little spire a maiden delicacy and gentle 
 loveliness, surpassing that she would of herself 
 possess, unsupported by this masculine grandeur 
 
 Again, when walking up the old approach 
 to St. Paul's — Wathng Street — we see Wren has 
 so placed the steeple of St. Augustine, that its 
 sharp terminal may prick the yielding clouds, 
 immediately in front of Paul's circling vault. 
 And we note here, as on the other side of the 
 cathedral, what value each part renders its 
 neighbour; how beautiful features are, as by 
 a charming sorcery, intensified, and singular 
 effects aided, in finding their required comple- 
 ments. Both St. Paul's and St. Augustine's 
 have, however, suffered a loss in the alteration 
 
30 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 this spire has undergone ; — a heavy and severe 
 Hned spire now taking the place of one 
 exquisite in proportion, and sweetly sinuous in 
 
 If, however, we doubt the reciprocal benefit 
 these forms receive one from another, let us 
 in imagination change the position of either of 
 these buildings, and place, say, the steeple 
 of St. Benet's in the place of St. Martin's ; 
 and that of St. Mary-le-Bow in place of 
 St. Augustine's ; we shall then at once see how 
 much St. Paul's loses ; how much resultant 
 beauty is marred by ill adjusted contrasts, and 
 how impossible it is to alter the designed 
 relations of this close knit group. ^^^^^^^^ 
 
 For unity, if it be anything at all, is a 
 quality of the most sensitive nature, most soon 
 completely despoiled, last and rarest in actual 
 
 " A mind that grasps the whole is rarely found ; 
 Half-learn'd, half-painters, and half-wits abound. 
 Few like thy genius at proportion aim ; 
 All great, all graceful, and throughout the same." 
 
 When, then, we have once seen this family 
 group of churches, not only do we hence- 
 forth think of them as having exceptional 
 
Wrens City Churches. 31 
 
 historic importance, but as having exceptional 
 vahie, on account of such intended unity, and so 
 conjoint completeness. We henceforth look upon 
 all these churches, as so intimately connected 
 one with another, that St. Paul, bereft of its 
 surrounding steeples, is to us as a parent bereft 
 of her children — a Niobe in architecture. Like- 
 wise these churches, without their Metropolitan 
 Cathedral, we regard as so many disconnected 
 members, having neither head nor trunk to unite 
 
 This intellectuality of design, this unity of 
 conception, this greater completeness and con- 
 scious associating of part with part, one lays 
 great stress upon, since it is peculiar to 
 Renaissance art : to the art that has been 
 wedded to the new world wisdom ; the art of 
 cultured, disciplined, and broadly trained minds 
 — minds that find license only within law, and 
 art perfect but when conjoined with science. 
 Moreover, these qualities are comrnon to the 
 finest examples of every art ; we find them 
 alike in poetry, painting, music, and sculpture. 
 But Gothic, or Romantic art, is devoid of such 
 late-born characteristics; indeed, they are irre- 
 concilable with the childlike spontaneity, spirited 
 energy, sudden surprise, and rapt enthusiasm. 
 
32 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 which animate the strong, muscular fibre of 
 Gothic art, whether that art be architecture, 
 sculpture, painting, or song, ^^^^^^^^^^^m 
 
 In order to see how important is this element 
 of relationship in architectural works, when next 
 you go westwards stand in the gardens before 
 Palace Yard, and looking upon the Gothic 
 minster, the church of St. Margaret, and 
 Houses of Parliament, ask yourself whether the 
 architect, when erecting these latter buildings, 
 for a moment thought of their design, as 
 requiring any relation to the then existing 
 buildings next them. Certainly, no trace is 
 there of any adjustment of individual taste to 
 this general principle of co-relationship; there 
 is, so to speak, no social sympathy evident 
 between these buildings, and one grieves to 
 think how different might have been their 
 eflTect had this political principle, as we may 
 call it, been observed, and a sympathy between 
 them ensured, — the Abbey invited to lend its aid 
 to Barry's pile, the Parliament buildings in 
 return assisting to intensify the spirited character 
 of the old Gothic minster. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 But this isolation of treatment is a part of, 
 and a piece with. Romantic art ; for example 
 of which, in poetry, compare Langland's ' Vision 
 
JV rens City Churches. 
 
 of Piers Plowman ' with an ode by Dry den ; 
 or, if you will, with Shelley ; and you will 
 find this effort to gain homogeneity of design — 
 this intended proportion and geometric relation 
 of part to part, line to line, and stanza to 
 stanza — as characteristic and complete in the 
 one as it is conspicuously absent in the other, — 
 a homogeneity allowing within these restraining 
 conditions a freedom of sentiment impossible 
 to the earlier poet. And herein, it may be 
 said, lies the difference between Renaissance 
 and Gothic art — in, i.e., this rare refinement 
 of feeling, that ensures subtle transition and 
 complete intellectual co-ordination of parts in 
 every artistic conception, while indicating a 
 temper that loves to ripple the surface of a 
 strong, deep, persistent stream of passion, full 
 in its flow and perfect in its period, with 
 lighter waves of sweetly varying form : a 
 temper that is independent of such structural 
 features as pointed arch and buttress of Gothic 
 architecture, or round arch and beam of classic 
 art : since an artist is always able to force 
 either into submission to his own passing 
 power of sentiment. Further, the elementary 
 forms of such structural features as the pointed 
 arch and buttress that the one possesses, the 
 
 3 
 
34 ^ rens City Churches, 
 
 beam and round arch that the other uses, are 
 in great measure accidental, and due to other 
 and external causes, indicating but slightly in 
 themselves the characteristic of the age that 
 employed them. For, you may have pointed 
 arches and buttress without departure from pure 
 classic feeling and thought in architecture — as 
 in St. Clement Danes; or you may have round 
 arches and horizontal beams while maintaining 
 the essential character of Gothic conception, as 
 evidenced in so many of the pseudo- Renaissance 
 buildings lately erected in the city. 
 
 This first characteristic of unity in grouping 
 belongs, then, to these churches as a whole, 
 this being the family characteristic. But it 
 appears no less markedly in the design of 
 each separate building; and to this and other 
 characteristics, which belong to the churches 
 as individuals or members of the family group, 
 we must now refer. It is not my intention 
 here to speak of the churches proper, which 
 should form the subject of a separate essay, 
 requiring as they do more prolonged study than 
 I have yet been able to give them. Thus 
 purposely in this paper I confine my remarks 
 
 Wren being no day dreamer, no fog-brained 
 
Wrens City Churches. 
 
 theorist, but a man eminently and definitely 
 practical, he did not miss to mark what were 
 the first requirements in the design and structure 
 of a city steeple. Built in a narrow street, the 
 lower part of it never to be seen except from 
 a position immediately in front, and under one 
 side of it — therefore never seen, this lower part 
 of it, except in steep perspective, and part by 
 part ; your head requiring to be thrown farther 
 back to enable you to see each succeeding 
 stage, — built, this lower part of it, against 
 buildings of irregular and coarse projection; a 
 web of windows and cornices, a network of 
 vertical and horizontal lines, — it must, to look 
 well and dignified under these conditions, be 
 kept flat and full of repose ; not a feature 
 added that is not asked for ; its limiting lines 
 leading the eye cloudward, its doorway and 
 belfry windows of severe simplicity, all projec^ 
 tions of subtle delicacy; its surface, in breadth 
 of stillness unbroken as a maiden's sleep. To 
 a building so conditioned, no ornaments must 
 be added where their effects can never be fully 
 appreciated ; no related proportions of space to 
 space, of opening to opening, depended upon, 
 where they can never be seen ; nor should 
 such projections be given, as steep perspective. 
 
3 6 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 must make coarse. These, then, are the first 
 requirements ; and these Wren rigidly observes ; 
 indeed, the calm quiet grandeur, and unbroken 
 repose of his towers, is very marked, and their 
 most beautiful feature, bringing a stirring 
 eloquence from forth their stately reticence. 
 A sense of this beauty of restraint is expe- 
 rienced, growing and growing upon you, as 
 you walk down Fleet Street, and approach 
 St. Martin's Church on Ludgate Hill : as again, 
 when walking down Cheapside, and approaching 
 St. Mary-le-Bow, you feel this same principle 
 of beauty, because so harshly broken by the 
 church's projecting clock. Do but look at this 
 tower from one hundred yards or so down the 
 street, and in your imagination remove this 
 protruding timepiece ; then, compared with its 
 changeful outline above, what grandeur of 
 surface is here ! The sheer unbroken fall of 
 its front, as that of some precipitous alp : the 
 buildings that side it, in their broken surfaces, 
 looking not unlike heaps of shattered and 
 sifted debris. This even surface Wren will 
 break on no account. Obliged to build a 
 balcony, from which the Sovereign may view 
 the city pageants, he has given it the slightest 
 projection, thrusting it back as far as he dare. 
 
Wrens City Churches. 37 
 
 And so with the door pediment. This, which 
 any other man would have projected from the 
 front. Wren has sunk back beneath a circular 
 hood. Thus, where proper to the position, this 
 repose of surface is strictly kept. But it is 
 otherwise where the buildings are so placed 
 that the architect can calculate upon the view 
 of their lower stories never being broken, and 
 thus ensure them a distant view. When, 
 too, they stand isolated, more or less, from 
 other buildings. Wren introduces harmonic 
 beauty of relation, and masterly boldness oi 
 light and shade, elsewhere out of place. For, 
 when a tower can be seen from a distance 
 sufficient to take in at a single glance the 
 whole of its height, the beauty of its part 
 proportions can be fully appreciated and en- 
 joyed. So, also, when recesses can be seen 
 from some distance, veiled in their soft shade 
 of smokened air, they are made a thousand 
 times more lovely than when seen near at 
 hand, with sharp shadows hardly marked. 
 Again, the columned portico and foliated arch 
 is only seen, clothed in its own peculiar charm 
 of airy drapery and vapour skirt of soft cloud, 
 from a somewhat distant point. To cavern 
 shade beside a narrow street, where all its 
 
38 TVrens City Churches. 
 
 changing mystery and breadth of gradated space 
 can never be seen, shames the architect and 
 disappoints all ; for it is a beautiful feature 
 misplaced, and labour thrown clean away. 
 Which truth we can best realize if we stand 
 at the bottom of Ludgate Hill, whence, looking 
 up toward the portico of St. Paul, we may 
 observe the deep rich gloom shed about its 
 recesses, contrasting so well with the pale 
 glamour of the hoary side lanterns above ; its 
 large broad shade making the half hidden detail 
 infinitely more precious through the enchanting 
 mystery it throws over all. And while looking 
 upon this group of clouded sculpture, observe 
 how the even surfaces on either side, when 
 bathed in the pale sheen of a city sun, have 
 added light and largeness lent them, by opposi- 
 tion to these richly shadowed spaces. Then, for 
 consummation of this beatific vision below, full 
 of world pomp and power of mind, look up 
 at the colonnade that enriches the dome above; 
 and notice how tender is the pencilling of the 
 sun's ray seen through this medium of earth 
 mist that hangs about; how lovely the dome's 
 dim recesses, where these labour-clouds lurk — 
 listless of heaven's height above : especially 
 lovely this circular colonnade, when seen through 
 
Wrens City Churches. 39 
 
 the blue-grey smoke, that rolls along in huge 
 formless waves, like mantle folds of some grim 
 spirit of the nether world. Having now noted 
 the tenderness of this broken shade above, 
 having remarked the richness of this deeply 
 shadowed portico below, walk towards the 
 building, and observe how, at every step you 
 take, the deep shadows lose some portion of 
 their richness, the spaces much of their mystery, 
 till you are surprised to find, when near, the 
 mist has left not a shadow of itself behind ; 
 for its breadth being broken, its tenderness no 
 longer felt, it would not stay, nor allow of its 
 
 No ; these charms the architect can give you, 
 but bargains for distance in doing so — knowing 
 that where this is withheld him, he must give 
 
 Thus far, at present, for the lower part of 
 Wren's steeples. Our next consideration must 
 be their treatment above. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 What, in the first place, are the requirements 
 here ? In any city — the city of London 
 certainly — the buildings, taken as a whole, are 
 of about the same height : there is, say, at 
 fifty feet, a level stretch of roof presenting 
 everywhere a somewhat monotonous horizon ; 
 
4-0 Wrens City Churches, 
 
 and hence any building lifting itself above this 
 line at once attracts the attention, since we see 
 it looming dark against the waning light, or 
 full bright as it catches the faint glinter of 
 sunlight withheld from buildings below, ^^^^m 
 
 Moreover, life in the upper stories, as was 
 the case in Wren's day, required that the 
 horizon should be made interesting and full 
 of architectural variety : bold sweeping vaults, 
 pompous domes, and piles of pillared pinnacles, 
 humanizing the heaven and peopling the sky 
 with creatures born of a poet's brain. That 
 portion, then, of a building which can command 
 such advantages of position — that part of it 
 which, while it attracts the attention, is seen 
 under such happy conditions — should call forth 
 the architect's greatest care and ingenuity, to 
 do justice to the occasion. He must make it 
 exceedingly interesting in outline, because that 
 outline is so clearly seen against the sky ; he 
 must make it of most beautiful proportions, 
 since these proportions are fully seen, distance 
 allowing the tower to be viewed as a whole. 
 
 Now Wren, master of line that he was, satis- 
 factorily fulfilled these requirements; he being 
 the only man I know in England who has so 
 
W rens City Churches. 4.1 
 
 But there is yet another essential requirement 
 in a tower, no matter what its use, — whether 
 built for sheer strength, whether erected for 
 support of bells, or raised to lift a light. 
 
