4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 •> 
 
 

 * 
 
Trcn. 
 
SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 
 
 AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 with 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE SKETCHES AND ANECDOTES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 3tat Mngnisljcii ^Mrsotmgw 
 
 IN 
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES ELMES, 
 
 LATE SURVEYOR OF THE FORT OF LONDON ; 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 MEMOIRS OF SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN ; LECTURES OS’ ARCHITECTURE; ANECDOTES OF ART 
 AND ARTIST8 ; DICTIONARY OF THE FINE ARTS ; 
 
 SCIENTIFIC, HISTORICAL AND COMMERCIAL SURVEY OF THE PORT OF LONDON, ETC. 
 
 EDITOR OF 
 
 SIR IYILLIAM JONES'S DISCOURSES ; ANNALS OF THE FINE ARTS ; HORA5 VACIVA), ETC. 
 
 There are three Crowns — the Crown of the Law, the Crown of the Priesthood, 
 and the Crown of Royalty ; but the Crown of a good Name is superior to 
 them ail. The Talmud. 
 
 LONDON —CHAPMAN k HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 
 
 MDCCCLII. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 with funding from 
 Getty Research Institute 
 
 https://archive.org/details/sirchristopherwrOOelme 
 
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT, K.G., F.R.S., 
 
 ETC., ETC., ETC., 
 
 PRESIDENT OF HER MAJESTY’S COMMISSIONERS FOR TIIE PROMOTION 
 OF THE EXHIBITION OF THE WORKS OF INDUSTRY 
 OF ALL NATIQNS IN 1851. 
 
 May it please your Royal Highness, 
 
 The proposition, execution and termination of 
 the great and wondrous exhibition of the natural pro- 
 ductions, industry and arts of all nations, which forms 
 the characteristic feature and the crowning triumph of 
 the memorable year one thousand eight hundred and 
 fifty-one, has transmitted the name of your Royal 
 Highness to the most distant regions of the earth, and 
 will convey it to the latest posterity among those bene- 
 factors of the human race who have rendered the 
 greatest honour to Him who is “ the author of peace 
 and lover of concord.” 
 
 Therefore a memoir of that period of English his- 
 tory which gave birth to the Royal Society, witnessed 
 
IV 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 the destruction and restoration of the City of London, 
 produced a Boyle, a Newton and a Wren, and was pro- 
 lific in the fruits of the new or experimental philosophy 
 — the offspring of the illustrious Lord Bacon — cannot 
 but be congenial to the head which conceived and the 
 heart which presided over the destinies of this mighty 
 Macrocosm — this true Temple of Concord — the Exhi- 
 bition Building in Hyde Park. 
 
 But, Loyal Sir, there is a private, and, perhaps, a 
 selfish motive that induced me to seek your protection 
 of my unpretending volume, which is a remembrance 
 of the honourable praise your Loyal Highness bestowed 
 on my late son’s great work, St. George’s Hall, in 
 Liverpool, a building which does honour to the taste 
 and munificence of the merchant-princes of that great 
 commercial town, whilst the edifice was in progress 
 under its young inventor’s superintendence. Nor can 
 I forget the splendid medallion-of-honour, you conferred 
 upon him, which I hope my little grandson, who is too 
 young to know his loss, may live to appreciate ; nor 
 the kind and affecting manner in which our Most 
 Gracious Queen and your Loyal Highness conde- 
 scended to mention the young architect’s premature 
 death in the recent royal progress through the County 
 Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 V 
 
 Whether the public or the private motive predomi- 
 nated, I cannot, however, refrain from expressing, as one 
 of the great family of man, of the British stock, my 
 humble portion of gratitude to your Royal Highness, for 
 the elevation of our national character, by collecting in our 
 metropolis the great congregation of arts, manufactures 
 and commerce, with professors, admirers and patrons 
 from every part of the habitable globe. 
 
 At the same time, I take leave most respectfully to 
 express my sincere thanks for the prompt and flattering 
 manner in which your Royal Highness condescended 
 to accept my dedication of “ Sir Christopher Wren and 
 his Times.” 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your Royal Highness’ most obedient and 
 Very humble servant, 
 
 JAMES ELMES. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The quarto volume of “ Memoirs of tlie Life and 
 Works of Sir Christopher Wren,” which I published 
 some years ago, was almost exclusively devoted to 
 that distinguished man and his works. It has long 
 been my intention to publish a new edition of that 
 work in octavo, but the size and number of the plates, 
 the great extent of the appendix and other causes, 
 induced me to defer it. 
 
 After some deliberation, I proposed to write a new 
 work, in a more general and less technical style than 
 the former ; taking Wren for the principal subject, 
 and adding illustrative sketches and anecdotes of cele- 
 brated persons and of striking events, connected with 
 him and his times : and, as many of these illustrations 
 are of a peculiar character, the authorities whence they 
 are derived are specifically and invariably given. 
 
 Among "these episodes are some which tend to 
 prove the secret, but intimate connection between 
 Louis XIV., many of his ministers and some of his 
 mistresses, with the Jesuits, and the pernicious influ- 
 ence of those persons over the minds of those mis- 
 guided Princes, Charles II. of England, and his brother 
 
vm 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 the expatriated James II. There is also, the mysteri- 
 ous embassy of the Duchess of Orleans, to her brother 
 Charles II. at Dover, and her sudden and suspicious 
 death at St. Cloud, immediately after the accomplish- 
 ment of her mission ; also the secret causes of the 
 expulsion of the Jacobites and their Monarch, whom 
 Louis XIV. had, not long before, acknowledged as the 
 rightful heir to the Crown of England, from every part 
 of France, and many other illustrative facts, which 
 serve to throw a light on the history of the times, and 
 are enumerated in the table of contents. 
 
 I have also endeavoured to show, by indisputable 
 facts, how the Crown'"' of Royalty has been tarnished 
 by the Bourbons and the Stuarts ; how the Crown of 
 the Priesthood, has been cast down and trampled on, 
 by the Richelieus, the Mazarins, the Le Telliers, the 
 Duboises, the Choisys, and others, all eminent in the 
 Romish hierarchy, whose united tyranny and persecu- 
 tion, debauchery, levity and corruption, sowed the 
 seeds of that deadliest and most sanguinary of revolu- 
 tions, in which anarchy, sacrilege, murder, rapine and 
 crimes, till then unheard of, and which for nearly sixty 
 years has devastated, and is still devastating, the finest 
 countries in Europe : and how the Crown of a Good 
 
 * See the motto in the title-page. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IX 
 
 Name, has both shed and received lustre from the con- 
 stitutional Sovereigns, thus worthily distinguished, 
 who, called by the voice of the people in the Bevolu- 
 tion of 1G68, were elevated to a Throne guarded and 
 crowned by Law ; from the learned, pious and cha- 
 ritable Prelates, the Morleys, the Kens and the Tillot- 
 sons, who re-established the reformed ancient Church 
 of England, and worthily supplied the places of the 
 monks and Jesuits, who domineered over the weak and 
 superstitious mind of James II. ; and from the lumi- 
 nous brows of the Wrens, the Wallis’s, the Boyles, the 
 Evelyns, the Newtons, and the other illustrious Mag- 
 nates of an age, at once the most scientific and philoso- 
 phic, the most productive of sublime discoveries, and 
 useful inventions, and in the promulgation of eternal 
 Truth, that modern History has, as yet, recorded ; and 
 as infallibly led, by the cheering effects of civil and re- 
 ligious liberty, to the repression of vice, licentiousness 
 and immorality, by the strong hand of the Law, by the 
 precept and example of the upper and middle classes, 
 and by the exemplary conduct of the well-disposed of the 
 lower, to the present peaceful, free and happy condition 
 of the English nation, as the before -mentioned contrast 
 did to the frightful and astounding French Be volution 
 of 1789. 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The fourth and concluding chapter, is, I believe, 
 the most complete list of Wren’s public works that has 
 yet appeared, and proves, as Horace Walpole says, the 
 universality, the abundance, and the greatness of his 
 genius. 
 
 I hope to be pardoned for introducing a few words, 
 in this place, concerning my secession from a Profession 
 in which I had some standing. About seventeen 
 years ago, whilst surveying the shoals in the Port of 
 London, ascertaining and inscribing the high and low 
 water-marks, from the Trinity datum, and other similar 
 works, my sight was so injured, that in about three 
 years afterwards I lost the sight of my left eye, which 
 was of little hindrance to my pursuits. On learning 
 of the great fire at Hamburg, in May 1842, I went 
 over immediately to that city, that I might see how 
 such a conflagration, scarcely less in magnitude than 
 the Fire of London, would appear, and before my re- 
 turn to England, was called professionally into Den- 
 mark. This visit led to others in the three following 
 years, having been consulted as to the shoals in the 
 Elbe, from Hamburg to Schulau, a railroad from the 
 city of Stade to the capital of Hanover, a junction of 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 the Elbe with the Baltic, from Gliickstadt to Kiel, and 
 other similar undertakings. 
 
 My sight gradually failed from the time of using 
 the minute surveying and levelling instruments, in the 
 glaring sunshine of the fine summer of 1834, till I was 
 compelled to give rest to my eyes, and seek medical 
 advice. Before the end of the year 1844, I became 
 totally blind. During this privation, my late son, the 
 Architect of St. George’s Hall, and other public build- 
 ings in Liverpool and its neighbourhood, went, by me- 
 dical advice, to seek a renovation of his declining 
 health, through the means of a voyage to Madeira, the 
 West India islands, etc., but found a premature grave 
 in Jamaica. For nearly five years I remained in this 
 state, neither dispirited nor disheartened. About three 
 years since I was attacked by such a violent inflamma- 
 tion in my left eye, that I consulted my kind neighbour 
 and friend, Mr. George Downing, M.B.C.S., the emi- 
 nent surgeon and oculist, of Greenwich, who succeeded 
 in giving sight to that eye, which for a long time mul- 
 tiplied every object that I saw into five. He enabled 
 me eventually, by the aid of magnifying glasses of great 
 and various powers, to read the strongly-marked cha- 
 racters of our old English black-letter, its cousin, Ger- 
 man, and the bold letters of the Hebrew language, but 
 
XU 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 the Roman type was illegible, and the fly-legged cha- 
 racter of Millius’s pocket Testament was all Greek to 
 me. 
 
 The first fruits of this small and limited vision was 
 the little volume called “ Horce Vacivce ” published last 
 spring, and favourably noticed by the critics. In the 
 preface to that work I have explained the assistance I 
 received during my long affliction, and in compiling 
 that book, from my youngest daughter, who devoted 
 her whole time to me, as the kindest of attendants, and 
 guides, and, at the same time, my sole reader and writer. 
 
 Although by the before-mentioned aid I can read 
 large print in a very small diameter, and write thickly 
 upon lines which I can feel, instead of always dicta- 
 ting as formerly ; yet it is slow and available only 
 by intervals, and totally useless for any part of my 
 professional occupations. Hence, the cause which 
 occasioned my leaving the profession, or, rather, its 
 leaving me ; and under these difficulties, the follow- 
 ing pages have been produced, which I hope may find as 
 favourable a reception from my old friends, from whom 
 I have been so long absent, but trust not quite for- 
 gotten, and from the Public, as my former works. 
 
 J. E. 
 
 Holmesdale, Lewisham, 
 
 February 10 , 1852 . 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 X1U 
 
 P. S. — Since tlie last page of this work was written, 
 the mortal remains of another great native genius 
 have been deposited in the Artist’s corner of 
 St. Paul’s Cathedral, near to Wren, Reynolds, Barry, 
 West, Northcote, Lawrence, etc., namely — Joseph 
 M a lp ort) William Turner, R, A., who, for his rare 
 talent of fixing the most splendid, as well as the 
 most terrific, the most enduring as well as the most 
 evanescent of nature’s phenomena ; and for the har- 
 monious arrangement of the 'prismatic colours in the 
 numerous and varied prodigies of his magic pencil, 
 may be appropriately called the Philosopher of Art 
 and the Newton of Painting. 
 
The Reader is requested to alter the last note to page 296 
 from. “ Grammont” to “ Vendome,” and to add at the end 
 of the note to qmges 364 and 365, Father Daniel should have 
 taken the following text, as a motto to his Royal History — 
 
 “ Now Jephtha was a mighty man of valour, and he 
 was the son of an harlot.” — J udges xi., 1 . 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Ukdication, — Preface. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 From the Accession of Charles I. to the end of the Commonwealth, 
 a. i). 1G25 to 1G(50 . — Page 1. 
 
 James I. and Louis XIII. page 2. — Death of Gustavus the Great, p. 3. 
 • — Illustrious men of this period, p. 5.— *Louis XIV., King David and 
 Solomon, p. 6. — Racine and Corneille, p. 7. — Literary adulation, p. 9. — 
 Eminent foreign contemporaries, p. 10, — Cromwell and Wren, p. 11. — • 
 Registers of the Order of the Garter, p. 13. — Christina Queen of 
 Sweden, p. 15. — Pope Urban VI II. and Bernini, p. 17. — Spoliation of 
 the Pantheon of Agrippa, p. 18. — Charles I. and John Hampden, p. 19. — 
 Cromwell’s Ironsides, p. 21. — Illustrious Greshamites, p. 22. — Robert 
 Boyle and Dr. Petty, p. 23. — The battle of Nazeby, p. 24. — The great 
 Conde and Turenne, p. 25. — Louis XIII. and Richelieu, Ibid . — Wren’s 
 reflecting dial, p. 27. — Mottoes for sun-dials, p. 29. — Wren’s first public 
 work, p. 31. — Bramante and other architects, p. 33. — Julius II. and 
 other Popes, p. 35. — Death of Charles I. p. 36. — Naples, Masaniello 
 and the war of the Fronde, p. 37. — The micrographic art, p. 38. — 
 Harrington’s Oceana, p. 39. — The Cartesian philosophy, p. 40. — Death 
 of Descartes, p. 41. — The Julian period, p. 43. — Death of Inigo Jones, 
 p. 44. — Elizabethan architecture, p. 45. — Bedford House, Bloomsbury, 
 p. 47. — The finest barn in Europe, p. 49. — Jones’s design for the Royal 
 Palace, Whitehall, p. 50. — William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, p. 51. 
 — The triumphal arch at Wilton, p. 52, — The King of Denmark’s 
 visit to James I. p. 53. — Chapman’s Homer, p. 54. — Inigo Jones and 
 Wren compared, p. 55. — Theatrical architects, p. 57. — Otto Guericke’s 
 pneumatic imp. p. 59. — Oldenburg’s treachery, p. 61. — Invention of 
 the Barometer, p. 63. — Atmospheric phenomena, p. 65. — First use of 
 the Barometer, p. 66. — Milton’s childhood, p. 67- — Cromwell’s patron- 
 age of art, p. 68. — A poet-ambassador, p. 69, — Robert Herrick, p. 71. — • 
 A poet’s epitaph on himself, p. 73. — A poet to his winding-sheet, p. 75. 
 
XVI 
 
 CONTEXTS. 
 
 — Jeremy Taylor and John Milton, p. 77. — Bishop Bossuet, p. 79. — 
 Jeremy Taylor’s religion, p. 81. — Milton’s prose works, p. 83, — Milton’s 
 private hahits, p. 84. — Jeremy Taylor’s private life, p. 85. — Robert 
 Boyle’s, p. 87. — Boyle’s travels, p. 89. — Bishop Sprat and the Oxford 
 club, p. 91. — Origin of the Royal Society, p. 93. — Harvey’s discovery 
 of the circulation of the blood, p. 95. — Wren’s first public lecture, 
 p. 97. — Sir Isaac Newton’s boyhood, p. 101. — Concave hemispherical 
 sun-dials, p. 103. — Singular sun-dial near Delhi, p. 105. — Aphorisms of 
 Hippocrates, p. 107. — Ancient navigation, p. 109. — Invention of the 
 mariner’s compass, p. 110. — Invention of the inductive mode of reason- 
 ing, Ibid. — Father of the new philosophy, p. 111. — Magnetieal attrac- 
 tion, p. 113. — Invention of the telescope, p. 115. — Praise of London, 
 p. 117. — Gresham College used as barracks, p. 118. — Gresham lectures 
 and professors, p. 119. — Death of Cromwell, p. 121. — Cromwell’s funeral, 
 p. 123. — Vain -glory of Cromwell and Louis XIV. p. 125. — Cromwell and 
 Wallenstein compared, p. 127. — The Protectorate of Richard Cromwell, 
 ]>. 129. — Termination of the rump parliament, p. 131. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 From tite Restoration of Charles II. to his Death, 
 a. n. 1060 to 1G85. 
 
 Restoration of Charles II. p. 133. — Remissness of the Bishops, p. 137- 
 — Foundation of the Royal Society, p. 139. — Gustavus the Great’s 
 George and Garter, p. 140. — Cromwell’s corpse exhumed and hanged, 
 p. 142. — Scientific pirates, p. 143. — Wren’s lunar globe, p. 144.' — Coro- 
 nation of Charles II. p. 145. — A war for a French window, p. 147. — 
 Marriage of Charles II. p. 151. — Hampton Court in 1662, p. 153. — 
 Prince Rupert’s Rlnne-wine, p. 155. — Invention of mezzotinto engrav- 
 ing, p. 156. — Old St. Paul’s in 1663, p. 157- — The nit of conversation, 
 p. 159. — General and particular wit, p. 159. — Definition of wit, p. 162. — 
 Dissertation on wit, p. 163. — Women wittier than men, p. 1 64. — Apelles 
 and Dr. Sprat, p. 165. — Poetical and mathematical genius, p. 167. — 
 Wren’s translation of Horace’s epistle, “ Ad Lollium,” p. 168. — Pre- 
 eminence of Horace as a poet, p. 169. — The Sheldonian theatre, p. 171. 
 — The English court in 1663, p. 173.— Illustrious debauchees, p. 175 — 
 A Frenchman’s opinion of Milton, p. 176.- — A court-beautv of 1663, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XVII 
 
 p. 177. — Lord Mayor’s day, 1GG3, p. 179. — Civic rudeness and repara- 
 tion, p. 180. — A diplomatic reprimand, p. 181. — Count de Grammont 
 and Miss Hamilton, p. 183. — Perversion and conversion, p. 184. — Sir 
 William Petty’s double-keeled ship, p. 185. — Mistresses and ministers, 
 p. 189. — The Corporation of London and the French Ambassador, 
 p. 191. — Wren’s weather-clock, p. 192. — His first oration to the Royal 
 Society, p. 193. — His proposed history of the seasons, p. 194. — Sir 
 William Temple and the turnspit, p. 195. — The Dutch war, p. 196. — 
 The naval victory off Solebay, p. 197. — Sir John Denham’s advice to a 
 painter, p. 198. — The great plague, p. 199. — Wren’s visit to France, 
 p. 209. — Architectural flattery, p. 211. — Fontainebleau, Versailles, etc. 
 p. 213. — Meeting of Bernini and Wren, p. 216. — Eminent French 
 artists, p. 217. — Medical opinions on the plague, p. 219. — Thanksgivings 
 for victories, p. 220. — Architectural head-dresses, p. 221. — A parisian 
 fire annihilator, p. 223. — Heights and deaths of fashion, p. 224. — The 
 fire of London, p. 225. — Aspect of the city in flames, p. 229. — Evelyn’s 
 conduct at the fire, p. 230. — The King and the Duke of York, p. 231. — 
 The Tower in danger, p. 232. — Effects of the fire of London, p. 233. — 
 Conduct of the citizens during the fire, p. 234. — Plans for the new city, 
 p. 235. — The Arundelian library, p. 237. — Death of Cowley, p. 239. — 
 Wilkins’s pliilosophical language, p. 241. — Hobbes on the quadrature 
 of the circle, p. 242. — Wren's laws of motion, p. 243. — Death of the 
 Duchess of Orleans, p. 243. — A. female embassy to England, p. 245. — 
 Domestic strife, p. 247. — Royal congress at Dover, p. 248. — Return of 
 the female envoy, p. 249. — Death of the ambassadress, p. 250. — Poisoned 
 chicory, p. 251. — Contemporary witnesses, p. 253. — Bossuet’s evidence, 
 p. 255. — Bossuet’s funeral oration, p. 257- — The King and the Maitre 
 d’hotel, 258. — The Duke of Orleans’ second marriage, p. 288. — Mad. 
 de Brinvilliers, the poisoners, p. 260. — Questions on the mysterious 
 death of the Duchess of Orleans, p. 261. — A royal and plrilosophical 
 wager, p. 262. — A genius developed, p. 263. — Gibbon the sculptor’s first 
 work, p. 264. — Newton elected F.R.S. p. 266. — Disputes between New- 
 ton and Hooke, p. 267. — Pepy’s challenge to the Swedish ambassador, 
 p. 268. — Dr. Tillotson elected F.R.S. p. 269. — Leibnitz elected F.R.S. 
 p. 270. — The ruins of St. Paul’s cleared away, p. 271. — Isaac Vossius’s 
 belief, p. 272. — Intermural burial-grounds, p. 273. — Newton’s poverty, 
 p. 274. — Insulted genius, p. 275. — De Voltaire and Newton, p. 277. 
 Productive and unproductive labour, p. 278. — The remains of King 
 Edward V, discovered, p, 279. — Attempts to discover the longitude. 
 
 A 
 
xvm 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 p. 280. — Greenwich observatory founded, p. 281. — The first stone of 
 St. Paul’s laid, Ibid. — Proposed mausoleum to King Charles I. p. 283. — 
 Re-erection of King Charles I. statue at Charing Cross, Ibid. — A 
 cavalier prelate, p. 284. — Dissolution of the long parliament, p. 285. — 
 Spaniards padlocked, p. 287. — Wren’s daughter Jane, p. 288. — Wren, 
 the inventor of the barometer, p. 289. — Newton, on the diurnal motion 
 of tire earth, p. 290. — Sir Stephen Fox and Chelsea hospital, p. 291. — 
 Prince Borgliese and the Royal Society, p. 295. — “ Concubines” and 
 cattle of that sort, p. 296.' — Charles II. and the grand prior of Malta, 
 brother to the Duke de Vendome, p. 297. — The new palace at Win- 
 chester, p. 298. — Improvements at Winchester, p. 299. — A model 
 bishop, ]>. 300. — The Oxford curiosity shop, p. 302. — Deatli of King 
 Charles II. p. 303. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 From the Accession of James II. to the Death of Georoe I. 
 a. n. 1685 to 1726. 
 
 Accession of King James II. p. 306. — Royal Jesuits, p. 307. — First 
 public acts of James II. p. 309. — Wren in parliament, p. 311. — First 
 publication of Newton’s Principia, p. 312. — Rubens’ Whitehall cieling 
 repaired, Ibid. — A royal and clerical contrast, p. 313. — Cardinal sim- 
 plicity, p. 315. — Royal faith, p. 316. — Intrigues and impudence, p. 317- 
 — Royal fugitives, p. 318. — A noble-minded refusal, p. 319. — Meeting 
 of Parliament, after the flight of James II. p. 320. — Accession of 
 William and Mary, p. 321. — Hampton Court Palace, p. 322. — Cha- 
 racters of Queen Mary II. p. 323. — Marshal Seliomberg, p. 324. — 
 Effects of good government, p. 325. — Death of Robert Boyle, p. 326. — 
 Jesuits and Benedictines, p. 327. — Mary II. Queen regnant in the 
 King’s absence, p. 328. — William III. in Holland, p. 329. — Morden 
 College, Blackheath, Ibid. — Death of Queen Mary II. p. 330. — The 
 Tower of London, prepared for a state prison, p. 332. — Bishops in the 
 house of peers, p. 334. — Wren’s order against customary swearing, 
 p. 335. — Mary II. foundress of Greenwich Hospital, p. 336. — The 
 Naval Hospital, Greenwich, p. 337. — Biography of a building, p. 338. — 
 Whitehall Palace destroyed by fire, p. 339. — The choir of St. Paul’s 
 opened for divine service, p. 340. — The treaty of Ryswick, p. 341. — 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XIX 
 
 An extempore council of war, p. 342. — A royal sacrifice to feeling, p. 343. 
 —The Gallic Mars overcome by Venus, p. 344.— State of France after 
 the treaty of Ryswick, p. 345.— Freemasonry in England, p. 347 — 
 A fire in St. Paul’s Cathedral, p. 349.— The last illness of James II. 
 
 p. 351. — The last interview between Louis XIV. and James II. p. 352. 
 
 Death and burial of James II. p. 353.— Results of James’s death, p.354. 
 — Ministers and spies, Ibid. — A minister repaid, p. 355. — A minister 
 poisoned, p. 356. — Royal compliments, p. 357. — Intrigues for the crown 
 of Spain, p. 358. — The grand alliance against France, Ibid. — French 
 and English physicians, p. 359.— Death of King W illiam I II. p. 361.— 
 Closing scenes of life, p. 363. — Accession of Queen Anne, p. 369. — 
 Deaths of Robert Hooke and John Evelyn, p. 370. — Act for buihlimr 
 fifty new churches, p. 371.— Wren on the new churches, p. 372.— Wren 
 on interment, p. 373. — Wren on building cements, p. 374. — Wren on 
 church building, p. 375. — Wren on prelching, p. 376. — Wren against 
 
 pews in church, p. 377- — Wren on the value of house-property, p. 378. 
 
 Malignant attacks on Wren, p. 379.— St. Paul’s declared finished, 
 p. 381. — Martinus Scriblerus’s shield, p. 382.— Death and character of 
 Queen Anne, p. 383. — Accession of King George, Ibid. — Expulsion of 
 the Jacobites from France, p. 385. — Bribery and corruption in England, 
 p. 392. — Wren superseded in liis office of Surveyor-General, p. 393. — 
 Benson and the Dunciad, p. 395.— Pope, Horace, Walpole and Bishop 
 Sprat, Ibid, and p. 396. — Minor persecutions, p. 397. — Balustrades and 
 lace-edgings, p. 399.— Benson’s architectural skill, p. 400.— Benson’s 
 rewards and punishments, p. 401.— Wren’s latter days, p. 402.— Death 
 of Flamsteed, p. 403. — Sir Richard Steele’s character of Wren, Ibid.— 
 Lyons and London, p. 406. — More attacks on Wren, p. 407. — Death 
 and funeral of Wren, p. 410. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Some Account of Wren’s Architectural Works, 
 a. d. 1661 to 1723. 
 
 Chronology of Wren’s life, p. 414. — Wren’s birth and schooling, 
 p. 415. His first works. Ibid . — Chronological list of his buildings, 
 p. 420 to the end. 
 

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN, 
 
 AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. TO THE END OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 A. D. 1625 TO 1660 . 
 
 “ They are the best laws, by which the King hath the greatest 
 prerogative, and the people the best liberty.”' — Lord Bacon. 
 
 The middle of the seventeenth century, was a period 
 of great importance in British history. Europe beheld 
 with awe and amazement, the unparalleled sight of 
 one of its greatest Monarclis, descended from a long- 
 race of mighty Kings, allied by marriage to the most 
 flattered Prince of the day, Louis XIV., the wearer 
 of the united diadems of the Tudors and the Stuarts, 
 led from the throne to the scaffold, by the stern 
 retribution of an injured people ; and witnessed the 
 immediate establishment of an aristocratic common- 
 wealth, with mailed iron on its sides, zeal in its heart, 
 and wisdom in its head, which raised the nation to a 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES- 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 lofty rank among the kingdoms of the earth, and 
 caused its power to be respected, and its interference, 
 as arbiter in the disputes between France and Spain, 
 sought by those great powers. 
 
 Stirring events pervaded Europe when Charles I. 
 ascended the throne of his peaceable father ; who, if 
 he was the best his tutor Buchanan could make him, 
 “ a pedant,” was something less mischievous to the 
 world, than Richelieu’s royal pupil, Louis XIII., a 
 lawless murderer. At the very beginning of the 
 young King’s reign, Itochellc, the strong-hold of the 
 Huguenots, was besieged by Richelieu, the soldier- 
 priest and Cardinal-minister of Charles’s brother-in- 
 law Louis XIII., whose juvenile education was princi- 
 pally the art of building little fortresses in the gardens 
 of the Tuilleries, and of beating a drum by way of 
 making a noise in the world of Paris. Three attempts 
 were made by Charles to relieve the besieged Pro- 
 testants and to raise the siege of Rochelle, one by a 
 fleet under the command of the Duke of Buckingham 
 in 1627, another by the Earl of Denbigh in 1628, and 
 the third by the Earl of Lindsey in the autumn of 
 the same year. They all proved ineffectual, and on 
 the last day of October 1628, the brave but unfor- 
 tunate Rochellers, after enduring those horrible priva- 
 tions, which are so well known to the readers of 
 French history, surrendered to the dire power of 
 famine ; and the French King entered his own con- 
 quered city the next day. With what mantle this 
 degenerate son of the great Henry IV. covered his 
 
A. D. 1632] DEATH OF GUSTAVUS TIIE GREAT. 3 
 
 weaknesses ancl liis cruelties, history relates not ; but 
 his bolder minister, the cuirasscd Cardinal, covered his, 
 as he was wont to boast, with his soutane rouge, his 
 Cardinal’s scarlet cassock, a fitting colour and a suit- 
 able cloak for such eminent sons of the Popish 
 Church. 
 
 Buckingham was assassinated at Portsmouth, as he 
 was about to embark on another expedition for the 
 relief of Rochelle, and his royal master found any- 
 thing but peace at home or honour abroad. In 1630 
 Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, in alliance with 
 France and with the friendship of England invaded 
 Germany, with an army of sixty thousand men and a 
 fleet of seventy sail, conquering all before him with a 
 rapidity and skill, that induced Voiture, to say that 
 he was a conqueror whose least quality was that of 
 being a King ; and that he had all the virtues of 
 Alexander, without any of his vices, except ambition. 
 He gained the great battle of Leipsig the following- 
 year over the Imperialists under Count Tilly, but fell 
 himself, in the moment of victory, on the 16th Novem- 
 ber 1632, in the battle of Lutzen, opposed by the 
 Imperialists under Albert Count Wallenstein, whom 
 Schiller has immortalized in his three transcendant 
 dramas on his career and death. Voiture has eulogized 
 the Swedish hero in a true French sonnet, full of 
 bombast and false taste, making; the northern hero his 
 own trumpeter, proclaiming himself a modern Mars, 
 as having eclipsed the glory of Caesar, making the 
 whole universe stand astounded at the magnitude of 
 
 o 
 
4 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [c 
 
 HAP. I. 
 
 his glory, and to ask what age had ever before seen 
 so great a conqueror \ The last couplet, however, is 
 so happy in thought, as to redeem the false taste of 
 putting such vain-glorious boastings into the mouth of 
 an undoubted hero. He thus concludes — 
 
 Vivant j’ai triomphd, je triompke en mourant, 
 Et ckoisis pour tombeau le champ de la victoire. 
 
 The poet here alludes to the spot where the hero 
 fell, which is still marked by a rude unsquared block 
 of granite, one of those mysterious boulders which 
 have been transported from the mountains of Scandi- 
 navia, and called the Swede’s stone (der Schweden- 
 stein). The death of this hero gave rise to a contem- 
 porary device, of an elephant mortally wounded by 
 the envenomed sting of a dragon, and falling dead 
 upon his enemy, crushes him by his weight, with the 
 inscription, “ Etiam post funera victor.” This is one 
 of those happy conceits, to which Addison alludes, 
 when he says, “ one may often find as much thought 
 “ on the reverse of a medal as in a canto of Spenser.” 
 
 Wallenstein, the Imperial Generalissimo in this 
 great and fatal conflict, who flew about the field of 
 battle amidst showers of bullets, as if he bore a 
 charmed life, was assassinated in his own camp, by 
 order of the Emperor Ferdinand II., who began to 
 dread his power and fear his treachery. 
 
 Amidst this din of arms, the arts of peace, science 
 and literature, began to put forth buds, even in the 
 withering atmosphere of war and bloodshed. In the 
 
A. L>. 1 632 J ILLUSTRIOUS MEN OF THIS PERIOD. 
 
 previous reign, lived Bacon, Raleigh, Hooker, Cam- 
 den, Ben Johnson, Massinger, and many illustrious 
 foreigners. Scarcely ten years before the accession 
 of Charles, the founder of the Napier family ennobled 
 his name, and added to the scientific world the great 
 invention of logarithms ; Sir Hugh Myddleton en- 
 riched his country and impoverished himself, by bring- 
 ing a supply of pure water from Hertfordshire to 
 London for the use of the metropolis, by that great 
 aqueduct, still called The New River, though executed 
 nearly two centuries and a half ago. 
 
 Towards the middle of this reign, in 1635, Cardinal 
 de Richelieu founded the celebrated French Academy, 
 which caused such beneficial effects upon the French 
 language and literature, although many of its pro- 
 ductions are slavishly eulogistic and adulatory. To 
 instance but a few out of hundreds at hand ; M. l’Abbe 
 de Choisy, one of the academicians, in an address to 
 the Academy on the character of Richelieu, says, that 
 if it was said in ancient times, Caesar, by his conquests, * 
 had augmented the Roman Empire ; if Cicero, by his 
 eloquence had enlarged the minds of his countrymen, 
 asks if they could not say, that the Cardinal de 
 Richelieu, alone, had done for France, what Caesar 
 and Cicero together had done for Rome ? 
 
 The same academician compares Louis XIV to 
 David and Solomon, or rather, as he says, finds in the 
 great and glorious deeds of these great Princes all the 
 virtues of their incomparable Monarch ! If, continues 
 the reverend adulator, if David in the beginning of his 
 
(> WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. I. 
 
 reign, repressed rebellious subjects, if bis greatness 
 and power excited the jealousy of neighbouring Princes, 
 if with his own sole power he resisted so many con- 
 spiracies, if he took so many cities, subdued so many 
 provinces, and pushed his conquests as far as “The 
 “ Great River,” the Euphrates — if, in fine, content with 
 his glory, he gave peace to people who were no longer 
 able to resist him ; have we not, he triumphantly asks 
 his brother academicians, seen in our days all these 
 mighty deeds re-enacted ? 
 
 But he calls attention to more tranquil and more 
 glorious scenes. Solomon, he tells the Academy, had 
 nothing in view, but the service of his God and the 
 good of his subjects ; he considered himself placed 
 upon the throne, for no other purpose than to build 
 that august temple which had been talked of for so 
 many ages. Always in a condition to make war or to 
 defend his rights, he enjoyed the sweets of a long 
 peace ; his innumerable and formidable armies kept 
 the neighbouring people in awe, and left the new 
 cities that he had established on his frontiers in safety ; 
 his fleets traversed the ocean to its farthest extremities, 
 and brought wealth from every part of the world. The 
 Kings of the Indies sent Ambassadors to his court, 
 who, surprised at all they saw and heard of his wis- 
 dom and greatness, were compelled to acknowledge 
 that his renown surpassed that of every other living 
 Prince, and that all his mightiness fell far below the 
 truth of what they witnessed. This mighty king, be- 
 fore whom all other kings trembled, trembled himself 
 
A. D. 1 632 j 
 
 RACINE AND CORNEILLE. 
 
 7 
 
 before the Majesty of the living God. If it was some- 
 thing to raise his Eminence the Cardinal de Richelieu 
 to the rank of Csosar and Cicero in one, the reverend 
 and loyal Abbe, could do no less than to enrobe his 
 royal Master Louis le Grand to all the honour, glory 
 and majesty of David and Solomon in mystic unity. 
 
 Even the eminent Racine condescends to the humi- 
 liating custom, and tells his admiring countrymen, that 
 the difference between the history of Louis the Great 
 and other portions of modern history is, that the latter 
 does not so powerfully impress the mind of the reader; 
 and that instead of recording noble deeds, it gives them 
 but senseless words ! In the history of the King, says 
 the great dramatist, all is quick, all proceeds, all is ac- 
 tion ; you have but to follow him, if you can, and it is 
 good to study him alone. It is an endless chain of won- 
 drous deeds, began by himself, continued and ended by 
 himself, as clear and intelligible when executed, as 
 they were impenetrable before execution. In a word, 
 miracle follows miracle, attention is always alive, ad- 
 miration is always on the stretch, and we are no less 
 struck by the grandeur and the promptitude with 
 which he made peace, than with the rapidity with 
 which he accomplished his mighty conquests ! 
 
 Even the death of the great Corneille, whom it is 
 difficult to praise too much, liacine, who pronounced his 
 eulogy before the Academy, of which he was so bright 
 an ornament, must turn that temple of the Muses 
 into an arena wherein all must bow down and wor- 
 ship the golden image of the modem Nebuchadnezzar, 
 
8 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 not content with being at once David and Solomon, 
 the insatiable maw of the Ludovican Moloch, must be 
 also iEschylus, Sophocles and Terentius, and share 
 with his illustrious subject a portion of his ample robe 
 of glory, which he could well spare, but it should 
 have been more honestly appropriated. The whole 
 discourse is worthy of the two great poets, and with 
 the exception of the misapplied adulation, is instruc- 
 tive, even on that account, and suggestive of literary 
 pride and mortification. 
 
 In this academical discourse the great poet cannot 
 be praised without lugging in the greater hero. The 
 same age, he says, which this day glorifies itself with 
 having produced an Augustus, glorifies itself no less, 
 in having produced a Horace and a Virgil; and when, 
 hereafter, succeeding ages shall speak, with astonish- 
 ment, of the marvellous victories, and of all the mighty 
 deeds which have rendered our age the admiration of 
 all succeeding times, Corneille, doubtlessly, will take 
 his place amidst these wonders. France recognizes, 
 with pleasure, that under the reign of the greatest of 
 her Kings, flourished also the most celebrated of her 
 Poets ! 
 
 Yet in spite of this share of the Poet’s glory (for 
 Louis the Great, deigned to share with the meanest of 
 his subjects), Racine, the assiduous courtier, the illus- 
 trious author of Andromache, the gentleman in ordin- 
 ary to the King, says, that something was yet to be 
 said for the glory of their august Monarch, who had 
 honoured this departed Genius by his esteem, and by 
 
A. D. 1632] 
 
 LITERARY ADULATION. 
 
 9 
 
 his bounty ; for about two days before his death, when 
 there remained but a departing ray of consciousness, 
 he sent marks of his liberality, and it must be in the 
 original words, or I may spoil the thought, “ les der- 
 “ nieres parolles de Corneille ont etc les remercimens pour 
 “ Louis le Grand!” A handful of Louis dors sent to 
 the dying poet, as viaticum to Elysium ! After he had 
 paid Charon, and bribed Cerberus, there would have 
 been but little left to buy a court suit and a Ludovican 
 periwig, for a presentation by Orpheus, the Poet Lau- 
 reate, to the august Monarch o£ the Shades. 
 
 Poets, painters, sculptors, bishops, priests, abbes, 
 satirists, architects, all academicians, signed them- 
 selves slaves on their admission to de Richelieu’s 
 manufactory of magnificats, flattery was the badge of 
 all their tribe, the gaudy robe of the academy ill-con- 
 cealed the gilded chains of the illustrious forty, of whom 
 it was said by a compatriot, that they possessed the wit 
 of four. Their song of praise to their golden idol was 
 
 “ None but himself can be his parallel.” 
 
 Every medal has its reverse, says the Italian proverb ; 
 and as a contrast to the one struck in honour of the 
 revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV., were 
 the Persian’s medallists and inscription writers ; like the 
 French, they might do honour to one of their monarchs, 
 who lived at the time of that detestable and anti- 
 patriotic act. This eastern sage was Shah Abbas II. 
 great grandson of Shah Abbas the great, who when 
 solicited by some zealous defenders of the faith, to pro- 
 
10 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 pagate Islamism by compulsion, tlie Oriental Monarch 
 replied, “ The Almighty alone is Lord of men’s minds ; 
 “ and for my own part, instead of meddling with private 
 “ opinion, I feel it my duty to administer justice ini- 
 “ partially.” 
 
 Among the eminent foreigners who added honour 
 to this period of European history, are the Elzevirs, 
 Cervantes, Lope de A r ega, Kepler, Rubens, Malherbe, 
 Grotius, Vandyke, Descartes, and other celebrated 
 men, whose connection with the events I have so 
 briefly sketched, and the before-mentioned British and 
 Foreign worthies. 
 
 In this stirring age, when men’s minds, released 
 from the shackles of error and bigotry by the Reforma- 
 tion, began to seek for employment, the British nation 
 stood on the vantage ground of civilization, as an en- 
 terprising, powerful, God-fearing people ; the protectors 
 and the allies of the persecuted Protestants in every 
 part of Europe, and the terror of the tyrannical and 
 the intolerant ; then the distinguished family of the 
 Wrens began to put forth its claims to those various 
 and honourable stations, which its members subse- 
 quently occupied. 
 
 One of them, Geoffrey Wren, was Chaplain to 
 Henry A ll., and Privy Counsellor to that King and to 
 his son Henry A III. Another, Matthew AVren, Bishop 
 of Ely, celebrated for his sufferings, and for his patient 
 endurance of undeserved persecutions, was the eldest 
 son of Francis AVren, a distinguished citizen of London, 
 whose youngest son was the father of our great archi- 
 
A. D. 16.35] 
 
 CROMWELL AND WREN. 
 
 11 
 
 tcct. Matthew Wren was selected by the cautious 
 James T. to accompany his son, Prince Charles, as his 
 Chaplain, in his matrimonial tour to the Court of 
 Spain ; and on the rupture of that negociation, through 
 the arrogance of his gay and dissolute companion, 
 George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, accompanied 
 them to Paris, a city more suited by habit and incli- 
 nation to the latter than the stately formalities of 
 Madrid, and returned to England, after the prelimi- 
 naries had been settled for the subsequent unfortunate 
 maniage of the accomplished Prince to the daughter 
 of Mary do Mcdicis, sister of Loufls XIII. and aunt 
 of Louis XIV. 
 
 Bishop Wren continued to enjoy the favour of his 
 royal master, and attended him in the same capacity, 
 when, as Charles I., he visited his Scottish dominions 
 in 1633. In 1641 he was impeached by the House 
 of Commons, and was declared, together with the 
 Marquis of Winchester and some other persons of dis- 
 tinction, as not to expect pardon. This inflexible pre- 
 late was imprisoned in the Tower for upwards of 
 eighteen years, without ever having been brought to 
 trial. Cromwell more than once offered to release him, 
 but the stern old churchman always refused to owe his 
 liberty to him. One of these offers is recorded in 
 “ Parentalia, or Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens,” 
 as occurring when the Protector, in his declining years, 
 paid, as was often his custom, an unceremonious family 
 visit to Mr. Claypole, the husband of his favourite 
 daughter Elizabeth. Young Christopher Wren, the 
 
12 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 Bishop’s nephew, afterwards our great architect, was a 
 frequent visitor and welcome guest at Mr. Claypole’s 
 house and table, that gentleman being a great lover of 
 mathematics, and the exact sciences, in which the youth 
 had acquired great proficiency. On one of these 
 occasions, the Protector entered the room where they 
 were at dinner, and, as was his custom, took liis place, 
 and joined in the family meal. After some time, he 
 fixed his eyes on the young student, and said — “ Your 
 “ uncle has been long confined in the Tower !” to which 
 young Wren replied — “ He has so, sir, but he bears his 
 “ afflictions with great patience and resignation.” — “ He 
 “ may come out if he will,” rejoined the stern master 
 of millions. — “ Will your Highness permit me to tell 
 “ him this from your own mouth V ’ quietly asked the 
 interested youth. — “ Yes, you may,” was the reply, 
 and the colloquy ended. 
 
 The youth, as may be expected, hastened to his 
 imprisoned relative, and communicated the information ; 
 to which the indignant prelate warmly replied, that 
 this was not the first time he had received the like 
 intimation from that miscreant ; but he disdained the 
 terms hitherto proposed for his enlargement, which 
 were a mean acknowledgement of his favour, and an 
 abject submission to his detestable tyranny ; that he 
 was determined to tarry the Lord’s leisure, and owe 
 his deliverance, which was not far off, to Him only. 
 
 Dr. Christopher Wren, younger brother of the 
 Bishop, and father of the architect, was another emi- 
 nent member of this family. Born in London, “ a 
 
A. D. 1 635 J REGISTERS OF TI1E ORDER OF TIIE GARTER, 13 
 
 “ citizen of no mean city,” educated at that sound semi- 
 nary of useful learning, Merchant-T aylors’ school, lie 
 went from that civic foundation to its superstructure, 
 the College of St. John, in the University of Oxford, 
 wherein lie became one of the fellows, took the degree 
 of Bachelor in Divinity, and held the office of Senior 
 Proctor of the University. He was afterwards Chap- 
 lain in ordinary to Charles I., Dean of Windsor, and 
 Registrar of the most noble order of the Garter. In 
 the latter office, he did the state great service, and 
 made posterity for ever his debtor, by recovering many 
 important records, documents, and other valuable 
 property, that had been plundered and dispersed by 
 the rebels when they attacked and pillaged the Collegi- 
 ate Chapel of St. George, Windsor, and redeemed, for 
 a large sum of money, the three register books of the 
 Order, which are well known to heraldic Archaiologists, 
 by the names of the black, the blue and the red 
 books. These important collections, the faithful Re- 
 gistrar kept till his death, bequeathing them to the 
 guardianship of his son, who, on the restoration of 
 Charles II. delivered his precious trust to Dr. Bruno 
 Ryves, who succeeded to the Deanery of Windsor, and 
 the Registrarship of this truly illustrious and most 
 noble order of knighthood. 
 
 This Dr. Wren was eminent for his acquirements 
 in literature and science, exemplarily learned, pious 
 and charitable, in the Pauline acceptation of this mis- 
 used word, and the associate of all the great, good and 
 worthy men of his day. Like his admirable son, he 
 
14 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 was skilled in architecture, which was not then debased 
 to a trade, as it has been in later times, and was em- 
 ployed by King Charles, in the first year of his reign, 
 to design an additional building to the palace, for the 
 accommodation of the Queen. The specification and 
 estimate for this erection is printed in full from the 
 state papers of Lord Clarendon, in my large quarto 
 life of his son. 
 
 The four sons of Bishop Wren all obtained honour- 
 able posts, and added to the dignity of then* name. 
 Matthew, the eldest, graduated both at Cambridge and 
 Oxford, sat in Parliament, and became successively 
 Secretary to the great Lord Clarendon, and to the 
 Duke of York. Thomas, the second son, became 
 Archdeacon of Ely, Charles became representative for 
 Cambridge in the Commons House of Parliament, and 
 William, the youngest, received the honour, when it 
 was really a distinction, of knighthood. 
 
 The most eminent member of this distinguished 
 family, of this “ Wren’s nest” as it was called in one 
 of the vituperative pamphlets of the day, in which the 
 author attempts to anatomise the Bishop, was born at 
 East Knoylc in Wiltshire, of which parish his father 
 was then Hector. The year of his birth, 1632, is 
 memorable in European history, by the heroic death of 
 Gustavus the Great on the victorious battle-field of 
 Lutzen, and the consequent succession of the youthful 
 Queen, his daughter Christina, whose abilities and ec- 
 centricities are so well known, to the hero-honoured 
 throne of Sweden. 
 
CHRISTINA, QUEEN OF SWEDEN. 
 
 15 
 
 A. D. 1635] 
 
 This singular woman received a learned education 
 like our Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey ; was blessed by 
 the tutelage of the great minister Oxenstiem, corres- 
 ponded in Latin with Milton, in French with Mazarin, 
 and in Italian with the brave, eloquent, and accomplish- 
 ed soldier John Sobicski, King of Poland, whom she 
 complimented on his splendid victory over the Turks, 
 by which he relieved the Imperial Court and its 
 capital, Vienna, from imminent danger ; calling him 
 the saviour of Christianity, Liberatore della Cliristi- 
 anita, and saying that she who had no longer a king- 
 dom (it was after her voluntary abdication), was in- 
 debted to him for the preservation of her independance 
 and repose, which she valued above all the kingdoms 
 in the world ; “ Io che regni piii non ho, Id devo la 
 “ conservatione della mia independenza e della qniete, 
 “ che io piii stimo che tutti li regni del mondo.” 
 
 Horace Walpole gives a severe, but tolerably just 
 picture of this capricious Princess, in an anecdote of 
 Michel Dahl, the contemporary and rival of Sir God- 
 frey Kneller. -Dalil who had left the Swedish capital 
 on a tour to London, Paris and Italy, was engaged 
 whilst in Rome to paint the portrait of the exiled 
 Queen. During the sitting she enquired of the artist 
 what he intended to place in her hand \ He replied, 
 a fan. To which, says Walpole, her majesty, whose 
 ejaculations were seldom very delicate, vented a very 
 gross one, and exclaimed, “ a fan ! give me a lion, that 
 “ is fitter for a Queen of Sweden.” This reply, the 
 noble author naively assures his readers, does not meet 
 
16 - 
 
 wren AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 his entire approbation, but considers it as “ pedantic 
 “ affectation of spirit in a woman who had quitted a 
 “ crown to ramble over Europe in a motley kind of 
 “ masculine masquerade, assuming a right of assassi- 
 “ mating her gallants, as if tyranny, as well as priest- 
 “ hood, were an indelible character ; and throwing her- 
 “ self for protection into the bosom of a church she 
 “ laughed at, for the comfortable enjoyment of talking 
 “ indecently with learned men, and living so with an} 7 
 “ other men. Contemptible in her ambition, by aban- 
 “ doning the happiest opportunity of performing great 
 “ and good actions, to hunt for venal praises from her 
 “ parasites, the literati, she attained, or deserved to 
 “ attain, that sole renown which necessarily accompa- 
 “ nics great crimes or great follies in persons of superior 
 “ rank. Tliis Swedish amazon died and was buried in 
 Home in 1689, and by her own command the following 
 short inscription was placed on her tomb — 
 
 D. 0. M. 
 
 Vixit Christina ann. LXIII. 
 
 The infant years of Sir Christopher Wren were di- 
 rected by his learned, pious and affectionate father, in 
 the happy retirement of a country rectory. Tliis ju- 
 dicious and anxious parent began to direct the pliant 
 mind of his child to those pursuits for which he was so 
 celebrated in after life. His childish talents were as 
 precocious as his youth was hopeful, his manhood ripe, 
 and liis age mature and sound to the last. Formerly, 
 says the learned Isaac Barrow, in his inaugural oration 
 at Gresham College, he was a prodigy of a boy, now a 
 
A. D. Ifi35j 
 
 URBAN Vlir. AND BERNINI. 
 
 17 
 
 miracle of a man, nay a demon (or spiritual genius like 
 that of Socrates) of a man ; prodigium ol'im pueri, 
 nunc miraculum viri , into dcemonium hominis ! 
 
 This parental care, and skilful direction of the 
 youthful genius, produced those early blossoms, which 
 ripened so early, and continued so long to fructify 
 and increase in worth. In Wren’s infancy Pope 
 Urban VIII, the learned and munificent Maffei Bar- 
 berini, employed the eminent architect and sculptor, 
 the Cavalier Bernini, whom lie had patronized before 
 he ascended the pontifical throne! to finish and em- 
 bellish the basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican. Among 
 the additions were the magnificent decorations of the 
 confessional, the mausoleum for this Pontiff, the erec- 
 tion of a lofty companile upon Michelangiolo’s superb 
 stone cupola, which to Bernini’s great mortification was 
 obliged to be taken down in the succeeding pontificate of 
 Innocent X. as its weight threatened destruction to 
 the substructure, and the gorgeous Baldachino over the 
 great altar in the centre of that cathedral ; this colossal 
 canopy is too well known to require description, except 
 to state, by the way, that its height is eighty-six 
 English feet, which is nearly three yards higher than 
 Inigo Jones’s Banqueting House, Whitehall, now used 
 as a Chapel Boy ah and its weight 186,392 lbs., or 
 between eighty and ninety tons. Whatever love Pope 
 Barberini might have had for modern arts and artists, 
 he showed but little regard for those of the ancients, or 
 admiration of the antiquities of his native country ; for 
 he destroyed many august remains which the Goths 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 had spared, and among them he despoiled the Pantheon 
 of Agrippa, one of the finest remains of ancient Homan 
 art, of such parts of its bronze covering and ornament 
 that Attila and Constantine had left, for the construc- 
 tion of the before-mentioned altar canopy, confessional, 
 and his own costly mausoleum, as well as for the less 
 Christian purpose of cannon for the holy Castle of St. 
 Angelo. These holy robberies gave rise to the pas- 
 quinade that will ever cling to liis name, quod non 
 fecerunt barbari fecerunt Barber ini. 
 
 The infancy and youth of Wren were attended with 
 a very delicate state of health. Being the only son of 
 an amiable and intellectual father, tlfis delicacy of tem- 
 perament caused him to be educated at home, wherein 
 the usual occupations of childhood were laid aside, and 
 a regular course of domestic education began by his 
 father, aided by the Bcv. William Shcpheard, as his 
 private tutor. This mode of education continued for 
 some time, till, at an early age, he was placed under 
 the special care of Dr. Busby, at Westminster School ; 
 having at the same time for liis mathematical tutor, 
 Dr. William Holder, Sub-dean of the Chapel Royal, 
 and a Canon-residentiary of St. Paul’s and Ely Ca- 
 thedrals, who married liis elder sister. Aubrey, the 
 Wiltshire antiquary, in his lives of eminent men, says 
 of these brothers-in-law, that Dr. Holder accompanied 
 his father-in-law in those troublesome times to the 
 garrison at Bristol ; and adds, in a subsequent part of 
 his work, that he “ was very lielpfid to his brother-in- 
 “ law, Mr. Christopher Wren, a youth of prodigious 
 
A. D. 1643] 
 
 CHARLES r. AND JOHN HAMPDEN. 
 
 19 
 
 “ inventive wit, and of whom lie was as tender as if lie 
 “ had been his own child, who gave him his first instrac- 
 “ tions in Geometry and Arithmetic ; and when he was 
 “ a young scholar at the university of . Oxford, was a 
 “ very necessary and kind friend.” Mrs. Holder is 
 recorded by the same biographer, to have been very 
 skilful in practical surgery, as was usual with English 
 housewives in those days, and acquired reputation by 
 curing Charles II. of a hurt in his hand. 
 
 Young Wren’s family troubles ,began early ; for in 
 his ninth year, his uncle, Bishop Wren, was impeached 
 by the House of Commons, and began his long impri- 
 sonment in the Tower. The civil war between Charles 
 and his Parliament was raging. In the lad’s tenth 
 year the battle of Edge-hill was fought ; and the fol- 
 lowing year witnessed the beheading of Archbishop 
 Laud on Tower Hill, after three years’ imprisonment. 
 The same year deprived the country of its illustrious 
 patriot, John Hampden, who was wounded by a mus- 
 ket ball in his shoulder, in a sudden skirmish with 
 Prince Rupert, at Thame, in Oxfordshire. The King- 
 held this great man in such estimation, although in 
 arms against him, that on hearing of the occurrence, 
 lie sent his own physician to attend him, but the 
 wound proved fatal. The illustrious Hampden left an 
 imperishable and honoured name in the historical 
 records of his country. The conduct of the King in 
 this case is praiseworthy, and with other, many other 
 instances, proves, that if His Majesty’s head had 
 
 c 2 
 
20 WREN AXD HIS TIMES. [CHAP. I. 
 
 been as wise, as liis heart was kind, he might have died 
 the death of his fathers. 
 
 The youthful Wren, amidst all these public disar- 
 rangements and private troubles, continued his studies, 
 under his able and affectionate tutors, with unabated zeal 
 and perseverance ; and the bent of his genius for the strict 
 sciences, and his taste for elegant literature and fine 
 arts, began to disclose themselves hi a manner that pro- 
 mised the highest results. The first fruits of his inven- 
 tive faculty was put forth in 1645, whilst in lhs thir- 
 teenth year, by the production of a new astronomical 
 instrument, which, with filial piety, he dedicated to his 
 father, with a dutiful Latin address, and eighteen goodly 
 hexameter verses worthy of a riper age. This invention 
 was speedily followed up by an exercise hi physics, on 
 the origin of rivers, and by the invention of a pneumatic 
 machine. The dedication of the treatise not being so 
 long as that of his Panorganum Astronomicum, the 
 name of lhs first invention, I have detached it from 
 its twin brother in the appendix to my larger bio- 
 graphy. 
 
 “ Dedicatio, ad Patrem, Tractatus De Ortu Fluminum. 
 
 “ Jure accepta Tibi refera mea Flumes a : pulchre 
 “ Derivata suum respicit Unda caput.” 
 
 The thought of restoring his minor streams to the head 
 or chief river, as a right and not a gift, is ingenious and 
 filial. 
 
 The same year, 1645. is memorable in the history 
 of science and philosophy, as being that wherein the 
 first meetings of those eminent men who laid the foun- 
 
A. D. 1 643-5 J 
 
 cromwell/s ironsides. 
 
 21 
 
 dations and accomplished the construction of the Royal 
 Society, which has continued to this day the chieftain 
 of its class. The continued successes of Cromwell, with 
 his own regiment of a thousand stout men of gravity, 
 imbued with the fiery zeal of Puritanism — substantial 
 freeholders and their sons, all acquainted with their 
 leaders and with each other, well mounted and equip- 
 ped, and glorying in the name of “ Cromwell’s Iron- 
 sides,” at Marston-Moor, where they turned the fortune 
 of the day ; at the battle of Newbury, where they ob- 
 tained the same renown ; up to the decisive victory at 
 Nazcby, in June 1645, accomplished the ruin of the 
 royal cause, and terminated the Parliamentary War. 
 
 Tiie little band of philosophers who had been en- 
 gaged in literary and scientific researches within the 
 academic walls and gardens of Gresham College, were 
 obliged by these national troubles to suspend their 
 public lectures, but they continued them peaceful 
 studies in the sacred recesses of their own chambers, 
 the lecture rooms being deserted by the public, and 
 pillaged by the soldiers. To these public lectures and 
 private discussions the youthful Wren was led, no less 
 by his own inclination than by his father, who was a 
 zealous and active member of this academic body, 
 whose object was the investigation of the new or ex- 
 perimental philosophy, bequeathed to posterity by its 
 father, the illustrious Lord Bacon, who writes in one of 
 his letters, preserved in Birch’s Collection — “ Since I 
 “ have lost so much time with this age, I shall 
 “ be glad, as God shall give me leave, to recover it 
 
22 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 “ with posterity and worthily did the Gresham 
 Professors aid their great master in executing his 
 desire. 
 
 Dr. John Wallis, author of “ Mathesis Univer- 
 salis,” and other important mathematical and philoso- 
 phical works, was a prime mover in the great work of 
 mental improvement. During his residence in Lon- 
 don, as Rector of St. Gabriel Fenchurch, he became 
 acquainted with many eminent men of his own class, 
 and renewed some college friendships. These sages held 
 a weeklv meeting to discuss matters relating to litera- 
 ture, science and philosophy. Among these searchers 
 for priceless pearls and golden truths, were Dean Wren, 
 Bishop Wilkins, Dr. Jonathan Goddard, an eminent 
 physician, and the first English constructor of a tele- 
 scope, Sir George Ext, also a physician, the friend of 
 the celebrated Harvey, whom he learnedly defended in 
 his “ Apologia pro Circulatione Sanguinis,’’ Dr. Francis 
 Glisson, another eminent physician and skilful anato- 
 mist, to whom the world is indebted for the discovery 
 of the capsule of the vena portarium, which he pub- 
 lished in his “ Anatomia Hepatis,” Dr. Christopher 
 Merrett, also an eminent brother of the Faculty of Medi- 
 cine, the friend and associate of the Hon. Robert 
 P>oyle, in philosophical and physical experiments, 
 Samuel Foster, an eminent astronomer, who wrote on 
 the art of dialling, the improvement of the sector, and 
 the portable quadrant, Theodore Haak, a learned na- 
 tive of the Palatinate, who then resided in London, 
 and has the honour of being the proposer of these 
 
A. D. 1646 | 
 
 ROBERT BOYLE AND DR. PETTY. 
 
 2 3 
 
 philosophical banquets, with other of the most cele- 
 brated men of the day. 
 
 In the two succeeding years this band of brothers 
 lost three leading members, by the removal of Drs. 
 Wilkins, Wallis, and Goddard, to Oxford, who took 
 with them a love for such disquisitions to that univer- 
 sity. They did not separate themselves from the pa- 
 rent society, but visited it whenever their avocations 
 called them to London, or their presence specially re- 
 quired. The Gresliamites carried with them the spirit 
 of the metropolitan college, and formed a similar society 
 in their university. They were immediately joined by 
 Dr. Seth Ward, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. 
 Ralph Bathurst, a classical scholar, writer, and poet, 
 of distinguished eminence, then President of Trinity 
 College, and afterwards Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, 
 and Dean of Wells ; Dr., afterwards Sir William Petty, 
 Professor of Anatomy in the University — the learned 
 ancestor of the present Marquess of Lansdowne, Dr. 
 Thomas Willis, a highly-esteemed physician, known 
 by his numerous Latin works on his art, particularly 
 on the anatomy and pathology of the brain, and other 
 illustrious Oxonians, who were often honoured with 
 the kindred friendship of Robert Boyle, whom it is 
 needless to do more than mention. 
 
 The meetings of the Oxford Philosophical Associ- 
 ation were at first held at Dr. Petty’s apartments, on 
 account of their being at the house of his apothecary ; 
 the dispensatory and medical materials of that useful 
 functionary being convenient for their practical experi- 
 
24 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 ments. After the departure of Dr. Petty for Ireland, 
 the members assembled at Dr. Wilkins’s rooms in Wad- 
 ham College, and, after his removal to Trinity College, 
 Cambridge, at the apartments of Mr. Boyle. 
 
 The parent-branch continued its useful labours, as 
 heretofore, in Gresham College, which then occupied 
 the entire site from Broad-street to Bishopsgate-street, 
 on which the Excise Office now stands ; and its spa- 
 cious and airy quadrangle, planted with trees and sur- 
 rounded by the lodgings of the Professers and Fellows, 
 is preserved in many a print, illustrative of the arcli- 
 aiology of the City of London. The sittings were held 
 on Wednesdays and Thursdays, after the lectures of 
 the younger Christopher Wren and Laurence Looke, 
 who, among other philosophical treatises, published 
 some on the eclipses of the moon, on the satellites of 
 Jupiter, on comets, &c., and “ Directions for Sailors 
 Going to India.” 
 
 From such small beginnings, did our Loyal Society 
 proceed and flourish, and the honoured name of Wren 
 is identified with all their acts, from its birth till his 
 death. 
 
 The same year that Cromwell, in mature age, and 
 commanding an army of grave thinkers and determined 
 actors, gained his great and decisive victory at Nazeby, 
 did the youthful Duke d’Enghien, better known as the 
 great Conde, scarcely more than half the age of the 
 commander of the “ Ironsides,” obtain a great and sig- 
 nal victory over the Imperialists on the plains of Nord- 
 lingen, after having two years before, in the twenty- 
 
A. I). l64()| the great cond£ and turenne. 
 
 second year of* his age, defeated the Spaniards at 
 Rocroi. That this hero deserved the title bestowed 
 upon him by his country and posterity, no one doubts. 
 After his first victory, he marched into Germany, 
 attacked General Mcrci, and drove him from his 
 entrenchments near Fribourg, and left the command of 
 his army to Marshal Turenne. Although this older 
 and more experienced soldier, one of the greatest mili- 
 tary commanders of his age, doubtless assisted the 
 young Prince in his councils, yet lie suffered himself to 
 be surprised, and was defeated at Manendahl. Conde 
 immediately returned to the army, and gained the vic- 
 tory at Nordlingen. Great as were the skill and bra- 
 very of Turenne, he sustained a second defeat in the 
 civil war, occasioned by the tyrannical government of 
 Cardinal Mazarin, and the Queen-Mother, from young 
 Conde, who had espoused the popular side. These, 
 and other great and noble deeds, justly endeared this 
 hero to his admiring countrymen, yet, although poets 
 are always allowed more license .than orators or histo- 
 rians, and the French tune their lyres to more flattering- 
 strains than most others, as the thousand and more 
 eulogiums and panegyrics on Louis XIII. and XIV., 
 Richelieu, and other gods of their idolatry, prove, they 
 seldom had a truer theme for their laudations than 
 Louis II. de Bourbon Prince de Conde. 
 
 One of his panegyrists, M. l’Abbe du Jarry, says, in 
 a set eloge — “ I begin to feel how much I ought to 
 “ spare my words, in the commendation of a life, whose 
 “ marvellous acts are so near to us ; and when we see 
 
26 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 “ great kingdoms and celebrated rivers indicated by the 
 “ scratch of a pen on a map, I would make you com- 
 “ prehend by one word, heroic acts and famous victo- 
 “ ries. Dunkirk ! Nordlingen ! Lens ! To these words, 
 “ what prodigies of valour present themselves to your 
 “ minds V’ 
 
 Father Commire, a learned Jesuit, and an accom- 
 plished Latin poet of that period, takes up his parable, 
 and makes old Rlienus bicornis present an humble peti- 
 tion to this heroic Prince. At first the Itivcr beseeches 
 this invincible hero to release him from a yoke, which 
 he can no longer bear without disgrace, and to replace 
 him under the dominion of his ancient masters. Fi- 
 nally he says, he does not require a long campaign, for 
 there are but few cities that could stand against the 
 presence of such an invincible hero ; and adds, as a 
 climax, the time only that it will take you to read 
 this epistle, would more than suffice to finish the war. 
 — Carte clum lajjitur tibi his Ubellus, jam fere poteras 
 patrasse helium. 
 
 In this memorable year, 1646, Christopher Wren, 
 the Westminster boy of fourteen years of age, became 
 an Oxford man, with a reputation of a tasteful scholar 
 and an ingenious inventor. He was admitted a Gen- 
 tleman Commoner at Wadliam College, when his 
 family friend, Dr. Wilkins, was warden, Dr. Seth Ward, 
 another friend, and the Rev. William Ouglitred, who 
 was known throughout Europe for the extent of his 
 learning and mathematical knowledge, were then resi- 
 dent. This gentleman, in the preface to his “ Clavis 
 
A. D. 1647 
 
 when’s reflecting dial. 
 