 A tower should always suggest strength and 
 height — its solid, no less than its soaring cha- 
 racter, ever being insisted on. It must needs, 
 therefore, stand well by itself on sure and seen 
 foundation, no other part of , the building being 
 allowed to rob it of its dignity or spoil it of 
 its stately bearing, by concealment of the basic 
 storey. And this, as each of the other 
 requirements, has been fulfilled by Wren, with 
 all possible completeness and beauty. ^^^^^^ 
 
 First, with regard to the towers : these, you 
 will observe. Wren never designs to appear as 
 though they were sitting astride a portico, nor 
 as though they had grown through the con- 
 fining church roof, as some tall palm through 
 roof of its conservatory. But he stands each 
 staunch and strong on its own unhidden 
 
 In treatment of outline Wren has been no 
 less successful. The least interesting outline 
 for a roof, as the public is now beginning 
 to feel, is that formed of two straight lines 
 sloped, so as to lean one against the other at 
 
42 W rens City Churches. 
 
 the top : we have as children built it many 
 a time with wooden bricks, and all are only 
 too familiar with this form — a form not 
 objectionable when composing part of severe 
 Gothic architecture, belonging to untempered 
 Gothic times, and excusable when used by 
 those whose severity of life and simplicity of 
 thought required it. But unpardonable when 
 repeated by builders who are not Gothic, and 
 by architects who have inherited a refinement, 
 and have acquired a knowledge of form 
 unknown to the monkish builders of Gothic 
 days : * unpardonable in these times, from an 
 artistic point of view, but quite natural when 
 we know how associations connected with 
 religious feeling override and control all other 
 
 ^ If, in the application of this primitive Gothic form 
 to buildings erected to-day, we but read the context, 
 we find corresponding accompaniment in primitive 
 simplicity of idea, and hardness of feeling in all the 
 architect does. For my own part, I could name many 
 instances, strong in corroboration of what has been else- 
 where said, concerning man's consistency of character ; 
 it being such that, cut across his nature where you will, 
 his mind's girth and true soul texture will show them- 
 selves — the coarseness or fineness of the grain being in 
 smallest particle, or particular act, only too apparent. 
 
IV rens City Churches. 43 
 
 influences. This simplest of roof outlines, then. 
 Wren uses as a painter his points of black ; 
 they are a foil to his colour, and give pearly 
 quality to his greys. Here and there, as in 
 St. Swithin and St. Margaret Pattens, Wren 
 gives us this simple spire as a foil to the 
 richer outlines; and by contrast to give delicacy 
 to chaster forms. He takes care, however, not 
 to bring any of these hard forms near 
 St. Paul's dome, lest their too great harshness 
 of line mar the quietness of its soft contour. 
 When, again, he does use this stern, untem- 
 pered Gothic form, he covers it with lead, so 
 that it may loom dark in tone against the 
 pale sky, thus avoiding the appearance of 
 weakness, which, if light, this form always has 
 — a difficulty sometimes overcome by the Goths 
 in giving an entasis of slight curvature to the 
 spire about its centre, — a curvature sufficient 
 to counteract the apparent concavity of two 
 perfectly straight and converging lines. When, 
 however, we leave this simplest form of outline, 
 we have before us an unlimited number of 
 forms : every conceivable combination of ever 
 varying curve, and endless arrangement of 
 rectilinear line. No limit confining the interest 
 and variety we may thus give to a steeple 
 
44 Wre?is City Chuf^ches. 
 
 top ; no restriction leaving plea or pardon for 
 the imagination, when repeating itself ; no 
 condition affording excuse for faculty to flag 
 through want of material, since every motion 
 of the pencil will suggest innumerable new 
 outlines and countless good combinations of 
 form. A fertile imagination such as Wren's 
 would then have here a splendid opportunity 
 of showing its plenitude and power ; nor has 
 
 Without breaking the bounds of architectural 
 propriety, or disgracing dignity of form, Wren 
 has given us, in his fifty-three churches, as 
 many varieties of steeple outline ; yet nowhere 
 has he allowed his fancy to be fitful, never 
 allowed mere picturesqueness to enchant him, 
 nor the vagaries of an idle hour to allure him. 
 The result of calm choice of individual form, 
 combined with severe discipline in imaginative 
 composition, shows itself in each one of these 
 masterpieces of architectural design. ^^^^^^^ 
 
 Particularly is this the case with the steeple 
 of St. Vedast, Foster Lane : the tower of 
 which church, because cramped and confined 
 by buildings, is as simple as tower can well 
 be in its treatment; the bold projecting cornice 
 that crowns its head, preparing the way for 
 
W ren s City Churches. 
 
 the rich form composition above, that divides 
 itself into three stages, each of varied plan. 
 In these three stages the architect has combined 
 three kinds of surface form. The lower storey 
 he has made concave in plan, the next convex 
 or circular, while the top he has formed 
 according to a rigid rectilinear plan. No other 
 than Wren could have placed a circular storey 
 upon one with four concave sides, and not 
 hurt the eye, by glaring discord; but this 
 master of surfaces has so successfully compelled 
 these opponent plans into harmonious unison, 
 that he has made this steeple one of the most 
 beautiful specimens of architecture in the world: 
 and by means the most simple effected it. 
 He has harmonized these two contrasting 
 curves in this very artful way : he has brought 
 out from his circular storey a cluster of pilasters 
 to stand over each angle of the four concave 
 sides below; by which means he soothes the 
 decided difference between the two plans, and 
 softens the severe intensity of the upper curve ; 
 at the same time so arranging them, that 
 vertical lines below, and towards each angle, 
 break the sweep of these under curves, producing 
 an optical harmony between them, without 
 destroying the beauty of their reversely rounded 
 
46 Wren s City Churches. 
 
 surfaces. These vertical lines at the angles of 
 the first and second stage, you will observe, are 
 again repeated at the angles of the uppermost 
 stage, in such a way that the eye travels up 
 from cornice to crown, without break or jar; 
 connecting, as it does so, surfaces of square, 
 concave, and convex plan, ^^^^^^^^^^^^m 
 
 At each stage, therefore, we get a vertical 
 reversion of light and shade : here brilliancy 
 dying away into shade, where below the darker 
 tone gradually grows more bright ; and there 
 again faint shadows lying, where above it is 
 flecked with gradated light. ^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 But the horizontal lines are dispersed with 
 even greater care ; for most exquisitely pro- 
 portioned to one another are the intervals 
 between these bands of pale sunshine and 
 girdles of soft shade — intervals that are at one 
 time steeped in bright daylight, at another 
 checked by dim shadows — chill heralds of 
 night. Alter one a finger's breadth you cannot, 
 without destroying the beauty of their pro- 
 portion; change any two, and the harmony of 
 the whole is broken. Further, while noting 
 how musically these intervals are adjusted, we 
 should not fail to see how the bands of 
 shadow, as they lift themselves against the 
 
JV rens City Churches. 
 
 light, get gradually lessened, till just a third 
 space up the crowning pyramid, we have but 
 faintest line of shade. Thus this graduated 
 scale of shadow, like graduated tone in music, 
 is ever observed by Wren, and used in a most 
 perfect way, as we shall see in the steeple 
 of St. Martin, Ludgate. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 Yet this is not all. Here we have special 
 reasons for delicacy of shadow; for, whenever 
 a surface is so sensitive in its curvature as in 
 this case, its gradated light must be delicately 
 dealt with, and in no case broken by sharp 
 outlines or abrupt forms. Hence, if you will 
 look at the moulding that runs round these 
 windows, a simple bend and no more, you will 
 see how delicate the shadow that always sleeps 
 
 Concerning the openings, it is sufficient to 
 draw attention to the small elliptic opening in 
 the lower storey, for, by seeing the value that is 
 attached to any particular one, the value which 
 attaches to the form and position of every 
 other opening may be afterward understood. 
 We shall then feel this ellipse is valuable, not 
 merely as giving a point of dark, but as giving 
 in a strong form, and yet in a complete form, 
 the two reverse curves used above. For, from 
 
48 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 below, the two horizontal lines of the two 
 curved surfaces appear as curves, answering 
 to the lower and upper curve of an ellipse ; 
 thus giving raison d'etre to ellipse placed below 
 those curves, where its form is required, its 
 value felt at once. Hence we may see that 
 every other part of this design is as necessary 
 to the whole as the whole is necessary to each 
 
 But we must now pass on to St. Martin's. 
 The grace and delicacy of this steeple form, as 
 its spire in trembling notes ascends the sky, 
 are of such a quality that words can hardly 
 awaken that fine sense of form by which alone 
 such a pure lyric in architecture can be appre- 
 ciated. In this, as in all art born of a poet's 
 mind, one is ever forced to fall back on this 
 intuitive perception, which, when wanting, can 
 never artificially be gained, ^^^^^^^^^^^^m 
 
 However, I would refer you to one or two 
 points. At first glance, who, that can at all 
 appreciate its beauty, is not enraptured with 
 the melody of its many mingling notes of 
 form, its dancing buoyancy, and splendid 
 balance ? or who can help but be fascinated 
 by the delicate ease with which the different 
 curves glide each into each, enchanting the eye. 
 
TV rens City Churches. 
 
 as upward 'tis led, from long stretch of vertical 
 line below, to the finely finished needle crest 
 above? Hardly a movement is there of its 
 quiet surface, while abutted by houses on either 
 side ; not until it has lifted itself clear of these 
 busy buildings does it give us the first note of 
 
 And how soft, how grand, are these first 
 notes — so like the opening chords of a Beet- 
 hoven symphony ! how quiet the transition 
 from square of tower to the octagon of spire ! 
 how bold that soft sweep of scroll which unites 
 the aisle coping with the tower flank ! So, this 
 balcony, which fringes the spire, as some petals 
 the pistil of their flower, — how well it echoes 
 back the columned balcony that fringes the 
 dome of its mother church ! Thus every part 
 has its proper reference to the cathedral : 
 though no need to dwell on their particular 
 connection now ; suffice it to say, that the curves 
 and proportions of this spire cannot be studied 
 with too great care — a growing familiarity with 
 its form increasing ever more our admiration 
 of its wonderful harmony of maiden grace with 
 
 Not less in interest are the mouldings of 
 these steeples, those parts of a building which, 
 
 4 
 
50 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 as being capable of expressing the rarest refine- 
 ment, and as soonest betraying slightest tinge 
 of coarseness in temper, require of the architect 
 his greatest skill. Every building being — 
 whether we will or no — an arrangement in 
 light and shade ; the mouldings, that is, the 
 cornice, strings, and various projections, become 
 the telling points of light or telling points of 
 shadow ; and such indeed is their importance, 
 that you may. test the power of any architect 
 by the way he deals with his mouldings, and 
 observes in them the first principles of compo- 
 
 The first condition to be observed in all 
 design of light and shade, whether in painting, 
 sculpture, or architecture, is this : the lights are 
 to be kept broad and unbroken, the shadows 
 filled with varied detail. Hence, any detail 
 that modulates the surface of the broad lights 
 must be of the tenderest — as soft as the cloud 
 relief that sculptures a summer sky; while 
 carving bold and big, with quick contours, 
 should relieve shadows by variety of reflected 
 shade. This principle, observed in all fine 
 sculpture and painting, has been much ignored 
 by architects, and to the serious detriment of 
 architectural eflFect. It was, however, never 
 
Wrens City Churches, 51 
 
 departed from by the Greeks; but since the 
 Parthenon was built, this principle has never 
 been observed by any architect as it has by 
 
 You will find it everywhere rigidly observed 
 by him. He never places carving on a pro- 
 jection, but carves under-surfaces, or places 
 sculpture within a recess, as the Greeks 
 recessed their sculptures, in the pediment ; kept 
 them beneath bold cornices, or shaded them 
 under the peristyle, thus veiling all carving 
 with shade, or curtaining it with shadow, lest 
 it might become dominant in interest, to the 
 detriment of architectural effect, and thus 
 destroy the breadth, which is the first essential 
 of architecture. Wren likewise observes this 
 principle in his figures, which he either places 
 so as to come dark against the sky, or, if on 
 the face of a building, recesses them within 
 a niche, while a frieze, under a deep-browed 
 cornice, he relieves in its shadow by projecting 
 brackets or carving of bold design, ^^^^^^^ 
 
 But its application does not end here ; for 
 Wren instinctively felt that this principle must 
 likewise regulate the use of columns and 
 pilasters : hence he always gives every column 
 a background of shadow, very slight projecting^ 
 
52 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 pilasters being used on the face of the building. 
 For a column is a moulding, and must be 
 treated as such ; while a pilaster is but a facia, 
 a portion of the surface — in fact, a projecting 
 face. And as an example of their relative 
 effects, compare the upper and lower tier of 
 the drum of St. Paul's, or the portico with the 
 side walls, and you will feel the propriety of the 
 respective use of column and pilaster. ^^^^^ 
 To return to this tower of St. Martin. You 
 will next observe what small, quickly contoured 
 mouldings. Wren uses in the shadows, what 
 broad curves or deep facets of slight projection 
 he uses where the light is held. But beside 
 this first general principle, which maintains the 
 breadth of unbroken light and the changing 
 relief of shadow in every moulding, there is 
 another which regulates the transition from 
 any flat surface to the moulding that breaks 
 it. In mediaeval times a moulding was applied 
 to a surface, or cut on an edge, without 
 introduction of any raised or recessed face, as 
 a transition, between the undulated portion and 
 the unbroken surface. And the eflfect of this 
 was soon felt to be crude and unfinished, 
 when, by acquaintance with more refined work 
 of Italy and Greece, the delicate transitional 
 
W ren s City Churches. 
 
 ' facets ' or ' faces ' were seen to be so beautiful. 
 Early in the seventeenth century these facets 
 are introduced into English architecture (notice 
 those on the front of Hatfield House, over 
 the Arcade, 1 6 1 1 ) ; but the architects could 
 not treat them quite as happily as was wished, 
 and it is not till we see Wren's work that we 
 are awakened to a just sense of their beauty, 
 and made feel, by the gentleness with which 
 he makes his mouldings graduate from a 
 surface, the abruptness of those projecting 
 mouldings that have no gradated steps to 
 connect them with the wall from which they 
 
 As illustration of this principle, compare 
 the mouldings of the New Law Courts with 
 the mouldings that decorate the surface of the 
 church close by — St. Clement Danes. ^^^^^ 
 
 These, then, are the two first classic principles, 
 regulating the design and application of each 
 separate order of mouldings considered by itself; 
 but there is another very important principle, 
 which regulates the design of any entire 
 'group' of mouldings used in a building, — and 
 it is that of their relationship. The various 
 mouldings of a building should be so related 
 to one another that a growing or decreasing 
 
54 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 richness of effect characterise them as they 
 recede from the eye: that is, the primary 
 mouldings must project the more as they 
 ascend, while the secondary mouldings may 
 project the more as they descend. It is thus 
 in St. Martin's Tower. The primary group 
 here consists of plinth, string-course of first 
 stage, and crowning cornice, which members 
 grow bolder in projection as they rise ; while • 
 the group secondary in order consists of the 
 *■ headings ' of the several features — doors, 
 windows, and tablets — which mouldings decrease 
 in amount of projection as they ascend ; thus 
 giving, in the counterplay of these two orders, 
 a kind of fugal arrangement of form, but so 
 adroitly designed that the one order of mouldings 
 is kept clearly subordinate to the other, so as 
 not in any way to conflict or detract from the 
 unity of the whole. The same play of numbers, 
 the same decreasing cadence, woven into a 
 growing fulness, or ebbing on toward the 
 sustained climax, is found in all artistic 
 compositions, notably in Shelley's ^ Skylark ' ; 
 Swinburne's ode to Victor Hugo ; Spenser's 
 ^ Epithalamion ' ; and Milton's 'Hymn on Christ- 
 mas Morning.' Indeed, it may be said, an 
 architect treats each line of moulding just as a 
 
W rens City Churches. 
 
 poet treats his stanza lines : both endeavouring 
 to ensure a play of rhythm and ordered variety 
 of cadence, since these pleasant qualities cannot 
 be disregarded without spoiling the music of 
 the poem, or marring the harmony of the 
 architecture. Things are often best seen by 
 their opposites ; only for this reason w^ould I 
 draw your attention to the fafade of the New 
 Law Courts, where you will see carving placed 
 on projecting members, mouldings in full light, 
 cut sharp in contour, and as much broken as 
 those in shadow. Huge rolls running close 
 under the eye you will see, and above all 
 find a smaller projection given to the crowning 
 cornice than is allowed the plinth below. 
 