 27 
 
 Mathematicus,” published shortly after this time, calls 
 him an ingenious youth, who, although not sixteen 
 years of age, had enlarged the sciences of astronomy, 
 gnomonics, statics and mechanics ; admirando prorsus 
 ingenio juvenis, qui, nonduni sexdecim annos natus, 
 astronomiam , gnomonicam, static am, mechanicam, pree- 
 claris inventis auxit. 
 
 When the Elector Palatine, who was at this 
 time in England, visited Oxford, Dr. Wilkins intro- 
 duced his youthful friend to the Prince, as a prodigy of 
 science. Mr. Wren availed himself of the opportunity 
 to present his Highness with several mechanical instru- 
 ments of his own invention, accompanied by an epistle, 
 overflowing with the hopefulness of ingenuous youth, 
 which may be found at length in the appendix to his 
 memoirs, before mentioned. 
 
 In his fifteenth year, the young philosopher became 
 acquainted with Sir Charles Scarborough, a profound 
 mathematician, translator of Euclid, author of an origi- 
 nal treatise on trigonometry, an elegy on the death of 
 the poet Cowley : a practical physician and anatomist, 
 and the colleague of Harvey, in his work, “ De Gene- 
 “ ratione Animalium.” At the request of this highly- 
 gifted man, he translated Mr. Oughtred’s Geometrical 
 Dialling into Latin — Gidielmi Oughtred geometriam, 
 horologium , sciotericorum rationem, ex Anglico idiomate 
 in Latinum vei'tit, nondum sexdecim annos natus. 
 
 A highly-praised specimen of the young mathema- 
 tician’s skill in gnomonics, was a reflecting-dial, designed 
 on the deling of a room, embellished with various 
 
28 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 devices, particularly two figures representing astronomy 
 and geometry, with their attributes, tastefully drawn 
 with a pen, and the following inscription : — 
 
 Ciir. Wren. 
 
 Angustis satagens liis laquearibus 
 Ad cadi methodum tempora pingere, 
 
 A Phoebo obtinuit luminis ut sui 
 Idseam, speculo, linqueret aemulam 
 Quae ccelum hoc peragret luce vicaria, 
 
 Cursusque effigiem fingeret annui ; 
 
 Post annos epochae — 
 
 VIrgTneo qVIbVs 
 
 Vehe faCtVs iioMo est eX Vtero DeVs, 
 etatIsqVe sV^e nVpeje. 
 
 Sun-dials, with apt mottoes and quaint conceits, 
 began to be very fashionable in this age, particularly 
 in Paris, the French literati excelling most others in 
 this species of monitory wit. The following, selected 
 at random from many others, will afford a few ex- 
 amples of their laconic spirit. 
 
 Cassiodorus, who, like Wren, lived almost to his 
 hundredth year, in the active pursuits of literature, 
 science and art ; and in the sixth century excelled in 
 the construction of clepsydras, dials and other curious 
 mechanical contrivances, has a whimsical thought on 
 sun-dials. He says, if the stars could see them ma- 
 jestic courses displayed on so small a scale, by a little 
 shadow, they would, out of spite, change their route, 
 that they might not be sport to mortals. 
 
 The thought proposed to be embodied in a gnomonic 
 motto should be short, as a poesy on a lady’s ring, 
 
A. I). 164.7] 
 
 MOTTOES FOR SUN-DIALS. 
 
 29 
 
 clear as tlie sun that makes the instrument useful, and 
 instructive as Christian ethics. Many such are to lie 
 found, and the few that follow, are good examples of 
 this style of epitaph. 
 
 M. de Fieubet, a counsellor of state to Louis XI V., 
 had a splendid sun-dial affixed to the front of his town 
 mansion, on which were painted representations of 
 labour and repose, as supporting-figures to the instru- 
 ment, with the inscription — 
 
 Pl.URES LABORI, DUUCIBUS QU/EDA^I OTIIS : 
 
 and on another, in the gardens of his country-house, 
 making the style the monitor, 
 
 Dum fugit umbra, quiesco. 
 
 Father Bouhours saw the following verse from 
 Horace — 
 
 Dona piivEsentis rape l act us hoii/E, 
 
 which lie considers not only well applied, but not so 
 profane, nor so Epicurean as it might at first appear, 
 by a moral paraphrase, Accept joyfully what the present 
 hour affords. The Abbe du Mas, a contemporary of 
 Corneille, similarly converts the verse of Martial, 
 
 Pereunt et imputantur, 
 
 that we should profit by the present hour, for the pass- 
 ing ones take their flight to Heaven and bear witness 
 before the throne of the Omnipotent, to the good and 
 evil we have done. Another warns its readers, that the 
 present hour is uncertain to all, and is the last to many, 
 — JDubia omnibus, ultima multis ; and another, no less 
 
30 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 briefly and sagely, says, this hour is the last to many, 
 perhaps to thee ; Suprema hcec multis, forsan , tibi. 
 Another quoteth the royal sage of Judah*, that our 
 life passeth as a shadow, umbrce transitus est tempus 
 nostrum ; whilst another horal monitor selects its motto 
 from the Psalmistf, “ my days are gone like a shadow,” 
 “ Dies mei sicut umbra, declinaverunt.” Horological 
 mottoes are memorable instructors. 
 
 In 1647 the youthful philosopher Wren may be 
 said to have began business on his own account, for in 
 this, his fifteenth year, he took out a royal patent for 
 seventeen years, for an instrument to write with two 
 pens at the same time ; which the young inventor thus 
 describes — “ That by its help, every ordinary penman 
 “ will be enabled to write two several copies of any 
 “ deeds and evidences, from the shortest to the longest 
 “ lines in the same compass of time, and with as much 
 “ ease and beauty, without any dividing or ruling ; 
 “ as, without the help of the instrument, he could have 
 “ written but one. That by thus diminishing the te- 
 “ chons labour of transcriptions of the greater sort of 
 “ deeds, indentures, conveyances, charters, and all other 
 “ duplicates, the works of the pen, are not only short- 
 “ ened, but the penmen themselves both relieved and 
 “ recompensed by an honest gain, with half the wonted 
 “ toil. That there will be in both copies thus drawn, 
 “ such an exact likeness in the same number and order 
 “ of lines, and even of words, letters and stops, in all 
 “ places of both copies, that being onc-e severed, there 
 
 * Wisd. i. 5. f Ps. cii. 11. 
 
A. D. 1647 | 
 
 WREN S FIRST PUBLIC WORK. 
 
 31 
 
 “ slia.ll hardly be discerned any difference between 
 “ tlicm, except such as are merely casual, as spots and 
 “ marks hi the parchment. That this instrument will, 
 “ undoubtedly, prevent the mischievous craft of corrup- 
 “ tion, forgery, and counterfeiting of hands and seals ; 
 “ or, if any such foul practice be attempred, will effec- 
 “ tually and manifestly discover it ; for what will it 
 “ avail to counterfeit a seal, or the hand that signs, 
 “ unless a duplicate could be made in every line, letter, 
 “ and dot, like the twin copy, whic^i, without the help 
 “ of the same instrument, is impossible ? So expedient 
 “ might it be to all intents and uses of the state, in 
 “ matters of the greatest consequence, that public acts 
 “ be written by this instrument, for testimony and as- 
 “ surance to all times.” 
 
 Wren had scarcely promulgated his invention, when 
 others claimed its authorship. These assumptions ex- 
 cited his indignation, and he asserted his right, in a let- 
 ter to a friend, supposed to have been Dr. W ilkin s, 
 calling to his mind the circumstance of having seen 
 and commended it “ to the view of the then great — 
 now greatest person in the kingdom,” Oliver Cromwell. 
 He concludes his expostulatory claim by writing, “ Al- 
 “ though I care not for having a successor in my in- 
 “ vention, yet it behoves me to vindicate myself from 
 “ the aspersion of having a predecessor.” 
 
 In this same year the youthful aspirant was ap- 
 pointed by Dr. Sir Charles Scarborough, to the honour- 
 able post of demonstrating assistant to that able phy- 
 sician’s lectures on anatomy at Surgeons’ Hall. No- 
 
32 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 tiling less than a Latin epistle was considered suitable 
 to convey his exultation to his father. In tills letter, 
 which, with all the other Latin epistles and poems, 
 are in the appendix to the before-quoted quarto me- 
 moirs, he informs his father of his invention of a wea- 
 ther clock, an instrument wherewith to write in the 
 dark, a Treatise on Spherical Trigonometry, his engage- 
 ment to translate the Rev. William Oughtred’s Key to 
 Mathematics, which lie calls “ Clavis vere aureae,” into 
 Latin, and on other subjects. This learned epistle, as 
 well as another to Mr. Oughtred, were probably written 
 to prove his competency to execute the task he had 
 undertaken. To these missives the young scholar 
 added some Latin metrical essays, one of which is on 
 the Birth of Christ, and the other and longest, in twelve 
 stanzas and an introduction, is on the Reformation, or 
 rather Christianizing the Classical Fables of the Signs 
 of the Zodiac. 
 
 'fills year is also memorable for being that wherein 
 the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Inno- 
 cent X. proclaimed to the world the completion of the 
 Cathedral of St. Peter, under the direction of the 
 Cavalier Bernini. This announcement is an epoch in 
 art and history, and, from the circumstance of its 
 founders intending it for the centre-point of the Chris- 
 tian world, which was severed from its unity by the 
 very means which they and their successors took to 
 preserve and complete it, rendered this completion an 
 affair of public importance to all Europe. 
 
 Bernini’s skill and taste as an artist was known 
 
A. D. 1647 | RRAMANTE AND OTHER ARCHITECTS. 
 
 33 
 
 throughout Europe. In England his justly-admired 
 bust of Charles L, executed in Rome from a picture 
 by Vandyke, representing the King in profile, three- 
 quarter and full face, established his reputation among 
 the lovers and judges of art, as did his remark upon 
 the melancholy cast of his countenance, do him credit 
 as a minor prophet, after the beheading of the unfor- 
 tunate monarch. 
 
 Nor was the great event lost upon the aspiring mind 
 of Wren, for it diverted his attention Mrom his immedi- 
 ate employments, towards a closer intimacy with the 
 arts of design ; and led to the ability of designing and 
 executing St. Paul’s, and the entire City of London, 
 alone, and from his sole productive mind ; whilst St. 
 Peter’s was the work of more than twenty archi- 
 tects, supported by the treasure of the Christian world, 
 and the power of the Roman Pontiffs in then most 
 powerful days, and during the reigns of nineteen 
 successive Popes. 
 
 The Cathedral of St. Peter in Rome, was began by 
 the architect Bramante, the uncle, patron and friend of 
 Raffaello d’Urbino, in the pontificate of Julius II.; was 
 continued by a series of eminent architects ; among 
 whom were Giulio di San Gallo, Raffaello, Balthazar 
 Peruzzi, Antonio di San Gallo, Giocondo, Michelangiolo 
 Buonarotti, who constructed its unrivalled stone cupola, 
 raising, as he said, the Pantheon of Aggrippa into the 
 air ; he was succeeded by Giulio Romano, Domenico 
 and Giovanni Fontana, Giacomo della Porta, Carlo 
 Maderno, Luigi Cigoli, Borromini, who disfigured it with 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 many instances of bad taste, Carlo Rainaldi and Ber- 
 nini, who is said to have finished it in this year. But 
 many other lesser minds contributed to its construction 
 or embellishment, as Carlo Fontana, the author of a 
 good description of the edifice, Vignola, Pirrho Ligorio, 
 Antonio Cannevari, and a dozen or more lesser men, 
 who were successively employed to bring the building 
 to its present state. 
 
 Next to the wonderful cupola of Michelangiolo, is 
 the beautiful peristyle or colonnade, that encircles the 
 Piazza di San Pietro, in front of the Cathedral, the 
 work of Bernini. It consists of two hundred and eighty 
 columns, and forty-eight pilasters, each forty feet high, 
 raised on three lofty steps. The entablature is sur- 
 mounted by a balustrade, on the pedestals of which arc 
 placed eighty-eight colossal statues of saints, fifteen feet 
 in height. 
 
 This magnificent work of Bcmini, forms the frame 
 of the picture, the setting of the jewel, and has delighted 
 the eye of every man of taste, from this year of its 
 opening to the present hour, and no period in the his- 
 tory of this vast edifice, could have been more appro- 
 priately chosen, for a nominal completion, than when 
 Innocent X. proclaimed the Cathedral of St. Peter 
 finished. 
 
 Having commemorated the artists, from whose 
 minds the gorgeous structure emanated, a brief notice 
 of their patrons, whose knowledge of their abilities for 
 the task, selected them to accomplish the great work, 
 should follow. Bramante’s special patron was the 
 
A I). 1648] 
 
 JULIUS II. AND OTHER POPES. 
 
 35 
 
 warlike Julius II., who employed the mighty Micliel- 
 angiolo to execute a bronze statue of his Holiness, to 
 be placed in a church in Bologna. The Pope was re- 
 presented in the act of bestowing the Papal benedic- 
 tion, with an outstretched hand ; but with so stern 
 and proud an air, that the people asked the artist, if he 
 meant to represent him as bestowing blessings or 
 curses ? During the progress of the work, Michelan- 
 giolo asked the haughty Pontiff, if he should place a 
 book in his other hand \ — “ No,” replied Julius,' “ let me 
 “ hold a sword ; I am no man of letters.” This scene, 
 perhaps, gave rise to the mock-heroic parody of it, in 
 the same place, between little Christina of Sweden and 
 Michael Dahl, a century and a half afterwards, as men- 
 tioned in a previous page. This statue was over- 
 thrown, when Julius directed in person the thunders 
 of his material artillery against the Bolognese, and, by 
 order of the Duke of Ferrara, was cast into a cannon, 
 a fit representative of the blood-thirsty original. The 
 great work was continued by Leo X., whose unworthy 
 zeal in procuring funds for its progress, by the cor- 
 ruptest means, raised up Luther, “ the Monk who 
 “ shook the world,” and that Reformation, which para- 
 lysed the Papal power throughout Christendom. Then 
 Clement VII., Paul III., Julius III., Marcellus II., 
 Paul IV., Gregory XIII, Sextus V., Urban VII., 
 Gregory XIV., Innocent IX., Clement VIII., contem- 
 porary with our Elizabeth, Leo XI., Paid, Gregory XV., 
 the two last coeval with our James I., Urban VIII., 
 
 d 2 
 
WHEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 36 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 and finally Innocent X., tlie munificent patron of 
 Bernini. 
 
 W hile these works of peace were thus proceeding, 
 and the future architect of the greatest cathedral of the 
 reformed religion was unconsciously preparing for the 
 mighty task of rebuilding a destroyed metropolis, and 
 its hundred churches — protestant England was torn by 
 a destructive civil war, the papal kingdom of Naples 
 was devastated by an infuriated fisherman, Masaniello, 
 and his desperate followers, and France, with all the 
 heroism with which her poets endowed their great 
 Monarch, was also a prey to the civil wars of the 
 Fronde, that were so much promoted by the clever, hut 
 unprincipled Cardinal de Betz, who has described them 
 in an animated maimer, in his interesting and instrue- 
 tive memoirs of his own life. 
 
 The year in which the youthful Wren published liis 
 Latin translation of Oughtred’s Ivey to the mathe- 
 matics, witnessed the termination of the civil war in 
 England, by the execution of the King. Charles was 
 an elegant and accomplished Prince, and distin- 
 guished by the possession of most of the virtues that 
 add dignity to private life, being eminently temperate, 
 chaste and religious, possessing a refined taste in litera- 
 ture and the fine arts, a liberal patron of then - profess- 
 ors, and a king who did more towards the arts that 
 soften and humanize ma nkin d than any of his prede- 
 cessors. Yet he wanted firmness and decision, had 
 little self reliance, therefore, was perpetually the vic- 
 tim of zealous and imprudent ministers, and too often 
 
A. D. 1()50 ] NAPLES, MASIENELLO AND THE FRONDE. 
 
 37 
 
 of specious evil-minded and sometimes wicked men. 
 He was continually in error, even to the tyrannical 
 stopping of a ship, in which some of the leading puri- 
 tans of the country, among whom were Sir Arthur 
 Hazelrig, John Hampden and Oliver Cromwell, were 
 about to embark to join their persecuted brethren in 
 New England ; although, perhaps, his intentions were 
 to act wisely. 
 
 Who can develop the secret vifcws of an omniscient 
 Providence \ What evils, and, perhaps, what good 
 might not England have escaped if the sailing of that 
 ship had not been stopped. So true is it that man 
 proposes and God disposes. King Charles little 
 thought he was forcibly bringing back the men who 
 ware destined to defeat him at Marston Moor, New- 
 bury and Nazeby, to try him before tbe High Court of 
 Parliament for high treason against his people, an im- 
 possible crime, in the school of the right divine of 
 Kings, in which he had been educated ; and although 
 by law he was as absolute a sovereign as any in Eu- 
 rope, was uncle by marriage to Louis XIV. and was 
 benefitted by the interposition of many Foreign powers 
 in his behalf, and by the devotion of many private 
 friends and ministers who took the crimes he was 
 charged with upon themselves, his powerful and en- 
 raged enemies gave their unhappy monarch but three 
 days to prepare himself to appear before his God : and 
 in the face of an oppressed people, who sought liberty 
 of conscience and freedom from arbitrary tyranny, and 
 of astonished Europe, was deprived of all ensigns of 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 38 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 royalty, and led to the block as a tried and convicted 
 traitor. 
 
 Had the times, his people, and, above all, his mi- 
 nisters, been as propitious, as peaceful, and as well-in- 
 tentioned as the misguided Monarch, that dam in the 
 intellectual and civilizing stream which was beginning 
 to fertilize the country would not have been created, 
 nor the people thrown back a century or more in the 
 knowledge and love of art. The King’s fine collection 
 of pictures, statues and other works of art, were 
 shamefully dispersed, injured or destroyed. War was 
 declared against the arts, and the churches, cathedrals 
 and other religious establishments pillaged and ravaged. 
 Painted glass, pictures, statues, monumental brasses 
 and records, books, &c. of unknown value, destroyed 
 by the iconoclastic Puritans. 
 
 Whatever disturbing causes interrupted the har- 
 mony of the rest of the nation, they do not appear to 
 have assailed the quiet cell of the persevering Wren. 
 In this, his eighteenth year, he proceeded to the degree 
 of B.A., and is recorded by Dr. Sprat, in his History 
 of the Royal Society, Dr. Hooke, in his preface to Mi- 
 cographia, Sir Paul Neil, Dr. Wilkins and other high 
 authorities, as being the first inventor of the Microgra- 
 phic Art, that is, of delineating minute objects as they 
 appear enlarged in a microscope. In these works he 
 was occasionally assisted by Dr. Hooke, whose know- 
 ledge of drawing, acquired under the tuition of Sir 
 Peter Lely, enabled him to add his graphic skill to 
 this collection of micrographic delineations. Dr. 
 
A. D. IG50 | 
 
 IIAERINGTON’S OCEANA. 
 
 3.9 
 
 Hooke afterwards published a scientific account of 
 their joint discoveries, under the title of Micrographia. 
 
 James Harrington, author of the political romance 
 of Oceana , an Utopian scheme for a republic, who was 
 a personal friend and attendant on the King, although 
 a zealous republican, a man of genius, a good scholar 
 and a profound thinker, who more resembled the 
 philosophers of antiquity, who reasoned a priori, than 
 his contemporaries of the new philosophy, who chiefly 
 derived their conviction from induction , established 
 about this time, a sort of club, or debating society, call- 
 ed the Rota. Harrington and his brethren of the Rota 
 thought little of the young philosopher, and contemptu- 
 ously of the micrograplicrs and their pursuits, at a time 
 when, as they thought, all men should be up and doing, 
 to put down monarchical tyranny. In his work “ On 
 “ the Prerogative of Popular Governments,” he reflect- 
 ed upon young Wren’s cousin Matthew, Bishop Wren’s 
 eldest son, who had replied to the Oceana, ca lli ng him 
 “ one of those virtuosi, who had an excellent faculty 
 “ of magnifying a louse, and diminishing a common- 
 “ wealth.” The hit was good and palpable as against 
 cousin Matthew, who was a politician, a warm sup- 
 porter of monarchical prerogative, and had voluntarily 
 engaged in a combat of pens ; but it glanced off harm- 
 lessly from Christopher and his fellow-students of the 
 shady arcades of Gresham College. 
 
 One of the young philosopher’s investigations was 
 laid before the Gresham association, in this year, 1650, 
 and is recorded as possessing great merit, in Sprat’s 
 
40 
 
 WHEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 ! CHAP. I. 
 
 History of the Royal Society. This was his tract on 
 the planet Saturn, entitled — “ Observationes de Saturno 
 “ et theoriam istius planetae institnit, prius quam dis- 
 “ sertatio Hugenii de iste argumento erat edita.” 
 
 Rene Descartes, the illustrious French philosopher, 
 whose theory on the general laws of motion, were, some 
 time afterwards, furthered and illustrated by experi- 
 ments, died at Stockholm, in the February of this year. 
 He was invited to that capital by Queen Christina ; 
 but the severe climate of Sweden agreed not with the 
 delicate constitution of the philosopher, who died from 
 inflammation of the lungs, in liis fifty fourth year. In 
 1666 his earthly remains were removed to Paris by 
 Louis XIV., and interred with great pomp in the 
 church of St. Genevieve du Mont, and a monumental 
 bust erected in its cemetery. 
 
 The Cartesian philosophy, which was much damaged 
 by the Newtonian scheme, and its eulogist de Voltaire, 
 was a sort of intermediate theory, between the a priori 
 reasonings of Aristotle and his school, and the modern, 
 or experimental practice. As a philosopher, Descartes 
 has given place to Newton, but as a mathematician he 
 is entitled to great praise. He reduced the laws of re- 
 fraction, called dioptrics to a science, but has dimmed 
 his fair fame, by claiming the algebraic mode of nota- 
 tion, for which he obtained so much celebrity, as his 
 own, when he borrowed it from our able countryman 
 Thomas Harriot, the mathematical tutor of Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, and his companion during that great man’s 
 imprisonment in the Tower. Harriot's work was 
 
A. D. 1650 | 
 
 THE CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 41 
 
 entitled. “ Artis analytica praxis ad acquationcs Alge- 
 “ braicas nova, expedita et generali methodo resol- 
 “ vendas,” and was published in 1631, a year or two 
 before Descartes visited London and mixed with its 
 learned and scientific men then pursuing mathemati- 
 cal, astronomical and philosophical studies in our 
 metropolis. Dr. Wallis, in his treatise on algebra, 
 vindicated the claims of Harriot, as did»Zach, astrono- 
 mer to the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, in the astronomical 
 Ephemeris of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin for 
 the year 1788. 
 
 The death of Descartes was celebrated in prose 
 and verse, by bis niece, Catherine Descartes, who pos- 
 sessed so much taste and learning, that a Parisian wit 
 said of her, that the mantle of the great Rene had 
 fallen upon a distaff, que Vesprit du grand Rene etoit 
 tomle en quenouille. This accomplished woman was 
 the friend and correspondent of the celebrated Made- 
 moiselle de Scudery, one of the greatest ornaments of 
 the literary court of Louis XIY. The commemora- 
 tions of her uncle were entitled “ L’Ombre de Descartes,” 
 and “ Relation de la Mort des Descartes,” the last of 
 which is a mixture of prose and verse. In this dutiful 
 and interesting work, Mademoiselle Descartes gives a 
 fanciful, and, as she terms it, a poetical account of the 
 great philosopher’s decease. Alluding to the curious 
 question, which the singular Queen of Sweden called 
 him to her court to solve, namely, the queestio vexata 
 of the much discussed Summum Bonum, the Supreme 
 Good, she says, ingeniously, that this great philoso- 
 
42 
 
 WREN AND IIIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 plier having taught a new system of philosophy to 
 an inquisitive Queen, who learned thereby the most 
 hidden secrets of physical nature, Nature, surprised 
 and indignant to see herself thus disclosed, exclaimed 
 in a transport of wrath — 
 
 Temeraire mortel, esprit audacieux, 
 
 Apprend qu’ impunement on ne voit point les Dieux,” 
 
 and from that moment the offended goddess had de- 
 termined the ruin of the rude invader of her privacy, 
 and, to revenge herself upon the bold philosopher, 
 overwhelmed him with a torrent of ills that drove him 
 to the grave; following, in some way, the example of 
 the chaste and haughty Diana, who, having been seen 
 bathing by a profane votary of the chace, punished 
 his audacious curiosity by an instant and violent 
 death. 
 
 In the following year, 1651, Wren produced an 
 algebraical treatise on the Julian period, which he 
 published in the Prolegomena to Christopher Helvi- 
 cus’s “ Theatrum historicum et chronologicum,” Ox- 
 ford 1651, a work which has kept its ground, and been 
 repeatedly printed, although this learned and distin- 
 guished German divine and chronologer lias, in the 
 early periods, been misled by the forgeries of Giovanni 
 Nanni, a Dominican friar, better known by his Latin 
 appellation of Annins of Viterbo, who passed a series 
 of fragments of his own inventions on the world as 
 remains of several ancient authors in “ Seventeen 
 “ books of antiquities,” printed in Rome, and dedicated 
 to Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1498. The success and 
 
A. D. 1651 | 
 
 TIIE JULIAN l’ERIOD. 
 
 43 
 
 magnitude of this forgery, which imposed upon many 
 others besides the learned Ilclvicus, is very remark- 
 able, as an instance of great, but unprincipled ability. 
 
 When’s tract, which contained a mode of finding 
 any particular year that may be required, on giving 
 the cycles, was much esteemed by the most eminent 
 mathematicians of this period, and has been reprinted 
 in all the subsequent editions of Helvicus’s Chronology. 
 Although the author’s name is not appended to it, 
 Dr. John Ward, in his “ Lives of the Gresham Pro- 
 “ fessors” says, it is clearly the production of the 
 young philosopher, and of this early period of his life, 
 from a note, written on the back of the title-page, by 
 Dean Wren, his father, and, in Ward’s time, in the 
 possession of Stephen, Sir Christopher’s son, the author 
 of “ Parent alia.” It is as follows — “ Denique filio meo 
 “ modestius renitenti incentivum adliibui, ut tractatulum 
 “ ilium algebraicum, Julianse periodo (e cyclis in liistoria 
 “ datis) expiscandse accommodatissimum, sudante jam 
 hoc prselo Oxoniensi, praefigi finiret.” 
 
 The manner in which, and the persons by whom, 
 Sir Christopher Wren was educated, his family con- 
 nections with the royal cause, and the persecutions 
 they suffered from the Protector, occasioned much 
 trouble to the young student, and had such an effect 
 upon his mind as to cause a remarkable dream, which 
 is recorded by Aubrey, the antiquary and topographer, 
 of Wiltshire, on Wren’s own authority. Being at his 
 father’s house, at Knoyle, in the year 1651, he dreamt 
 that he saw a fight in a great market town, which he 
 
44 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP I. 
 
 knew not, where some were flying and others pursuing, 
 and among those who fled he saw a kinsman of his 
 who went into Scotland with the King’s army. The 
 King, Charles II., they had heard was returned to 
 England, but in what part they knew not, till the 
 following night this kinsman came to his father’s 
 house for refuge, and brought news of the defeat of 
 Charles II., at Worcester, who had just before been 
 crowned at Scone. 
 
 Whilst Wren was thus pursuing his career towards 
 the eminence he subsequently attained, his illustrious 
 predecessor, Tnigo Jones, the most tasteful, perhaps, of 
 English Architects, was called from the troubles by 
 which his declining years were oppressed, to rest with 
 his fathers, in July 1652. The veteran architect re- 
 tired from a stage which he had so greatly honoured, 
 as if to make way for his worthy successor, ere those 
 who knew not how to appreciate such genius thrust 
 him off. 
 
 Inigo Jones was the reviver of a pure taste for clas- 
 sical architecture in England, in a period when nothing 
 worthy to be called a style prevailed. The mixed ano- 
 malous art, that was brought into England, after the 
 decline and fall of the Tudor style, by ornamental and 
 scenic painters from Flanders and other parts of the 
 Netherlands, obtained the patronage of the wealthy 
 portion of the community, from mere caprice, and 
 to be in the fashion. This bad taste prevailed at 
 Court, and spread into the provinces from the middle 
 of the reign of Henry VIII. till the time of James 1., 
 
A. D. 1()52] 
 
 ELIZABETHAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 45 
 
 and the artists Zucchero and Holbein were its parents 
 in England, and their royal patron Elizabeth its spon- 
 sor. Henry obtained part of his taste from the gor- 
 geous pomp of the field of gold, when he met his great- 
 minded adversary Francis I. During this period, more 
 than three-fourths of a century, this wild vine revelled 
 in capricious disorder, and produced nothing but rank 
 misrepresentations of Iloman and Palladian architec- 
 ture, the fruit of classical correctness engrafted upon a 
 wild Flemish stock. This bastard style consisted of 
 orders built upon orders, bows of all shapes, niches of 
 every form, grotesque shells and rampant foliage, he- 
 raldic animals, “ gorgons and hydras and chimeras dire," 
 tossed about with reckless redundancy and picturesque 
 caprice. Half-timbered houses of divers colours, 
 “ black spirits and white, blue spirits and gray,” grin- 
 ning horrible defiance to good taste, infecting alike our 
 language and our art. It terminated its career, to 
 show to what height architectural absurdity could soar, 
 in the portal entrance to the Schools in Oxford, wherein 
 the five orders of Italian architecture, caricatured in 
 the worst taste, are piled upon each other, the brawny 
 Tuscan at the bottom, surmounted by the loftier Doric, 
 and with the matronly Ionic, the feminine Corinthian, 
 and the hectic Composite upon the top, stratum super 
 stratum, crown the absurdity. Yet these are the mon- 
 strous wonders that the copyists, degeneratists and 
 precedent-mongers are dragging from their cemeteries, 
 to pervert into schools, colleges, workhouses, baths and 
 wash-houses, ale-houses, gin-shops and hospitals, what- 
 
40 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [a 
 
 IIAP. I. 
 
 ever be tlieir character ; penal or jovial, scholastic or 
 bacchanalian, all must wear this motly garb, to the 
 utter destruction of characteristic architecture, and the 
 stifling of inventive genius, the surest test of the 
 artist-architect. 
 
 This aberration of taste received a mortal blow on 
 the return of Prince Charles and his gay companions 
 from their continental torn 1 , who rubbed off their 
 Elizabethan pedantry by foreign travel, and brought 
 home a better taste in art. Vandyke and Rubens 
 superseded Holbein and Zucchero, substituting nature 
 and truth for dry and tasteless affectation ; and the genius 
 of Inigo Jones superseded the nameless architects of 
 the Elizabethan style, which every man of refined taste 
 must lament to see drawn from those cerements in 
 which they had been quietly inurned. 
 
 The Roman or Italian style of architecture, skilfully 
 adapted to modern domestic economy, was introduced 
 into England by Inigo Jones, who exercised his art with 
 classical purity and tasteful elegance, in the reigns of 
 James I. and Charles I. The most distinguished 
 works of this great artist, are his adaptation of one of 
 Palladio’s finest Italian palaces, built for the magnate 
 Biaggio Saraceno at Vicenza, to the quadrifrontal villa 
 at Amesbury, in Wiltshire, which proves the truth of 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds's aphorism, that skilful adapta- 
 tions are not always plagiarisms. Also the Queen’s 
 house, on the northern side of Greenwich Park, which 
 now forms an appropriate centre to the Royal Naval 
 School, and at the same time, an admirable back- 
 
A. 1). 1652 
 
 BEDFORD-IIOUSE, BLOOMSBURY. 
 
 47 
 
 ground to the Royal Hospital, as viewed from the 
 river ; Shaftesbury House, Ahlcrsgatc Street, formerly 
 the town mansion of the nobleman of that title, and 
 now divided into a series of shops, and the establish- 
 ment of the General Dispensary ; some town-houses 
 on the southern side of Long Acre, £lic Corinthian 
 capitals of which, and their pilasters, are still in exis- 
 tence ; some mansions on the west side of Lincoln’s- 
 inn-fields, the ground-plot of which he set out the 
 same size as the base of the great Egyptian pyramid ; 
 and the great piazza of Covent Garden, which is fast 
 disappearing under the innovations of speculative 
 builders. 
 
 Among Jones’s most celebrated mansions, was that 
 of the late Dukes of Bedford, which occupied the 
 whole north side of Bloomsbury Square, and, with its 
 spacious gardens and pleasure grounds, the entire areas 
 of Tavistock and Russell Squares, almost up to the 
 New Road. It was taken down to give place to the 
 more profitable occupation of its site, by rows of houses 
 that form that brown brick suburb of the metropolis. 
 I well remember it, as a complete Italian Gila, care- 
 fully adapted to our variable climate, and contai nin g, 
 among its state apartments, an extensive picture gal- 
 lery. Among its treasures was the fine set of copies 
 of Raffaelle’s cartoons, painted in flat turpentine co- 
 lours, by Sir James Thornhill, and presented to the 
 Royal Academy of Arts, by Francis Duke of Bedford, 
 at the demolition of Bedford House. 
 
 Another of his fine buildings is ITarcourt House, 
 
48 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 on the west side of Cavendish Square, still existing in 
 almost its primitive state. This is not an upholsterer’s 
 mansion, all carpeting, paper-hanging, and papier- 
 mache e ; but a solid, substantial edifice, of sound brick 
 and stone work, -with marble sculptures, fine oak car- 
 vings, noble apartments, and fine staircases which lead 
 to princely chambers ; built to endure for ages, and for 
 the occupation of a noble English family, which can 
 boast, like the Italian notables of old, that it was built 
 by their ancestors generations ago, and has never been 
 occupied by any but of their own race. To do justice 
 to his architect the noble founder of the building has 
 placed his bust in a conspicuous part of the principal 
 front. 
 
 Among other of Jones’s works still extant, is the 
 dormitory of Westminster School, the exterior of which 
 is marked by the prevailing character of his style, a 
 correct manly simplicity, and a just proportion of the 
 component parts, characteristic of its use. The inte- 
 rior of the upper story is plain, and sufficiently adapted 
 for the aristocratic scions who occupy it ; and is occa- 
 sionally used as a theatre for the performance of Latin 
 plays by the Westminster scholars. 
 
 In enumerating the works of this eminent architect, 
 his vast and splendid portico of the old Cathedral of 
 St. Paul, that was destroyed by the great fire of London, 
 must not be omitted. Its proportions and dimensions 
 may be seen in the collection of Jones’s architectural 
 works, collected and published by Kent in 1727, at the 
 expense of the Earl of Burlington, himself no mean 
 
A. D. 1652] 
 
 THE FINEST BARN IN EUROPE. 
 
 49 
 
 architect. But the vastness and Grandeur of this mag;- 
 nificent portico, superior to any in England, and perhaps 
 in Europe, may be better imagined than described. 
 Of the propriety of affixing a Corinthian portico to a 
 Gothic cathedral, much cannot be said in defence ; but 
 it has been supposed that the architect contemplated 
 the rebuilding of the church as a Christian cathedral, 
 like that of St. Peter of Rome, in a similar style with 
 his portico. 
 
 These works and some unexecuted designs, with 
 other buildings of minor importance, preserved in 
 Kent’s before-mentioned collection, show the fertility 
 of Jones’s mind, and the skill with which he adapted 
 the best styles of Roman and Italian Architecture to 
 the domestic conveniences of an English family in our 
 variable climate. His church of St. Paul, Covent 
 Garden, which he built for the parsimonious Duke of 
 Bedford, who spent so much money upon his Blooms- 
 bury mansion, that he had but little left for the house 
 of God, and told his architect, that he wanted a mere 
 barn for his Co vent Garden tenants. The artist bowed 
 compliance, but assured his noble patron, that it should 
 be the finest barn in Europe, and well did he redeem his 
 promise ; for it proves the skill with which this taste- 
 ful and ingenious artist could use the plainest style and 
 the humblest materials. It produced the desired effect, 
 both as to the patron’s pocket and the architect’s fame. 
 It stands alone as a master-piece of frugal taste, the 
 work surpassing the material. It is the only specimen 
 
 E 
 
WREN AND 11IS TIMES- 
 
 50 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 of the true Yitmvian Tuscan ever known to have been 
 executed. 
 
 IIeriot’s Hospital, near Edinburgh, an early work of 
 the artist, before he had matured his taste by foreign 
 travel, and a study of the best models of ancient and 
 modern art, has little to recommend it, except the sim- 
 plicity and aptitude of the design to its intended 
 purpose. 
 
 Jones’s greatest work, is the magnificent palace 
 which he designed for James I., to be built at White- 
 hall. The Banquetting-house, now used as a military 
 chapel, is the only portion of the grand scheme that 
 was erected, it would have covered an immense plot 
 of ground, extending from Charing Cross on the north 
 to Richmond Buildings, by Parliament Street on the 
 south, and from the River Thames on the east to the 
 parade in St. James’s Park on the west, including the 
 site now occupied by the Treasury buildings, Mel- 
 bourne House, the Horse Guards and the Admiralty 
 offices, etc., as far as Spring Gardens. Four buildings, 
 similar in external design with the Banquetting-house, 
 are in the design, one opposite to it, and the others, 
 one near Scotland Yard, and the other opposite thereto, 
 and were to be used respectively as a banquetting-room, 
 a royal chapel, a throne-room, and a hall of audience. 
 They were to have been connected by a variety of state 
 and domestic apartments, official residences, spacious 
 courts for light and air, and every requisite accommo- 
 dation fit for a royal palace for the greatest Monarch 
 in Europe. The circular court, surrounded by an 
 
A. D. 1652] WILLIAM HERBERT, EARL OF PEMBROKE. 
 
 51 
 
 arcade, supported by statues, tlicnce called the Court 
 of Caryatides, is one of tlio finest ideas that was ever 
 devised by the mind of an architect. The whole 
 design is a perfect school for an architectural student, 
 and would furnish texts for a series of lectures 
 on architectural expression or appropriate character, 
 arrangement, grandeur, internal arrangement and do- 
 mestic comfort, worthy the talents of the most accom- 
 plished architect of the day. 
 
 During the time employed by Inigo Jones in study- 
 ing the works of the great masters of his art in Italy, 
 it is probable that he encountered his eminent country- 
 man, Sir Henry Wotton, in Venice, as this tasteful 
 connoisseur and able illustrator of the Vitravian art 
 was then ambassador from King James to the Doge. 
 The King’s brother-in-law, Christian IV. of Denmark, 
 who had heard of Inigo’s fame from that city of canals 
 and palaces, introduced him to the British Monarch, 
 who thereupon appointed him his architect. 
 
 Jones’s style after his return from Italy, bears 
 record to liis improvement in taste and purity, in fact, 
 he may be called the reformed Palladio. He visited 
 Italy twice, and enjoyed the friendship and patronage 
 of the celebrated Earl of Pembroke, and of other en- 
 lightened and accomplished men, native and foreign. 
 
 William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, a noble poet 
 and a munificent patron of literature and art, em- 
 ployed Inigo to make additions to his family seat at 
 Wilton, the porch of which was the work of Holbein. 
 Jones’s classical additions are apparent, and contrast 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [c 
 
 HAP. I. 
 
 nobly with the trivial and petty conceits of the other 
 parts. The triumphal arch is grand, and presents an 
 imposing effect in many points of view. It is also 
 remarkable, from the position of the equestrian statue 
 which surmounts its summit, being sideways with 
 the front and rear of the arch, like that of the Duke 
 of Wellington in Piccadilly, which occasioned so much 
 discussion at the time of its erection. The accom- 
 plished mother of this accomplished son, was sister 
 to the chivalric brothers, Sir Robert and Sir Philip 
 Sidney, as is commemorated by Ben Johnson in his 
 admired epitaph on this lady — 
 
 Underneath this sable hearse 
 Lies the subject of all verse ; 
 Sidney’s sister, Pembroke’s mother. 
 Death ere thou hast kill’d another. 
 Fair and learn’ d and good as she, 
 Time shall throw a dart at thee. 
 
 The quadrangle of St, John’s College, Oxford, is 
 among the works of this architect, which, with the 
 Chapel Royal St, James’s, and the Chapel of Lincoln’s 
 Inn, shows how little feeling he had of our best English 
 ecclesiastical style of architecture. Coleshill, in Berk- 
 shire, Cobliam Hall in Kent, and the Grange, in 
 Hampshire, show with what skill and taste he adapted 
 the beauties of Italian architecture to the comforts of 
 English domestic life, and the variableness of our 
 climate. 
 
 Inigo Jones, like Wren and Hilton, was a Lon- 
 doner, born in the neighbourhood of St. Paul’s, about 
 
a. d. 1652] king of Denmark’s visit to james i. 
 
 53 
 
 tlie year 1572. His father was a Cloth worker and 
 apprenticed him to a carpenter and joiner, in which 
 trades he exhibited great dexterity, and a manifest 
 love for drawing, not only architectural and mechanical 
 diagrams, but also in landscape painting, a specimen of 
 which is in the Duke of Devonshire’s collection at Chis- 
 wick House. These talents recommended him to 
 the Earl of Arundel and the Earl of Pembroke, by 
 the latter of whom, he was sent to France and Italy. 
 When he was in Home, he found himself in a con- 
 genial sphere, and accompanied by men of similar 
 minds, lie visited the palaces and royal residences of 
 Pome, Florence, Milan, Venice and other parts of 
 tasteful Italy. In this tour he became so renowned 
 that the Danish King sent for him from Venice to 
 Copenhagen, and appointed him his architect. 
 
 When the King of Denmark paid a royal visit to 
 King James, who had married his sister, the Princess 
 Anne, he brought his honoured architect in his suite. 
 On his arrival in London, he was appointed architect 
 to the Queen and to Prince Henry, on whose death 
 he revisited the classic land of Italy, taking with him 
 the reversionary appointment from King James of 
 Surveyor General of His Majesty’s Works. On his 
 second return, he began that brilliant career of art, 
 which has just been briefly sketched. That Jones’s 
 taste was improved, and his mind enlarged by his con- 
 stant association with Lord Bacon, the Earl of Pem- 
 broke, Sir Henry Wotton, Ben Jonson, and other 
 illustrious Englishmen, as well as with learned and 
 accomplished foreigners, is clear from the improved 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 34 
 
 [chap. i. 
 
 style of his works after his travels. One maxim of 
 Lord Bacon, Jones seems to have followed' — that 
 houses are built to live in, not to look at ; and his 
 description of a palace, in the forty-fifth of his incom- 
 parable essays, that “ On Building,” he gives a des- 
 cription of a royal palace, in opposition to such huge, 
 showy buildings as the Vatican, the Escurial and 
 others, so much in the style of arrangement adopted 
 by Jones in his design for that of King James, that 
 proves kindred spirits, if not consociation on the sub- 
 ject, between the great philosopher and the great 
 architect. 
 
 On the death of King James, Jones was continued 
 in his offices and favour by his son and successor, 
 King Charles, and became associated in his tasteful 
 employments with Bubens, Vandyke, Chapman, the 
 first translator of the whole of Homer’s works into 
 English, whose version Waller could never read with- 
 out emotion, nor Pope without profit ; Sir William 
 Davenant, whose life was saved by Milton duiing the 
 Protectorate, and who did the same land favour for 
 Milton after the Restoration of Monarchy ; Ben Jon- 
 son, and Daniel, the poet and historian, the friend of 
 Lord Pembroke, tutor to the celebrated Lady Anne 
 Clifford, and the successor of Spencer in the laureate- 
 ship, of whom Southey sweetly sings — 
 
 That wreath which in Eliza’s golden days, 
 
 My master dear, divinest Spenser wore ; 
 
 That which rewarded Drayton’s learned lays, 
 
 Which thoughtful Ben and gentle Daniel wore. 
 
 Grin, Envy, through thy rugged mask of hom ! 
 
 In honour it was given, in honour is it worn. 
 
A. D. 1C52J 
 
 JONES AND WREN COMPARED. 
 
 Jones also designed buildings for Rubens, the Prince 
 of Colourists, to decorate with his gorgeous pencil ; 
 together with scenes, machines, decorations, dresses, 
 and embellishments for poetical masques, plays, etc. 
 for the most illustrious poets of his time. He was more 
 of an artist, by education than Wren, had a finer taste 
 in art, had seen more of the best works of the 2 Teat 
 Italian and ancient Roman masters, had associated 
 more with wits and men of pleasure than his eminent 
 successor ; but he was less of a mathematician, had a 
 less expanded mind, and was less of a philosopher. 
 Among Wren’s architectural works, perhaps there is not 
 one, that equals Jones’s water-gate at the bottom of 
 Buckingham Street, York Buildings, for invention and 
 taste; and certainly nothing of Jones’s equals in scien- 
 tific construction anything executed by Wren. 
 
 After the death of Charles I, Jones adhered to the 
 family and party of his royal master. Being both a 
 cavalier and a papist, he suffered in the civil wars ; 
 was heavily fined as a malignant, persecuted in every 
 way, and brought down to the grave by sorrow and 
 suffering in the eightieth year of his pilgrimage, the 
 21st July 1652. His honoured remains were quietly 
 entombed in the church of St. Bennet, Paul’s Wharf, 
 a short distance from the spot, where he drew his first 
 breath. 
 
 Philosophers must unbend, and the philosophers of 
 “ the club” and of Gresham, did sometimes relax the 
 tenuity of their bow, and leave it but slightly strung. 
 The drama was one of their relaxations, but nothing 
 
56 
 
 WHEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CIIAP. I. 
 
 less classical than the productions of Greece and Rome 
 befitted the flowing wigs and doctorial gowns of 
 these lovers of sober gravity. One of these amuse- 
 ments is recorded by Isaac Reed, the learned and 
 acute editor of Shakspeare’s works, and the best read 
 man of his day, in the dramatic history and literature 
 of the best ages. In an old quarto play, that belonged 
 to this eminent dramatic critic and collector, he has 
 written “ This is the play in which Sir Christopher 
 “ Wren, our great English architect, performed the 
 “ character of Neanias, before the Elector Palatine, 
 “ Dr. Seth Ward, and many others, probably in 1652 . 
 “ Isaac Reed, 1801 .” The title of the comedy in 
 question is “ Hey for Honesty, down with Knavery. 
 “ Translated out of Aristophanes his Plutus, by Thomas 
 “ Randolph : augmented and published by F. J., Lon- 
 “ don : printed in the year 1651 .” Mr. Reed does not 
 mention whether it was the original, or the translation 
 by Randolph, the broth er-in-the-muses to Ben Johnson, 
 and author of “ The Muse’s Looking-glass,” and other 
 comedies of great merit. Wren is not our only archi- 
 tect who has diverted himself with Thespian sports ; 
 Vanburgli was not only the architect to the original 
 Hay market Theatre, but was joint manager thereof 
 with Congreve, and contributed many very witty, if 
 not particularly decent comedies for the gratification 
 of the licentious audiences of his period. John Nash, 
 also, who built the present exterior and the recent 
 interior, was both an actor and an architect, delighting 
 country audiences at Wrexham, with his Lord Ogleby 
 
A. D. 1 653 J 
 
 THEATRICAL ARCHITECTS. 
 
 57 
 
 in Lis younger days, and disfiguring the British metro- 
 polis in his elder days, with many instances of unre- 
 fined taste, some of which scarcely survived their per- 
 petrator, who has given his name to the Nash-ional 
 style of the early part of the nineteenth century. 
 Charles Matthews, the younger, was originally educated 
 as an architect under the elder Pugin, and held an 
 office conjointly with the writer of these pages, of sur- 
 veyors to a Fire-insurance Company. Mr. Jones, the 
 admirable genteel comedian of Covent Garden Theatre, 
 and since professor and teacher of elocution, was also 
 of the architectural profession. 
 
 In November, 1653, Wren was elected a Fellow of 
 All-Soul’s College, Oxford, a month after he had com- 
 pleted his one-and-twentietli year, and in the following 
 month proceeded to the degree of Master of Arts. 
 Although his time was fully occupied in his studies, 
 and in attending the Oxford branch of Greshamites, 
 he went up to London to justify his claim to the in- 
 vention of the diplographic instrument, and appealed 
 to the judges in behalf of that right. In his letter to 
 Dr. Wilkins, to whom, as well as to Oliver Cromwell, 
 he appeals as witnesses to the priority of his invention, 
 he calls the latter, “ the then great, now greatest 
 “ person in the nation,” he alludes to this memorable 
 year, wherein Cromwell dissolved the long parliament, 
 put an end to the parliamentary democracy, and pro- 
 claimed the nation to be a Commonwealth, and himself 
 Sovereign, with the title of Lord High Protector of 
 England. Thus, the then great man became now the 
 
58 
 
 WREN AND IIIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 greatest man in the nation, and, as Lord High Pro- 
 tector, made peace with Holland. This year also 
 witnessed the solemn abdication of the crown of Sweden 
 by the youthful, accomplished, and eccentric Christina, 
 who has been previously alluded to in these pages, 
 that she might have freedom to prosecute those licen- 
 tious plans of ideal happiness, which presented them- 
 selves to her imagination. 
 
 In spite of these political and moral hurricanes 
 which at this time convulsed all Europe ; literature, 
 science, nut, pleasure and philosophy, flourished in the 
 gay, unthinking and profligate capital of France, then 
 the resort of the exiled King and his friends, the gal- 
 lant cavaliers who shared his misfortunes ; and more 
 healthily in the sacred recesses of Oxford and Gres- 
 ham, in sober reflecting England. Wren and his 
 philosophical colleagues proceeded in their labours of 
 love, amidst bullets and brawls, almost in danger of 
 the fate of their predecessor, Archimedes, from the 
 brutal Homan soldier, who, in spite of the commands 
 of his General, Marccllus, slew the unconscious disco- 
 verer of the doctrine of gravitation, whilst delineating 
 an experimental diagram in the sand. 
 
 Germany, released from the soul-enslaving tram- 
 mels of paganized Christianity, added to the intellec- 
 tual wealth of nations. About this time, Otto Gue- 
 ricke, educated in the leading universities of Protes- 
 tant Germany, improved by travel among the learned, 
 the spiritual, and the philosophical men of France and 
 England, settled at Magdeburg, under the patronage 
 
otto gueiiicke’s pneumatic imp. 
 
 59 
 
 A. 1). 
 
 1654 -] 
 
 of the Elector of Brandenburg, to whom lie became a 
 Privy Councillor, and held the important office of 
 Burgermeister and Consul to that fortified city. His 
 researches into the doctrine of pneumatics, particularly 
 as to the pressure of the atmosphere, contained in the 
 “ Experimenta Magdcburgica,” which he published in 
 1672, led to the investigation of this science ; and 
 the year 1654 is the reputed date of the invention of 
 the air-pump. The discovery of atmospheric pressure 
 began by the application of two brass hemispheres, 
 perfectly fitted to each other, which, being applied to- 
 gether, and the included air exhausted by his pump, 
 sixteen horses were not able to separate them. He 
 also invented what lie called the glass marmoset, 
 which descended in a tube in rainy weather, and rose 
 ao-ain when it became fair. This last machine fell into 
 
 o 
 
 disuse on the invention of the barometer, which has 
 been attributed to Sir Christopher Wren, till which 
 time Guericke used his marmoset to foretel storms, 
 and made many of the German peasants to look 
 upon the philosopher as a sorcerer, and the magic figure 
 as his imp. On one occasion his house was struck 
 with lightning, and many of the curious machines and 
 instruments which he had constructed for his philoso- 
 phical experiments having been injured, they asserted 
 that it was a judgment of Heaven for his impiety. 
 
 Wren and the more quiet members of these philo- 
 sophical associations pursued their investigations in 
 Oxford ; but others although attached to these studies, 
 were forced by circumstances to enter upon the more 
 
GO 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [C 
 
 IIAP. I. 
 
 active stage of public affairs, yet did not entirely give 
 up their studies. John Evelyn, who every where does 
 justice to his young contemporary, says in his diary 
 for this year, 1654, “ July 11, was the Latin sermon, 
 “ which I could not be at, being taken up at All 
 “ Souls’, where we had music, voices and theorboes, per- 
 “ formed by some ingenious scholars. After dinner I 
 “ visited that miracle of a youth, Mr. Christopher 
 “ Wren, nephew to the Bishop of Ely.” In another 
 of his works, “ Sculptura, or the History and Art of 
 Chalcography, or Engraving on Copper,” he gives the 
 following testimony, after some commendation of men 
 of science — “ Such at present is that rare and early 
 “ prodigy of universal science, Dr. Christopher Wren, 
 “ our worthy and accomplished friend.” 
 
 If the invention of the barometer is not entirely 
 due to Wren, he added so much to its improvement, 
 and boasted so little of his multitudinous productions, 
 that there is little wonder at its being attributed to 
 him. His was the age of philosophical inquiry, expe- 
 riment and discovery, and his was just the mind to 
 dart upon a suggestion, and improve it to a practical 
 purpose. In 1655, Mr. Henry Oldenburg, a native of 
 the Duchy of Bremen, a relative of the Count Olden- 
 burg, of Westphalia, came to London as Consul for his 
 native town, but preferring science and literature to 
 politics and commerce, he entered himself a student 
 in the University of Oxford, by the name and addition 
 of “ ILenricus Oldenburg, Bremensis nobilis Saxo"".” 
 
 * Martin’s Biograpliia Philosophica, p. 409. 
 
OLDENBURG S TREACHERY. 
 
 61 
 
 A. D. 1655J 
 
 Ho was soon admitted a member of the Philosophical 
 Society, and when it began to assume a more regular 
 form, became its first secretary, and afterwards one of 
 the original members of the Royal Society. This 
 person was suspected of clandestinely t conveying the 
 discoveries and inventions of his associates to France 
 and Germany. The author of Parentalia asserts that 
 he did so, and particularly many of Wren’s,, which 
 were claimed and published by others as his own. As 
 a corroboration of the truth of this conduct, is the fact, 
 that Oldenburg was imprisoned in the Tower on sus- 
 picion of carrying on a treasonable correspondence with 
 the exiled royalists, and subsequently discharged, on 
 his correspondence not being political. Evelyn men- 
 tions, in his diary, that he visited Mr. Oldenburg, a 
 close prisoner in the Tower, being suspected of writing- 
 political intelligence ; and expresses his con Action that 
 he will prove innocent of treasonable correspondence. 
 The discovery that his communications were not politi- 
 cal, probably led to his discharge, but renders the 
 charge of betraying the secrets of the Society, with 
 which the Government had no concern, by so much 
 the stronger. 
 
 This breach of trust, may, or may not have carried 
 the experiments, then in progress, on the barometer, 
 to the continental philosophers ; but the date generally 
 ascribed to its invention by Torricelli*, the friend and 
 amanuensis of Galileo, and one of the most able pro- 
 fessors of mathematics, physics and astronomy, in 
 
 * JBuon a ventura’s Life of Torricelli. 
 
62 
 
 WREN AND IIIS TIMES. 
 
 [ C 
 
 HAP. I. 
 
 Europe, who was born four-and-twenty years before 
 Wren, and died in the nine-and-thirtieth year of his 
 age, when the latter had scarcely accomplished his 
 fifteenth year, takes away all claim to the original 
 invention from Wren or any of the Gresham professors. 
 
 Torricelli, under the instruction of his great master, 
 Galileo, and the protection of then* mutual patron, 
 Ferdinand IT., Grand Duke of Tuscany, pursued the 
 same studies as the Gresham philosophers, made many 
 improvements in the construction of microscopes and 
 telescopes, and is generally considered to have been 
 the first to ascertain the weight of a column of ah*, 
 by the neater and more scientific mode of mercury 
 in a glass tube, instead of the ruder method of estab- 
 lishing the same fact, by a much greater tube filled 
 with water or wine. This more perfect instrument, 
 the barometer, or baroscope, as it was then called, is 
 therefore affiliated to this ingenious man, and named 
 after him, the Torricellian tube. 
 
 Dil William Derham, an eminent philosopher and 
 divine, well known by his works on Physico and 
 Astro-theology, in his account of the philosophical ex- 
 periments and observations of Dr. Hooke and others, 
 says, “ the inventor of the barometer was Torricelli in 
 “ 1643. Yet to do every one justice,” he adds, “the 
 “ real use of the instrument, and the discovery that it 
 “ was the gravitation of the atmosphere regulated the 
 “ height of the quicksilver, which the learned abroad, 
 “ particularly Torricelli, had only suspected, was first 
 “ demonstrated by Boyle on the suggestion of Wren. 
 
A. D. 1655] 
 
 INVENTION OF THE BAROMETER. 
 
 63 
 
 “ Before this discovery, the rise and fall of the mercury 
 “in the tube had been erroneously attributed to the 
 “ moon’s influence upon fluids, as in the instance of 
 “ tidal phenomena.” 
 
 Dr. Deriiam, on the authority of d scientific friend, 
 whom lie does not name, says, that “ Torricelli in- 
 “ vented the barometer when lie was assisting Galileo, 
 “ and that it was brought from Florence, by some of 
 “ the numerous friends of Father Mersenne, better 
 “ known by his scholastic name Marinus Mascnnus, 
 “ the schoolfellow and friend of Descartes, and the dis- 
 “ coverer of the cyclodial curve, which he called, curve 
 “ roulette ; and communicated by him to the French 
 “ savans in 1644. Pascal was informed of it, by M. 
 “ Petit, a well known mathematician and civil engineer, 
 “ intendant general of fortifications under Louis XIV, 
 “ and they conjointly made experiments with the newly 
 “ invented instrument at Pouen, and became convinced 
 “ of its truth by repeated trials which were attended 
 “ with the same results as in Florence.” 
 
 Shortly after these experiments, they made some 
 others, with a tube forty-six feet in length, filled some- 
 times with water, and at others with wine ; accounts 
 of which were published by Pascal, in his treatise “ On 
 “ the Equilibrium of Fluids, and on the Weight of the 
 “ Air,” published in 1647, the year wherein Pascal was 
 first informed of the important discovery. Pascal, whose 
 genius developed itself as early in life as Wren’s, de- 
 vised an instrument for the same purpose with double 
 tubes, one inside of the other, which he described in 
 
64 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 1647, and witli additions in 1648. He tried these in- 
 struments on the summits of hills and buildings, and 
 in valleys of various depths. These experiments were 
 subsequently claimed by Descartes, on the ground that 
 he had suggested them, predicting the results, which 
 Pascal had doubted. 
 
 The new instrument soon attracted the attention of 
 the patriarchal philosopher, Valeriano Bolzano, the 
 learned tutor of Hippolyto and Alexander de Medicis, 
 the nephews of Pope Clement VII, and the companion 
 of the most celebrated scholars of his age, and was 
 speedily communicated by him to his friend and cor- 
 respondent Otto Guericke, whom he met at Batisbon, 
 in 1644. These are among the circumstances that 
 gave rise to the suspicion of Oldenburg, “ nohilis Saxo ” 
 having communicated the Oxford experiments and 
 discoveries, as they transpired, to his countrymen and 
 friends in Germany and France. 
 
 The share which Wren had in this important dis- 
 covery, may be collected from the register books of the 
 Royal Society of London, wherein it is recorded, that 
 at a meeting in 1678, when Descartes still adhered to 
 his tlieoiy that the rise and fall of the fluids in the tube 
 were occasioned by the moon’s influence, and the French 
 and Italian experiments where upon theories also dis- 
 tinct from those in England, several discussions took 
 place upon the barometer, and the pressure of the at- 
 mosphere. On one of these important discussions, 
 Viscount Brouncker, its first President, was in the chair, 
 and the subject was clearly explained, and its phoeno- 
 
A. D. 1655] 
 
 ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA. 
 
 65 
 
 mena elucidated by Dr. Hooke and other members ; 
 the debate was adjourned to a subsequent meeting, 
 when Mr. Henshaw, the intimate friend* and tra- 
 velling companion of John Evelyn, and Vice-president, 
 was in the chair. “ The minutes of the last meeting,” 
 says Dr. Birch, in his History of the Royal Society, 
 “ gave occasion to discourse further concerning the 
 theory, and from what causes the variations thereof 
 might proceed. Some of the members were of opinion 
 that they were caused by the ebbing and flowing of the 
 air, like a tide, but with inconstant motions. Dr. Hooke 
 repeated his opinion, that it was caused by the variable 
 pressure of the atmosphere, with a promise to elucidate 
 his theory by experiments, at the next meeting. Sir 
 Jonas Moore, who was mathematical tutor to the Duke 
 of York, afterwards James II., and is entitled to the 
 gratitude of posterity, for having, when President of 
 Christ’s Hospital, caused the establishment of the 
 mathematical school in that seminary of useful learning, 
 informed the Society, that he had in his possession 
 some papers by Mr. Townley, and some of later date 
 by Mr. Flamstead, who had constructed two barometers 
 for him, to the same effect.” 
 
 * Evelyn’s opinion of this gentleman may be collected from letters 
 in his diary, and from the following dedication of some etchings of views 
 between Rome and Naples, to his fellow traveller — “ Domino Dom. 
 Thomas Henshaw, Anglo, omnium eximiarum et prsedarissimarum 
 artium cultori ac propugnatori maximo, et avru (non propter 
 
 operis pretium, sed ut’ singulare amoris sui testimonium exhibeat) 
 primas has d^o>u/ J i.xtns aqua forti excusas et insculptas, Jo. Evelynus 
 delineator. D. D. C. Q.” 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [0 
 
 HAP. T. 
 
 From these proceedings, it appears that experiments 
 had been formerly tried, and the Society resolved to 
 try others, and to inquire how the experiment of the 
 different pressure of the atmosphere came first to be 
 thought of. To this question it was replied, “ that 
 it was first propounded by Sir Christopher Wren, 
 in order to examine M. Descartes’ hypothesis, 
 whether the body of the moon presses upon the air, 
 and consequently, also, upon the body of the water ; 
 and that the first trial thereof was made at Mr. Boyle’s 
 chamber in Oxford.” The rest of the debate by 
 the chairman, Mr. Henshaw, Drs. Halley, Grew and 
 Croune, which all tend to prove, whoever may have 
 been the inventor of the tube, that Wren is entitled 
 to the merit of ascertaining its nature and properties, 
 the cause of its fluctuations, and of its use in deter- 
 mining the gravity of the air. Dr. Hooke had also 
 observed, that the height of the mercury in the tube 
 did not conform itself to the moon’s motion, as affirmed 
 by Descartes, but to the different gravity of the at- 
 mosphere. 
 
 Notwithstanding these facts, the author of a work, . 
 entitled “ Traitez de l’equilibre de liqueurs, etc.” pub- 
 lished in Paris, 1664, some years after these experi- 
 ments at Oxford, attribute the discovery of the gravita- 
 tion of the air to Pascal, from experiments made by 
 him about the year 1650, at Clermont in Auvergne ; by 
 M. Perier ; in Paris, by other savans ; and in Stock- 
 holm, by M. M. Descartes and Chanute. “ If these 
 statements be true, it is certainly strange,” as Dr. Der- 
 
A. D. 1 655 | 
 
 milton’s childhood. 
 
 67 
 
 ham observes, “ that it should not have been applied to 
 the use of so beneficial an instrument sooner, which is 
 no where proved, till after these experiments and ob- 
 servations at Oxford.” 
 
 While these men of peace and lovers of science 
 were thus pursuing their beloved avocations in their 
 seclusion at Oxford, the men of more worldly pursuits 
 and warlike habits, did not entirely forget the Muses. 
 Milton was distinguished in early youth, for the purity 
 and elegance of his Latin versification, was an early 
 genius, and a staid and solemn boy, though full of 
 poetic fire. Read his own description of his school 
 life, and wonder not at the mighty soarings of his 
 full-plumed wing. 
 
 When I was yet a child, no childish play 
 To me was pleasing : all my mind was set 
 Serious to learn and know, and thence to do 
 What might be public good : myself I thought 
 Born to that end, born to promote all truth, 
 
 All righteous things. 
 
 His L’ Allegro and II Penseroso, his Comus and his 
 Lycidas, works of highest fame, are early productions. 
 He visited the land of song, tarrying in his progress 
 among congenial souls in Florence, Rome and Naples. 
 He shortened his tour, which he had proposed to have 
 extended to Sicily and Greece, on hearing of the con- 
 vulsions that disturbed the peace of his native country. 
 “ Born to promote all truth, all righteous things,” he 
 deemed it “ dishonourable,” he wrote to a friend in 
 England, “ to be lingering abroad for the improvement 
 
 f 2 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 68 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 of liis mind, while his fellow-citizens were contending 
 for their liberty at home.” In order to be of use to his 
 country, he used his classic pen, as Latin Secretary to 
 the Council, which formed the administrative govern- 
 ment of the Lord Protector, and wrote his “ Defensio 
 “ pro Populo Anglicano,” planned his immortal Para- 
 dise Lost, and left to posterity his profound Latin 
 Treatise, “ De Doctrina Christiana,” which the libe- 
 rality of George IV., in whose reign it was discovered 
 in the State Paper Office, gave to the world. 
 
 Neither did the stern Lord Protector despise the 
 softer amenities of the fine arts, sitting to Oliver the 
 miniature-painter, who had recorded the melancholy 
 lineaments of the unfortunate Charles, and desiring 
 the Vandyke of miniature, as he was named, to make 
 a faithful likeness, and copy warts and all : and the 
 coins and medals of the Protectorate, designed and 
 sunk by the inimitable Simon, were not only among 
 the finest in Europe, but have rarely been surpassed, 
 even by the eminent artists of our present mint. 
 
 Poetry, also, sometimes intruded into the puritanical 
 recesses of Cromwell’s Whitehall, when perchance the 
 stiffest of his Round-heads, were absent from council. 
 The gallant, gay and amatory Waller, whose always 
 smooth and sonorous, and sometimes lofty and heroic 
 versification, has tended so much to the improvement of 
 English poetry, paid his court to Cromwell ; and pre- 
 sented him the noblest tribute of his muse. On the 
 restoration, the pliant bard offered his Parnassian gra- 
 tidations to Charles II., which were so inferior to the 
 
A. D. 1655] 
 
 A POET-AMBASSADOR. 
 
 69 
 
 Cromwellian effusion, that “ the Merry Monarch” no- 
 ticed it to the would-be Laureate. “ Poets succeed 
 much better in fiction, She, than ii> truth,” was the 
 unabashed wit’s courtly reply. 
 