 On the other side of the way, see Wren's 
 gateway of Middle Temple, exemplifying the 
 opposite principle of artistic design ; a structure 
 replete with dignity of reserve, sublime in its 
 calm consciousness of power, bold and broad 
 in largeness of character, yet without suspicion 
 of coarseness, or tinge of untamed temper. 
 
 Before speaking of the influence Wren has 
 upon us to-day, we must refer to the influence 
 Tie had upon his followers, as this has an especial 
 
 It was no new thing to find a man parodied 
 
56 
 
 W rens City Churches. 
 
 by his pupils, and it seems to be the common 
 lot of great men that their weaknesses shall 
 be caught up, held before the public, and 
 caricatured in large by their pupils. Certainly 
 it was so with Michael Angelo and Christopher 
 Wren. So is it to-day with John Ruskin and 
 Norman Shaw. The pupils of Wren saw only 
 novelty in their master's work, as in our days 
 the disciples of Norman Shaw see only pictu- 
 resqueness in his architectural designs. Hence 
 such monstrosities by the pupils of Wren as 
 St. John's, Horsely Down, and St. Luke's, Old 
 Street Road. Hence, again, the myriad sub- 
 urban villas of timber and stucco by the apes of 
 Norman Shaw ; the deluge of frothy literature 
 that pours into the world under the shadow of 
 Ruskin's name — babbling waters of cant, streams 
 muddy with dregs of democratic reform, ^^^m 
 But Wren's influence upon us to-day, upon 
 you and me, as we walk day by day round 
 and about his works — grasping so great thoughts 
 bodied in monumental being — should be very 
 great. Yet it is not so great as we might at 
 first suppose it to be, since there are many 
 associations which prevent the influence of art 
 
 The Church has been hitherto, though no 
 
Wrens City Churches. 57 
 
 longer, the chief patron of art ; the especial 
 patron of architecture. And it so happened 
 that the days of the Church's widest influence 
 were days when the mind of the people was 
 alike uncultured and unrefined, and what are 
 known as Gothic forms, the fashion. It is not 
 wonderful, then, that the Gothic form and rude 
 character of art, which was thus accidentally 
 bound up with a particular set of deeply-seated 
 associations, should in an age of increased culture 
 be preferred before forms, though more refined, 
 pagan in their origin and an ti- Christian in their 
 association. That this is the main cause of 
 the common preference of Gothic architec- 
 ture by a people who, in the sister arts of 
 literature and painting, prefer the Renaissance, 
 is very evident. For we know that the whole 
 body of the Church literature is founded, 
 presumably at least, on classic precedent: the 
 preachers of the Renaissance being taken as 
 the models of pulpit oratory ; the popular 
 religious pictures chosen from the Renaissance 
 art of Andrea del Sarto, of Raphael, and 
 Perugino ; the church music founded likewise 
 on Renaissance type; while people will worship, 
 and pastors will preach, only in a building that 
 is raised on pointed arches, and presided over 
 
58 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 by grotesque gargoyles — a fact betraying as great 
 want of real feeling as of intellectual appreciation, 
 and width of unhindered association, ^^^^^^m 
 
 For not until we have dissociated Classic 
 art from Paganism, and Gothic art from 
 Christianity, not until we have looked at each 
 form of art as men and as artists, and not as 
 religious sectaries, can we fully enjoy the strong 
 qualities that belong to each, and appreciate their 
 respective characteristics, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^m 
 
 The Greeks loved not the mountains, because 
 they imagined them the abodes of evil spirits 
 and unpropitious deities ; there are yet some 
 Londoners who see grim gods and goddesses to 
 peer from out every classic cornice, and regard 
 as unholy, both pilaster and beam. But it is 
 not so with all of us, I hope : we know that 
 whatever a man does well, that is well. Here, 
 in these steeples, all is thought out well, and 
 carried out well, — as, in fact, becomes a man 
 as loving of beauty in execution as skilful in 
 conceptive ability. There is no stolen art here, 
 no slurring construction, no mean nor hasty 
 conception. ' All that is done is the result of 
 severely trained skill, on the part of a man 
 endowed with a rare artistic sensibility; a 
 man who did so much for his age and for us. 
 
Wrens City Churches. 
 
 because, as all great men before him, he was 
 intensely receptive, and free as far as could be 
 from bias. Slave to no style, he took w^hat 
 seemed to him best from Classic, Gothic, and 
 Moorish art; knowing that the best in art, 
 whatever its source, must necessarily harmonize, 
 because the best human ; just as, in the world 
 of science, facts the most accurate must agree, 
 because signs of the self-same law. ^^^^^^^ 
 
 We said Wren was a humanist. Now, the 
 humanists were especially cosmopolitan in their 
 sympathies ; they strove to rid themselves of 
 race and class prejudices adverse to the times. 
 They were anxious to inherit the best that 
 humanity (whatever its colour) had left the 
 world, and cared not whether that best came 
 from Pagan, Jew, or Goth. Had not Wren 
 been of this widely sympathetic and receptive 
 nature, he would never have wedded for us, 
 as he has done, our own free play of Gothic 
 outline, with the chaste forms of Southern art; 
 Gothic vigour and picturesqueness, with Classic 
 grace and feeling ; never joined hand of Southern 
 maid to hand of Northern warrior. 
 
 These, as all true art works, are new creations 
 born of the brain and the breeze, and must be 
 judged according to the one prime canon of 
 
6o Wrens City Churches. 
 
 art, which says of her, "She is but pictured 
 poetry : no r^'presentation or reproduction of 
 anything that is, or else has been; but an 
 original production — the new birth of some- 
 thing that before has not been and never again 
 can be — the idol of some happy thought, the 
 play of some pleasing sentiment, mothered of 
 the mind and fathered by the things that be." 
 And to seek the parentage of these offspring of 
 Wren's imagination, we must go to the art of 
 the near and distant past, to Classic and Gothic 
 art, from both of which he drew so largely. 
 
 What Milton's prose is to us as writers 
 to-day, what Dryden's verse is to us as poets, 
 what Bacon's philosophy is to us as thinkers 
 and inquirers, that these works of Wren are 
 to us as builders and architects.^ ^^^^^^^m 
 
 The mighty influence the literature and 
 
 ^ That I do not advocate the imitation of this 
 Renaissance architecture, beautiful as it is, I may 
 perhaps be allowed to bring to witness the best 
 evidence of my own architectural work, which is an 
 attempt to express, so far as professional conditions 
 will allow, the feeling and thought of the hour ; 
 there being, however, no hesitation in adopting any 
 groundwork of form that may be gathered from 
 the varied treasures of art we have inherited, ^^m^ 
 
Wrens City Churches. 6i 
 
 philosophy of the past, has had upon the 
 present, — moulding its form, chastening its 
 spirit, invigorating it, and inspiring it, — that the 
 architecture of the past must also have, repel 
 it as we will, deny it as we may. Get away 
 from it we cannot ; nor can we ever be as if 
 it had not been. And well this is so, for it 
 is truly great : great as all the work of a 
 great age must be ; great as is its literature, 
 great as is its polity, great as is its thought. 
 And to those who can weigh well the meaning 
 of its sleeping stones, and measure the length 
 and breadth of its recumbent lines, this finest 
 Renaissance architecture, as we have said, 
 embodies — is the image and likeness of — the 
 same spirit that is seen, quickening the litera- 
 ture, impelling the polity, and fulfilling the 
 philosophy of its own life's day. ^^^^^^^^m 
 The *Eikon Basilike' we may read once 
 and again ; the ' Ode to St. Cecilia ' we . may 
 chant and chant again; the 'Novum Organum' 
 we may return to for study repeatedly ; but 
 these odes to the new world worship, these 
 nova organa of imaginative art, are beside us, 
 above us, around us continually : in their 
 presence we live, and by familiar sight of them 
 our taste is hourly tutored and matured. 
 
62 Wrens City Churches. 
 
 These monuments of England's greatest skill 
 in architecture — these speaking piles, that tell of 
 England's birth into the new world, that looks 
 for law and loves all learning — these odes of 
 built-up beauty — these children of the most 
 perfect mother church England possesses, are this 
 day imperilled by a threatened destruction, and 
 wholesale obliteration. The Church threatens 
 to raze to the ground these her fairest fabrics, 
 and sell their sites for pieces of silver. She 
 cares no longer for them; their beauty is 
 nought to her ; their history nought. They 
 are but worth the price of their sites in the 
 market. Londoners, and my English friends, 
 care you not for these monuments of your 
 past ? care you not to claim what is yours 
 by legitimate inheritance? Will you not stir 
 yourselves to save these buildings, which 
 are the glory of London architecture, the 
 boast of her city, and joint members of her 
 cathedral ? • Will you not claim them as 
 national property, and guard them as such ? 
 Will you let the Church, because supported 
 by State patronage, destroy as she will ? No ; 
 'tis time all historic monuments were put 
 under public control, as is done in France, 
 and thus preserved to the people; for the 
 
Wrens City Churches. 63 
 people do yet, and will yet more, care for 
 
 But surely, to our children it will not seem 
 strange that the age which designed the New 
 Law Courts should have destroyed Wren's 
 City Churches ; nor that when out of time, 
 the Griffin and the Goth ruled the roast, it 
 fared ill with those monuments, whose glory 
 consisted in their refinement, and in their 
 learning, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^m 
 
NOTES ON THE TOWERS. 
 
 5 
 
NOTES ON THE TOWERS. 
 
 > • » * < 
 
 @t. aibatt, 
 
 Wood Street: rebuilt 1685. 
 
 This church is an essay upon architecture, replete 
 with illustration of the essential characteristics of 
 Gothic and Renaissance art. We see in this buildingj 
 perhaps better than anywhere else, how the beauty and 
 true 'being* of a style depend, not on the structural 
 forms employed, but on the treatment they receive. 
 
 It is in architecture, as in all else of human life, 
 not by what he does is man praised of his pos- 
 terity, but by how he does. The 'what' matters 
 little, and for this a great man cares little; but the 
 ' how ' is everything to the world, and everything to 
 the man, tasking all his wit, and taking all his care. 
 
 Wren has here chosen to use the Gothic forms ; 
 but see how, in this tower, he has used them. Dis- 
 regarding parapet and pinnacles, has he not put these 
 Gothic elements to most splendid service ? has he not 
 so steeped them in his own great calmness of spirit, 
 as to make us feel their forms lovelier than ever they 
 
68 
 
 St. Alban^ 
 
 appeared before ? In these square buttresses of well 
 proportioned projection, that rib rather than prop the 
 structure of tower, do we not get in fullest, yet least 
 lineal form, the elastic spring and soaring sweep of line 
 which is so beautiful a feature in all good Gothic work ? 
 How these bulwark ribs lift you up to the sky, and 
 allow yoii to rejoice in airy height, without destroying 
 your sense of stony solidity, by too great rupture of 
 surface, or meagreness of line ; for their face is broader 
 than their flank, and they cling close to the mass of 
 the tower, not breaking from it every now and again, 
 as is the fashion in debased Gothic, or in ' ecclesiastical' 
 Gothic, such as may be seen in the apse added to this 
 church by Sir G. G. Scott, where the typical angle 
 props, with their usual coarse projection and restless 
 protrusion, are to be seen, pompous of their boasted 
 emptiness : and where, too, they may be so readily 
 compared with the buttress, as used by one, monarch 
 of his art. The oblique finish of these tower buttresses 
 is so well designed, that this unusual treatment may 
 pass unnoticed by many, unless attention be drawn 
 to it : the gradual line which brings them into the 
 face from which they spring, being in so perfect 
 sympathy with the breadth of their character, giving 
 at the same time so complete sense of their strong 
 attachment to the fabric's body. (Wren's study of 
 anatomy has here served him well.) 
 
 In the belfry windows, we have a specimen of the 
 most refined treatment of Gothic forms, I suppose, to 
 
W ood Street, 
 
 be found in England. At Pisa, in the chapel of the 
 Thorn, and in some parts of Giotto's bell tower at 
 Florence, we have Gothic forms treated with as nice 
 sensitiveness, and delicacy of design ; but this finesse 
 of detail is rare even in Italy. Look well at these 
 windows, feel as with finger the richness, yet quiet 
 delicacy of their mouldings, the slight projection of 
 their moulded hoods, soft as a maiden's brow ; the 
 breadth of the tracery, with sense of surface not even 
 lost in the mullions, by so shallow recessing of them, 
 and then go, look at some Gothic liked better before, 
 and future preference will test degree of sensitiveness 
 to form you possess. 
 
 The one weakness of Gothic tracery was its tendency 
 to lininess, a tendency necessitated by its position. A 
 narrow strip of light stone, placed in a field of almost 
 barren darkness. Heaven hardly could save from looking 
 thin. Its only safety lay in keeping as much as 
 possible of the mullion face flat ; in slightly moulding 
 the sides to give appearance of greater width; and in 
 relieving the dead blackness of opening, by louver 
 boards in a belfry window, by lead quarries and iron 
 cross-bars in windows that are glazed. Accordingly, 
 in the lower tower window. Wren has given an 
 unusually broad fillet to the mullions, and kept their 
 mouldings well at the sides, in addition to filling the 
 openings with iron cross-bars. For the same reason 
 the tracery of upper belfry windows has been kept 
 nearer the outer face than is usual in Gothic work. 
 