 A different fate befel another poet under similar 
 circumstances of poetic pliability and royal remem- 
 brance. Luigi Alamanni, who is as well known for 
 his politics as his poetry, having entered into a 
 conspiracy to overthrow the power of the Medici family 
 in Florence, his native city ; on the elevation of Guilio 
 de Medici to the Pontificate, he left Italy and attached 
 himself to the French monarch Francis I. During his 
 
 o 
 
 residence at the court of that Prince, he wrote a poem 
 called “ The Eagle,” against the Emperor Charles V. 
 making the imperial Eagle a bird of prey, well carnaged, 
 and at the same time, a sort of monster, with two heads 
 and two beaks, that it might be doubly destructive. 
 
 L’Aquila grifagna 
 Che per piu clivorar, duoi rostri porta. 
 
 On the re-establishment of peace between these 
 Potentates, Signor Alamanni, whose abilities as a 
 statesman, were highly estimated by the French King, 
 was despatched by him as Ambassador to the Emperor. 
 The envoy made a grand oration, attributing to his 
 imperial Majesty, the great and noble qualities of the 
 King of birds. As the diplomatic orator often repeated 
 “ l’Aquila,” and before he had completed his peroration, 
 the Emperor repeated gravely — 
 
 L’Aquila grifagna 
 Che per piu divorar, duoi rostri porta. 
 
 To which quotation Alamanni, nothing abashed, as 
 
7o 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAR. I. 
 
 gravely replied that when he wrote those verses, he 
 spoke as a poet, but now as an ambassador ; that it 
 was allowable for poets to lie, but Ambassadors should 
 always speak the truth. “ Magnanimo Principe/’ said 
 the audacious envoy, “ allora io raggionava come gli 
 Poeti aquali e lecito di favoleggiare : io raggiono in 
 questo discorso come im Ambasciatore die non devo 
 fingere.” 
 
 Robert Herrick too, sang in this grim and rugged 
 period, but it was in foreign lands, to which he was 
 exiled for loyalty to his King, and fidelity to his church, 
 of which he was an appointed minister. Rather than 
 remain at home with a people whom lie loved not, and 
 whose violence he abhorred, he suffered, in common 
 with many other faithful members of the episcopal 
 clergy, deprivation of his benefice, and followed the 
 broken fortunes of his fellow royalists. During this 
 exile he wrote his sorrows and his hopes, his threnodies 
 and his nuyee, his “ Hesperides” a garden of fruits 
 human and divine. This genuine poet deserves a better 
 notoriety than as a writer of the pretty but hacknied 
 ballad of “ Cherry ripe,” whilst some of the brightest 
 of his golden apples are ungathered, although unguarded 
 by any dragon. Read the following epitaph upon a 
 babe, sweet and gentle as the subject of his verse ; 
 
 Here she lies, a pretty hud, 
 
 Lately made of flesh and blood : 
 
 Who, as soon fell fast asleep, 
 
 As her little eyes did peep. 
 
 Give her strewings ; but not stir 
 The earth that lightly covers her. 
 
A. D. 1655] 
 
 ROBERT HERRICK. 
 
 71 
 
 (Jt one to a lady who died in child-bed and left a fe- 
 male infant to survive her : 
 
 As Gilly-flowers do but stay 
 To blow and seed, and so away ; 
 
 So you, sweet Lady, sweet as May, 
 
 The garden’s glory, liv’d awhile 
 To lend the world your scent and smile. 
 
 But when your own fair print was set, 
 
 In a virgin flosculet, 
 
 Sweet as yourself and newly blown, 
 
 To give that life, resign’d your own : 
 
 But so, as still the mother’s power 
 Lives in that pretty Lady-flower. 
 
 Or another who died in maidenhood : 
 
 H ere she lies, in bed of spice, 
 
 Fair as Eve in Paradise : 
 
 For her beauty it was such 
 Poets could not praise too much. 
 
 Virgins, come, and in a ring 
 Her supremest Requiem sing ; 
 
 Then depart, but see ye tread 
 Lightly, lightly, on the dead. 
 
 His epitaph upon a clerical friend, a residentiary, is 
 full of suggestive thoughts upon the remains of him he 
 wept, and of the tunes in which he departed from the 
 troubled world. 
 
 Tread, Sirs, as lightly as you can, 
 
 Upon the grave of this old man. 
 
 Twice forty, bating but one year 
 And thrice three weeks, he lived here, 
 
 Whom gentle fate translated hence, 
 
 To a more happy residence. 
 
 Y et, Reader, let me tell thee this, 
 
 Which from his ghost a promise is, 
 
 If here ye will a few tears shed 
 He’ll never haunt you, now he’s dead. 
 
72 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 The poet, herein, not only alludes to the ancient wish, 
 Sit tibi terra levis, but also to their belief, that till the 
 funeral rites had been fulfilled, and the tears of rela- 
 tives and friends duly shed upon the grave, the ghost 
 of the deceased could enjoy no rest hut would haunt 
 their slumbers till the pious debt had been paid. 
 
 Malherbe wrote an epitaph upon a centenarian in 
 a different spirit, when he makes his old man, desire 
 the reader to judge of him by the regret which Death 
 had to take him from a world, in which he had lived so 
 long, and with such glory. 
 
 N’attencl Passant, que de ma gloire, 
 
 Je te fasse une longue histoire, 
 
 Pleine de langage indiscret. 
 
 Que se loiie irrite l’envie : 
 
 Juge de moi par le regret 
 
 Qu’eut la Mort de m’oter la vie. 
 
 One of Herrick’s epitaphs upon himself, for he 
 wrote several, he addresses to his melodious namesake, 
 Robin Redbreast, to whom he gives the following in- 
 structions for his simple funeral. 
 
 Laid out for dead, let thy last kindness he, 
 
 With leaves and moss-work, for to cover me ; 
 
 And while the wood-nymphs my cold corpse inter, 
 
 Sing thou my dirge, sweet warbling chorister ! 
 
 For epitaph, in foliage, next write this — 
 
 fjerc ttje tom® of Motittt fBerricfe te ! 
 
 If it be said this is too epicurean for a Christian 
 Divine, it may be answered, that it is the pastoral 
 poet, exiled from the tombs of his ancestors, who 
 
A poet’s epitaph on himself. 
 
 73 
 
 A. U. 1655] 
 
 speaks. Here, however, is another in a more sober 
 vein. 
 
 » 
 
 As wearied pilgrims, once possest 
 Of long’d for lodgings, go to rest : 
 
 So I, now having rid my way, 
 
 Fix here my buttoned staff, and stay. 
 
 Youth, I confess, hath me misled, 
 
 But Age hath brought me, right, to bed. 
 
 In the following he laments his exile, and expresses 
 his desire to die at home, and sleep witli his ancestors. 
 
 If that my fate hath now fulfilled my year, 
 
 And so soon stopt my longer living here ; 
 
 What was’t, O God ! a dying man to save, 
 
 But while he met with his paternal grave ; 
 
 Though while we living ’bout the world do roam, 
 
 We love to rest in peaceful urns at home, 
 
 Where we may snug and close together lie, 
 
 By the dear bones of our dead ancestry. 
 
 Herrick, in another place, addresses the yew and 
 cypress to grace his funeral. 
 
 Both you two have 
 Relation to the grave : 
 
 And where 
 
 The fun’ral trump sounds, you are there. 
 
 I shall be made 
 
 Ere long, a fleeting shade : 
 
 Pray come, 
 
 And do some honour to my tomb. 
 
 Do not deny 
 
 My last request ; for I 
 
 Will be 
 
 Thankful to you, or friends for me. 
 
 In the first stanza, the poet alludes to the yew and 
 
74 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 cypress, being botli funereal trees, and tlie latter being 
 dedicated more especially to the grave. Ovid lias a 
 similar thought in his “ Funeris ara mihi, ferali cincta 
 cupressa.” Trist. III. Eleg. 13. 
 
 Herrick, like all of his pen-craft, was desirous of 
 immortality, and he expresses his aspiration for the 
 laurel wreath, with fervour, he says : 
 
 A funeral stone 
 Or verse I covet none ; 
 
 But only crave 
 Of yon, that I may have 
 A sacred laurel springing from my grave : 
 
 Which being seen, 
 
 Blest with perpetual green, 
 
 May grow to he 
 
 Not so much call’d a tree, 
 
 As the eternal monument of me. 
 
 The address to his winding sheet is full of medita- 
 tive thoughts, poetic feeling, and grave pathos. 
 
 HERRICK TO HIS WINDING-SHEET. 
 
 Come thou, who art the wine and wit 
 Of all I’ve writ : 
 
 The grace, the glory, and the best 
 Piece of the rest. 
 
 Thou art of what I did intend 
 
 The all and end. 
 
 And what was made, was made to meet 
 Thee, thee, my sheet. 
 
 Come, then, and he to my chaste side 
 Both bed and bride. 
 
 W e two as reliques left, will have 
 
 One rest, one grave. 
 
 And hugging close, we will not fear 
 Lust ent’ring here ; 
 
A. D. 1655 j 
 
 A POET TO HIS WINDING SHEET. 
 
 75 
 
 Where all desires are dead or cold 
 As is the mould : 
 
 And all affections are forgot, 
 
 Or trouble not. 
 
 Here, where the slaves and pris’ners be 
 From shackles free, 
 
 And weeping widows long opprest 
 Do here find rest. 
 
 The wronged client ends his laws 
 
 Here, and his cause. 
 
 Here, those long suits of Chancery lie 
 Quiet, or die : 
 
 And all Star-chamber bills do cease, 
 
 Or hold their peace. 
 
 Here needs no court for our request, 
 
 Where all are best ; 
 
 All wise ; all equal ; and all just 
 Alike i’ tli’ dust. 
 
 Nor need we here to fear the frown 
 Of court or crown. 
 
 Where fortune bears no sway o’er things, 
 
 Here all are Kings. 
 
 In this securer place we’ll keep, 
 
 As lull’d asleep ; 
 
 Or, for a little time, we’ll lie 
 
 As robes laid by ; 
 
 To be another day reworn, 
 
 Turn’d, but not torn : 
 
 Or like old Testaments engrost, 
 
 Lock’d up not lost : 
 
 And for a while lie here conceal’d, 
 
 To be reveal’d 
 
 Next at that great Platonic year, 
 
 And then meet here. 
 
 Herrick’s feelings towards his country, during Ins 
 exile, may be seen in the following address : 
 
 TO MY PATERNAL COUNTRY. 
 
 O Earth ! Earth ! Earth ! hear thou my voice, and be 
 Loving and gentle for to cover me : 
 
 Banish’d from thee I live ; ne’er to return, 
 
 Unless thou giv’st my small remains an urn. 
 
76 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. I. 
 
 The poet’s wish of dying in his native land, of resting 
 near to the dear remains of his “ dead ancestry,” was ac- 
 complished. He returned to England after the resto- 
 ration, and was restored to his benefice, which he did 
 not long enjoy ; for, like his old friend, “ the Resi- 
 dentiary,” he was translated to a higher and more 
 happy residence. 
 
 Two great and venerable names, embellished the 
 world’s history and extended England’s fame, at this 
 eventful time. Alike, and yet how unlike are the epis- 
 copalian Royalist Jeremy Taylor, and the presbyterian 
 Republican John Milton. They were kindred spirits, 
 and in calmer times would have been friends. Cole- 
 ridge says, in the apologetical preface to his political 
 satire, “ Fire, famine and slaughter,” if ever two great 
 men, might seem, during their whole lives, to have 
 moved in direct opposition, though neither of them has 
 at any time introduced the name of the other, Milton 
 and Jeremy Taylor were they. The former commenced 
 his career by attacking the Church Liturgy, and all set 
 forms of prayer ; the latter, far more successfully, by 
 defending both. Milton’s next work was then against 
 the Prelacy and the existing Church Government— 
 Taylor’s in vindication aud support of them. Milton 
 became more and more a stern republican, or rather an 
 advocate for that religious and moral aristocracy, which 
 in his opinion was called republicanism, and which, 
 even more than royalism itself, is the direct antipode 
 of modem jacobinism. Taylor, as more and more scep- 
 tical concerning the fitness of men in general for power, 
 
A.D. 1655 
 
 JEREMY TAYLOR AND JOHN MILTON. 
 
 ►7 H 
 
 7 1 
 
 because more and more attached to the prerogatives of 
 monarchy. From Calvinism, with a still decreasing 
 respect for Fathers, Councils, and for Church-antiquity 
 in general, Milton seems to have ended in an indiffer- 
 ence, if not a dislike, to all forms of ecclesiastical 
 government, and to have retreated wholly into the 
 inward and spiritual church-communion of his own 
 spirit with the light that lighteth every man that 
 cometh into the world. Taylor, with a growing rever- 
 ence for authority, an increasing sense of the insuffici- 
 ency of the Scriptures without the aids of tradition, 
 and the consent of authorized interpreters, advanced 
 as far in his approaches (not indeed to Popery, but) 
 to Roman Catholicism, as a conscientious minister of 
 the English Church could well venture. Milton would 
 be, and would utter the same, to all, on all occasions : 
 he would tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing 
 but the truth. Taylor would become all things to all 
 men, if by any means he might benefit any. Hence 
 he availed himself, in his popular writings, of opinions 
 and representations which stand often in striking con- 
 trast with the doubts and convictions expressed in his 
 more philosophical works. He appears, indeed, not 
 too severely to have blamed that management of truth 
 (istam falsitatem dispensativum) authorized and exem- 
 plified by almost all the Fathers.” 
 
 This antithesis is carried on through the characters 
 of these illustrious and inspired men, with great ability, 
 by this emiment critic and poet. “ Milton,” he says, 
 “ austere, condensed, imaginative. Taylor, eminently 
 
78 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 discursive, accumulative, and (to use one of his own 
 words) agglomerative. Still more rich in images than 
 Milton himself, but presented to the common and pas- 
 sive eye, rather than to the eye of the imagination.” 
 He describes this distinguished ornament of the 
 English Prelacy, whether supporting or assailing, as 
 making his way “ either by argument or by appeals to 
 affections, unsurpassed even by the schoolmen in sub- 
 tlety, agility and logical wit, and unrivalled by the 
 most rhetorical of the Fathers in the copiousness and 
 vividness of his expressions and illustrations.” Of 
 Milton’s, Mr. Coleridge says, that “ it supports truth 
 by direct enunciation of lofty moral sentiment, and 
 by direct visual representations, and, in the same 
 spirit, overwhelming wliat he deemed falsehood, by 
 moral denunciation, and a succession of pictures ap- 
 palling or repulsive ;” and says, happily, “ in his prose, 
 so many metaphors, so many allegorical miniatures.” 
 
 If these distinguished men differed so far, wherein, 
 it may be asked did they agree % Coleridge answers, 
 “ In genius, in learning, in unfeigned piety, in blame- 
 less purity of life, and in benevolent aspirations and 
 purposes for the moral and temporal improvement of 
 their fellow creatures ! Both of them,” he says, 
 “ wrote a Latin Accidence''', to render education less 
 
 * Milton also wrote a Latin Dictionary, as the learned lexicographer, 
 Dr. Adam Littleton, gratefully acknowledges his obligation to. He 
 describes it as a manuscript collection, in three large folio volumes, 
 digested into an alphabetical order, made out of Tully, Livy, Caesar, 
 Sallust, Quintus Curtius, Justin, Plautus, Terence, Lucretius, Virgil, 
 Horace, Ovid, Manilius, Celsus, Columella, Varro, Palladius ; in short, 
 out of all the best and purest Roman authors. What became of these 
 three folios? — J. E. 
 
BISHOP BOSSUET. 
 
 79 
 
 A D. 1 1)55 
 
 painful to children ; both of them composed hymns 
 and psalms proportioned to the capacity of common 
 congregations ; both, nearly at the same time, set 
 the glorious example of publicly recommending and 
 supporting general toleration, and the liberty both of 
 the pulpit and the press.*” 
 
 To these antitheses and coincidences others may be 
 added. The prelate, in his younger days, approached 
 Roman Catholicity in religion with as much sincerity 
 and ability as Bossuet, in the same age, approached 
 Protestantism in his “ Exposition of the Roman Ca- 
 tholic Faith,” both with the view of reconciling differ- 
 ences, and restoring the purity of the Christian Church. 
 Milton, on the contrary, who wore “ his heart upon 
 “ his sleeve,” could so httle disguise his hatred of Po- 
 pery, during his travels through Italy, that it hindered 
 him from receiving the full share of honours that his 
 congenial soul inspired in that land of fine art and 
 poetry. Nay, when his politic friend, Sir Henry Wot- 
 ton, who, to use his own words, was “ a man sent 
 “ abroad to he for the good of his country,” could not 
 dissuade him from avowing his principles of reform 
 among a people with whom Atheism was more pardon- 
 able than Protestant heresy. 
 
 Taylor, however, detested Popery as cordially as 
 Milton, who has been charged with being a Papist in 
 
 * The Bishop’s work is entitled “ Theologia Eclectica, a Dis- 
 course on the Liberty of Prophesying,” that is preaching, in which he 
 shows the folly of persecuting other men’s faith, and the iniquity of 
 persecuting different opinions. 
 
80 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 disguise, a Pyrrhonist, a Calvinist, a Socinian, a Deist, 
 an Atheist ; but Milton knew that calling names did 
 but a temporary injury ; for, according to then' notions, 
 he says, in his recently-recovered treatise On Chris- 
 tian Doctrine, “ to have branded any one at random 
 with this opprobrious mark” (heresy, which, in 
 another work he calls “ a Greek apparition,” and 
 railing in an unknown tongue), “ is to have refuted 
 him, without any trouble, by a single word.” 
 
 Ok Milton’s antipapistical feelings, take but one 
 instance out of the many. In his treatise on true Re- 
 ligion (Prose works vol. iv. p. 226), he sa} 7 s, “ the 
 Papal antichristian Church permits not her laity to 
 read the Bible in their own tongue ; our Church, on 
 the contrary, hath proposed it to all men. Neither 
 let the countryman, the tradesman, the lawyer, the 
 physician, the statesman excuse himself, by his much 
 business, from the studious reading thereof.” Al- 
 though, from Bishop’s Taylor’s tendencies to Higli- 
 Church and Monarchical principles, and his desire to 
 promote the unity of the Christian Church, we must 
 not expect to find in any of his writings, violent 
 language towards the Roman Catholic Church, yet we 
 can readily perceive an evident repugnance to many of 
 its forms and doctrines. Speaking, in his Life of Christ, 
 of the danger of riches to the Church, he thus admonishes 
 his brethren of the Church of Rome, “ if it be dange- 
 rous in any man to be rich, which discomposes his 
 steps, in his journey to Eternity ; it is not so propor- 
 tionate to Christ’s poverty and the inheritance of the 
 
A. D. 1655 I 
 
 JEREMY TAYLORS RELIGION. 
 
 81 
 
 Church to be sedulous in acquiring great temporalities, 
 and putting Princes in jeopardy, and States into care 
 for securities, lest all the temporal should run into 
 ecclesiastical possessions.” In the chapter on the 
 Last Supper, he calls it emphatically the Sacrament, 
 not one of the Sacraments, and says, “ some so observe 
 the literal sense of the words, that they understand 
 them also in a natural ; some so alter them by meta- 
 phors and preternatural significations, that they will 
 not understand them in a proper sense.” And adds, 
 “ tee see it, we feel it, we taste it, and we smell it to 
 be bread ; and by Philosophy we are led into a 
 belief of that substance, whose accidents these are, 
 as we are to believe that to be fire, which burns and 
 flames and shines.” This is neither calling hard 
 names, nor merely repudiating a doctrine ; it is better, 
 for by argument founded on reason, he disproves it. 
 In another place he tells them, that this question 
 “ hath divided the Church, almost as much as the 
 Sacrament hath united it, and which can only serve 
 the purposes of the Schools, and of evil men, to 
 make questions for that, and factions for these.” 
 And still more emphatically, he says. “ they that are 
 forward to believe the change of substance , can intend 
 no more, but that it be believed verily to be the 
 body of our Lord. And if they think it impossible 
 to reconcile its being bread, with the verity of being 
 Christ’s body, let them remember, that themselves 
 are put to more difficulties, and to admit of more 
 miracles, and to contradict more sciences, and to 
 
 G 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 82 
 
 [chap I. 
 
 refuse the testimony of sense, in affirming the special 
 manner of Tran substantiation.” 
 
 One more coincidence between these distinguished 
 men, may be mentioned. Both eminently pious, emi- 
 nently charitable, unsurpassed in kindness and loye to 
 their fellow-men, liaye, in affairs of conscience and 
 of eternal import, at times expressed themselyes so 
 strongly, that tolerant as both were known to be, both 
 have been gravely charged with great intolerance. 
 Like Shakspeare’s Hamlet, to his erring mother, they 
 “ spoke daggers but used none.” 
 
 Such a passage occurs in Bishop Taylor’s second 
 sermon, on the Advent of Christ, when, “ in thoughts 
 that breathe and words that burn,” he yives vent to a 
 fervid denunciation of those who, Aucious themselves, 
 have become the active cause of vice and crime and 
 misery in others. It is as follows : — “ But when this 
 Lion of the tribe of Judah shall appear, then Justice 
 shall strike, and Mercy shall not hold her hands ; she 
 shall strike sore strokes, and Bity shall not break the 
 blow. As there are treasures of good things, so hath 
 God a treasure of wrath and fury, and scourges and 
 scorpions ; and then shall be produced the shame of 
 lust, and the malice of envy, and the groans of the 
 oppressed, and the persecutions of the saints, and the 
 cares of covetousness, and the troubles of ambition, 
 and the indolence of traitors, and the violence of rebels, 
 and the rage of anger, and the uneasiness of impa- 
 tience, and the restlessness of unlawful desires ; and 
 by this time the monsters and diseases will be numer- 
 
A. ]). 1C55J 
 
 milton’s prose works. 
 
 83 
 
 ous and intolerable, when Gon’s heavy hand shall press 
 the sanies, and the intolerableness, the obliquity and 
 the unreasonableness, the amazement and the disorder, 
 the smart and the sorrow, the guilt and the punish- 
 ment, out from all our sins, and pour them into one 
 chalice, and mingle them with an infinite wrath, and 
 make the wicked drink of all the vengeance, and force 
 it down their unwilling throats with the violence of 
 devils and accursed spirits.” The worst that can be 
 said of this passage is, that it is a rhetorical flourish 
 of pulpit oratory, painting in vivid colours the suffer- 
 ings of evil-doers, to deter his hearers and his readers 
 from crime. 
 
 Similar ardent passages, implying the punishment 
 of the guilty in proportion to then- guilt, and to an 
 extent beyond conception, occur in the prose works of 
 Milton ; yet, although he declared, what all unpreju- 
 diced minds believe, “ that in his whole life he never 
 spake against a man even that his skin should be 
 grazed,” together with his acknowledged humanity 
 and goodness of heart, exemplified, inter alia , by his 
 repeatedly using his interest in favour of royalists, the 
 case of Sir William Davenant, for instance ; yet he 
 was accused of meaning personally, Archbishop Laud, 
 the Earl of Strafford, Bishop Hall, Archbishop Usher, 
 and other supporters of monarchy. In like manner 
 has Bishop Taylor been accused of personal attacks 
 upon Hampden, Hazelrig, Hollis, Pym, Fairfax, Ireton, 
 and Milton, although he named them not, and used 
 his ardent eloquence against depravity, crime and 
 
 o 2 
 
84 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 Avickedness, hypothetically. The eiwy and hatred of 
 calumniators is proverbial, and the purest of mankind 
 have not escaped their malice. 
 
 Milton’s public life is knoAvn to all, of his private 
 habits he shall speak for himself*; “ My morning 
 haunts are Avhere they should be, at home ; not 
 sleeping or concocting the surfeits of an irregular 
 feast, but up and stirring. In Avinter often ere the 
 sound of any bell aAvakes men to labour or deA r otion ; 
 in summer as oft Avith the bird that first rouses, or 
 not much tardier, to read good authors, or cause them 
 to be read, till the attention be weary, or memory 
 have its full fraught. Then with useful and generous 
 labours presening the body’s health and hardiness to 
 render lightsome, clear and not lumpish, obedience to 
 the mind, to the cause of religion and our country’s 
 liberty, Avhen it shall require firm hearts in sound 
 bodies, to stand and coA r er then’ stations, rather than 
 to see the rain of our protestation, and the inforce- 
 raent of a skmsh life.” 
 
 For the private life and pursuits of Jeremy Taylor, 
 let his contemporary and colleague, Dr. George Fust, 
 Bishop of Dromore, speak, from OA T er his honoured 
 gravef. “ It Avould be too great a task,” says his 
 venerable friend, Avho not long after joined him in the 
 Avorld of spirits, “ to pursue his accomplishments 
 through the various kinds of literature : I shall content 
 myself to add only his great acquaintance AAuth the 
 * Prose AVorks, vol. i. p. 220. 
 
 + Sermon preached at the Funeral of Bishop Taylor, 1667- 
 
A. D.l 665 j JEREMY taylor’s PRIVATE LIFE. 85 
 
 \ 
 
 fathers and ecclesiastical writers, and the doctors of 
 the first and purest ages of the Greek and Latin 
 Church : which he has made use of against the Ro- 
 manists, to vindicate the Church of England from the 
 challenge of innovation, and to prove her to be truly 
 ancient, catholic and apostolical. But religion and 
 virtue is the crown of all other accomplishments ; and 
 it was the glory of this great man to be thought a 
 Christian, and whatever you added to it, he looked 
 upon as a term of diminution : and yet he was a zealous 
 son of the Church of England ; but that was because 
 he judged her, and with good reason, a church the 
 most purely Christian of any in the world. In his 
 younger years he met with some assaults from Popery ; 
 and the high pretensions of their religious orders were 
 very accommodate to his devotional temper : but he 
 was always master of himself, would not be governed 
 by any thing but reason and the evidence of truth, 
 which engaged linn in the study of those controversies : 
 and to how much good purpose the world is by this 
 time a sufficient witness. But the longer and the 
 more he considered, the worse he liked the Roman 
 cause, and he came at last to censure them with some 
 severity ; but I confess I have so great an opinion of 
 his judgment, and the charitableness of his spirit, that 
 I am afraid he did not think worse of them than they 
 deserve.” The orator concludes his pious oration over 
 the mortal remains of his fellow-townsman, both were 
 bom in Cambridge, his fellow-student and his fellow- 
 labourer in the episcopal office, by stating that this 
 
86 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 great Prelate had “ the good humour of a gentle- 
 man, the eloquence of an orator, the fancy of a poet, 
 the acuteness of a schoolman, the profoundness of a 
 philosopher, the wisdom of a counsellor, the sagacity 
 of a prophet, the reason of an angel and the piety of 
 a saint ; he had devotion enough for a cloister, learn- 
 ing enough for an university, and wit enough for a col- 
 lege of virtuosi ; and had his parts and endowments 
 been parcelled out among his poor clergy that he left 
 behind him, it would, perhaps, have made one of the 
 best dioceses in the world.” Pity is it that party rage 
 and fanaticism should have kept two such kindred 
 spirits as John Milton and Jeremy Taylor, from col- 
 leaguing in the flesh. 
 
 To return to the confraternity of Philosophers in 
 Wadham College, we find Mr. Wren engaged in a lite- 
 rary correspondence on astronomical subjects, with 
 Sir Paul Neil, a distinguished lover and patron of 
 science, and the society daily obtaining celebrity, be- 
 yond the walls of Oxford. Dr. Hooke, whose name 
 is associated with the brightest names in the history of 
 modern inventions and discoveries, began about this 
 time to pay attention to their discussions, for he says 
 before this year 1655 he knew little of them. When 
 he attended these meetings he found that many ex- 
 periments were suggested, discussed and tried, with 
 various degrees of success : but that no record or other 
 account taken of them, than what a few of the members 
 noted down to aid their memory. Therefore many 
 
A. D. 1655] 
 
 ROBERT BOYLES EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 87 
 
 excellent tilings were lost, but a few, through the kind- 
 ness of their authors, were afterwards made public. 
 
 Among those losses, and subsequent recoveries, he 
 enumerates, Boyle’s pneumatic engine, and experiments 
 therewith, which they tried in 1658, Hooke making 
 the air pump for Mr. Boyle, from a large rude contri- 
 vance made for the latter by Ralph Greatorex, a 
 mathematical instrument-maker and a friend of Ough- 
 tred. From this time “ the Philosophic Club,” as it 
 was called, continued their meetings with greater re- 
 gularity, made their experiments more carefully, and 
 registered their proceedings more formally than here- 
 tofore. I 11 all these transactions, the most prominent 
 names are those of Wren, above all others hi number, 
 and, with a few illustrious exceptions, in importance, 
 Newton, Boyle, Ward, Petty, Hooke, Wilkins, Bath- 
 hurst, Rooke, Sprat, Evelyn, Scarborough and other 
 ornaments of the English nation. 
 
 Among these distinguished men, few have obtained 
 a more honourable, extended, and durable reputation 
 than the Honourable Robert Boyle. Bacon, Boyle, 
 and Newton, are the illustrious founders of the modern 
 or experimental school of natural philosophy. Theirs 
 is not the philosophy of Greece or of Rome, of Pytha- 
 goras, Plato, or Aristotle, neither of nation, or clime, 
 or individual, but emphatically the philosophy of man- 
 kind, comprehending in its vast expansiveness, the 
 useful essence of all the others. 
 
 In the apartments of Mr. Boyle in Wadham College, 
 the newly-organized philosophical club now pursued 
 
88 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [char. I. 
 
 their experiments and examined suggestions. Dr. 
 Hooke became chemical operator to the great philoso- 
 pher, and occasionally assistant in mathematical ex- 
 periments. Mr. Boyle had returned to England in 
 1654, and fixed liis pilgrim’s staff in the learned 
 cloisters of Wadham, and settled in England for the 
 remainder of his life. Being one of the younger sons 
 of the first, or “ Great Earl of Cork,” who held a high, 
 and maintained a powerful station in Ireland during 
 the reigns of James I. and Charles I. It was of this 
 nobleman that Cromwell remarked, when he saw his 
 vast improvements in the colonization and protection 
 of his estates in the county of Cork, “ that if there 
 had been an Earl of Cork in each of the four provinces 
 of Ireland, it would have been impossible for the 
 Irish to have raised a rebellion.” 
 
 After a suitable education in England, young Bo- 
 bert Boyle, who had shown an early disposition to 
 grave and thoughtful studies, accompanied one of his 
 elder brothers and a tutor, on then travels abroad. 
 They passed through France, made some stay in Ger- 
 many, where the two brothers studied rhetoric, logic, 
 mathematics and political geography. Then next 
 journey was through Switzerland, visiting Lausanne, 
 Zurich, Geneva, Soleure, and other memorable places, 
 and thence into Italy. In this land of ancient renown, 
 they witnessed the fallen destinies, and the ruined 
 monuments of republican and imperial greatness, su- 
 perseded by the feeble structures of superstition and 
 diletantiism. They visited the humbled bridegroom 
 
A. D. 1655] 
 
 boyle’s TRAVELS. 
 
 89 
 
 of the Adriatic, Venezia ricca, saggia e signorile, 
 embarked from that city of gondolas and gallantry, for 
 Florence which the old Italian sonetto, just quoted, 
 extols as Fiorenza bella tutti 7 rnondo canta. In 
 this city of flowers and Floras, Robert Boyle is re- 
 ported by his biographers to have mastered the Italian 
 language, and became acquainted with the astrono- 
 mical discoveries of the persecuted Galileo, who had 
 just before winged his way from a country of ignorant 
 bigotry to those spheres, which, surveying through his 
 magic tube, he revealed with all their visible phases 
 and wonders to a grateful posterity who venerate his 
 memory, revere the truths he expounded, feel pity for 
 his unmerited sufferings, and contempt for his reverend 
 calumniators and holy persecutors. The travellers 
 next proceed to Rome, Roma pomposa e santa, as 
 modern Romans and men without beards sing or say. 
 After a short sojourn in this city of ruins, and desola- 
 tion, suggestive of the decline and fall of a mighty 
 empire, the two brothers returned to Florence, then 
 proceeded homewards to Marseilles, in expectation of 
 there finding a promised remittance of money from 
 England. The Irish rebellion prevented then- father 
 from sending it ; they therefore returned to Geneva, 
 where, after waiting two years, they obtained a suffi- 
 cient sum to bring them to England just before the 
 battle of Naseby, to learn the death of then- father, 
 who had bequeathed to Robert the manor and estate 
 of Stallbridge in Devonshire, and other considerable 
 estates. Mr. Boyle resided at the manor for five or 
 
90 
 
 WREN AXD HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 six years, employing his time in making experiments 
 in chemistry and natural philosophy, making occasional 
 visits of scientific sympathy to the club at Wadham, 
 and to the professors at Gresham. Having property 
 in Ireland he visited that kingdom twice, to pay due 
 attention to his affairs ; but meeting his friend Sir 
 William Petty in that country, practising as a physi- 
 cian, he studied practical anatomy under his direction. 
 
 During this residence at Stallbridge, and more es- 
 pecially after sitting himself down in his little Academy 
 in his apartments at Wadham College, Robert Boyle 
 passed his honourable and active leisure, like the 
 learned and liberal Claude de Pieresc of whom Mr. 
 D’ Israeli, has written so interesting an episode in his 
 delightful essay “ On the Literary character,” in the 
 continuance of his literary and scientific pursuits, his 
 intercourse with men of literature and science, in the 
 patronage of men of ability, of living in liberal unos- 
 tentatious disinterestedness, not for himself, but for his 
 friends, his country, and posterity, who have all enjoyed 
 and still feel the effects of the philosophical, religious, 
 and benevolent labours of Robert Boyle. His liberal 
 hand sowed the seed hi good soil, and it annually pro- 
 duces its golden harvests. His own productions are 
 numerous and valuable, containing much experimental 
 philosophy, profound observations on the works of 
 nature ; many of religious tendency, criticism and new 
 translations of parts of the Bible, all promotive of piety, 
 and virtue. A mere catalogue of his published and 
 collected works, exclusive of those which are printed 
 
A. 1). 1655] BISHOP SPRAT AND THE OXFORD CLUB. 91 
 
 in the Philosophical Transactions, will show the extent 
 of his studies and the power of that mind which have 
 placed him by universal consent, among the founders 
 and promulgators of useful knowledge ; and the annual 
 productions that his foresight has produced from the 
 ablest of his successors, in the year after his death to 
 the present day, in defence of Christianity, at the an- 
 nual Boylean lectures, some of the finest treatises, 
 against atheism and infidelity, in the English language. 
 In fact, a successful Boyle lecture, is a passport of fame 
 to its author. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, the biogra- 
 pher of Cowley and the elegant historian of the early 
 period of the Royal Society, in alluding to the Wadham 
 College Club, and its illustrious members says that'"' 
 “ their first purpose was no more than the satisfaction 
 of breathing a fresher air, and of conversing in quiet, 
 without being engaged in the passions and madness of 
 that dismal age. And from the institution of that 
 assembly it had been enough, if no other advantage had 
 come but this, that by this means there was a race of 
 young men provided against the next age, whose minds 
 receiving from them their first impressions of sober and 
 generous knowledge, were invincibly armed against all 
 the enchantments of enthusiasm. But what is more, 
 I may venture to affirm, that it was in great measure 
 by the influence which these gentlemen had over the 
 rest, that the University itself, or, at least, any part of 
 its discipline and order, was saved from ruin. Hence 
 
 * Sprat’s History of the Royal Society, 4to. Lon. 1667. 
 
92 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 we may conclude, that the same men have now no in- 
 tention of sweeping away all the honour of antiquity in 
 their new design, seeing they employed so much of 
 their labour and prudence in preserving that most 
 venerable seat of ancient learning, when their shri nkin g 
 from its defence would have been the speediest way to 
 have destroyed it. For the truth of this, I dare appeal 
 to all uninterested men, who knew the temper of that 
 place ; and especially to those who were my own con- 
 temporaries there : of whom I can name very many, 
 whom the happy restoration of the Kingdom’s peace, 
 found as well inclined to serve their Prince and their 
 Church, as if they had been brought up in the most 
 prosperous condition of their country. This was un- 
 doubtedly so ; nor indeed could it be otherwise, for 
 such spiritual phrenzies which did then bear rule, can 
 never stand long before a clear and deep skill in nature. 
 It is almost impossible,” continues the historian, “ that 
 they who converse much with the subtlety of things, 
 should be deluded with such thick deceits. There is 
 but one better charm in the world than real philosophy, 
 to allay the impulse of the false spirit ; and that is the 
 blessed presence and assistance of the true.” 
 
 After considering the good effects of this learned 
 association and its pursuits, as to Oxford, the historian 
 next dilates on its members having made themselves 
 so advantageously known abroad by their printed 
 works, both in their own and the learned language, 
 which, he says, “ conduced to the fame of our nation 
 both abroad and at home,” and concludes by enumerat- 
 
A. D. 1655] ORIGIN OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY. .93 
 
 ing their names, and that “their meetings were as 
 frequent as their affairs permitted, their proceedings 
 were rather by action than discourse, chiefly attending 
 some particular trials in chemistry or mechanics. They 
 had no rules or method fixed, their intention was more 
 to communicate their discoveries to each other, which 
 they could make in so narrow a compass, than in an 
 united, constant or regular inquisition.” 
 
 Thus arose, continued and flourished the seeds, 
 plants and flowers of natural philosophy and science, 
 which bound together by skilful hands, and protected 
 by noble and enlightened minds, have spread over our 
 land and colonies, producing an abundant supply of the 
 richest and ripest fruit. 
 
 In like manner did our celebrated, our second Royal 
 Society, “ The Asiatic Society,” founded by Sir William 
 Jones, commence its proceedings, that is, without pre- 
 vious rules or fixed method. Sir William had doubt- 
 lessly, this unprescribed origin in his mind, when he 
 penned his introductory discourse to the infant society. 
 After enunciating his clear conviction of the importance 
 and beneficial tendency of such an institution in our 
 Indian Empire, he tells his auditory, that* “ perhaps 
 it may be advisable, at first, in order to prevent any 
 difference of sentiment on particular points, to establish 
 but one rule, namely, to have no rule at all. This only 
 I mean, that in the infancy of any society, there ought 
 
 * Sir William Jones’s Discourses, selected and edited by James 
 Elmes, 12mo. Lon. 1821. 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 94 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 to be no confinement, no trouble, no expense, no unne- 
 cessary formality.” 
 
 So did Boyle and Wren and the rest of “ the club,” 
 from which emanated the “ Royal Society of London,” 
 whose laws growing out of their necessity, and increasing 
 with their growth, have risen imperceptibly to that code, 
 under which the present descendants of that illustrious 
 stock now flourish. Both institutions wisely followed 
 the examples of then* forefathers, who began the infant 
 state, by patriarchal governments of single families, 
 extending them to tithings, hundreds, counties, king- 
 doms, laws unwritten and written, oral, traditional and 
 statutary, forming by similar increment, that happy 
 mixture of King, Xoblcs and people that forms the 
 Constitution of the British Empire ; suited by nature 
 to the wants, the comforts, the legislation and the 
 theocracy of the people with whom, from whom, and 
 for whom they emanated ; the growth of centuries, the 
 wisdom of departed sages, maintained, repaired and 
 upheld by the loving body which is animated by this 
 political soul. 
 
 During the residence of Mr. Wren at Oxford, he at- 
 tended “ the club” with regularity, took a leading part 
 in all its transactions, and pursued his general studies 
 with the ardour, that mostly accompanies genius. In 
 anatomy, his progress has been already mentioned, as 
 regular demonstrator to the lectures and dissections of 
 Sir Charles Scarborough and Dr. Willis ; the latter of 
 whom he assisted in making dissections and in writing 
 his treatise on the anatomy of the Brain ; the whole 
 
A D. 1 fi5f) | HARVEY’S DISCOVERY OF Tfffe CIRCULATION, ETC. 95 
 
 of the drawings for which, as gratefully acknowledged 
 by the distinguished author in the preface to his work, 
 were made by Wren. 
 
 These anatomical studies led this ardent student to 
 investigate the physical nature as well as the mechani- 
 cal construction of Man. In these investigations, the 
 nature and properties of the blood attracted his notice, 
 the circulation of which, by the illustrious William 
 Harvey, had not long before been promulgated to the 
 world. In this department of medical science, Wren is 
 the acknowledged author or discoverer of the celebrated 
 anatomical experiment of injecting certain fluids into 
 the veins of animals, which Dr. Sprat, in his history of 
 the Royal Societ} T , records as invented by Wren, and 
 calls it a noble experiment, Primus erat inventor 
 (Oxonice) nobilis istuis experiment anatomici, injiciendi 
 quoscunque liquores in venas animalium. 
 
 As was usual with the members of “ the club,” 
 Wren exhibited and explained the nature of this expe- 
 riment to its members. Thence it was carried into 
 Germany, by the treachery, as was suspected, of 
 Oldenburg, and published there as a German discovery. 
 Wren claimed the honour in a letter to a friend, pro- 
 bably Sir William Petty, stating that he made the first 
 experiments in 1656. After informing his friend of 
 some new experiments that he had made in anatomy 
 and philosophy, he adds, that the most considerable 
 experiment he had made of late was injecting wine 
 and ale into the mass of blood in a living dog, by a 
 vein, till he became drunk, but soon after voided it by 
 
96 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 urine. He tried also tlie effects of opium, scammony 
 and other drugs, the details of which he omits, as being 
 too long for a letter, but says he was in further pursuit 
 of the experiment, considering it to be of great conse- 
 quence as likely to give great light to the theory and 
 practice of physic. 
 
 The French laid claim to the discovery in their me- 
 dical journals of 1667, assigning for a reason, that they 
 were witnesses that one Robert de Gabets discoursed of it 
 at M. de Montmorf s ten years before. On the other 
 hand, the whole body of the Royal Society, and the 
 Philosophical Transactions for the years 1665, 1667, 
 and 1668, bear testimony to the claim of Wren as the 
 inventor of this important experiment. Dr. Timothy 
 Clark, one of the original members of the Royal So- 
 ciety, and Physician to Charles II., bears similar testi- 
 mony in a Latin letter to Mr. Oldenburg, Secretary to 
 the Royal Society, that in the year 1656, that eminent 
 mathematician, Christopher Wren, was the first who 
 tried this experiment, of which he gives many details ; 
 circa finem Anni 1656, aut circiter, Mathematicus ille 
 insignissimus d.d. chrlstoph. wren primus infusionem va- 
 riorum liquorum in massam sanguineam viventium ani- 
 malium excogitavit et Oxonii peregit, etc. 
 
 The infusion of various liquors into the mass of 
 living blood, soon led to the more important experi- 
 ment of transfusion ; a trial of which was ordered by 
 the Royal Society, and ordered to be entered in their 
 transactions by the secretaries, who were sworn to 
 secresy. Boyle also added his testimony to Wren’s 
 
A. D. 1657] 
 
 wren’s first public lecture. 
 
 97 
 
 claim, in liis “ Essays on Natural Experimental Philo- 
 sophy,” Oxon 1663, as an eye-witness of the experi- 
 ments by Wren in 1655, and that the knowledge 
 of himself and associates of Wren’s extraordinary 
 sagacity, made them very desirous to try what he 
 proposed. 
 
 In 1657, Wren left the studious shades of Oxford, 
 for the more active life of London. On the retirement 
 of his friend, Dr. Hooke, from the astronomical chair 
 in Gresham College, to take the professorship of Geo- 
 metry, Wren, then in his five-and-twentieth year, was 
 chosen his successor. The inaugural oration w r as deli- 
 vered in Latin, a correct copy of which is printed in 
 Ward’s Lives of the Gresham Professors, from the origi- 
 nal, given by the author’s son to Dr. Mead, and by him 
 lent for publication to Dr. Ward. It is also reprinted in 
 the appendix to my Life of Wren, as I believe, for the 
 first and only time. It differs somewhat from the 
 English draught given in Parentalia and the before- 
 named Latin version ; being a free and, in some pas- 
 sages, an enlarged paraphrase of the English sketch. 
 This oration is valuable, from the light it throws on 
 the state of science in Wren’s time, as well as for his 
 perception into things of which subsequent investigation 
 have proved the accuracy. 
 
 The youthful orator in entering upon his duties, 
 looked with respectful awe on the great and eminent 
 auditory by which he was surrounded. There he saw 
 some of the politer geniuses of his age. “ There,” he 
 says, “ many of our patricians, and every where, those 
 
 H 
 
■WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 98 , • ,T 
 
 .1. «. — i*>S» *“ Z* 
 
 for. And, indeed, I must J ^ daring to 
 
 r;r — *“ “ s 
 
 ascend tl.e Cliau of Astrono ) the 
 
 word of demonstration d.co whh w* . 
 
 humble Orator in— “[id better have 
 
 niatieiau commands a»sc , j, aTe worn out 
 
 suited the baslifnlness of my yeai 
 
 more Lustra hr a Pythagorean sdenc . ^ de . 
 
 “ iircsT r fe r 
 
 signed any tlimg a mvei“hed against my 
 
 private dust, * friendly ex- 
 sloth and remissness, ^ ornaments 
 
 hortations, whom 1 may a - jg with 
 
 Of learning and of om natm, • ^ Waters of this 
 me sacred, and who, with the J J ^ ^ 
 
 worthy City I might explain what 
 
 according t . b t p e Ancients, concerning 
 
 hath been delivered • . celestial bodies, 
 
 tbe motions and app— *£ ^ ^ 
 
 “ d likewise wliat [ >■ He next ad- 
 
 modems ; for « have ^ ^ ^ ^ mudl a s- 
 verted to mventom, . attempt to invade 
 
 pired, that he ^^fresistance than an attempt 
 that right a giea .» p e exclaims, “ a title so 
 
 upon his purse. “ Inven ■ • ell0U gh to confer on 
 venerable of old, that it «. -"doration.” 
 
 men, patents of divrni y an 1 P e)y manS ion 
 
 Let us pass back m thougnt to 
 
A. D. 1C57 | 
 
 when’s first public lecture. 
 
 99 
 
 of Sir Thomas Gresham, our great Elizabeth’s “ royal 
 merchant,” munificently bestowed by that illustrious 
 Citizen, for habitations and lecture rooms for seven 
 professors of the seven liberal sciences ; let us there 
 fancy ourselves seated with Boyle, Cowley, Wallis, 
 Scarborough, Petty, Evelyn, Denham, Ashmole, Dig- 
 by, Hooke, Oughtred, Hooke, and perhaps, the immor- 
 tal discoverer of the circulation of the blood, for the 
 honoured sage was yet on earth, and other magnates 
 of “ the club,” listening with admiration to the gushing- 
 eloquence of the youthful philosopher, fraught with 
 the laws of Nature and experimental Philosophy, 
 whom they had drawn from the academic benches to 
 the collegiate chair of the sublimest of the sciences : let 
 us so pass back and meditate upon the scene, and 
 seriously digest the speaker’s words. 
 
 He proceeds, that it did not need for him to trouble 
 so knowing an auditory with an encomium on Astro- 
 nomy ; we shall leave this to the Dutch writers, whose 
 swelling title-pages proclaim that their books are use- 
 ful to theologians, philosophers, philologers, mathema- 
 ticians, grammarians, and who not \ It were frivolous 
 to tell you, how much astronomy elevates herself 
 above other sciences, inasmuch as her subject, the 
 beauteous Heavens, infinite in extension, pure and 
 subtile, and sempiternal in matter, glorious in their 
 starry ornaments, of which every one affords various 
 causes of admiration, most rapid, yet most regular, 
 most harmonious in their motions, in every thing, to a 
 wise considerer, dreadful and majestic, doth precede 
 
 h 2 
 
100 
 
 WHEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 either the low or uncertain subjects of other sciences. 
 
 It were pedantic to tell you of the affinity of our souls 
 to heaven, of our erect countenances* given us on 
 purpose for astronomical speculations ; or to acquaint 
 you that Plato commended it to his commonwealth s- 
 men, while he says — Ex cujusmodi disciplines, mstru- 
 mentum quoddam animi expurgatur , reviviscitque quod 
 anted ex aliis studiis infectum occcecatumque fuerat ; 
 solo enim hoc inspicitur veritas: though truly else- 
 where he gives us this great truth— Anmadverhsti 
 eos , qui natura mathematici sunt, ad omnes fere disci- 
 plinas auctiores apparere; qui autem ingemo hebetiores 
 sunt, si in hoc erudiantur, etiamsi nihil amplms utihtatis 
 asseauantur, seipsis tamen ingeniosiores cjfia solcre. I 
 nffiffit he too verbose should I instance this particu- 
 larly, in showing how much the mathematical wits of 
 this age have excelled the ancients, who pierced but to 
 the bark and outside of things, in handling particular 
 disquisitions of nature, in clearing up history, and 
 fixing chronology. For mathematical demonstrations 
 being built upon the impregnable foundations of geo- 
 metry and arithmetic, are the only truths that can sink 
 into the mind of man, void of all uncertainty ; and all 
 other discourses participate more or less, of truth, accord- 
 ing as their subjects are more or less capable of mathe- 
 matical demonstration. Therefore, this, rather than 
 
 * Wren had not forgotten, amidst his abstruse studies, the Ovid of 
 Iris school-days. 
 
 “ Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tuen 
 
 Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.”— Met. I. v. 85. 
 
SIR ISAAC NEWTON’S BOYHOOD. 
 
 101 
 
 A. D. 1657] 
 
 logic, is the great organon Organun of all infallible 
 science ; although I will not exclude logic from being 
 an instrument of reasoning, but rather include it in 
 geometry. For the technical and most useful part of 
 it, concerning syllogism and the art of reasoning, is but 
 a geometrical ordering the data per media proportiona- 
 lia, to determine the quesitum. It would be endless to 
 run through the whole Encyclopaedia, and show you 
 in every part the great use of astronomy. Even 
 Queen Theology hath been much beholden to the 
 trusty service of this ancilla, in settling the sacred 
 history by the help of chronology, which, as it is a part 
 of astronomy, is built upon the unerring chronicles of 
 the gesta superum et ccelorum , observations of eclipses, 
 great conj mictions and the like appearances ; without 
 which indexes of times, all sacred and profane history 
 were but indigested heaps and labyrinths, where men 
 are at a loss where to begin or end. But chronology, 
 a thing too much neglected by the ancients, hath given 
 an ichnography of this labyrinth, and described times, 
 as it were in a map, by which we may run back se- 
 cure to many chiliads of years, conversing with those 
 remote ages, and there finding new discoveries, as by 
 navigation, we converse with those of distant climates.” 
 These observations, it should be remembered, were 
 written and delivered before some of the most scientific 
 men of his day, and that the heaven-born genius who 
 wrote the “ Principia,” and formed the most complete 
 chronological tables the world has ever seen, had not then 
 left its chrysalis, for Isaac Newton was at this time a 
 
WREE AHD His times. 
 
 [char. I- 
 
 WRKiN 
 
 Z *-! “ • f 
 
 to Newton’s 1 „ imies the youthful teaser 
 
 “ So®. « ■* be> l stould say, that even Holy 
 
 “ mil knit the hrow , ^ . an as trononncal ui- 
 
 Scripture itself. sometmies ■ a go od account of the 
 terpreter. » else abo ut the retro- 
 
 Hexameron, or decide t “ c ^ rf AklZ % men 
 cession of the shadow up ways don e by 
 
 without a miracle, hat ^ t0 fram e such 
 
 the mere fabric of the dial >r^r ^ ^ a ti 
 a dial with such a stile, Bat what the dial 
 
 the shadow shall seem fte He b,ew writer, 
 
 was, we know, if we m. ; g0 tha t I can easily fancy 
 Who describes it wtech the Eastern nations 
 
 it to be the same with that ' Berosus Chaldaeus 
 
 used, and winch 
 
 brought into Greece, hoc e st, ad ekvaU- 
 
 drato, «d. he says, “must be 
 
 onern fdhC “ ie 1 shadow only ; but w a 
 
 real, either m the a fro m a parhelion, 
 
 if it were, truly m * b y which it had 
 
 The Sim returned te * lion suddenly ap- 
 gone down : mig 1 from the sun, the sun 
 
 pear at ten degrees " ^ ^ bid by a 
 
 b-g i-\ Set jt^fov parhehons are refractions 
 cloud so Started back 
 
A. D. 1657] CONCAVE HEMISPHERICAL SUN-DIALS. 103 
 
 made in rdtrous vapours higher than the clouds. It is 
 what Cadamustus* and other descrihcrs of the East 
 Indies say, often happens in the island Sumatra in the 
 month of April ; for ten or fifteen degrees the sun 
 seeming to start back, and then to return again, where 
 otherwise he would have appeared. This may be done 
 either by a parhelion, or a strong refraction through a 
 vapour in an angular form like a glass prism, passing 
 between the eye and the sun ; for if you gently pass 
 a prism of crystal before any objects, the objects will 
 appear to start out of their places. Neither need we 
 fear to diminish a miracle by explaining it ; tliis retro- 
 cession of the sun was given as a sign, so was the 
 rainbow, which had it never appeared since, had been 
 miraculous.” 
 
 The dial of Aliaz, on which the miracle mentioned 
 by the authors of the Books of the Kings, the Chro- 
 nicles and the Prophecies of Isaiah, is the earliest on 
 record, although it is the opinion of the best archaiolo- 
 gists and biblical scholars, that Ahaz brought the in- 
 vention of what is called the sun-dial into Judea from 
 Damascus, or some other foreign city that he had 
 visited ; and it is certain, that the mode of measuring 
 time by the motion of the sun’s shadow, is of unknown 
 antiquity among the Egyptians, and that then obelisks 
 
 * Aloysio de Cada Mosto, a celebrated Venetian navigator of the 
 fifteenth century. He was employed by the Infant Don Henry of 
 Portugal, in expeditions to the western coasts of Africa, and discovered 
 the Cape Verde Islands. He published an account of his voyages in 
 1567 . A brief but interesting account of this medieval voyager is given 
 in the “ History of maritime and inland discovery,” vol. 1, p. 357 . 
 
104 
 
 WHEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 were used as gnomons, and the angle formed by then- 
 great pyramid is apparently parallel to the axis of t le 
 earth. One of the explanations given by the Jewish 
 rabbins of the dial or degrees of Aliaz, corresponds 
 in a great degree, with that just described by Wren 
 from Vitruvius. These doctors describe it as a con- _ 
 cave hemisphere, in the centre of which was a globe 
 whose shadow fell upon a series of lines, engraved 
 within the concavity. There is a similar instrument 
 delineated and described in Stuart and Revett’s anti- 
 quities of Athens. Dr. Kitto, the learned and travelled 
 Editor of the Pictorial Bible, the Biblical Cyclo- 
 pedia, etc., is of opinion, that the principle of the dial 
 was known to the Egyptians, but that its detailed ap- 
 plication was invented by the Babylonians. 
 
 As to Wren’s assertion that we need not fear the dimi- 
 nution of a miracle by explaining it, it may be remarked 
 that it lias been confirmed by many eminently learned 
 and pious divines of every sect of Christians. . Bis mp 
 Stock, who published a translation of Isaiah m 1803, 
 says, in his note on this passage, “ Thus the miracle 
 from all the accounts of it, might consist only of the 
 retrogression of the shadow ten degrees by a simp e 
 act of Almighty power, without any medium or a 
 most, by that of refracting those rays only which fell 
 upon the dial. It is not said that any time was lost 
 to the inhabitants of the world at large ; it was not 
 even observed by the astronomers of Babylon for a 
 deputation came to inquire concerning the wonder that 
 was done in the land and in another part the learned 
 
A. D. 1657 ) SINGULAR SUN-DIAL NEAR DELHI. 
 
 105 
 
 Prelate says, “ it is certainly as philosophical to speak 
 of the sun returning, as it is of his setting and rising. 
 In Dr. Kitto’s Pictorial Bible, is a representation of a 
 sort of dial and observatory, near Delhi, in Hindustan, 
 whose construction being that of a lofty flight of stairs, 
 in the form of a right angled triangle, whose hypothe- 
 neuse, which forms the parapet of the steps, is parallel 
 to the axis of the earth, and casts its shadow on to 
 the hollow of an inverted arch, the extremities of 
 which fall within the walls of two towers, equidistant 
 right and left ; the upper part of which is graduated 
 to mark the hours, etc. The Hebrew language has 
 no word that signifies a dial, and it is properly rendered 
 in the margin of our authorized translation, degrees. 
 Hence it may be concluded, that the degrees of Ahaz 
 were in principle like those at Delhi. 
 
 Wren proceeds in his discourse by asking the theo- 
 logian, who is to explain to him, “ how our Saviour, 
 who was buried on Friday night, and rose again before 
 day on Sunday, could be said to have been three days 
 and three nights in the Sepulchre, when his stay there 
 was but a full day and two nights \ The world,” he 
 says, “ hath hitherto shifted off this difficulty with a 
 synecdoche, by taking in parts of Friday and parts of 
 Sunday ; but yet there wanted a third night. Neither 
 doth Grotius, with an exception sometimes of any part 
 of a day or night, for a whole nyctliemeron, in the civil 
 law, much mend the matter. Here seems to be need 
 of an astronomer, who thus, possibly, may explain it.” 
 
 “ While there was made, by the motion of the sun, 
 
106 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 a day and two nights in the hemisphere of Judea, at 
 the same time, in the opposite hemisphere, was made 
 a night and two days : join these together, you have 
 three days and three nights ; for Christ suffered not 
 for J udea alone, but for the whole world, and in respect 
 of all the inhabitants of the earth, conjunctim , He 
 rested three days and three nights, though in respect 
 of Judea, or any particular horizon, but one day and 
 two nights.” 
 
 From our limited diurnal sphere, our youthful 
 teacher expands his thoughts into the illimitable 
 universe. How boundless and expansive is thought ! 
 He proceeds — 
 
 For our instruction to impart 
 
 Things above earthly thought*, 
 
 and asks, “ Who but the astronomer shall explain to 
 us, how many hundred times one of the great lumi- 
 naries exceeds the other, which is yet but one of some 
 thousands as great as itself, or bigger % Who can better 
 magnify the Arm that expanded the heavens, than he 
 who tells you, that seven thousand miles will fall short 
 of the diameter of this earth, and yet that this diameter, 
 repeated a thousand times, will not reach the sun ; or, 
 that this distance between the sun and us, repeated a 
 thousand times, reach the nearest fixed star % And 
 yet, in probability, some are infinitely more remote 
 than others. Certainly, as Secretaries of Princes are 
 they only, from whom true histories of those Princes 
 
 * Milton. 
 
A. D. 1657] APHORISMS OP HIPPOCRATES. 107 
 
 arc to be expected ; so, lie only can describe the world, 
 whom skill in astronomy hath given him right to the 
 glorious title of Hipparchus, to be, conciliarum natures 
 particeps et interpres.” 
 
 “ But not to enlarge in extending the dominion of 
 astronomy to the Empyrseum ; her influence is great 
 over sublunary sciences ; among which, should I say 
 that even physic hath its use of astronomy, I might 
 seem to patronize the ungrounded fancies of that sort 
 of astrological medicasters, who do nothing without the 
 favour of their Achaias, and entitle one planet or 
 another to every herb or drug, which they suppose in- 
 valid, unless mystically timed with this or that aspect ; 
 ceremoniously numbering the critical days, not con- 
 sidering that neither time nor number had any reality 
 extra intellectum kumanum. But though with contempt 
 of these follies, let me seriously ask the most rational 
 philosophical enquirer into medicine, whether those 
 aphorisms, wherein Hippocrates hath marshalled dis- 
 eases under the seasons of the year, and the several 
 winds, and the varieties of weathers, have not as much 
 of the aphorisms in them as the rest ; and were not as 
 diligently collected from the brazen tablets, from expe- 
 riments derived in succession from his aged preceptors 
 before him, and from his own unerring industry, as the 
 rest \ But it may be objected, that these astrological 
 aphorisms savour much of the Chaldean and Syrian, 
 from whom it appears the Grecians received much of 
 their art of healing, as they did almost all their other 
 learning ; and indeed we find by Herodotus, that the 
 
108 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. I. 
 
 knowledge of Physic by way of aphorism was proper 
 to the Babylonians, who recorded publicly the history 
 of the disease, and the method of cure of every parti- 
 cular patient that recovered, to which records others 
 resorted in difficult cases, that had the like diseases ; 
 and from the great learning of these nations being 
 astrology, we may imagine that they made good ob- 
 servations of epidemical diseases from the distempers 
 of the air, from the celestial influxes, which are now 
 either wholly lost, or depraved, or useless, as not suited 
 to our climate. What other subject those medical 
 books of the friend and contemporary of Hippocra- 
 tes, Democritus IIEPI ’AKAIPIX2N KAI EniKAIPlXlN 
 reckoned in the catalogue of his works by Laertius, 
 should contain, I know not. Sure I am, that if we 
 dissected animals of the same species, in various 
 changes of weather, we should find great difference in 
 the brain, as to dryness or moisture and weight : and in 
 the viscera and mass of blood, as to the quantity and 
 salt in it ; and in the lympseductus, as to their tur- 
 gency, as I have frequently tried : and if with these 
 w T e join the experiments of the fermenting of wines 
 and other liquors against moist weather ; the souring 
 of them in thunder and dry weathers ; adding likewise 
 the history of pests and epidemical diseases, we shall 
 find a great deal of reason to conclude, that there is a 
 true astrology to be found by the inquiring philosopher, 
 which would be of admirable use to physic, though the 
 astrology vulgarly received cannot but be thought to be 
 extremely unreasonable and ridiculous, as any thing 
 
A. 1). 1657] 
 
 ANCIENT NAVIGATION. 
 
 109 
 
 among the many impostures that have been imposed 
 by antiquity upon the credulous world, to him that hath 
 given himself up to demonstration.” 
 
 “ Hitherto in the greater faculties, theology, sacred 
 and profane history and physic, we have been but little 
 assisted by astronomy ; but if we look into the next 
 class of science, we shall perceive ourselves wholly in- 
 debted to her. It is astronomy that enlarged both our 
 understanding and our habitation, hath given politeness 
 and, consequently, religion and laws to the barbarous 
 world. He that looks upon the little parcel of the 
 world, which the ancients contented themselves with, 
 and sees how we furrow the great ocean, and gather 
 our aromatic harvests from the remotest parts of the 
 globe, and can enjoy in our own Europe, whatever 
 Thule or Ethiopia, the rising or the setting sun can 
 produce, must needs rejoice that so much larger an in- 
 heritance is fallen to mankind by the favour of astro- 
 nomy. It was astronomy alone, that of old undertook 
 to guide the creeping ships of the ancients, whenever 
 they would venture to leave the land to find a neigh- 
 bour shore : though then she was a humoursome guide, 
 and often, veiling the face of heaven with clouds, would 
 cruelly leave them to the giddy protection of fortune, 
 and for the most part only tossed them up and down, 
 and sported herself with their ruin. But if she deigned 
 to show them one glimpse of a star, if but of alcor, or 
 the least albicant spot of heaven, it was enough to pave 
 a way for them homeward, through the horror of the 
 waves and night. In this is truly perceived the influx 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 110 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 of Heaven, when the influx of one Cynosura can move 
 a thousand sail of freighted ships, and render one ele- 
 ment as habitable and more fruitful than the other, 
 though more hazardous. Thus did the ancients every 
 where cultivate the Mediterranean waters ; but their 
 fear of venturing into the ocean, they dissembled by 
 religion, lest they should violate the rites of Thetis and 
 the water-deities.” 
 
 Wren next proceeds to investigate that most im- 
 portant invention and discovery, the mariner’s compass. 
 “ At last,” ho continues, “ Astronomy took to herself 
 another assistant, Magnetics, a kind of terrestrial as- 
 tronomy, an art that tells us the motions of our own 
 star we dwell on, whose every fragment moving in true 
 sympathy with the great one, bids us, in spite of clouds, 
 pass the vast ocean, and possess every piece of our own 
 star. Now* were the gates of true science opened, and 
 the poor philosophers Anaximander, Anaximenes, Leu- 
 cippus, Empedocles, are laughed at, for making the 
 earth a pillar, or a table, or a drum, or inclined of its 
 own nature. In a few months we shake hands with 
 the Antipodes, and pity the supposed heretical Bishop, 
 for his unseasonable venting the truth, and also the 
 pious ignorance of the Fathers, that would have the 
 plane earth fixed upon infinite long roots. But divine 
 Astronomy intended to discover to man her own, yet 
 hidden glory, as well as those of the terrestial globe ; 
 for after the prodigious attempt of Columbus, and as 
 it appears to me, the more difficult voyage of Vasco de 
 Gama, who before pursued the weak beginnings of 
 
A. D. 1 657 | FATHER OF THE NEW PHILOSOPHY. Ill 
 
 "Hanno the Cart] 1 agon i an, and twice scoured through 
 the torid zone, in doubling tlie^ Cape, first finding it 
 habitable, discovering the errors of the ancients con- 
 cerning Africa, and first opening a way to the Inches 
 by sea. By these and succeeding voyages performed 
 by the circumnavigators of our nation, the earth was 
 concluded to be truly globous, and equally habitable all 
 round. This gave occasion to Copernicus to guess why 
 this body of earth, of so apt a figure for motion, might 
 not move, among other celestial bodies ; it seemed to 
 him in the consequences probable, and apt to solve 
 the appearances ; and finding it among the antiqua- 
 ted opinions, he resolved on this occasion to re- 
 store astronomy. And now the learned begin to be 
 warm, the schools ring with this dispute ; all the ma- 
 thematical men admire the hypothesis for saving nature 
 a great deal of labour, and the apparent absurdity of a 
 moving earth makes the philosophers contemn it, 
 though some of them, taken with the paradox, begin 
 to observe nature, and dare to suppose some old 
 opinions false. Now began the first happy appearance 
 of liberty to philosophy, oppressed by the tyranny of 
 the Greek and Roman monarchies.” 
 
 Wren, who had suffered so much from being 
 defrauded of his inventions, comes forward with 
 the claims of one of the greatest inventors and 
 discoverers of modern times, Dr. William Gilbert, 
 physician to Queen Elizabeth and James I., who 
 
 * Vide “ Periplum Hannonis, inter Geographies veteris scriptores 
 Graecos minores,” ed. Oxon, 1698, vol I. p. 5. 
 