70 
 
 St. Alban^ 
 
 When, on tne other hand. Sir G. G. Scott, aided 
 and abetted by churchwarden zeal, laid destructive 
 hand upon the church, he pulled out Wren's fine west 
 window, and put in one more to his own taste, one 
 more consistent with the dry bones of a long-dead 
 style. But this is not all : he altered the mouldings 
 of muilions and tracery, removing . at the same time 
 the bars from the windows he left. The difference 
 in effect being too evident to need pointing out — but, 
 alas, the loss ! ! 
 
 As treatment of gable coping, I know no better than 
 that over the west window : this blind tracery is so 
 beautiful in its curves, and so quiet — so different from 
 the fretted restlessness that, in imitation of lace work, 
 so often weakens and disturbs the beauty of Gothic 
 work. 
 
 If you look up from this coping of Wren's to the 
 gallery and pinnacles lately put on to the tower, 
 you will quickly discern the difference of spirit in 
 the two designs. The meagreness of the open tracery, 
 the restlessness of the coarsely crocketed pinnacles, 
 the feebleness of the hand that sunk this foliated 
 panel on the face of the central pinnacle, all show 
 the smallness of the unthinking and insensitive nature 
 that has wrought its evil upon this most interesting 
 and beautiful specimen of Renaissance Gothic. 
 
 The violence of the acute curves in apse windows, 
 the angularity of its walls, (compare it with Wren's 
 rounded apses,) the coarseness of the mouldings, (com- 
 
Wood Street. 71 
 
 pare with mouldings of Wren's N.W. door,) ana 
 buttressing ; its triviality shown in the little carved 
 rosettes s^t on the cusps of tracery, in the buzz of 
 crockets on pinnacles, and thin fretting of panels 
 between, make true but painful contrast to Wren's 
 largeness, simplicity, refinement, and concentratedness. 
 
 However, let it not be thought that this Gothic of 
 the nineteenth century, with which I find such fault, 
 is Gothic. It has not even the flavour of Gothic. Not 
 a breath of Gothic life is in it ; no more life than is 
 to be found in the resuscitated skeleton of a Goth's 
 corpse, even be it William of Wykeham's. So much 
 for grubbing in the cemeteries of buried styles. We 
 can. overlook the lack of refinement, the want of 
 concentration, and other shortcomings, in true Gothic 
 work ; for it is so splendid in its energy, so passionate 
 in its fire, and pure in its enthusiasm of aspiration. 
 But when its fire has burnt out, its energy dead, buried, 
 and rotted, what then ? As well wrap ourselves, ere 
 dead, in the grave-clothes of our grandfathers. 
 
 \_Note.' — In the lower stage inside are to be seen 
 traces of the fire, showing the inner case of the interior 
 to be part of the original structure.] 
 
 ail }i)alloto0 tf)e (Sreat, 
 
 Thames Street: rebuilt 1683. 
 
 North aisle and tower pulled down to widen 
 Thames Street. 
 
7 2 All Hallows. — St. Andrew^ Holborn. 
 
 911 I^allotos, 
 
 Lombard Street: rehuilt 1694. 
 
 An example of the simple square tower, marking 
 contrast in its severe form and pallid purity of 
 tone, to its dusky neighbour St. Edmund the King. 
 Worthy of particular notice here, is the beauty of 
 the mouldings over upper windows, forming a minor 
 cornice to the main one above ; and the pierced 
 parapet, in which Wren so seldom indulges, but 
 here so appropriately introduces. 
 
 The doorway of the tower is certainly not happy, 
 evidencing in the mind of the architect a want of 
 consecutiveness in the composition. As a doorway 
 placed in the body of a church it would be appro- 
 priate, and might be- pleasing, but here it certainly 
 interferes with upper portion of tower. 
 
 HoLBORN : rebuilt 1686; tower refaced with 
 stone 1704. 
 
 As you stand on the Viaduct at ' City Temple's ' 
 corner, you see this tower on your right, while on 
 your left are seen the steeples of Christ Church and 
 St. Mary-le-Bow. You are thus in a position to 
 compare the work of Wren with that of the late 
 restorer of St. Sepulchre, Snow HilL In St. Mary- 
 
St. Andrew^ in the Wardrobe. 73 
 
 le-Bow you see, from this point, extreme grace and 
 lightness : putting to shame the coarse, clumsy 
 pinnacles of St. Sepulchre — destitute of every kind 
 of architectural quality.^ In St. Andrew you see 
 how a true artist finished his tower ; with what 
 dainty richness of form, and what bold originality 
 he pinnacles his parapet. Instead of a veneer of 
 commonplaceness evenly spread over an entire com- 
 position. Wren puts here and there, on an exceedingly 
 simple design, an exquisite touch, to give life, bril- 
 liancy, and interest to the whole; a touch of this 
 kind being seen in the unique treatment of the upper 
 belfry window head. 
 
 @t 3ntireto, in tf)e laJarDrotie, 
 
 Queen Victoria Street: rebuilt 1692. 
 
 A tower wanting in character beside the rest, 
 showing no strong motive in mind of the architect 
 when designing it. The lower part is treated much 
 as though it were a portion of the church, and the 
 whole with too equal distribution of architectural 
 feature. To make matters worse, this tower has 
 been sadly disfigured ; the simple circular window 
 of second storey taken out to make place for the 
 clock and framework. In upper storey, a carved 
 
 * Wren restored this church after the fire, but little now 
 remains of his work; this in its turn has been restored away. 
 
74 Anne^ Alder sgate. 
 
 and grossly moulded hood cornice has been put on 
 to the belfry window, beside some very curious 
 chasing cut on the window's feet ; while on the 
 angles above, wretchedly mean and wiry cast-iron 
 finials make finicking finish to the restless meagreness 
 that has spoiled this tower. 
 
 However, there are beautiful touches here and 
 there, which show a master's hand : notably, in the 
 finish of the angles to belfry stage, where delicately 
 wrought pilasters surmount the quoins that band all 
 corners below. 
 
 ®t 9nne in tf)e millotos, 
 
 St. Anne's Lane, Aldersgate : rebuilt 1681. 
 
 This beautiful lantern is much spoiled through 
 having been painted light, instead of being kept 
 dark in. tone as intended by Wren, who by its 
 treatment evidently intended it to be thought of as 
 a feature distinct from the tower, and accordingly 
 made the stone parapet of tower to keep complete 
 reticence, that the lantern's simplicity of expression 
 may seem more eloquent and articulate. Indeed, 
 every part is exceedingly simple, yet the care bestowed 
 in giving just the right amount • of inclination to 
 the little angle buttresses of lantern, in proportioning 
 projection of fret above ; and in controlling the 
 subtle changes of the roof curves, is such as only 
 a master would bestow on so small a work. 
 
St. Bennet : PauVs Wharf. 75 
 
 From its position with relation to St. Vedast, and 
 Christ Church tower, it will be at once felt that as 
 much nice care of design was here required as 
 simplicity of effect. 
 
 This church was originally built in red brick ; 
 some portions are now stone, — most covered with 
 cement. 
 
 Watling Street: rebuilt 1683; steeple finished 
 1695. 
 
 I have spoken at some length of this steeple on 
 page 29 of the essay. 
 
 TBennet: Ipaurs mbarf, 
 
 Thames Street: rebuilt 1683. 
 
 This dusky domed satellite of St. Paul's, as seen 
 from Queen Victoria Street, forms with its church 
 a noble group, the aisle roofs coming up so quaintly 
 against the nave. In this building we have one of 
 those exceptional instances in which Wren has placed 
 carving on a surface ; but observe, under no ordinary 
 conditions he does so. He has allowed his windows 
 no mouldings, and above he has thrown out a big 
 bold cornice relieved by no bands beneath them. 
 This carving thus does office for mouldings and for 
 
76 St. Bride ^ Fleet Street. 
 
 horizontal bands, with great gain of concentration 
 and effect. But we must not criticize too carefully 
 the carving on these churches, for though the effect is 
 always good and appropriate, the form of the carving 
 is wretchedly bad, the subject of it exceedingly poor. 
 It is the one unfortunate circumstance connected with 
 this beautiful architecture, that the architect had 
 no sculptor. All, therefore. Wren could do, was to 
 design position and effect of the carving, for the rest 
 leaving it to take its chance. Hence it is sufficient 
 to say Wren was not responsible for the character 
 of the carving that enriches his architecture. 
 
 ^t. TBritie (TBriDget), 
 
 Fleet Street: rebuilt 1680-99. 
 
 A steeple reminding one of Romanesque towers 
 in North Italy ; yet with what added refinement, 
 complexity of form and concentration ! For most 
 beautifully united is the circular storied spire to the 
 square tower by the curve of this pediment, the 
 round-headed openings of each storey finding a focus 
 point in the round of clock below. Seen close at 
 hand this steeple is less satisfactory, the repetition 
 being a little monotonous. 
 
 When rebuilt, after having been shattered in a 
 heavy storm, it was lowered in the crowning storey 
 fifteen feet. 
 
Christ Churchy Newgate Street, 77 
 
 Cf)n0t Cftutcb, 
 
 Newgate Street: rebuilt 1687; steeple 1704. 
 
 As St. Vedast is a composition of variously curved 
 surfaces, this is one composed of rectilinear forms, in 
 which pleasant play is made, of straight lines over 
 curved as in the clock, and curved lines over straight 
 as in the windows. Above, the play is between 
 surface and recess, where we see the distinctive use 
 of column and pilaster, as referred to in the essay.. 
 
 From the inner court of the school the best view 
 of this tower is obtained, its loss of twelve urns on 
 the lower corners (taken down 1828) being here 
 apparent enough to show them as valuable in this 
 work as pinnacles in Gothic. 
 
 Highly satisfactory as is this steeple in design, it 
 looks ill proportioned when seen full in the front of 
 one face,* thus illustrating the well-known fact that 
 Wren designed ' in perspective,' and not isometrically, 
 as is the habit among architects now-a-days. 
 
 The gateway and facade in red brick, belonging 
 to the school building, is also by Wren, the latter 
 with its grand sweep of pediment showing his strength 
 of treatment ; the former in the beautiful curved sides 
 and surface of the pilasters, illustrating his love of 
 fine line and subtlety of part adjustment in design. 
 
 * Though this is doubtless in great measure due to the loss 
 of vases. 
 
y8 St. Clement Danes, 
 
 After getting from sight of this facade some insight 
 of Wren's soul-greatness, think what insult it was to 
 his memory and work, the putting on of such a 
 poor restless parapet as now crowns his tower of 
 St. Alban; or such a parody of Gothicism as disgraces 
 and disturbs the reticent beauty of his St. Michael's 
 tower. 
 
 ®t Clement Dane0, 
 
 Fleet Street : rebuilt 1680 — 17 19. 
 
 The church, and tower to level of cornice just 
 below clock, is the work of Wren, and for nice 
 refinement in composition I know nothing to beat 
 it. The west facade is especially fine, every line 
 most studiously determined, and the whole so musical 
 in its complete harmony that every form is as a 
 chosen note in one grand full chord. The beautiful 
 adjustment of curved aisle copings to contour of 
 tower porch, of side cupolas to obelisk-topped but- 
 tresses, of circular openings to each other, is quite 
 marvellous in subtle devising. 
 
 But, alas, the circular columniated porticoes, like- 
 wise roofed with cupolas, that stood on either side 
 of main building, have been removed — as much to 
 the loss of this design's completeness as would be 
 detrimental to completeness of a chord, the elimination 
 of as many component notes. 
 
 The quiet, restful treatment of the Gothic windows 
 
St, Clement^ Eastcheap, 
 
 above bring them into new and abiding fellowship 
 with their classic companion forms — one unison of 
 feeling throbbing through all. 
 
 The extremely delicate mouldings of nave . windows, 
 and apse softly rounded in its curvilinear walls, may 
 well be compared with the hard angularities of 
 octagonal portions in New Law Courts, and with the 
 coarse character of their window mouldings. 
 
 From the string beneath clock to finial, the tower is 
 the design of Gibbs — pupil of Wren — one on whose 
 shoulders the master s mantle did not fall ; for it is 
 evident in completing this he was as unable to grasp 
 Wren's leading idea, as incapable of devising a 
 distinct idea of his own. 
 
 %t Clement, 
 
 Eastcheap: rebuilt 1685. 
 
 One of Wren's simple towers standing between the 
 rich compositions of St. Magnus and St. Edmund the 
 King. 
 
 The lower portion, being treated so as to form 
 portion of the church, detracts a little from the unity 
 of the tower's character, which would have been 
 grander had the lower storeys been quite plain. 
 
 The upper portion, however, which has had all 
 Wren's thought and usual care, is fine, and in its 
 unassuming simplicity effective. 
 
8o St. Dunstan in the East. 
 
 One cannot but wish these angle quoins had not 
 been carried down below the belfry stage ; or, if 
 below, finished at belfry stage by pilasters, as in 
 St. Andrew in the Wardrobe. The church is bold 
 beyond parallel in its frank simplicity — a simplicity 
 with which none but one conscious of power would 
 have been content.' 
 
 The large west window has been lately opened. 
 Wren had built it up in original design. 
 
 ^t. Dunstan in tf)e Cast, 
 
 Tower Street : rebuilt 1698. 
 
 Another example of Wren's treatment of Gothic 
 forms: yet one that will not compare with St. Alban, 
 nor St. Michael ; for, possessed by what blinding 
 spirit we know not — unless it were emulation of 
 St. Nicholas' Church, Newcastle — he has here for 
 once allowed himself to commit the favourite fault 
 of Gothic builders, and made his steeple stand on 
 stilts. The Goth so greatly loved spangled expanse 
 of painted glass, and effect of attenuated heights, that 
 he was unwittingly enticed to tempt the powers that 
 be, by his weakness and slimness of construction. 
 So feeble and lithe were the limbs of his structure, 
 that not unfrequently it was unable to support itself, 
 till the smith had fast bound it with wrought-iron 
 bands, or the ' mason propped it with stout stone 
 
'Tower Street. 
 
 8i 
 
 buttress ; and here, in a man's work where last 
 expected, is the same fault, a sense of lightness being 
 obtained by trick of build, at expense of seeming 
 stability. The wind may whistle, we know, for 
 centuries through the legs of this steeple, and not 
 shift or shake it the least ; but its apparent weakness 
 is perpetual offence against our artistic and unthinking 
 sense. 
 
 The question here always is, and will be, this : 
 not whether it ' is,' or ' is not ' stable, but ' does it,' 
 or ' does it not,' appear stable and strong } To say 
 the least, this is a small thing for one to have done 
 who was great enough to build Paul's dome. But 
 judgment seldom errs without misleading taste, and 
 we must admit that detail and finish of this steeple 
 are not what we should have expected from the 
 architect of St. Michael. 
 
 The tower, however, is fine, and hardly less beautiful 
 in detail than Wren's best work; the windows, like 
 those of St. Alban, exquisitely delicate in mouldings 
 and broad in their traceries ; the lower windows with 
 their glass failing somewhat in effect from the per- 
 fectness of those above them filled with wide louver 
 boards. Yet how delicate are the hood moulds of 
 these windows ! Again, the sinking of panels in 
 these pinnacles and parapets may well be compared 
 with panel and parapet added lately to the tower of 
 St. Alban, referred to in mention of that steeple. 
 
 When looking at the doorways below, we should 
 
 6 
 
82 St. Edmund the King^ 
 
 specially note the original beauty of the carving. 
 These crockets over the label are quite exquisite, 
 so bossy in their form, so pearly in their light and 
 shade — very unlike the crudely-formed and broken 
 crockets of mediaeval work, with its poor imitations — 
 as, for instance, crockets over door of St. Michael's 
 Church, Cornhill. Then, how beautiful is the sculp- 
 tured finish of the finial, as of the label, which is 
 rarely rendered with so much design and thought ; 
 for generally it comes to a sudden stop, and is treated 
 very abruptly. The bosses of clustering leaves that 
 close nestle in the foot crannies of these door jambs 
 are unequalled — certainly the boldest and beautifuUest 
 bits of foliated sculpture in London. 
 
 A good view of the upper portion of St. Dunstan's 
 steeple may be had from St. Dunstan's Hill. 
 
 The church was rebuilt in 1 8 17. In old engravings 
 we may see how grand in fearless originality of treat- 
 ment were windows and porch of church as rebuilt 
 by Wren ; and we have double source of regret for 
 its loss when what replaces it is so obtrusively small, 
 and its borrowed poverty so objectionable in spolia- 
 tion of our enjoyment of what yet remains from 
 Wren's so complete and splendid work. 
 
 ^t. (ZEDmunti tf)e Eing, 
 
 Lombard Street : rebuilt 1690. 
 One of the most original among the lantern towers : 
 
Lombard Street. 
 
 a design that no other than Wren could have con- 
 ceived — one that has no precedent, and can have no 
 copy, but must stand alone as Wren has stood alone. 
 
 The conception is one that requires extraordinary- 
 skill to work out, even satisfactorily, and here there 
 is not a hair's breadth amiss. 
 
 To set an octagonal structure of so different 
 construction immediately upon a square stone tower; 
 to treat a cone with concave sides, of such a scale, 
 so that in the centre it shall not look weak, nor at 
 its base heavy, is so extremely difficult, and a problem 
 that requires a Wren to solve. Here the eye is 
 prevented from feeling a void at the angles of the 
 octagon by the vertical range of louver boards that 
 run from face to face, also by the urns that sentinel 
 the spire, and, as you look up, come in between the 
 other urns of lantern, which, with leaping tongues 
 of flame, playfully sport the eye as it wanders up 
 and around this steeple top. Again, these simple 
 horizontal lines at centre of spire unite the cap 
 with its base mould, just as the elliptic forms give 
 sense of quiet motion to these decorative features 
 above and between them. The lantern base having 
 a good deal of interest in itself. Wren does not 
 pierce the parapet, but merely panels it in simplest 
 manner. 
 
 In this important street, the architect was obliged 
 to give his church a good facade, yet he wished to 
 have a lantern above. This introduced a great 
 
84 St. George^ Billingsgate. 
 
 difficulty in design ; but Wren has managed to give 
 great interest to both facade and lantern, without 
 detriment to either, or without violation of its unity 
 in design. 
 
 @t George, 
 
 Billingsgate : rebuilt 1679. 
 
 A square stone tower ; foil to the rich structures 
 of St. Magnus, St. Margaret Pattens, and St. Dunstan, 
 that surround this. To give height to the tower, 
 without bringing its parapet up to the shoulder of 
 St. Margaret Pattens, seen on the horizon next to 
 this. Wren has made the walls slightly to incline 
 inwards, the mouldings of belfry-window being kept 
 vertical on face, so that the head projects farther 
 from the front of the tower than the foot, thus 
 producing a not unpleasant effect. 
 
 The main cornice looks exceedingly well, as seen 
 from George Lane below ; but, when seen from a 
 distance, it looks unsatisfactory and poor ; the reason 
 to be found in that huge * cima ' moulding under the 
 full shadowing facia mould above. We may note, 
 when looking at this tower, how essential a feature 
 are these low urns that finish the tower, and how 
 inappropriate, where height is not the dominant idea 
 of a tower, are pinnacles such as those usually placed 
 on fourteenth-century towers, and aptly likened, by 
 Professor Ruskin, to the legs of a table topsy-turvy 
 in the air. 
 
St. James^ Piccadilly. 85 
 
 There is some good carving to be seen on the 
 doorway of this church. 
 
 Garlick Hithe: rebuilt 1682. 
 
 A corresponding character of design to St. Stephen, 
 Walbrook : yet not of quite so severe treatment ; nor 
 is the detail here so fine as in St. Michael Royal ; 
 but the effect of the whole is more pleasing from 
 a distance. In the steeple there is perhaps a redun- 
 dance of lines, and it would have been better had 
 the louver boards in the openings been omitted 
 However, the louver boards in belfry-window are 
 especially nice, and not to be wished away. 
 
 Piccadilly : built 1683. 
 
 The tower is by Wren ; but. the belfry is the 
 work and design of the ' King's Carpenter,' — who, 
 by an estimate ^5 cheaper than Wren's, ousted the 
 architect from chance of completing his work. 
 
 Were he alive, there are not a few well-meaning 
 people who would now ask Michael Angelo and 
 Tom Mason to tender for a 'job,' and think they 
 had done a good stroke of business in accepting the 
 estimate of the latter. 
 
 But the sharp man of business was not born 
 yesterday ! 
 
86 St. Lawrence^ Old yewry. 
 
 latorence, 
 
 Old Jewry: rebuilt 1680. 
 
 This tower and lantern is a design full of individual 
 character ; the lantern most original in its stern 
 strength of treatment ; and when seen from close 
 below, giving, with angle pyramids of tower, a richly 
 broken outline. The balustrade is especially beautiful, 
 as is also the square panelled treatment of tower- 
 windows, that keep and accentuate the rectilinear 
 character of the entire design. 
 
 The tower, from exigencies of site, is not square, 
 but the lantern is so : hence, when seen from a little 
 distance, the lines of lantern and tower come some- 
 what awkwardly. 
 
 The string-course between windows is very rich 
 •and large in design. 
 
 ©t. 9@agnus tfte agartgt, 
 
 Fish Street Hill : built 1680, tower 1705. 
 
 This tower occupied a very important position in 
 Wren's time ; for as you passed from over the water 
 to London, by the old bridge, it was the first and 
 most prominent building that gladdened the eye, 
 standing as it did at the head of London Bridge, — 
 thus suggesting to the architect strong reasons for 
 
St. Magnus the Martyr. 87 
 
 bringing it out from the body of the building to 
 which it belongs ; for treating it with a not too 
 boastful majesty, and also for giving it a suavity, 
 consistent with such stateliness of form, as might 
 sample, yet not overlaud the beauty and richness of 
 its companion buildings. While giving it strength 
 and mass by repetition of horizontal bands about its 
 centre, Wren has added to its actual elevation by 
 the treatment above, where lightness is given by 
 the two open lanterns, and vertical impetus to the 
 whole by the high-sweeping curve of the crowning 
 cupola roof. The variety introduced by these two 
 curves of lower and upper lantern is quite charming, 
 and prepares one for the bold sweep and delicate 
 finish of Paul's dome, while the upper stage of 
 tower foreshadows St. Mary-le-Bow's even more 
 magnificent design. 
 
 In Spain and in France similar types of tower-roof 
 are found, built a little earlier than this ; but none 
 show such a complete absence of the fantastic, none 
 such grace in moving dignity, none such calm mastery 
 of design. In rebuilding this church, the architect, 
 foreseeing a need of widening the road and bridge 
 for increased traffic at some future day, built his 
 tower on arches that the footway might pass under- 
 neath, and so the tower avoid its own destruction. But 
 the churchwardens overruled in this; which obliged 
 Wren to conceal the existence of these arches he 
 was determined to build by bricking them up. And 
 
88 St. Magnus the Martyr, 
 
 it was not till the foreseen alteration took place,* 
 and the workmen were making the footway, that 
 the arches were found, ready for the path to pass 
 under. 
 
 But this building of the arches required careful 
 adjustment above, lest the open character of the 
 lower part should contend with the lighter stages 
 above. Each flank Wren accordingly binds, just 
 above the arches, with many massive bands of 
 moulding, that at once counteract the appearance 
 of lightness likely to mar the unity of so fine a 
 design. 
 
 When seen from Gracechurch Street, opposite Talbot 
 Court, this steeple is brought into juxtaposition with 
 the Monument, to the benefit of both : the monu- 
 mental column bringing out the richness of the tower s 
 architecture, and its finial, by boldness of changing 
 outline, showing to greatest advantage the steeple's 
 softness of finish. Again, this tower taken away 
 from beside the column, that with like fiery ambi- 
 tion to the flames it commemorates, springs straight 
 to the heavens, and thereupon the Monument drops 
 a sixth of its height, so helpful are these to each 
 other. 
 
 As you walk down Fish Street Hill, and near 
 the tower, you may see again how valuable in com- 
 position of outline are these dormers of the dome. 
 
 * In 1760, when the church was undergoing repair, its roof 
 having been destroyed by fire. 
 
St. Margaret Pattens. 
 
 It is interesting to compare this tower with that 
 of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, built during Wrens 
 hfetime : how hke in general form ; how marvellously 
 unlike in 'character/ As with man's make, so also 
 with man's work. 
 
 @t agargaret, 
 
 Lothbury: rebuilt 1690. 
 
 Not so satisfactory this. The outline too bold, the 
 proportioning of parts forming lantern too similar, 
 thus depriving it of character. Here again, gs in 
 St. Benet, we have an example of Wren's setting 
 aside his general principle about use of carving, by 
 sculpturing the surface. But its necessity in this case 
 is evident, since a definite form linking door, portico 
 and cornice, would have distributed too equally the 
 architectural features, beside marring the concentra- 
 tion of interest above, — and hence the only possible 
 thing here was carving. 
 
 @t 9@argaret pattens, 
 
 (District of the patten makers,) Little Tower 
 Street : rebuilt 1687. 
 
 Here we have an example of what may be done 
 with severest Gothic form, by one whose strong 
 individuality makes adamant seem plastic, easily 
 impressionable to the softest touches of a masters 
 
go St, Margaret Pattens^ 
 
 genius. Many and many a time have we seen this 
 same form, and felt its hardness, harshness and 
 coldness ; as many times have we found grave fault 
 with the form, as cause of our displeasure ; but here, 
 for the first time, we find we have unreasonably 
 wronged the form. It is not the 'form' that pleases 
 or dissatisfies, but the 'treatment.' 
 
 But look at this tower and sgire, and see its 
 strange simplicity ; square window, straight top, and 
 inclined roof. Who could use more simple elements 
 in architecture? No builder of meanest shanty had 
 been^ content with such restricted features — yet how 
 fine, supremely fine, is this design, — so exquisitely 
 chaste in its purity of line, so gentle in its uprising 
 motion, as it hfts itself, with conscious air of queenly 
 superiority, above the meaner buildings, low dwarfed, 
 around. The sense of stern height that is thus ex- 
 pressed by view of this spire, is much accentuated 
 and multiplied by these four obelisk pinnacles that 
 companion it, and to an extent far greater, and in 
 a way more beautiful than is usual, when pinnacles 
 of the ordinary Gothic form — tops studded over with 
 crockets — crown the parapet. Here their pleasing 
 efi^ect in intensification of towering height, as also 
 their complete harmony with spire, is due to the fact 
 that from their base these pinnacles taper to their 
 top, and maintain their oblique angle lines unbroken 
 by carving. 
 
 The delicate panelling and varied forms of open 
 
Little Tower Street. 
 
 91 
 
 ing that decorate the cone, make this spire appear 
 much larger than it actually is; thus deceiving the 
 eye into enjoyment of seeming magnitude, without 
 risk of realizing actual massiveness. The tower, 
 likewise, in just harmony with the sentiment of its 
 spire, is kept very flat and simple, the eye, after 
 resting awhile on the soft lines of that square belfry 
 window, turning quickly to the parapet, on its un- 
 hindered sweep to the summit of spire, following 
 the quiet yet strong upward impetus of the whole 
 design. 
 
 The mouldings of the tower are worth careful 
 study, for they are of unusual proportion, being very 
 fine in section and thin in depth ; but with an extra- 
 ordinary boldness of projection that makes them 
 doubly effective. 
 
 The tower is best seen from bottom of St. Mary's 
 Hill, where it looks quite queenly in its courtly 
 grace and dignity. 
 
 (Lately this spire has been re-covered with lead.) 
 
 ^t. s©artm, 
 
 LuDGATE : huilt 1684. 
 Referred to in essay, pages 28 and 54. 
 
92 St. Mary Abchurch, 
 
 agatp at)cf)urcf), 
 
 Abchurch Lane: rebuilt 1685. 
 
 Here, in Abchurch Yard, we see the sympathetic 
 grouping of steeple and church. We marvel at the 
 strange simplicity of means employed, to produce so 
 grand an effect. For what could be more devoid 
 of ornament, or fancy of architectural feature ; yet 
 what look more splendid in its largeness and breadth 
 of character, than this? Here is a lack of richness 
 that is not the begging want of poverty, but the 
 reserve of bridled power ; since, with the slightest 
 expenditure of means, and simplest use of material, 
 this prince of builders will yet be magnificent in 
 outlay of surface, and show not less his power by 
 just a sweep of hand in rounding of an arch. 
 