112 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 wrote* on tlie inductive mode of reasoning in matters of 
 philosophy, nearly a quarter of a century before the pub- 
 lication of Lord Bacon’s Novum Organon. Dr. Gilbert’s 
 new physiology was highly praised by Lord Bacon, 
 Dr. Isaac Barrow, and several other eminent philoso- 
 phers ; Descartes borrowed from him, and Halley adopt- 
 ed his hypothesis of a great central magnet in the earth, 
 and applied it to the explanation, of the variation, and 
 clipping of the magnetic needle. Wren, a kindred 
 spirit, absolutely adored him as a mighty inventor. 
 
 In reference to the recent liberation of philosophy 
 from the shackles of the Greek and Homan schools, he 
 told his illustrious auditory, that “ among the honour- 
 able asscrtors of this liberty, I must reckon Gilbert, 
 who having found an admirable correspondence between 
 his ferula and the great magnet of the earth, thought 
 this way to determine tliis great question ; and spent 
 his studies and estate upon this enquiry. By which 
 obiter lie found out many admirable magnetical experi- 
 ments. This man/' he enthusiastically exclaims, “ I 
 would have adored, not only as the sole inventor of 
 magnetics, a new science to be added to the bulk of 
 learning, but as the Father of the new philosophy ; 
 Cartesius being but a builder on his experiments. This 
 person I should have commended to posterity in a 
 statue, that the deserved marble of Harvey, might 
 not stand to future ages without a marble companion 
 of his own profession. He kept correspondence with 
 
 * Iu Ills work entitled “ De Magnete, magneticisque corporibus, et 
 de magnate Tellure, Physiologia nova.' Folio, London, 1600. 
 
A.]). 1657 ] 
 
 PRAISE OF LONDON. 
 
 117 
 
 ter, are Fresh in the mouths of all mathematicians for 
 the excellent remains they have either left behind them 
 in print, or adorned the tables with in reading. Among 
 which, the useful invention of logarithms, as it was 
 wholly of a British art, so here especially received great 
 additions ; and likewise the whole doctrine of mag- 
 netics, as it was of English birth, so by the Professors 
 of this place was augmented by the first invention and 
 observation of the mutation of the magnetical varia- 
 tion ; a thing, I confess, as yet crude, yet what may 
 prove of consequence in philosophy, and of so great use 
 possibly to the navigator, that thereby we may attain 
 the knowledge of longitudes, than which former indus- 
 try hath hardly left any thing more glorious to be 
 aimed at in art.” 
 
 Thus introduced into the City of London, the youth- 
 ful Professor rendered appropriate homage to the na- 
 tive city of Gresham ; saying — “ Since the Professor- 
 ship I am honoured with is a benefit I enjoy from tins 
 city, I cannot conclude without a good omen to it. I 
 must needs celebrate it, as particularly favoured by the 
 celestial influences ; a Pandora, on which each planet 
 hath contributed something. Saturn hath given it 
 diuturnity, and to reckon an earlier era, ah urbe condita, 
 than Pome itself. Jupiter hath made it the perpetual 
 seat of Kings and Courts of Justice, and filled it with 
 inexliausted wealth. Mars has armed it with power, 
 
 succeeded Gellibrand. Rooke, as before mentioned, was Wren’s prede- 
 cessor. Accounts of all these eminent men and their works, are given 
 in Ward’s Lives of the Gresham Professors. 
 
114 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 of these latter makes me cease from a larger encomium 
 of Kepler, and reserve it for posterity to bestow upon 
 them, when it shall be more seasonable to give them 
 an apotheosis among those great inventors that I have 
 named.” 
 
 Posterity has given these illustrious men, these 
 great inventors, the apotheosis he foretold, and the 
 names of Boyle and Newton vouch for the due fulfil- 
 ment of the prophecy. Wren then proceeds by ob- 
 serving, that “ of all the arguments which the learning 
 of this inquisitive age have busied themselves with, 
 the perfection of these two, dioptrics and the elliptical 
 astronomy, seem most worthy our inquiry ; for natural 
 philosophy having been of late ordered into a geomet- 
 rical way of reasoning from ocular experiments, that it 
 might prove a real science of nature, not an hypothesis 
 of what nature might be, the perfection of telescopes 
 and microscopes, by which our sense is so infinitely 
 advanced, seems to be the only way to penetrate into 
 the most hidden parts of nature, and to make the most 
 of the creation.” 
 
 “ I cannot, most worthy auditors,” he continues, 
 “ but very much please myself in introducing Seneca, 
 in his prophecy of the new world — 
 
 Venient annis sseeula seris, 
 
 Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum 
 Laxet, et ingens pateat Tellus, 
 
 Novosque Tiphys detegat orbes, 
 
 Nec sit terris ultima Thule*. 
 
 * Medea, Act II. 
 
A. D. 1 657] INVENTION OF THE TELESCOPE. 115 
 
 But then I only begin to value the advantages of this 
 age in learning, before the former, when I fancy him 
 continuing his prophecy, and imagine how much the 
 ancient laborious inquirers would envy us, should he 
 have sung to them, that a time would come, when men 
 should be able to stretch out their eyes, as snails do, 
 and extend them fifty feet in length ; by which means 
 they should be able to discover two thousand times as 
 many stars as wo can ; and find the galaxy to be 
 myriads of them, and every nebulous star appearing 
 as if it were the firmament of some other world at an 
 incomprehensible distance, buried in the vast abyss of 
 intermundious vacuum. That they should see Saturn, 
 a very Proteus, changing more admirably than our 
 moon, by the various turnings and inumbration of his 
 several bodies, and accompanied by a moon of his own. 
 That they should find Jupiter to be an oval earth, 
 whose night is enlightened by four several moons, 
 moving in various swiftnesses, and making multitudes 
 of eclipses. That they should see Mars, Venus and 
 Mercury, to wax and wane ; and of the moon herself, 
 that they should have a prospect as if they were hard 
 by, discovering the height and shape of the mountains, 
 and depths of round and uniform valleys, the shadows 
 of the mountains, the figure of the shores, describing- 
 pictures of her with more accurateness than we can 
 our own globe, and therein requiting the moon for her 
 own labours, who, to discover our longitudes by eclips- 
 ing the sun, hath pointed out the countries upon our 
 globe, with the point of her conical shadow as with a 
 
 1 2 
 
116 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 pencil. After all this, if he should have told them 
 how the very fountain of light is variegated with its 
 Faculce and Macules , proceeding round in regular mo- 
 tions, would not any of the astronomers of his time 
 have changed their whole life for a few windy days, in 
 which principally the solar spots appear, or a few clear 
 nights of our Scsculum f 
 
 “ But,” says the youthful sage, “ I have lost myself 
 upon this subject, as endless as the universe itself ; so 
 large a field of philosophy is the very contemplation of 
 the phases of the celestial bodies, that a true descrip- 
 tion of the body of Saturn only, were enough for the 
 life of one astronomer, how much more the various mo- 
 tions of them ; which I am not now to descant on, but 
 reserve for the continual subject of my future discourses 
 in this place — a place, in wliich the magnificence of our 
 illustrious foimder, Gresham, hath adorned this opulent 
 city with the profession of the sciences in his own 
 house, by a rare example, leaving the muses to be here 
 his heirs and successors for ever ; who seem to be af- 
 fected with the place, having preserved it in esteem, by 
 furnishing it hitherto with men of most eminent abili- 
 ties, especially in mathematical sciences : among whom 
 the names of Gunter, '"Brerewood, Gellibrand, Fos- 
 
 * Edward Brerewood was the first professor of astronomy in Gresham 
 College ; on his death he was succeeded by Edmund Gunter, B.D., the 
 inventor of the sector, a small quadrant for astronomical purposes, and 
 the mathematical scale that bears his name. Henry Gellibrand, the 
 learned Editor and completer of the mathematical works of Henry 
 Briggs, the Savilian professor of astronomy in Oxford, succeeded Gunter, 
 and Samuel Foster, one of three brothers, all able mathematicians, 
 
A. D. 16.58 J VAIN GLORY OF CROMWELL AND LOUIS XTV. 125 
 
 sand tons burden. In the prow was the Protector on 
 horseback, trampling six nation sounder his feet ; repre- 
 sented by an Englishman, a Scotchman and an Irish- 
 man, a Frenchman, Dutchman and a Spaniard, all 
 distinguished by their national habits ; and a figure of 
 Fame held a laurel crown over his head, with a motto 
 “ God with us.” This is scarcely surpassed by his 
 vainglorious contemporary Louis XIV, who permitted 
 his obsequious subjects, to represent him, in one of the 
 numerous statues which they erected to him, with 
 Victory covering him with her wings and crowning 
 him with laurels ; and the following distich, written by 
 M. de Santeul, the best modern Latin Poet that 
 France has produced. 
 
 Aspice quem totis ambit Victoria pennis. 
 
 Hie PELAGO, HIC TERRIS, HIC SIBI JURA DEDIT. 
 
 English historians have written of England’s great 
 Protector, as their feelings were either Monarchical, 
 Democratical or Republican, Jacobite or Hanoverian, 
 Whig or Tory ; but public characters, and public history 
 are often more impartially written by persons foreign 
 in country, or distant in age and place from the objects 
 of their criticism. The eloquent Bishop of Meaux, so 
 renowned for his orations and characters of public 
 persons, comes under the former portion of this cate- 
 gory, but as a contemporary of the Protector, as a 
 countryman of his enemies, and as a friend of the exiled 
 Royal Family of England, then resident in France, 
 he does not appertain to the latter. 
 
 In Bossuet’s funeral oration upon the Princess Hen- 
 
126 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. 1. 
 
 rietta Maria of France, widow of Charles I. of England, 
 the orator takes occasion to say, that Cromwell was 
 a man in whom an incredible power of genius, refined 
 and subtle hypocrisy, as well as a skilful policy, were 
 ably united ; capable of undertaking the greatest pro- 
 jects, and of* concealing his intentions, and was equally 
 active and indefatigable in peace and in war. That he 
 left nothing to fortune, which he could execute by 
 wise counsel and foresight. Besides which, he was so 
 vigilant, and so prepared for events, that he was never 
 deficient or taken by surprise when they arrived. In 
 fine, that he was one of those restless and daring spirits, 
 which appear to be born to change the aspect of the 
 world. 
 
 M. Courtin, in a report of his embassy from 
 Louis XIV. to the court of the Protector, says, Crom- 
 well was merciful or cruel as suited liis interests, had 
 no faith in religion, was true to his word, and constant 
 in his friendships, so long as the appearance of these 
 virtues tended to his aggrandisement, He knew better 
 
 GO 
 
 than any man in the world the dissimulations and 
 sanctified grimaces of the fanatics who surrounded 
 him, and concealed under these popular and humble 
 
 * Richelieu’s estimate of himself partakes of this prudent sagacity ; 
 “ I dare not,” says the vigorous and decisive Armand du Plessis, “ un- 
 dertake any thing till I have thoroughly weighed it ; hut when I have 
 made my determination, I go to my end ; I overturn all ; I mow down 
 all ; nothing stops me ; and, in tine, I cover all with my scarlet cas- 
 sock.” Here is Cromwell to an iota ; but our Protector covered his all 
 with his iron cuirass, scull-cap and jack-boots — the scarlet garb of the 
 Babylonian woman suited not him. 
 
127 
 
 A.D. 1658] CROMWELL AND WALLENSTEIN COMPARED. 
 
 manners an unbounded ambition,, In the opinion of this 
 able French minister, Cromwell possessed, in the high- 
 est degree, all the qualities of a great politician ; and 
 there was nothing wanting to his fortunes, than to 
 have acquired them by better means, to have lived 
 longer, and to have had children worthy of succeeding 
 him. 
 
 The personal character of the celebrated German 
 commander, Albert Wallenstein, as delineated by Sara- 
 sin, resembles that of Cromwell, in many particulars. 
 He was, says this writer, of a bold and commanding 
 mind, but of a restless and unquiet spirit ; of a tall 
 and vigorous body, with a countenance more majestic 
 than agreeable. He was sober by nature, slept little, 
 laboured continually, bore cold and hunger with ease, 
 avoided luxuries, and prevented disease by temperance 
 and exercise. He spoke little, but thought much, 
 wrote his dispatches and correspondence with his 
 own hand, was brave and judicious in the field, admi- 
 rable in raising and supporting his troops, severe in 
 punishment, prodigal in rewarding bravery and good 
 conduct. He was firm under misfortune, civil in po- 
 verty, but at other times proud and audacious ; ambi- 
 tious beyond measure, envious of the glory of others, 
 jealous of his own, implacable in his hatred, cruel in 
 his vengeance, and prompt to anger. Fond of mag- 
 nificence'*, of ostentation and novelty ; extravagant 
 
 * That Cromwell loved magnificence is clear, from all accounts of his 
 mode of living. Evelyn, on the 11th February 1656, visited Whitehall, 
 “ and found it glorious, very glorious, and well furnished.” Diary of 
 that date. 
 
128 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap I. 
 
 in appearance, doing nothing without design, and 
 never wanting pretexts, that it was all for the public 
 good, although it was for the advancement of his 
 own fortune. A despiser of Religion, which he always 
 made subservient to politics. . He was all artifice, yet 
 disinterested in appearance ; acute in discovering the 
 intention of others, he knew how to conceal and con- 
 duct his own councils, and was as impenetrable in 
 private as he pretended to be fine and candid in public ; 
 blaming that dissimulation in others, which he practised 
 so successfully himself. 
 
 The intriguing interval between the death of the 
 Protector and the restoration of monarchy, did not allaj 7 
 the desire for useful knowledge, particularly for expe- 
 rimental natural Philosophy, which still increased and 
 prospered. The formation of a regular and extensive 
 Society, for the cultivation and encouragement of such 
 studies occupied the minds of many distinguished per- 
 sons in London, Oxford and Cambridge. Evelyn*, 
 who had thought long and seriously upon the subject 
 communicated in the autumn of 1659 his proposal for 
 erecting a philosophical and mathematical college. 
 
 In addition to the numerous literary and scientific 
 pursuits which occupied the active and inquiring mind of 
 Wren, the study of chemistry held a place. Boyle, 
 also, loved and patronized the science, and introduced 
 to “ the club" Peter Sthael, whom Wood the Oxford 
 historian, calls “ the noted chemist and Rosicracian.” 
 This adept was a native of Strasburg, and numbered 
 
 * See his Diary, September 1, 1659. 
 
A. D. 1658] 
 
 DEATH OF CROMWELL. 
 
 121 
 
 coveries ; ami whilst his colleague, Hooke, was pursu- 
 ing his investigations of the satellites of Jupiter, he 
 made a series of observations upon the body and 
 phases of Saturn, which he communicated to the pub- 
 lic in his Gresham lectures. 
 
 The year 1658 is also memorable, from the death of 
 Oliver Cromwell, on the tim’d day of September, and 
 the succession of his son Richard to the Protectorate. 
 The character of that eminent personage, belongs more 
 to history and the art-military than to literature and 
 science, and is too well known to general readers to re- 
 quire any elucidation in these pages. 
 
 This event was one of great moment to the nation, 
 and especially so to “ the club” and its professor of 
 astronomy. Wren’s family had suffered persecution 
 and imprisonment for their loyalty, and the pursuits of 
 himself and fellows, were either disliked or despised by 
 the Protector and his government, always excepting 
 their illustrious Latin secretary, Milton. They, however, 
 continued their lectures and discussions, till they were 
 dispersed by the disturbances which followed the Pro- 
 tector’s death, and Gresham College became a barrack 
 for soldiers. 
 
 Bishop Sprat, in his history of the Royal Society, 
 gives a full account of the calamities that befel both the 
 club and the college, which were so dreadful, he writes, 
 that they could not be beheld upon paper without 
 horror. After the death of Cromwell, Wren retired, as 
 was his custom during the Gresham College vacations 
 to his peaceful studies and experiments in Oxford. 
 
122 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 Sprat, in a letter to Wren, wliicli is given in Parentalia 
 and in my memoirs of the latter, writes that Gresham 
 College was garrisoned by the rebels, and the residents 
 driven out. He found “ it in such a nasty condition, 
 so defiled, and the smells so infernal, that if you should 
 now come to make use of your tube, it would be like 
 Dives looking out of hell into heaven. Dr. Goddard” 
 he says, “ of all your colleagues alone keeps possession, 
 which lie could never be able to do, had he not before 
 prepared his nose for camp perfumes, by his vo} r age 
 into Scotland, and had he not such excellent restora- 
 tives in his cellars.” Dr. Goddard was Professor of 
 Medicine and Chemistry, had been physician to Crom- 
 well, whom he attended, as such, in his Scotch and 
 Irish campaigns. Hence, perhaps, his immunity from 
 attacks by the republican soldiers. The alarmed pre- 
 late, informs Wren, that amidst these alarming distrac- 
 tions “ your many friends here, hope you will hereafter 
 recompense this unhappy leisure, by making those 
 admirable discourses which you had intended for this 
 place, now public ; and that you will imitate Cicero, 
 who being hindered from pronouncing his oration pro 
 Mil one, by the guards of Pompey’s soldiers that en- 
 compassed liis chair, set it forth, afterwards, more 
 perfect than all the rest.” 
 
 When the Michaelmas term began, Wren’s cousin 
 Matthew, son of the imprisoned Bishop of Ely, wrote 
 to Oxford, concerning the state of Gresham-college. 
 He went the first day to try whether Dr. Horton 
 would entertain the new auditory of Gresham, the 
 
Cromwell’s funeral. 
 
 123 
 
 A. 1). 1658] 
 
 soldiers, with any lecture, taking it for granted, as he 
 informs his cousin Christopher, that if the Reverend 
 Doctor’s divinity could be spared, Wren’s mathematics 
 would not be expected. But the expectant civilian, 
 was stopped at the gate, by an armed soldier, who told 
 him there was no admission on that account, the col- 
 lege having been reformed into a garrison. He pro- 
 cured admission to Dr. Goddard, who assured him, 
 that none of his colleagues would appear this term, 
 unless the soldiers were removed, of which there was 
 no probability. 
 
 The whole metropolis was hi a state of alarm and 
 confusion ; from Gresham-college, Matthew Wren 
 went to Westminster, where he found only Keudigate 
 and Windham in the two common-law courts, Wild 
 and Parker in the Exchequer and in the Court of 
 Chancery no one, “ for Bradshaw,” he writes, “ keeps 
 the seal, as if it were to be carried before him in the 
 other world, whither he is going,” and whither he did 
 go the following year. Short as the time was from the 
 death of Oliver Cromwell to this period, less than two 
 months, there was much talk, writes Matthew to his 
 cousin of the mediation of the two Crowns of France 
 and Spain, and that Marshal Clerambaidt was expect- 
 ed as ambassador from France, for that purpose. 
 
 Wren and his brother professors were not the only 
 persons in this unsettled period, who held back from their 
 public duties, from a dislike to the persons in power. 
 John Evelyn, records in his diary, that when summon- 
 ed to London, by the Connnissioners for new buildings, 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 124 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 of which body he was a member, and also by the 
 Commissioners of Sewers, and found there was an 
 oath of fidelity to the new Protector and his govern- 
 ment, to be taken, he excused himself and returned 
 home. 
 
 Evelyn saw and describes the superb funeral of the 
 late Protector, who with his family, had for some time 
 assumed almost regal state. He was carried from 
 Somerset-house, on a velvet bed of state, drawn by 
 six horses, with velvet housings, the pall held up 
 by his newly-created Lords. “ Oliver,” says Evelyn, 
 “ was lying in effigy in royal robes, and crowned with 
 a crown, sceptre and globe, like a king. The pendants 
 and guidons were carried by officers of the army ; the 
 imperial banners, achievements, etc. by the heralds in 
 their coats ; a rich caparisoned horse, embroidered all 
 over with gold ; a knight of honour armed cap-a-pied : 
 and after all, liis guards, soldiers and innumerable 
 mourners. In tliis equipage they proceeded to West- 
 minster, but it was the joyfullest funeral I ever saw, 
 for there none that cried but the dogs, which the 
 soldiers hooted away with a barbarous noise, drinking 
 and taking tobacco in the streets as they went.” 
 
 Whatever feelings Cromwell may have indulged 
 in, as to assuming the regal title as well as authority, 
 his modesty cannot be commended, in the figure-head 
 of one of the large ships he built towards the close of 
 liis life, which Evelyn describes in his diary, as having 
 seen on his completion. He describes the vessel as 
 carrying ninety-six brass guns, and being of one thou- 
 
A. D. 1 658] THE PROTECTORATE OF RICHARD CROMWELL. 129 
 
 among liis pupils, Boyle, Wren, 'Dr. Wallis and otlier 
 members of the club and university. Matters in 
 Gresham-college having resumed a more philosophical 
 aspect than when Wren might have feared the fate of 
 Archimedes, the lectures were recommenced, and 
 he delivered a course on the nature and properties of 
 light and refraction. 
 
 Wren, who now occupied himself with his experi- 
 ments, studies and researches in bis fellowship at 
 All-Souls, in the learned discussions, of “ the club” 
 and in the preparation and delivery of his Gresham 
 lectures, was, on the resignation of Dr. Seth Ward, 
 afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, elected to the Chair of 
 Savilian Professor of Astronomy in the University of 
 Oxford, and was admitted to that distinguished office 
 on the 15th May 1660, a few days before the uncon- 
 ditional restoration of Charles II. to the throne of his 
 ancestors. 
 
 The short Protectorate of Richard Cromwell, which 
 was weak and doubtful from the first, terminated at 
 the same time without civil war or bloodshed, by the 
 restoration of monarchy, in the person of the selfish, 
 sensual, ungrateful Charles the Second. 
 
 The nation was now in extreme confusion, by the 
 disturbances between the leaders of the armies and 
 the sectaries ; for as soon as the corpse of the stern 
 Protector was deposited, by his drunken soldiery and 
 vainglorious partisans, in its unquiet grave, among 
 his royal predecessors in Westminster, than intrigue, 
 trickery and anarchy revelled at large throughout the 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 kingdom. The preceding letters to Christopher Wren, 
 show the state of anarchy and military terror to which 
 the metropolis was reduced. 
 
 In November 1659, Evelyn, a staunch and prudent 
 royalist, published his bold' 1 " “ Apology for the King,” 
 in a time of great danger, when it was a capital offence 
 to write or speak in favour of their exiled monarch. 
 About the same time, the Army turned out the Parlia- 
 ment, no government existed, no chief magistrate was 
 either acknowledged or obeyed, except the military, 
 and they at discord among themselves. In December, 
 Evelyn began a private treaty! with Colonel Herbert 
 Morley, then Lieutenant of the Tower, a man in great 
 trust and power, concerning surrendering that fortress 
 to the King, as well as Portsmouth, of which arsenal, 
 Mr. Fagg, the Colonel’s brother-in-law, was governor. 
 There is no doubt, that if Colonel Morley had taken 
 his schoolfellow Evelyn’s advice, he might have attained 
 the honours that General Monk subsequently achieved, 
 for lie was one of the five commissioners for the com- 
 mand of the army ; but he was disliked and viewed 
 with much jealousy by Lambert and Fleetwood, who 
 were playing their own under-plots with Richard the 
 new Protector and General Monk, who underplotted 
 and beat them all. 
 
 * Reprinted in Evelyn’s “ Miscellaneous Writings,” 4to. 1825, 
 p.p. 169-192. 
 
 + The details of this affair, are printed in the appendix to Evelyn's 
 Diary, 8vo. 1850, p.p. 422-426, 
 
A. D. lCCO | TERMINATION OP THE RUMP PARLIAMENT. 131 
 
 On tlie 3rd February 1660, General Monk arrived 
 in London with a large body of troops from Scotland, 
 but he veiled his intentions with profound mystery. 
 On the 10th, he broke down the city gates, which had 
 been closed against him, marched in triumph through 
 the streets, turned the fanatical soldiers out of their 
 quarters, and sent them to a distance. The next day 
 Monk marched to Whitehall, turned out the Rump* 
 Parliament, and convened the former one. On the 
 3rd May, news arrived in London of the King’s decla- 
 ration and application to the Parliament, General 
 Monk and the People of England. These were joy- 
 fully and unconditionally accepted, and on the 8th, 
 King Charles the Second was proclaimed in London. 
 Thus ended the English commonwealth. 
 
 Whilst these political intrigues were distracting the 
 country, young Wren and his scientific friends were 
 cultivating the arts of peace, in tranquil seclusion. The 
 last lecture delivered in Gresham College, before the 
 expulsion of its professors, by the fanatics, was by 
 Wren, on the nature and properties of light and re- 
 fraction. In January 1660, Dr. Seth Ward, afterwards 
 Bishop of Salisbury, resigned the Savilian professor’s 
 chair of astronomy in the University of Oxford, and 
 Wren was elected his successor. Cowley, the poet, 
 added his contribution towards the establishment of a 
 
 * Evelyn says in his diary, that, for joy at this event, thousands 
 of rumps were roasted at bonfires in the streets, amidst ringing of bells, 
 and universal jubilee. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. I. 
 
 philosophic college, which Dr. Sprat, the historian of 
 the Royal Society, admits, greatly assisted Wren, 
 Boyle, Evelyn and other distinguished lovers and 
 patrons of experimental Philosophy and Science in the 
 formation of that eminent body. 
 
A. 1). 1660] 
 
 RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. 
 
 133 
 
 t 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM THE RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. TO HIS DEATH. 
 a. i). 16G0 to 1G85. 
 
 “ To gratify the good Andronicus 
 And gratulate his safe return to Rome, 
 
 The people will accept whom he admires.’’ 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Charles II. was a refugee in Holland at the time of 
 his father’s death. He immediately assumed the title 
 of King, and passed over to Scotland, where he was 
 crowned at Scone. On the approach of Cromwell, the 
 young King entered England, passed his republican 
 opponents, and reached Worcester with his small band 
 of royalists, where he was signally defeated. After 
 undergoing many privations and dangers, he escaped 
 his pursuers and reached France in safety. He passed 
 some years in Paris, little regarded by the Court of 
 Louis XIY. his maternal uncle, who was awed by the 
 growing power and influence of the Protector and the 
 Commonwealth of England. These indignities caused 
 Charles to visit Holland, Spain and Germany ; and 
 resided a considerable time at Cologne, where he was 
 hospitably received and kindly treated, as he acknow- 
 ledged when he received an address from that city after 
 his restoration. 
 
134 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 However slightingly the French Court behaved to 
 Charles during his exile, they sought his friendship and 
 alliance after his restoration ; and in less than a year 
 after that event, Philip Duke of Orleans, the only 
 brother of Louis XIV. was married to the Princess 
 Henrietta-Anne, sister of Charles II. After a dis- 
 cordant marriage of nearly nine years’ duration, the 
 Duchess died suddenly, with strong suspicions of poison, 
 which was passed over by both courts as an affair of 
 ordinary occurrence. The Duke’s education had been 
 purposely neglected by the learned, licentious and 
 sceptical M. de la Mothe le Vayer, to whom Cardinal 
 Mazarin said — ‘‘ Why should you make the King’s 
 brother a clever man 1 If he become more learned than 
 the King, he will not know how to yield him implicit 
 obedience.” He was left in ignorance, and became 
 dissipated, vain and effeminate. The Princess is des- 
 cribed by a cotemporary writer'", as very .young, hand- 
 some, amiable and graceful ; surrounded by the greatest 
 coquettes of the court, who were all the mistresses of 
 her enemies, who tiled to overwhelm her with misery, 
 by embroiling her with her husband. Her gaieties 
 caused the Duke to be jealous, and the opposite tastes 
 of the Duke to hers, made her indignant. His favour- 
 ites, who hated her, sowed discord between the Royal 
 couple, which lasted till the death of the Duchess. 
 
 The restoration of monarchy to England in the person 
 
 * Fragmens de Lettres originates de Madame Charlotte-Elisabeth de 
 Baviere, veuve de Monsieur, frere unique du Roi. Pains, 1788. This 
 lady became the second wife of the Duke. 
 
A. D. 1660 | 
 
 RESTORATION OF MONARCHY. 
 
 135 
 
 of Charles the second, would liafe been as happy as his 
 wearied people wished, had the King learned wisdom 
 in exile, and the nation prudence, when they recalled 
 him. On the death of Cromwell, Louis XIV. acknow- 
 ledged Richard Cromwell, as Protector of the Common- 
 wealth of England, and renewed his public relations, 
 with the new chief magistrate. On the conclusion of 
 the war between France and Spain, the year after the 
 death of Cromwell, the exiled King, learning from 
 England the apathy of the new Protector and the cabals 
 among the leading men of his government, besought 
 Cardinal Mazarin the negociator for France, and Don 
 Louis do Haro, the Spanish Minister, to aid him in 
 recovering the throne of his ancestors, but his applica- 
 tions were slighted by both. It is questionable, if his 
 solicitations had been complied with, whether a foreign 
 army would have been in any degree so successful, as 
 the voluntary recall of the Royal Family by the people 
 of England. 
 
 The King returned after seventeen years’ exile, to a 
 rejoicing people, whom he knew not, and who knew 
 not him. The few English people with whom he 
 associated were mostly profligates and outcasts, such as 
 the cast off strumpet of Algernon Sidney and his 
 brother Robert, from whom the King purloined her, 
 and shared the double paternity of the handsome and 
 dissolute Duke of Monmouth, too handsome, and too 
 much like Robert Sidney, says the biographer of 
 James II. even to a wart on his face, to make any 
 doubt whose child he was, and the desperate gamesters 
 
136 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 and roues* that followed his broken fortunes and reck- 
 less mockery of a court. The old nobility and gentry 
 of England, disgusted with the hypocrisy and tyranny 
 of the fanatics, who kept even Cromwell in awe and 
 from assuming the regal title as well as power, sighed 
 for the restoration of their titles, their state, and their 
 pleasures ; the Bishops in nubibus, the episcopalians, 
 both clerical and laical, desired emancipation from the 
 holes and comers into which themselves and their 
 sacred services were driven, and the whole country, 
 with the exception of the fanatics, who clung to White- 
 hall and the Rump, called out like the Israelites of old, 
 for monarchy, and thought even a bad King was better 
 than no Kimr at all. Thus Charles returned with a 
 
 O 
 
 dissolute train of titled libertines, profligate rakes, old 
 and worn out Bishops, some of whom were warping 
 towards Popery, others accused of Socinianism, but all 
 too much gratified at the restoration of Monarchy and 
 the hopes of toleration, and a restitution of their pro- 
 perty, sees and rich livings, and to -witness the visibility 
 of the Church, to think much of conditions. 
 
 The people were mad with joy, and thronged in 
 such crowds to present themselves, and kiss his hand, 
 that persons on real business could scarcely approach 
 him, and left him hardly time to eat for many days ; 
 
 * “ Row' s. 31. seelerat qui merite la roue” says the Dictionaire 
 de l’Academie, “ roues, nom qu’un donnoit au libertins titre du temps 
 de la regne de Louis XIV.” Memoires de M. le Due de St. Simon. 
 “ Waitresses et Roues,” being the feminine and masculine genders of 
 the genus, Titled-Libertines, or Debauchees. 
 
REMISSNESS OF TIIE BISHOPS. 
 
 137 
 
 A. 1). 1660 | 
 
 and the King was as ready to' receive as the people 
 were to pay, these unconsidered compliments. Evelyn, 
 who was ever an advocate for high-church and 
 monarchy, in reflecting on the attacks which the 
 Church of England sustained, in his days, from the 
 papists on one hand, the sectaries on the other, and 
 from that apathy within, which gave up the reins 
 without being certain of regaining them, remarks, that* 
 “ our Bishops slipped the occasion ; for, had they held 
 a steady hand upon His Majesty’s restoration, as they 
 might easily have done, the Church of England had 
 emerged and flourished without interruption ; but they 
 were then remiss, and covetous after advantages of 
 another kind, whilst His Majesty suffered them to 
 come into a harvest, with which, without any injustice, 
 he might have remunerated innumerable gallant gen- 
 tlemen for their services, who had ruined themselves in 
 the late rebellion.” Mr. Evelyn points at the large 
 and numerous fines for renewals of leases for lives 
 which had not been filled up during the Common- 
 wealth, and were, after the reformation, continually 
 being applied for. Bishop Burnell, a brother prelate 
 and a cotemporary, says, they were much misapplied. 
 
 Wren and his philosophical colleagues of Oxford 
 and Gresham, rejoiced no less at the restoration of 
 monarchy and the restitution of former customs than 
 did the rest of the nation. Plans and proposals for 
 the improvement of manners, education, philosophy, 
 and all things of national import, burst from the closets 
 
 * Diary, 8vo. Ed. 1850, vol. II. p. 71. 
 