 For resoluteness of character, and simplicity of 
 conception, this church and steeple is unparalleled: 
 its deep ruddy tower, as seen from Sherborne Lane, 
 set about with quoin and girdles of pale silvery 
 stone, twice deepening the dark of its lantern roof 
 above, producing a most telling effect in pleasing 
 change of tones. 
 
 In the church roof we may note how pleasantly 
 this elliptic dormer focusses and pulls together the 
 whole composition of this side. 
 
 On the west side, next the tower, this large 
 window has been filled in with mullions, and the 
 
St, Mary Aldermary, 93 
 
 mason allowed to stop-chamfer the edges of Wren's 
 window. These men who thus meddle with great 
 work to spoil it, are too small of soul to appreciate 
 the beauty of a simple surface — too frightened to 
 leave a plain unmoulded edge. 
 
 (The roof of church was formerly leaded.) 
 
 ®t 9@arp aiDermarp, 
 
 Queen Victoria Street : rebuilt 171 1. 
 
 The lower portion of this tower is ancient. How 
 far Wren, in the rebuilding, kept to the general 
 design of the original fabric is uncertain, but certain 
 it is he remodelled all the details ; for you can read 
 his handwriting everywhere, especially in the delicacy 
 of the turret panelling, in the treatment of upper- 
 most strir^ that stands for cornice, in the exquisite 
 curvature of pinnacles, with their bold finial tops. 
 The strong insistance on one leading idea may or 
 may not be Wren's, — a true Goth might have done 
 it ; but none other than Wren could have combined, 
 in carrying it out, so much delicacy with so much 
 strength. 
 
 No one needs telling the church has been rebuilt 
 by some modern, as devoid of character as of feeling. 
 You may well compare windows, parapet and pin- 
 nacles of tower with like features in the church; 
 and the different treatment will tell you just the 
 difference there was between the man who saw 
 
94 Mary Aldermanbury. 
 
 through his own soul's eye, spoke from his own 
 great heart, and the man who could but mimic 
 the tone of another's voice, and repeat a few of 
 the commoner words picked out from the every day 
 converse of the mind he aped to possess. 
 
 ©t* 9@arp aiDermanburp, 
 
 Aldermanbury : rebuilt 1680. 
 
 The lantern of this tower may, perhaps, have been 
 worked out from a sketch by Wren, but certainly 
 was not erected by him. The east end of the 
 church is a fine and exceedingly bold design, so 
 evidently thought out as a whole ; for those huge 
 scrolls, that are drawn with so much character, would 
 be out of all proportion to the window, were there 
 not these doors and circular windows on ^ther side. 
 Thus their size is determined by position of these 
 doors, just as their curves are determined by the 
 shape of the circular windows beside them— a fact 
 most will recognize on viewing this east end. How- 
 ever, the broad effect of this once fine facade has 
 been much marred by the impudence of ecclesiastical 
 vandalism, that has replaced the original round or 
 oval windows, with their carved mouldings, by these 
 with filled-in tracery ; and has likewise filled in each 
 window of aisle. If, however, she indeed have need 
 to narrow her lights,, she might at least do it with 
 grace.. 
 
St. Mary-le-Bow^ Cheapside. 95^ 
 
 Cheapside : rebuilt 1672-77. 
 
 Queen of city steeples, in bearing of ease, in 
 lightness, and stately dignity of form, first among 
 her fellows, pure to the soul, and pleasing to the 
 eyes. Richer in design than any, it is more majestic 
 than any. And excellent in unity of conception as 
 are the others, this is the most perfect form, and 
 figures but one harmonious thought. A work that 
 is a true reflex of the cathedral, being an arrange- 
 ment of the same design, in altered proportion, and 
 diminished scale ; having all the elements of the 
 composition, forming central portion of St. Paul's, 
 one feature only being materially altered — namely, 
 the cupola, that here finds its echo in this domical 
 arrangement of truss, which supports the stage above 
 that corresponding to the columniated drum of the 
 cathedral. 
 
 This design is, indeed, so full of life and buoyant 
 sentiment, that often, when looking up at the spire, 
 these columns have seemed to be moving ; dancing 
 round the drum in ordered and measured step, as 
 the hours are often depicted dancing their ceaseless 
 round. 
 
 Further : to draw attention to points of beauty. 
 How could there be given greater insistance on 
 the vertical lines than is done in the upper portion 
 
96 St. Mary-le-Bow^ Cheapside. 
 
 of this steeple ; and again, what could be more 
 resolutely horizontal in character, than the lower 
 portion ; yet, how quiet the transition between these 
 contrasting portions, where sleeping lines seem one 
 by one to wake, and lift themselves up, till they 
 climb each over other, in eager desire to lead the 
 eye upward, to the dragon high poised in mid air 
 above. 
 
 And, in no less able way, only to be appreciated 
 by those who have experienced the difficulties of 
 architectural design, has Wren united tower to steeple. 
 The character of the two being radically opposed, 
 — below all breadth of surface and horizontality 
 of line, above all columniated and vertical, — yet 
 these angle pinnacles over belfry stage are alone 
 responsible for effecting the transition ; a fact patent 
 to any who but look at the tower, whilst hiding 
 the pinnacles. 
 
 Lastly, the growing richness of stage after stage, as 
 the eye journeys gently up the tower, from the base 
 to the dragon above, is a great source of beauty ; 
 as is, no less, the concentration of chief interest in 
 one portion of the design. 
 
 The effect, beautiful even when seen by itself, is, 
 however, enhanced by its position and surroundings; 
 for, think how great variety of design you get given 
 you, in the towers that surround Bow steeple. We 
 have St. Stephen, Walbrook ; St. Matthew, Friday 
 Street ; St. Vedast, Foster Lane ; St. Augustine, 
 
St. Mary-le-Bow^ Cheapside. 97 
 
 Watling Street; St. Mildred, Poultry; All Hallows, 
 Bread Street, (now pulled down). 
 
 What a glorious company this! Each one full of 
 character, and each only wanting the presence of its 
 companions to bring this character out into fullest 
 effect. 
 
 We may well ask here, when will London know 
 what it owes to him, who has adorned her streets 
 with such unparalleled monumental beauty P or where 
 in the world can be seen such another cluster of so 
 superb architectural grandeur ^ 
 
 This steeple was taken down by Gwilt in 1820, 
 and when re-erected, the topmost columniated stage 
 was built in granite, thus marring the soft silvery 
 effect given by the Portland stone, as originally used, 
 beside making unpleasantly hard all linear mouldings, 
 where more than ever elsewhere they should be as 
 softened as is possible. 
 
 In the rebuilding. Wren advanced the steeple 
 about forty feet, erecting it on the walls of a 
 Roman temple, some portion of the church being 
 founded on the ' arches ' or ' bows ' of a Norman 
 church, now to be seen in the crypt. Hence the 
 name of the consistory court — ' Court of Arches . 
 till quite lately held here. 
 
 7 
 
98 Si. Mary Magdalen. 
 
 ^atp at ©UI, 
 
 Thames Street : rebuilt 1678. 
 
 This stout squat brick tower, with angle knit 
 quoins and square machicolated parapet, was built 
 at the end of last century, and is not worthy of any 
 note. The only interest that attaches to this tower 
 is in its doorway, which has some delicate beauty, 
 and may be by Adams, as it has his grace and 
 justness of proportion, yet wants the character and 
 boldness of Wren, a portion of whose work alone 
 remains in the east end of this church. 
 
 8©arp ^agDalen, 
 
 Knightrider Street: rebuilt 1685. 
 
 As when the fleetest and fieriest of Arab steeds, 
 reined to marching pace, shows speed and spirit 
 no less in action of neck, nostril, and limb ; so 
 this master architect, wealthiest in store of original 
 conceptions, shows his richness of imagination in so 
 unassuming reserve of its full achievement ; feeling 
 evidently the greater majesty of hard-bridled speech 
 — words few and simple — because of their weight of 
 thought-burdened import. 
 
 Perfect, as only a few choice things in all the 
 world's work are perfect, is this little gem of 
 mind-wrought work. Pure also as perfect ; and 
 
St. Mary Somerset. 
 
 clear of any alloy of erring thought, or faulty 
 temper. For not so much as a hair's breadth any- 
 where, could the proportions of these parts be altered 
 with improvement ; nor in smallest conceivable way 
 could any of the forms be bettered. 
 
 It is beyond praise ; and its beauty too subtle to 
 bear criticism. 
 
 @)t 9@arp @Dmer0Ct, 
 
 Thames Street: rebuilt 1695. 
 
 Fortunately, when the church was demolished, this 
 noble tower was left to memorialize the beauty of 
 its bride. Lovely widower, looking much forlorn 
 and not a little the worse for being thus left to 
 stand alone ; since here and there fragments of 
 moulding have been broken away, and no seemly 
 care keeps it safe from ruffian hands. 
 
 As a whole, one can imagine improvements ; but, 
 considered in its details, nothing could well be finer. 
 Every feature is subtly chastened into perfectest 
 form : each part nicely adjusted to every other. For 
 example, in series of cornice and strings, there is an 
 order of decreasing proportion in projection, deter- 
 mining magnitude of each, from boldest cornice of 
 door, (now broken away,) to faintly projecting string 
 just under main cornice. This decreasing order is 
 counterplay to inverse order formed of door head 
 
loo St. Mary Woolnoth. 
 
 and main cornice, which, crowning all, is greater than 
 all. 
 
 Then, again, the mouldings of windows gradually 
 grow less as stage mounts above stage, till in belfry 
 window the chasing of mouldings becomes as soft as 
 the lining of a brow. 
 
 But we find another feature in this tower showing* 
 the extraordinary care and finish bestowed upon it. 
 The walls are not straight : they are given a parabolic 
 form, whose soft and varied curvature endows the 
 whole with rare grace and vitality of form, nowhere 
 else in the same degree realised. 
 
 Wren knew when he had designed this, he had 
 done a great work : saying to himself, as he wrought 
 out his thoughts into one welded whole of glorious 
 fashion, 
 
 . This hour my utmost art I prove 
 And speak my passion . . . 
 
 In his joy of success bursting out into this laugh 
 over all ; and letting his fancy free to sport itself in 
 quaint devising of these crowing pinnacles that play 
 on the parapet, while business gloomily drudges 
 below. 
 
 King William Street: rebuilt 17 19. 
 
 Here, one cannot refrain from referring to this 
 mass of piled up plagiarism, put together by a pupil 
 
St. Matthew^ Friday Street. loi 
 
 of Wren; whose training never was able to refine 
 his native coarseness, that some, in their criticism of 
 this composition, have glorified by the name of bold- 
 ness: yet the gulf between this and Wren's work is 
 too broad to need critical measurement. I mention it, 
 only because it has been thought by some worthy of 
 the praise it has received by archaeologists incapable 
 of discriminating between what is fine and what is 
 eccentric, — a praise likely to depreciate, while it lasts, 
 all good work of this time. 
 
 Friday Street: rebuilt 1685. 
 
 Posted all over with placards inviting tenders for 
 purchase of its materials. By the time this comes 
 from the press, one stone, I fear, will not be left on 
 another, and instead of a deserted church, we shall 
 find, on visiting its site, a superbly ornamented 
 warehouse, standing staunch and strong on its cast 
 iron legs, proud of its " practical " office and shoplike 
 display of cheap art, deign it to have any show of 
 art at all. The exigencies of trade ! ! ! 
 
 The simple brick tower, clear of any kind of archi- 
 tectural feature, though not by Wren, has at least 
 for so many years done humble service to its richly 
 designed companions, by ministry of inoffensive sim- 
 plicity. Wren was often extremely simple and severe. 
 
I02 St. Michael Bassishaw. 
 
 but there was always "character"; always, too, a 
 delicate touch somewhere, like the one extra word 
 that good grace impels in simple order to menial ; 
 and so shows life of soul — the man, not master only. 
 This character^ this touch for the sake of the soul it 
 satisfies, we do not find here — and this my reason for 
 saying it is not Wren's work. 
 
 With regard to the church proper, its destruction 
 will indeed bring a loss, for this splendid range of 
 five repeated windows, with their carved archivolts, 
 sculptured caps and cherubic keystones, is very fine, 
 having an elegance rare in these churches, and withal 
 crowned by a cornice of very individual design and 
 speaking boldness of moulding. 
 
 However, in the case of a people that dare not 
 use a building, originally and heretofore set apart to 
 worship in, for any kind of commerce rightly service- 
 able to man, we must be pardoned once for all when 
 thinking either its idea of mundane life wretched 
 indeed, or its trade not as honest as it might well be. 
 
 Basinghall Street : rebuilt 1680. 
 
 This tower looks best when seen from the north- 
 east corner, so as to get in view two of its sides. 
 The lantern is full of character, and of an originality 
 which, with familiarity, is found very beautiful. From 
 
St. Michael^ Cornhill, 103 
 
 this standpoint, ' we may see the fine double sweep 
 that is given to the coping of nave and aisle roof 
 at east end ; and should then also note the way in 
 which the buttress is brought up against the curve. 
 A lesson here, if they will receive it, for the moderns, 
 who repeat so slavishly the angularities of steep gable 
 outlines on the facades of their churches. 
 
 Cornhill : rebuilt 1672 ; tower 1722. 
 
 On entering the City from one of the chief gates, 
 — that of Bishopsgate — this was the first tower to be 
 seen ; hence its large gift of dignity and importance. 
 
 Not so refined as St. Alban, but bolder and stronger, 
 it is a truly grand conception, wrought out with all 
 the might and the soul of a great man, a work having 
 all the " go " and glory of Gothic art, without its 
 wanton fantasy, or chill apathy of sentiment : the 
 tower lifting itself aloft with all the pride and im- 
 portance of classic grandeur ; with all the vigour, too, 
 and pleasant play that enliven mediasval architecture. 
 
 The type of design was suggested by that noble 
 tower of Magdalen, Oxford ; but the old type becomes 
 a new creation after having passed through a mind 
 such as Wren's. 
 
 The bold treatment of the tower windows, with 
 their very original tracery, and jambs scooped into 
 
104 Michael^ CornhilL 
 
 such telling mouldings, is very fine; as finely designed 
 as are the angle buttress turrets which mount up 
 so strongly, growing richer and richer in fulness of 
 detail, as they get free of the church, till well above 
 the parapets they burst out into flower of gracefullest 
 form,* adding as much height as richness to the 
 tower. 
 
 With true artistic propriety, the parapet keeps and 
 accentuates the vertical character of the whole design, 
 the pierced tracery being as light as fretted stone 
 may well be, without appearing weak. Indeed, there 
 is no weak point, nor unstudied part in the whole 
 work ; for where its prototype has been feeble, this 
 is strong ; where it has been hard, this is made soft^ 
 as in the curves over belfry windows, which become 
 under Wren's hand soft and full, such as those that 
 give so great dignity and repose to Romanesque 
 architecture. 
 
 With this magnificent largesse in art, compare the 
 doorway lately added to the church by the Gothic 
 revivalists, who have here caricatured, unconsciously 
 we fear, all the faults of Gothic art, as the classic 
 revivalists have caricatured, in such buildings as the 
 Bank and the British Museum, the common faults 
 of classic art ; neither being able to give so much as 
 a feeble suggestion of the energy the one possesses, 
 
 * Compare these tower pinnacles, in grace of line, with the 
 fairest you can find built previous to those, and mark well the 
 difference. 
 
St. Michael^ CornhilL 105 
 
 nor so much as the sHghtest sense of the refinement 
 found in the other style, to redeem the dryness or 
 coarseness of their mimic composition. Who would 
 not shrink back from this churchyard Gothic, that 
 would fain cover its ghastly skeleton of a dug up 
 design, by thin tapestry of inane ornament — orna- 
 ment whose thinness and meagreness is made more 
 apparent by the way the decoration is smeared in 
 even degree over the entire surface ; even not 
 sparing the buttress — that feature which, of all 
 others, should look solid and broad, but which in 
 this case must have its greed of carving satisfied, 
 its surface broken, its mass weakened by panelled 
 sculpture in its midst. 
 
 Above, we see the core ; below, the crust of 
 Gothic art. 
 
 Thus, with this smallness and this largeness in 
 contiguous presence ; with this life and this death 
 in one building, we get the completest contrasts it 
 is possible to get in art, as no less in individual 
 character. The porch, like the mealy verbosity of 
 one dull of brain and dead of heart, who masks 
 his sterility of ideas by loose redundance of words ; 
 while the upper portion of the tower is as the 
 simple language of a great soul, large of heart and 
 resolute of purpose, — one whose full-burdened ideas, 
 destined to move and to stir well-springs of thought, 
 need only clear statement and exactness of language 
 to give them effect, and thus turn commonplace talk 
 
io6 St. Michael^ Wood Street. 
 
 into perfectest oratory. But each, we must allow, 
 has his audience — the dead to the dead, the quick 
 to the quick. 
 
 From the little garden of Bell Yard, both church and 
 tower may well be seen ; and here you will not need 
 to be warned against attributing the side windows 
 to Wren, for they- are so evidently out of harmony 
 with the conception of the building as a whole — and 
 so different from the simple circular windows which 
 were originally placed here : the tower being jealous 
 of more than simplest entertainment below. 
 
 Some day when the sun is on this tower, it should 
 be seen from London Bridge, whence it looks most 
 magnificent. 
 
 When Scott and Williams added porch, they repaired 
 and slightly altered second stage of tower, by introduc- 
 tion of this west window. 
 
 Wood Street : rebuilt 1675. 
 
 This tower was recased by Wren, the lower window 
 being shortened and receiving a new arch, while above 
 a circular window was added, and the low tower 
 surmounted by simplest of spires. But there are two 
 things to note about this spire : first, its form, which 
 is of no ordinary plan. The cardinal sides of the 
 octagon are larger than the obliquely set sides, that 
 
St, Michael Royal^ College HilL 107 
 
 are recessed back, thus giving greater complexity to 
 the conical form, and varied strength to its light and 
 shade. In the second place, the spire is terminated 
 before its point gets so thin as to look weak, by 
 this square blunt top, which makes the whole cone 
 appear thicker, without giving it appearance of undue 
 heaviness ; a treatment likewise notable in the case of 
 St. Mildred, Poultry, and St. Swithin, Cannon Street. 
 
 %t a^ic&ael Jaogal, 
 
 College Hill: rebuilt i6g^. 
 
 A design of like character to Christ Church, Newgate 
 Street ; this being circular in treatment, while the 
 latter is square. Considering the steeple by itself, its 
 proportions are as perfect as its design ; but when 
 seen from some distance (from opposite Cannon 
 Street station, for instance), where its relation to the 
 tower is shown, the effect is decidedly unsatisfactory ; 
 here looking as though the tower had been built to 
 one scale, the steeple to another too diminutive for 
 the tower. 
 
 However, when seen from below, in College Hill, 
 the whole looks grand, rich in form, and perfect in 
 proportion, the steep perspective of the top of tower 
 greatly helping the upper portion. This, along with 
 St. Stephen and St. James, aids in distributing 
 among the sister churches the general design of 
 St. Paul's west portico towers. 
 
io8 St, Nicholas^ Cole Abbey. 
 
 Bread Street : rebuilt 1683. 
 
 An obelisk lantern, forming pleasant change from 
 St. Augustine, Watling Street, before its curved 
 spire was removed. How beautifully the lower 
 curve ripples up to the base of this obelisk, its 
 wave-crests forming feet and cornice of angle buttress 
 above, where by delicate moulding and ranging-order 
 of louver boards the eye is arrested to linger upon 
 this central point of interest, — an interest nowhere 
 excelled ! 
 
 Standing on opposite side of Cannon Street, the 
 west facade of the church — so magnificent in its 
 breadth — is seen at an angle that makes the harmony 
 of its curves very telling. Above, in the centre, we 
 get a bold convex pediment swooping dbwn to the 
 sides, with wings of reverse curvature ; below, a 
 window head of similar curve, less strong, uniting 
 a still quieter curve over door, with the pediment 
 above. 
 
 On either side of the door is a circular window 
 of recent insertion, not belonging to original design. 
 
 %t 5l3icf)ola0, dole abfiep, 
 
 Knightrider Street: rebuilt iG^o. 
 Much the same type as that of St. Edmund the 
 
St. Olave^ Hart Street. 109 
 
 King, yet not nearly so fine an example ; although 
 a bold design, and one which Wren would hardly 
 have worked out so grossly. The curve is very hard, 
 both balcony and crown heavy and ill-proportioned, 
 so that one is forced to think this is the work of 
 a pupil, following a sketch by his master. 
 
 The tower, however, is very beautiful : so calm 
 and grand a base for the concentrated interest 
 above, — an interest that dawns first in the cornice, 
 by the happy introduction into its horizontal lines, 
 of the window's angular pediment. The surface of 
 the tower is kept quiet and unrelieved by mouldings, 
 delicate facets doing office for these with less obtru- 
 siveness, while the arched head of belfry window is 
 reft of slightest surface relief, and so left to cut clean 
 against the shadow of its opening. 
 
 The face of the tower being kept so quiet, the 
 cornice must needs creep very gently out from the 
 surface. First, a few finely projecting facets; then 
 a retiring back, before it boldly thrusts its head 
 moulds forward, to cast a deep set shadow below 
 them, as base line for the dark of lantern above. 
 
 Hart Street, Mark Lane : restored 1693. 
 
 No one who had become familiar with Wren's 
 work, could pass this church and not see that he 
 
no St, Olave^ Old Jewry . 
 
 had also been here. For the simple windows of 
 that tower are surely Wren's ; the exquisite lantern 
 above without question. Its niceness of finish, no 
 less than its " character " and just proportion, betray 
 the hand that designed it. [As I walked from this 
 church to-day I passed St. Helen, Bishopsgate, and 
 looking long at its bell-cot above, thought how 
 beautiful was this that heralded the lanterns of 
 Wren. From its early date and distinctive character 
 it becomes very interesting to us Londoners. In 
 the doorway of this church (1633) you see from 
 what vulgarities and unmeaning vagaries Inigo Jones 
 and Wren purged English architecture.] 
 
 %t mm. 
 
 Old Jewry : rebuilt 1679. 
 
 A simple tower of small size, though great beauty, 
 from a peculiar treatment given to it by Wren for 
 accentuation of its height. From the lower string 
 course that forms cornice of church, the walls of 
 tower slope gently inwards, producing an effect in 
 which the panelled obelisks above play chief part ; 
 for their stronger obliquity makes the inward inclina- 
 tion appear curved-parabolic-wise, thus bringing these 
 apparently converging curves to a common point, 
 and forming a sort of invisible spire. You will 
 
St, Peter^ CornhilL 
 
 III 
 
 notice how pediment of clock unites the two side 
 pediments by its similar angle and well adjusted 
 position, forming at same time pleasing complement 
 to the low curved pediment of door beneath. 
 
 ©t. Peter, 
 
 CoRNHiLL : rebuilt 1682. 
 
 Uniquely beautiful, giving in a terse and pronounced 
 form the cardinal features of Wren's architectural 
 conceptions. In the simplicity of its circular-headed 
 openings, undraped by mouldings — single and large 
 below, at once multiplied and divided above, — in its 
 pleasing reiteration of horizontal bands of moulding, 
 increasingly weighty and prominent as they mount, 
 — and how exquisite these at the top, — in its quiet 
 contrast of pilasters above, with broad unbroken wall 
 space below, this example accentuates in an unusual 
 degree. Wren's love of repose, of horizontality, and 
 fond insistance upon simplicity of surface decoration. 
 
 The whole is a masterpiece of gravity and simple 
 dignity in architecture. As matter of detail, note 
 how the corners are treated : not so as to lose the 
 angle, as would have been done in mediaeval times, 
 but so as to accentuate surfaces meeting at each 
 corner. Again, how beautifully connected are the 
 openings of lantern with those of belfry, by this 
 full swollen cupola between, whose round dormer 
 
112 St. Stephen^ JValbrook. 
 
 light finds response in the circular opening of third 
 stage, as does the cupola its echo in the golden ball 
 tossed on top of all. 
 
 The tower's warm colour, kindling itself into a 
 fiery red against the cold sky — sympathy of earth 
 making the heaven seem chiller than ever — produces 
 a beautiful effect in this little dull brick court of 
 St. Peter's Alley. And, when walking out of this 
 alley into Gracechurch Street, you feel you have 
 left the companionship of a mighty mind, as you 
 compare the stately dignity and force of this one 
 concept of its brain life with the cast-iron frippery 
 of Leadenhall Market, in its pigmy conceit of 
 intellectual idiocy. 
 
 Coleman Street: rebuilt 1680. 
 
 Here, belfry is but sheltering cot for the bell, and 
 being very small, is broken in form. It is, however, 
 rigid, stern, and strong, the best view being obtained 
 from steps of 17, King's Arms Yard. 
 
 From a distance the lantern looks better^ and may 
 be seen well from King William Street. 
 
 Walbrook : rebuilt 1681. 
 
 This tower was from the first covered by shops, 
 that close gathered round its feet, and has accordingly 
 
St, Stephen^ Walbrooh 113 
 
 freen treated merely as a support for the rich compo- 
 sition above, giving Wren as real occasion as welcome, 
 for that concentration of effect he liked so much. 
 
 The square form of the steeple is here insisted 
 on, to give value to the circular treatment of St. 
 Mary-le-Bow ; a treatment that gives it a peculiarly 
 masculine character, in which rigidity and lightness 
 are combined to an unusual degree. There is more 
 thought given to this steeple in arrangement of its 
 parts than is evident; and it is not till we come to 
 study its proportions that we find out how exquisite 
 they are, or how nice the balance of the whole. 
 
 For these columns and cornices are not tossed up 
 against the sky in mere child's play, nor piled 
 column on column as the Goth shot up his spire, 
 or, again, as the Chaldees built Babel tower. But 
 all is controlled by just principles of proportion, 
 and determined by appropriateness of position. 
 
 Can any mediaeval tower or spire compare with 
 this for richness of form, for nobility of structure, 
 and sensitiveness of proportion? Can any other 
 example be found which in so small a space has 
 so much interest, so much thought? 
 
 The sculptor Canova so greatly admired this 
 church (though probably thinking mostly of the 
 interior), that when asked if he wished again to 
 visit England, replied, " Yes ; that I might again 
 see St. Paul's Cathedral, Somerset House, and St. 
 Stephen's, Wal brook." 
 
 8 
 
114 Swithin^ Cannon Street. 
 
 The outside of this church has been generally, 
 and up to the present day, deemed very inadequate 
 in dignity and beauty to the exceeding grandeur of 
 the interior, and from time to time architects have 
 gone so far as to prepare plans for the fit glorification 
 of the exterior. Happily their schemes have come to 
 as little as their capacity of appreciation. 
 
 The steeple is best seen through the opening of 
 Bucklersbury, in Queen Victoria Street. 
 
 Cannon Street: rebuilt 1680. 
 
 Seen best from the quiet little garden of Salter's 
 Court. One of Wren's severe foils to his finest 
 compositions ; not pleasant to those unfamiliar with 
 its gentler and more richly endowed companions, but 
 beautiful to those whose minds vision the remainder 
 that complete its harmony. 
 
 The whole is severe and original, especially the 
 inward sweep of the tower's square shoulders, that, 
 though severe, have no uncouthness ; for see how 
 true is that curve at these angles, and how delicate 
 the projection of the oval windows that peep out 
 from each alternate flank of the conical spire: a 
 spire whose finish is especially worth noting, — no 
 weak needle-point, with bristly finial balanced on 
 its point, terminates it, but a ball set in very obtuse 
 
St. V edast^ Foster Lane. 115 
 
 point completes spire, an arrangement adding more 
 than many will credit to the strength of the whole 
 design. 
 
 There is something very grim and strange about 
 this steeple ! 
 
 The windows of this fine facade have all been 
 filled in of late years ; the mullions, etc., being finished 
 by the usual chamfers, that with carpenter and quarry 
 mason stand for moulding. 
 
 Foster Lane: rebuilt 1677; steeple 1695. 
 Referred to in Essay, page 44. 
 
HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 
 
ii8 Historical Synopsis. 
 
 No. I. Abstract. 
 
 Important mechanical inventions at home; — Inter- 
 national commerce ; — World-wide travel, and brain 
 tempests abroad ; bring within our reach extraordinary- 
 powers and new experiences ; producing great mental 
 changes, that eventually show themselves in a more 
 accurate and humanistic science — a more refined and 
 varied art. 
 
Historical Synopsis, 119 
 
 No. I. Concrete. 
 
 Telescopes first used, c. 1590. — Printing comes 
 into common use. — Favourite enterprise is travel : 
 Drake's first voyage round the world, 1545-96; 
 J. Davis's voyages in search of north-west passage, 
 1585 — 1605; J. Hawkins, 1520-95; R. Hakluyt's 
 collection of voyages by Englishmen still further 
 stimulates nascent desire for travel, 1589. — Per- 
 fection of mechanics gives impetus to industries 
 that are further stimulated by advent of Dutch 
 refugees, 1567. — Formation of English colonies in 
 North America and elsewhere, 1550 — 1600. — Trading 
 companies formed ; East India Company, 1 600. — 
 Importation of immense stores of ancient literature. 
 
120 Historical Synopsis. 
 
 No. 2. Abstract. 
 
 These changes stimulated and directed by fresh 
 influences of the many cultured peoples thus brought 
 into contact with us ; giving rise to general imitation 
 of foreign manners and styles. — "Euphuism" in 
 literature and architecture, each characterised by the 
 quaintness and fantasy that belong to the "romantic" 
 period, yet with introduction of classical metaphor 
 into the one, of classical ornament into the other. 
 — All authors and designers sedulously study ancient 
 works of art and literature. 
 
Historical Synopsis, 121 
 
 No. 2. Concrete. 
 
 Refugees from Holland, seat of classic learning. — 
 Hanse and Florentine merchants live in London. 
 — Intimate connexion with courtly and luxurious 
 France. — Expulsion of Huguenots, 1685. — Dispersion 
 of monastic orders, followed by dissemination of 
 their knowledge of natural history and dead languages, 
 initiating system of popular education. — Travellers to 
 Italy and Greece publish drawings. — Italian influence 
 at Paris with Catharine de Medicis comes to England 
 through court connexions, aided by Charles' Continental 
 tour. — French classicism imported, along with the 
 exuberance, triviality, and show, native to everything 
 Parisian. — Through advent of Flemish scenic painters, 
 who bring here anomalous art, Flemish architecture 
 and Dutch gardening become fashionable : Zucchero, 
 1543 — 16 16; Holbein, designer of porch at Wilton, 
 1559 — 1 641; Rubens, painter of roof, Banqueting 
 Hall, Whitehall, etc., 1577 — 1640; Vandyke, 1598 — 
 1 641 ; Rembrandt, 1606-74. — Romantic architecture: 
 Wollaton House, 1591; Gateway of Herriot's Hospital, 
 Edinburgh, 1628; Hatfield House, 161 1. — Romantic 
 literature: Lylys " Eupheus," 1579; Sir P. Sidney's 
 "Arcadia," 1580; Spenser's "Faerie Queene," 1595. 
 
122 Historical Synopsis. 
 
 No. 3. Abstract. 
 
 These new powers stimulating study, research, and 
 experiment, lead to discovery. — These new influences 
 from abroad inculcate catholicity of thought and 
 taste : conjointly evolving the critical spirit and 
 initiating fervent desire for learning and love for 
 art. — The new world-knowledge awakening minds 
 to consciousness of general laws, to truer sense of 
 "position" and "being" of man; favouring system, 
 wedding art to science, and laying foundation for 
 "history" and philosophy. 
 
Historical Synopsis. 123 
 
 No. 3. Concrete. 
 First public schools : Eton, 1440 ; St. Paul's, 1509 ; 
 Christ's Hospital, 1553; Westminster, 1560: Merchant 
 Taylors', 1561; Rugby, 1567; Harrow, 1571; Charter 
 House, 161 1. — First Greek lecture at Oxford, by 
 Fox, 1 5 17. — Art academies : French Academy, 1635 ; 
 Academic des Beaux Arts, 1648 ; Academic d' Archi- 
 tecture, 1 67 1. — Scientific societies: Royal Society, 1662; 
 Academic des Sciences, 1666. — Kepler discovers his 
 three laws, 1571 — 1630. — Laws of motion discovered 
 by Galileo, 1564 — 1642. — Laws of gravitation by 
 Newton, 1642 — 1727. — National law defined by Grotius 
 " 'De jure belli et pads,'' 1625. — " Laws of Ecclesiastical 
 Polity," by Hooker (first "finished" prose work), 1594. 
 — Sir P. Sidney's "Defense of Poesy" (first critical 
 essay on laws of the drama,) 1581. — Palladio's " Treatise 
 on Classic Orders of Architecture" becomes text-book, 
 1570. — Bacon's Essay "Advancement of Learning," 
 1605. — Laws of prosody studied. — Rigid adherence 
 to the "unities" in all compositions. — Anatomy now first 
 generally used as an aid to science and art. — Difficult 
 architectural construction undertaken, as enormous 
 domes: St. Paul's, 1675 ; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 
 1683; Church of Carignano at Genoa, <:/>. 1550; Ste. 
 Maria della Salute, Venice, by Longhena, 1632 ; Reden- 
 tore at Venice, and Basilica at Vicenza, by Palladio, 
 1518-80; Les Invalides, Paris, 1680; and outlines neces- 
 sitating complex construction; St. Mary-le-Bow, 1677; 
 St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, 1698 ; Contini's steeple, 
 Zaragosa, 1685; Escurial, 1563, etc. — After accession of 
 Charles I., every gentleman acquires a knowledge of art; 
 architecture becoming favourite "accomplishment." — 
 First English newspaper, M^rr/^ry, by Lord Burleigh, 1 588. 
 
I 24 Historical Synopsis. 
 
 No. 4. Abstract. 
 
 This fresh acquaintance with creations of the past 
 — through translations, discoveries, and introduction 
 of Itahans — brings about strong reversion of the mind 
 to antiquity, resuhing in marked development of 
 historical, archaeological, and critical spirit. As fruit 
 of these conjoint influences, we have appreciation of 
 pagan philosophy and ethics, critical exactness of 
 method and close imitation of classic models in all 
 forms of analysis, in literature and architecture, both 
 these passing from the "romantic" to the "scholastic" 
 stage; quaint and flowery fantasy giving place to 
 severe gravity, profound simplicity and largeness of 
 manner. This pomp of life and pride of style 
 contrast with, and at length destroy, that restraint of 
 intellect and popular form of unreserved expression 
 common to manners and ideas prevalent when the 
 aristocracy was as untravelled and untutored as its 
 thralls. 
 
Historical Synopsis. 125 
 
 No. 4. Concrete. 
 
 Chapman's Homer, 1598 ; Fairfax's translation of 
 Tasso's " Jerusalem," 1 600. — G. Gascoigne's translation 
 of plays from Euripides and Ariosto, 1566. — G. 
 Douglas, translation from Ovid, and Virgil, T^lneid 
 (first metrical translation from any Latin work), 15 13. 
 — Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch's Lives. — 
 Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1597. — Translations from 
 Demosthenes, Cicero, and numerous Greek and Latin 
 plays. — Sloanean collection : commencement of British 
 Museum, c. 1700. — Earl of Arundel makes collection 
 of antique marbles, etc., at Oxford, c, 1600. — Italian 
 artists in England : P. Torrigiano, tomb of Henry VII., 
 1519 ; terra cottas at Harnpton Court Palace. — John 
 of Padua, architect of Clare College, Cambridge, 
 and Longleat, 1565-74. — Havenius of Cleves, Old 
 Somerset Hduse, 1 549. — Bernini, architect of campanile 
 and colonnade, St. Peter's, Rome, sculptor of monu- 
 ment in Old Chelsea Church (possibly responsible 
 for conversion of Gothic capital — south arcade — into 
 Renaissance capital), 1598 — 1680. — Inigo Jones goes 
 to Italy for study ; is court architect at Copenhagen ; 
 introduces into England pure elements of classic 
 architecture, 1572 — 1652. — G. Buchanan's History, 
 1506-82. — John Stowe's English Chronicles, 1525 — 
 1605. — W. Camden's History and Antiquities, 1551 
 — 1603. — W. Raleigh's History of the World, 1552 
 — 1 6 17. — H. B. Cotton, antiquarian, 1570 — 1631. 
 — Dugdale, historian and antiquarian, 1686. — S. 
 
Historical Synopsis. 127 
 
 Purchas, " Relations and Religions of the World," 
 1625. — Bossuet, 1617 — 1704. — Historical Poems of 
 Drayton, Daniel, and Warner, 1595-98. — Bacons 
 Scholastic Essay, " Advancement of Learning," 1605. 
 — Roger Ascham, Scholar, 1515-68. — Philosophy and 
 Ethics of Plato and Aristotle studied. — Aristotelians : 
 Melancthon, 1497 — 1560. — Revival of Stoicism by Just. 
 Lipsius, 1547 — 1606. — Scholastic literature: Milton's 
 Essays, 1640-60. — Lord Brooke's Poems, 1600-20. — 
 Scholastic music : Palestrina perfects choral harmony, 
 1539-94. — Scholastic architecture : Fontainbleau, 1530; 
 Louvre, early portion by Lescot, 1548 ; Tuileries 
 built by Philibert de Lorme for Catherine de Medicis, 
 1564; Luxembourg, by De Brosse, 161 1 ; Versailles, 
 garden front by Mansard, 1681; Church of San 
 Roch, and Palais Royal, by Le Mercier, c, 1640 ; 
 Escurial, 1563 ; Library of St. Mark's, by Sansovino^ 
 1532 ; Hotel de Ville, Amsterdam, by Van Camper, 
 1646; Somerset House, old river front, by Inigo 
 Jones; Whitehall, 16 19-21; Holland House, 1607; 
 St. Paul's, Covent Garden, 1631; Gateway of the 
 Schools, Oxford, by Holte, 16 12. — Aristocracy come 
 to live in cities, adding splendour to courts, learning 
 to breeding, and vying each with each in pomp of 
 architectural magnificence. 
 
128 Historical Synopsis. 
 
 No. 5. Abstract. 
 
 These social and mental changes, together with 
 the commencing struggle between absolute and con- 
 ditional power, between ancient right and modern 
 might, give powerful impulse to politics, literature, 
 and art, setting swing to general oscillation of old 
 and new associations. 
 
Historical Synopsis. 129 
 
 No. 5. Concrete. 
 
 Struggle between people and king, Cavaliers and 
 Roundheads: Edgehill, 1642; Republic, 1642; Re- 
 storation, 1660. — Between Papist and Puritan : 
 Massacre of Protestants, 1641 ; Laud executed, 
 1643. — Antagonism between inductive and deductive 
 reasoning : Controversies between " Materialists " and 
 " Theosophists ; Aristotelians opposed by Bruno and 
 Peter Ramus, founder of modern logic, — Battle of 
 the " styles " : Classic and Gothic art ; Doric columns 
 and Pointed arches at Longford Castle, 1591 ; St. 
 Michael's, Cornhill, and St. Stephen's, Walbrook, the 
 work of the same man.— Political Tracts of Milton: 
 
 Defensi pro populo Jnglicano^' 1651. — J. Hobbes' 
 "Leviathan," 1651, — Sir R. Kilmer's " Patriarcha," 
 1680. — J. Locke's "Civil Government," and " Letters 
 on Toleration," 1689-92. — Immense number of tract- 
 arians, critics, and dilettanti : Sir P. Sidney's critical 
 work, originating new form of literature, " Defense 
 of Poetrie," 1580-81; Ben Jonson, 1574 — 1637; 
 Fletcher, 1575 — 1625. 
 
 9 
 
130 Historical Synopsis. 
 
 No. 6. Abstract. 
 
 This general oscillation results in final beating out 
 of the more vital impulses : in triumph of the new 
 world wisdom, and establishment of political principles, 
 which soon find means fittest to gratify the new 
 love of earth life, and to call out the larger human 
 sympathies now needing unrestricted play. The mind, 
 set free from the metaphysical bands that till late 
 have fast bound it, and the imagination excited by 
 the treasures of the past it has acquired, together 
 inaugurate the modern philosophic period, in which 
 science becomes positive, literature social, art lyrical. 
 
His tor tea I Syn op sis. 
 
 No. 6. Concrete. 
 
 Bacon's "Novum Organon," 1620. — Newton's "Prin- 
 cipia," 1686. — Materialistic philosophy of Thomas 
 Hobbes, 1588 — 1679. — Locke combats notion of innate 
 ideas, "Essay on the Human Understanding," 1690. 
 — Spinoza introduces Pantheism, 1632-77. — Descartes 
 initiates modern abstract philosophy, 1596 — 1650. — 
 Michel de Montaigne starts hypothesis of "rela- 
 tivity of ideas," 1533-90. — Pascal, mathematician, 
 1623-62. — Boileau, 1636 — 17 11. — Racine, 1639-99. — 
 Corneille, 1606-84. — Moliere, 1622-73. — Shakespeare's 
 plays, 1564 — 16 16. — Butler's "Hudibras," 1663. — 
 Voltaire, 1694 — 1778. — D. Hume, 171 1-76. — Alger- 
 non Sidney (republican), " Discourses upon Govern- 
 ment," 1698. — G. Buchanan's tract, De jure regni 
 apud Scotos " (Essay upon public spirit), 171 1. — Schools 
 of international law in Holland and Germany, headed 
 by Samuel Puffendorf : his " Jurisprudentia Univer- 
 salis" and ''Jus Nature et Gentium^' 1632-94. — 
 Locke's " Letters on Toleration," and " Essay on 
 Civil Government," 1690; Liberty of the Press, 1692. 
 — Cosmopolitanism: England takes chief part in 
 European politics; J. Dennis' political play, "Liberty 
 Asserted," 1704. — Philosophical poets: Milton intro- 
 duces lyrics, 1608— 1704 ; Dryden, 1631 — 1700 ; 
 Pope, 1688— 1744. 
 
132 Historical Synopsis. 
 
 No. 7. Abstract. 
 
 A school of architecture, painting, music, and 
 literature arises, entirely national in character, philo- 
 sophic in thought, free and spontaneous in sentiment ; 
 thus fully representing the spirit of the English 
 Renaissance. 
 
Historical Synopsis. 
 
 133 
 
 Na. 7. Concrete. 
 
 English Renaissance architecture perfected by Sir C. 
 Wren : City Churches, 1675 — 17 11 ; St. Paul's, 1675 ; 
 Greenwich Hospital ; Halls and Gates of London ; 
 Theatre and Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1666 — 
 1723. — English School of Music founded by Purcell, 
 1658-95. — English School of Painting inaugurated by 
 W. Hogarth, 1697 — 1764. — G. Kneller, 1648 — 1723. 
 — Daniel de Foe, first of English novelists : Robinson 
 Crusoe," etc., 1663 — 173 1. — J. Swift, 1667 — 1745. 
 
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