138 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 and cloisters wherein they had been digested and ma- 
 tured in secret, like pent-up steam released from the 
 boiler to give life and utility to multifarious machinery. 
 The first and greatest effect of this mental liberation, 
 of the recommencement of the meetings and lectures 
 at Gresham College, was the foundation of “ The 
 Royal Society for the improvement of natural know- 
 ledge by experiment.” The objects of this great and 
 useful society, as given by its historian, Bishop Sprat, 
 was to collect faithful records of all the works of 
 nature and art which may come within their reach ; 
 so that their age and posterity could be able to mark 
 the errors which had been strengthened by long pre- 
 scription : to restore truths that had lain neglected, to 
 advance those already known to more various uses, 
 and to make the way more passable to those which were 
 unrevealed. Other objects are also detailed, tending 
 to enlarge knowledge from being confined to the cus- 
 tody of a few, to put it into a condition of perpetually 
 increasing by settling an inviolable correspondence 
 between the hand and the head ; to effect reformations 
 in philosophy, not so much by any solemnity of laws, 
 or ostentation of ceremonies, as by solid practice and 
 example ; not by a vain-glorious pomp of words, but by 
 the silent, effectual and unanswerable arguments of 
 real productions ; and, they finally avowed, that they 
 professed not to lay the foundation of an English, 
 Scotch, Irish, Popish or Protestant Philosophy, but 
 a philosophy of mankind. 
 
 On the 28th November 1660, at the conclusion of 
 
A. D. 1660 j FOUNDATION OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 
 
 139 
 
 Wren’s lecture at Gresham College, the leading mem- 
 bers of the philosophic club withdrew into his room, 
 and discussed some of the details of the proposed so- 
 ciety, and continued their discussions weekly after his 
 lectures. On the 5th December, Sir Robert. Moray 
 informed the members, that the king had heard of 
 then- intentions, which he highly approved, and would 
 give it every encouragement. Wren was intrusted to 
 draw the preamble to the charter, which was adopted 
 as it now stands at the head of that document. The 
 club continued its meetings, experiments and discus- 
 sions as before, both at Oxford and Gresham, till the 
 formation of the Royal Society. 
 
 Among other works of Wren, in the annus mirabilis, 
 as it was the fashion to call the year of the restoration, 
 were experiments on the pendulum, considerations on 
 the philosophy of shipping, conjointly with Sir William 
 Petty, and a method for the construction of solar 
 eclipses, which was considered so excellent that it was 
 published by Dr. Flamstead the Astronomer Royal, in 
 his work on the doctrine of the sphere, as well as some 
 years afterwards by Sir Jonas Moore in his system of 
 the mathematics and was long followed as being the 
 most concise and plain. He also wrote a series of 
 papers on the longitude, began early in his life, and 
 continued to within a short time of his death. The 
 portion written in this year was on the various ways 
 used by the ancients and others of later times, for 
 finding the longitude, and methods proposed by him 
 
140 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. H. 
 
 for that purpose, with diagrams of proper instruments 
 to be used. 
 
 The important documents belonging to the knights 
 of the most noble Order of the Garter, which had been 
 so long preserved by Dean Wren and his family*, as 
 before-mentioned, were delivered by Mr. Wren to Dr. 
 Ryvcs, the new Dean of Windsor and Registrar of the 
 Order, as appears by at receipt in the manuscript copy 
 of Parentalia in the library of the Royal Society, from 
 which it was copied for my large quarto life of the 
 architect. They had not, however, similar success in 
 recovering the George and Garter of Gustavus the 
 Great, which contained four hundred and ninety eight 
 diamonds, and had been returned after that heroic 
 monarch’s death in the victorious battle of Lutzen, in 
 pursuance of the statutes of the order. By command 
 of Charles I., they were committed to the custody of 
 the Dean and Chapter of Windsor, to be preserved in 
 their treasury, as a memorial of that renowned knight, 
 who fought, conquered and died wearing those jewels];, 
 “ to the great honour of the order, and as a true mar- 
 tial Prince and Companion thereof.” Dean Wren, to 
 prevent the loss of these heroic memorials, took the 
 
 * Page 13. 
 
 t “ I do acknowledge that I have received of Mr. Christopher Wren, 
 the son of Mr. Dean Wren, a box, in which are the three register hooks 
 and other note hooks, all relating to the most noble Order of the Garter ; 
 in testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, this 11th day of 
 August, in the year 1660. (Signed) Bruno Ryves.” 
 
 I See Ashmole’s Order of the Garter. Pages 203 and 641. 
 
A.D. 166 1 | GUSTAVUS THE GREAT’S GEORGE AND GARTER. 141 
 
 t 
 
 precaution, at the breaking out of the civil war in 
 1642, to remove and conceal them under the floor of 
 the Treasury, and deposited a sealed letter descriptive 
 of the hiding place and its contents with a trustworthy 
 friend. Here they remained till March 1645, just be- 
 fore the decisive battle of Nazeby, when they were 
 discovered by Cornelius Holland, an officer in the par- 
 liamentary army, who delivered them to Colonel Yen, 
 Governor of Windsor Castle, by whom they were 
 given to Colonel Whitchcott his successor, the man 
 who prevented the burial service of the Church of 
 England to be used when the mutilated body of his 
 Sovereign was committed to the silent vaults of his 
 ancestors under the Chapel of St. George in that 
 royal residence. They were subsequently removed by 
 John Hunt, Treasurer to the Trustees appointed by 
 the Long Parliament, for the sale of the crown pro- 
 perty, and sold by them to Thomas Beauchamp, their 
 clerk. 
 
 Early in January 1661 , the new Society com- 
 menced their session in Wren’s apartment in Gresham 
 College, and added Robert Boyle, John Evelyn, Sir 
 John Denham, Messrs. Ashmole, Henshaw, Oldenburg 
 and Rawlins to the number of their Fellows. Their 
 experiments at this time were on the barometer ; 
 Evelyn, on Iris introduction, presented his Circle of 
 mechanical trades, and was solicited to publish his 
 treatise on Chalcography. 
 
 If the family and friends of Cromwell were wrong 
 in depositing the mortal remains of the once-powerful 
 
142 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [~CHAP. II. 
 
 Protector in regal state and magnificence, in the royal 
 vaults of the Tudors at Westminster, Charles the second 
 and his advisers were no less so in wreaking- their bootless 
 revenge, by “ dragging out then carcases/’ as Evelyn* 
 calls them, in his pious indignation, “ of those arch 
 rebels, Cromwell, Bradshaw and Ireton, out of their 
 superb tombs among the Kings at Westminster, to 
 Tyburn, and hanged on the gallows there, from nine in 
 the morning till six at night, and then buried under 
 that fatal and ignominious monument ; thousands of 
 people who had seen them in all their pride, being 
 spectators. Look back at October 1658, Oliver’s 
 funeral.” The presumption, perhaps, led to the retri- 
 bution. Nor is it more creditable to the feelings of 
 either the restored Monarch, for one more absolute or 
 uncontrolled by conditions or law, perhaps never sat 
 on the English throne, or of his advisers, than, that 
 after the public execution of Axtell, Carew, Clement, 
 Hacker, Hewson and Peters, within five months after 
 the “ Happy Restoration,” as it was called, by Act of 
 Parliament, that three days afterwards another exhibi- 
 tion of the same sort was commanded to be performed 
 at Charing Cross, on the bodies of Scott, Scroope, 
 Cook and Jones, which was honoured by the royal 
 presence of the Kang and his Court, “ I saw not 
 their execution,” says Evelyn, “ but met their quarters, 
 mangled, and cut, and reeking, as they were brought 
 from the gallows in baskets on the hurdles and this 
 
 * See his Diary, for January 30, 1661, the first public fast for the 
 beheading of Charles I. 
 
A. D. lGGl | 
 
 SCIENTIFIC PIRATES. 
 
 143 
 
 in the face of Charles’s letter”" to the Parliament, 
 wherein ho submitted himself and all things to them, 
 as to an act of oblivion to all, unless they shall please 
 to except any, also as to the sale of the King’s and 
 Church lands, if they sec good. The King’s promises 
 in adversity, and his performance of them in prosperity, 
 too much resembled the sanctified sickness of another 
 swarthy monarch and his holy practices when conva- 
 lescent. 
 
 The Philosophic Club began now to feel the cheer- 
 ing effects of royal patronage. In March 1 G 61 , Sir 
 Robert Moray was elected President, and being the 
 first member so appointed, has occasioned him to be 
 sometimes called the first President of the Royal So- 
 ciety ; whereas, in the subsequent charter of incorpo- 
 ration, Lord Brouncker is named to that distinguished 
 office, and is, consequently, its first President. In this 
 more formal state, Wren poured forth from the abun- 
 dance of his mental stores so profusely, and with so 
 little care as to ownership, as to supply others, who 
 not only promulgated them to the world, to the great 
 benefit of science, but dishonestly published them 
 as their own discoveries or inventions. He com- 
 plained sharply that Oldenburg, their secretary, often 
 neglected to enter his papers in the transactions, 
 but also sent his inventions and copies of his tracts 
 abroad, where they were published and claimed by 
 foreigners. Even his scientific colleague, Dr. Wallis, 
 the able controverter of Hobbes, is among the pillagers 
 
 * Read in the House of Commons, May 2, 1660. 
 
144 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 of Wren. Aubrey, a cotemporary and friend of both, 
 says of this Reverend Pirate*, “ He is a person of real 
 worth, and may stand with much glory on his own 
 basis, and need not be beholden to any man for fame, 
 of which he is so extremely greedy, that he steals 
 feathers from others to adorn his own cap. For ex- 
 ample, he lies at watch for Sir Christopher Wren’s 
 discourses, Mr. Robert Hooke, Dr. William Holder, etc., 
 puts down their notions in his note-book, and then 
 prints it without owning the authors.” Among these 
 robberies, there is little doubt but Wallis’s demonstra- 
 tion of the equation of a straight line to a parabola, 
 published in 1659, and his work, De cy cloide et corpo- 
 ribus inde yenitis, etc., were taken from the well- 
 plumed cap of liis illustrious friend. 
 
 Whilst Wren was pursuing his experiments and 
 investigations in the quiet recesses of All Souls College, 
 Oxford, he received the King’s commands, to construct 
 a solid globe of the moon, wherein he had made some 
 progress, and to complete his micrographical investiga- 
 tions. The lunar globe was soon finished and pre- 
 sented to the King, who received it with great satisfac- 
 tion, and ordered it to he placed among the most 
 valuable articles of his cabinet. The globe was fixed 
 upon a pedestal of lignum vitae, with a scale of miles, 
 and an inscription-!-, not unworthy the Latinity and 
 
 Aubrey’s Lives of Eminent Men, Vol. ii, p. 570, 
 
 f It is as follows, “ Carolo secundo M. Br. Fr. et Hib. R. enjus amplitu- 
 dini quia unus non sufficit, novum hunc orbein selenesphserio expressum. 
 D. D. P. Chr. Wren.” 
 
A. I). l66l ] CORONATION OP CHARLES II. 145 
 
 laconic flattery of de Santeul, or any other Ludovican 
 Academician. M. de Sorbiere, a French Protestant 
 physician, who, by turning papist, was rewarded by his 
 sovereign with the title of Historiograph e du Roi, and 
 by Pope Clement IX, whom he had flattered from his 
 hat to his tiara, by empty honours, which he received 
 by saying — “ Most Holy Father, you give ruffles to a 
 man who is without a shirt took upon himself to 
 vilify this addition to the King of England’s royalties, 
 and other things which he saw during his short visit. 
 Evelyn calls him a schemer, who had passed through a 
 thousand shapes to ingratiate himself in the world ; 
 after having been an Aristarchus, physician, or rather 
 mountebank, philosopher, critic and politician. Bishop 
 Sprat replied to the Frenchman’s attack upon his 
 country, but M. de Voltaire subsequently did justice to 
 all parties at issue, by saying he “ would not imitate 
 M. de Sorbiere, who, having stayed three months in 
 England, without knowing anything of its manners or 
 of its language, thought fit to publish a relation, which 
 proved but a dull scurrilous satire upon a nation he 
 knew nothing of.” 
 
 The coronation of the restored King took place at 
 Westminster, on St. George’s day of this year, with 
 extraordinary magnificence, and with a real joy on the 
 part of the People of England, that would have filled 
 the heart of a sensible Prince with delight and 
 gratitude, but our second Charles was made of other 
 metal. His selfish coldness and ingratitude is well 
 known, and Evelyn’s description of his reception by 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 wren and his times. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 the eld Bishop of Durham*. 
 
 had been kmd, and ^ a str iking picture 
 
 little remembered in hi - ‘ > bo returned 
 
 of the Court, the stresses et roues, 
 
 from exile with then- Royal Mast 
 
 their Boyai mu**.- . t ed 
 
 rn honour of his c-te 
 
 The King, m nuuuux - — The 
 
 University 0t Oxfoi 1 „ then in Ids twenty-ninth 
 
 to promote < hvistop iei f;ivl] p a w, and the 
 
 year, to the l eyiee ^ the same, by ad- 
 
 sister University ol Doctol , Wren to the 
 
 nutting the young ured Academy, 
 
 same degree n then * accom pUsliinents was some 
 
 Among other ot Kill „ Charles had 
 
 shill in architecture, ill " L t astc during his exile 
 
 imbibed a great love for and s ‘ ’ States, 
 
 in France, Germany, and .°*![ e King from Oxford, 
 Wren was therefore sent 01 , office of 
 
 to assist Sir John » Denham 
 
 Surveyor Geneia o . tr „ than for his architecture; 
 
 is better known by his P« . ‘ proposal to 
 
 “* c ~y' p»- 
 
 build the new Joy p or w hich he was 
 
 at J 7 Evetn^nd dissuaded from by his col- 
 ridiculed by B ael} . ^ lmd been appointed 
 
 league, attests the othei. ^ dea th of Inigo 
 
 t0 the some remuneration for W- 
 
 • ' ivln.r 17 1663. 
 
 * Evelyn’s Diary, May 17, 1663. 
 
A. D. 1661 | A WAR FOR A FRENCH WINDOW. 147 
 
 but dared not trust liis architective skill, except by 
 making Wren a Viceroy over him. The first works 
 proposed by the King was a reparation of St. Paul’s 
 Cathedral, the restoration of Windsor Castle, and the 
 building of a new palace at Greenwich. The King’s 
 knowledge of his best men was gained by his intimacy 
 with the members of the philosophic club, and this 
 knowledge led him to select Wren to design and super- 
 intend these important works ; which was accomplish- 
 ed by appointing him coadjutor to the distinguished 
 author of “ The Soplii,” a tragedy, which was so 
 successful, that Waller exclaimed, “ Denham has 
 broken out like the Irish rebellion, sixty thousand 
 strong.” 
 
 It was well for the peace of Europe, that Charles II. 
 was upon better terms with his superintendents of 
 public buildings, than was his royal relative Louis XIV. 
 Charles suffered Denham, Evelyn and Wren to settle 
 thek minor differences of style and construction, pro- 
 vided they would convert the dark, melancholy and 
 prison looking Castle of Windsor into something like 
 the airy French-windowed apartments of Versailles, 
 and erect his new Pleasance at Greenwich after the 
 French fashion. Not so Louis le Grand, he was his 
 own Minister, his own Commander-in-Chief, his own 
 Architect, his own Trumpeter I was about to say, but 
 His most Christian Majesty had too many volunteer 
 performers on that fascinating instrument, for him to 
 waste his sacred wind so needlessly. 
 
 The war of 1688, so fatal to France, was occa- 
 
 l 2 
 
148 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 sioned, says M. le Due de St. Simon, in his interesting* 
 memoirs, by a paltry dispute about a window, between 
 Louis XIV. and Louvois, liis Minister of war, which 
 showed the character of the Monarch and the Minister 
 so clearly, that he felt it to be his duty to give a cor- 
 rect account of so strange a cause for war. 
 
 Louvois, on the death of Colbert, was appointed 
 Superintendent of Public Buildings. Le petit Trianon 
 de Porcelaine, built originally for Madame de Montes- 
 pan, displeased the King, who rejoiced in nothing but 
 palaces, and amused himself in building them. He 
 possessed a very correct eye, for proportion, regularity, 
 and symmetry, but for pure taste, he possessed none. 
 In rebuilding this palace, when it had scarcely risen 
 above the level of the ground, the King espied a defect 
 in the arrangement of one of the windows of the 
 ground-floor story. Louvois, who was, by nature, 
 surly, and so spoiled as scarcely to receive any rebuke, 
 even from liis royal master, disputed the point forcibly, 
 and maintained that the proportions of the window 
 were correct. The King turned upon his heel and 
 walked away to another part of the building. 
 
 The next day he met Andrew Le Notre, the cele- 
 brated Architect, whose taste in ornamental gardening 
 had embellished Versailles, St. Cloud, Chantilly, the 
 Tuilleries, Greenwich, Windsor, St. James’s, etc., had 
 been rewarded by his Sovereign with riches, knight- 
 hood and nobility, and by the verse of the poet of 
 gardens, Delille. The modem Alexander demanded 
 
 * Vol. I. p. 22. 
 
A. ]). l()6‘2j 
 
 A WAR FOR A FRENCH WINDOW. 
 
 149 
 
 of the Gallic Dinocrates, whether lie had been at 
 Trianon \ The architect replied, that lie had not. 
 The King explained how he had been offended, and 
 desired him to see the peccant window. The next day, 
 the same question and the same answer, and the fol- 
 lowing day, similar repetitions. The King plainly saw 
 that Le Notre was equally afraid to discover wrong in 
 Royalty, as to blame the powerful minister ; Louis 
 became angry, ordered the hesitating Architect to be 
 at Trianon on the morrow, to attend him and Louvois. 
 
 Le Notre could no longer parry the royal thrusts ; 
 the King met them both, as appointed, at the new 
 building, and his first inquiry was concerning the 
 window. The Architect said nothing, the King com- 
 manded him to measure and try it by line and square, 
 and say how he found it. 'While he was thus occupied, 
 Louvois, incensed at the anticipated verification of the 
 King’s correctness, grumbled aloud, and angrily main- 
 tained that the window corresponded in every respect 
 with the others. WTien the examination was finished, 
 he asked Le Notre how it was \ who hesitated. The 
 King flew into a passion, and commanded the stam- 
 mering Architect to speak plainly, which he did, by 
 avowing the King to be right, and the window defective. 
 He had scarcely finished, when the King turned to 
 Louvois, told him to give up his obstinacy ; that the 
 window was all awry, and must be rebuilt, when at 
 this time, the building should have been finished ; and 
 rebuked him sharply. 
 
 Louvois, incensed at this sally, in the presence of 
 
150 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 courtiers, workmen and servants, went home in a 
 furious rage. There he found St. Fouange, Yilleneuf, 
 the Chevalier de Nogent, the two Tilladets, and other 
 intimate friends, who were alarmed at seeing the 
 Minister in such a state. “ It is done,” he exclaimed ; 
 “ I have lost the King’s favour for a paltry -window. I 
 have no other remedy, than a war that will draw him 
 away from his buildings, and render me necessary ; 
 and, ’faith, he shall have it.” In a few months this vile 
 threat was accomplished, and, in spite of the King and 
 other Powers, lie involved his country in a general 
 war, fatal and disgraceful to France at the end, al- 
 though distinguished by many successful and gallant 
 actions in its course ; and which, perhaps, conduced to 
 the success of the Prince of Orange in accomplishing 
 the glorious revolution of 1688 ; and all through a 
 quarrel about a French window. 
 
 The Philosophic Society continued its investigations 
 and experiments, in all the sciences, particularly in 
 Astronomy, in which Wren was then much occupied 
 in elucidating his hypothesis on the planet Saturn, and 
 in comparing it with those of ITuygenius, which led to 
 the discovery of Saturn’s ring. Wren read these in- 
 vestigations as a lecture at Gresham College ; and the 
 heads of the University of Oxford thought so highly 
 of him as an astronomer, that they published, in 1662, 
 his Prcelcctiones Astronornicce at them Press. 
 
 Wren, Evelyn and other fit and proper persons, 
 were this year appointed Commissioners for reforming 
 the buildings, ways, streets and incumbrances, and for 
 
A. D. 1662 j 
 
 * MARRIAGE OF CHARLES II. 
 
 151 
 
 regulating the Hackney coaches in London. That 
 there was great necessity for their exertions is evi- 
 dent from the King’s speech from the throne, to his 
 Parliament, March 1, 1662, the familiarity of which 
 resembles more an extemporaneous address to his 
 free and easy court, than the loftier style of Poyal 
 speeches of the Georgean and Victorian eras. “ I will 
 conclude,” says the King, “ with putting you in mind of 
 the season of the year, and the convenience of your 
 being in the country, for the good and welfare of it : 
 for you will find much tares have been sowed there in 
 your absence. The arrival of my wife, who I expect 
 this month, and the necessity of my absence from town 
 to meet her, and to stay some tune before she comes 
 hither, makes it very necessary that Parliament be 
 adjourned before Easter, to meet again in the winter. 
 The mention of my wife’s arrival, puts me in mind to 
 desire you to put that compliment upon her, that her 
 entrance into the town may be with more decency than 
 the ways will now suffer it to be : and to that purpose 
 I pray you would quickly pass such laws as are before 
 you, in order to the amending those ways, and that she 
 may not find Whitehall surrounded with water.” 
 
 Lord Sandwich was sent to Portugal for the Queen, 
 and was expected with his charge early in May. Tliis 
 gallant seaman was keeper of the royal wardrobe, and 
 his housekeeper showed his secretary, Mr. Pepys, 
 Lady Castlemaine’s under-dresses, which did him good 
 to look at ; and* assured him that the King dined and 
 
 * Pepys’s Diary, 8vo. 1848, vol. 1, p. 356. 
 
152 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 supped every day and night with this lady, the entire 
 week previous to the arrival of his “ wife.” Poor 
 Mr. Pepys laments how disconsolate she was after the 
 king's departure for Portsmouth to meet the Queen, 
 and how much it troubled him and his wife to see her 
 look so dejectedly, and so slighted by people already. 
 The King met his “ wife” at Portsmouth, was married 
 by the Bishop of London, and arrived with their suites 
 at Hampton Court on the 30th May. Both Evelyn 
 and Pepys who had good opportunities of knowing, 
 speak of the plain features, olive complexions and 
 tasteless dresses of the new Queen and her Portuguese 
 maids of honour ; and the Guarda damas, or Mother 
 of the maids, an office then of eminence in the chaste 
 Courts of France, Spain, Portugal and England. 
 
 Hampton Court'"' at this time, was a noble, uniform 
 and capacious pile, with incomparable furniture and 
 tapestry hangings designed by Raffaelle ; also many 
 rare pictures, particularly the Caesarian triumphs by 
 Andrea Mantegna, and other fine productions of the 
 best masters. The Queen’s bed was an embroidery of 
 silver on crimson velvet, and cost £8000, being a pre- 
 sent from the States of Holland to the King on his 
 restoration. The history of this' royal nuptial couch is 
 curious and characteristic, having been formerly given 
 by the same parties to Charles’s sister, the Princess of 
 Orange, and being piu-chased of her again was now 
 presented to the King. The great looking-glass and 
 toilette of massive gold, were presents from the Queen- 
 
 * Evelyn’s Diary, June 9, 1662. 
 
HAMPTON COURT IN 1662. 
 
 153 
 
 A. U. 1662] 
 
 mother of Portugal, and many fine Indian cabinets, 
 such as had not then been seen in England, were also 
 brought over by the Queen. The royal couple passed 
 a short time in this pleasant retreat, and then returned 
 to the King’s more congenial palaces of Whitehall and 
 St. James’s. The King behaved so well at Hampton 
 Court, and appeared so well pleased with his “ wife,” 
 that it made Mr. Pepys fear it would* “ put Madam 
 Castlcmaine’s nose out of joint.” 
 
 The court pursued its gaieties at Hampton, the 
 Parliament passed the Act for uniformity of Public 
 Worship, which produced great discontent among the 
 Presbyterians, the people in general began already to 
 be discontented ; some from considering themselves 
 not used according to promise, and others from not 
 being rewarded by the King according to their ex- 
 pectations. 
 
 The Commissioners of Paving, etc. this year paved, 
 for the first time, the road from St. James’sf Palace 
 north, now St. James’s Street, which was then a quag- 
 mire, and also the Haymarket about Piccadilly, and 
 issued printed instructions for the better cleansing the 
 streets. The Philosophic Society still proceeded with 
 even steps, and its charter having passed the great seal 
 on the 15th July 1662, it was read by Mr. Oldenburg 
 the secretary, at a meeting convened for that purpose 
 on Wednesday, August 13, 1662. No other business 
 was transacted at this initiatory meeting of the Koyal 
 
 * Pepys’s Diary, May 31, 1662. 
 
 t Evelyn’s Diary, July 31, 1662. 
 
154 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. II. 
 
 Society, owing to the great length of the document by 
 which it was incorporated, except that Dr. Wren and 
 Dr. Pope were desired to continue them observations of 
 Jupiter’s satellites. 
 
 The society was now incorporated under the title of 
 The President, Council and Fellows of the Royal 
 Society of London, for the improvement of natural 
 knowledge by experiment*, and at its first meeting re- 
 solved, “ that the President, Lord Brouncker, attended 
 by the Council, and as many of the Fellows as could 
 be obtained, should wait upon the King, after his 
 coming from Hampton Court to London, to give him 
 humble thanks for liis grace and favour ; and that, in 
 the mean time, the President should acquaint His Ma- 
 jesty with them intention : and that afterwards the 
 Lord Chancellor (Hyde) be thanked likewise, as also 
 Sir Robert Moray, for his concern and care in pro- 
 moting the constitution of the Society into a Corpo- 
 ration.” 
 
 On the 29 th August, the Court having returned to 
 Whitehall, the President, Council and Fellows waited 
 upon the King for the purpose before-mentioned. Lord 
 Brouncker made a long and appropriate speech, to 
 which His Majesty most graciously replied, and the 
 President and Members paid the customary respects to 
 the King. On the following day they waited on the 
 Lord Chancellor, to whom the President made a suit- 
 
 * For copies of the charter, names of the past members, etc., see my 
 quarto life of Wren, Sprat’s History of the Royal Society, Birch’s 
 ditto, etc. 
 
A. D. 1662] 
 
 prince rupert’s rhine-wine. 
 
 155 
 
 able oration, to which the noble and learned Lord 
 made a suitable reply"'. 
 
 During these ceremonials, Dr. Wren was occupied 
 in examining Lord Sandwich’s important documents of 
 notes and observations, collected and made by that 
 distinguished naval commander, during his late voyage 
 to Portugal, the Straits and other parts of the Mediter- 
 ranean sea, to compare them with others of a similar 
 nature and to report liis opinion upon them. The 
 opinions of Wren upon almost every subject were 
 esteemed so highly by his coadjutors, that they were 
 continually pressing him upon great and momentary 
 subjects. He did not confine his speculations to his 
 study, but had a furnace frequently at work in the 
 laboratory to test and verify bis conjectures by experi- 
 ments. In this manner he led the way in fumigating 
 the rooms wherein persons sick, or labouring under 
 contagious disorders or other close or offensive apart- 
 ments, could be rendered wholesome, and communicated 
 to the Society the mode of operation and the apparatus 
 for cooling the atmosphere of such places by percolation 
 and the action of benign chemical ingredients. This 
 useful invention he left for execution in the able hands 
 of his friend and colleague Robert Boyle. 
 
 The King and Prince Rupert, often attended 
 Wren’s chemical experiments, and the latter, as a 
 special mark of liis regard, enrolled the young philo- 
 sopher in the list of those distinguished friends, to 
 
 * For these speeches and replies, the inquiring reader is referred to the 
 authorities mentioned in the preceding note. 
 
156 - 
 
 wren AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 whom he annually sent presents of his choicest wine 
 from his estates on the Rhine. This honour is proper- 
 ly recorded by his original biographer in Parentalia. 
 
 Evelyn’s “ discourse concerning Forest trees,” writ- 
 ten in consequence of questions from the Commission- 
 ers of the Royal Navy was read by him on the 15th 
 October of this year, to a full meeting of the Royal 
 Society ; and is memorable for the good it has done to 
 the Nation, as well that it is the first book published 
 by the Society after its incorporation. 
 
 The art of delineating pictures in light and shade 
 on plates of copper, called mezzotinto engraving, was 
 invented or rather, discovered by Wren*, which Prince 
 Rupert improved and communicated to Evelyn, a prac- 
 tised artist and a good etcher. Evelyn still further 
 improved the mode and subsequently published it in 
 his History of Chalcography. The earliest recorded 
 specimens of this art, arc the head of a Moor by Wren, 
 and the headsman of St. John the Baptist, by Prince 
 Rupert, who engraved R. P. f. ( Rupertus Princeps, 
 fecit), surmounted by an electoral coronet on the 
 sword. 
 
 Although Dr. Wren had been at this time Assis- 
 tant Surveyor-General, for more than two years, he 
 had received no public employment in Architecture. 
 In 1663, however, he was offered the appointment of 
 Engineer at Tangier, to design and superintend the 
 construction of the mole, harbour and fortifications of 
 the citadel of that city, which had been given as a part 
 
 * Parentalia. 
 
A. D. 1(563] 
 
 old st. Paul’s in 1663. 
 
 157 
 
 of the marriage portion of Catharine of Braganza, 
 the Infanta of Portugal, on her marriage with King 
 Charles II. This offer was declined by Wren, although 
 accompanied with the promise of an ample salary, 
 royal favours, a dispensation for not attending his 
 various duties at home, and a reversionary grant of 
 the office of Surveyor-General, on the death of Sir 
 John Denham. 
 
 Among the King’s projects was, as before men- 
 tioned, a thorough and substantial repair of St. Paul’s 
 Cathedral. Inigo Jones had, in the reign of Charles I., 
 put the ancient choir, built”', as is supposed, by 
 Richard, Bishop of London, in 1189, in good repair, 
 had cased a great part of the church with Portland 
 stone, had rebuilt the north and south fronts, and 
 embellished the west end with that exquisitely-beauti- 
 ful, but ill-applied Corinthian portico which has re- 
 ceived so much well-deserved praise. From the length 
 of time since these repairs and additions, and from 
 the damage it has sustained from the puritans and 
 fanatics during the Commonwealth, the Metropoli- 
 tan Cathedral was in a disgraceful state ; Wren 
 was therefore appointed by commission, under the 
 great seal, in 1663, to survey and report upon its con- 
 dition, and on the best mode of repairing the damaged 
 and decayed edifice. 
 
 Dr. Sprat! wrote to his friend Wren, from Oxford, 
 concerning these honourable and useful employments, 
 
 * Dugdale’s Old St. Paul’s, p. 146. 
 t Parent alia, p. 260, and my Life of Wren, p. 111. 
 
158 
 
 WHEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 telling him that the Vice-Chancellor had enquired 
 where the Professor of Astronomy was, and the reason 
 of his absence so long after the beginning of the term % 
 Sprat tells him he used all the arguments he could in 
 his friend’s defence. He told the Reverend authority 
 that Charles the second was King of England, Scot- 
 land, France and Ireland ; that he was, by the last 
 Act of Parliament, declared absolute Monarch in these 
 his dominions ; and that it was this mighty Prince 
 who had confined Wren to London. He endeavoured 
 to persuade the Vice-Chancellor that the drawing of 
 lines in "Sir Henry Savile’s school, was not altogether 
 of so great a concernment for the benefit of Christen- 
 dom, as the rebuilding of St. Paid’s, or the fortifying 
 of Tangier. 
 
 Another letter from Sprat, the friend and biographer 
 of Cowley, whose Pindaric flights he followed suffici- 
 ently well to obtain the praise of Dr. Johnson, was 
 written to liis friend Kit Wren, as he familiarly calls 
 him. Although it is inserted at full length in my 
 biography of the architect, a few extracts must suffice 
 in this more discursive essay, to show the terms on 
 which these eminent men lived in private, and the 
 nature of their occasional relaxations. 
 
 It appears, from this letter, that Wren and Sprat 
 went, on a recent occasion, to walk in St. James’s Park, 
 the rendezvous of the wits and fashionables of the day, 
 
 * Mathematical and Greek preceptor to Queen Elizabeth, and founder 
 of the Savilian Professorships of Geometry and Astronomy, then held 
 by Wren. 
 
A. D. 1663 | THE WTT OF CONVERSATION. 159 
 
 in tlio liopc of meeting “ the incomparable* person” 
 whom, although they met not, was enough present in 
 their thoughts to bring them to discourse of that in 
 which he so much excelled, “ the wit of conversation.” 
 This confabulation is recapitulated in the letter, from 
 which this accomplished Divine draws a conclusion, 
 that the wit of discourse is as different, among the 
 several parts of mankind, as the temper of their air 
 and constitution of their bodies ; and, therefore, divides 
 his proposition into two parts, yeneral and particular. 
 The yeneral , he defines as that which consists of terms, 
 similitudes and humours, and are received by many 
 nations. It prevails, either by conquest, such as caused 
 the Roman language and wit to be established in all 
 the countries wherein they sowed civilization by their 
 victories ; or, by the situation, authority and com- 
 manding genius of one people over another. Thus, 
 the Greeks became teachers of the art of conversation 
 to the ancients ; and the French, of late, to the 
 moderns. 
 
 Of this general wit, he points out manifest differ- 
 ences. That of the Chinese, he says, consists in the 
 skill of writing several characters, that of the Egyp- 
 tians in giving things, instead of words, for similitudes ; 
 as, for instance, a lion for courage, the sun, moon and 
 stars, for a thousand conceptions. This latter sort, he 
 considers to be a strange kind of laborious expression 
 
 * Probably, Sir William Petty, whose powers and wit in conver- 
 sation, Evelyn so graphically describes in his diary ; which is confirmed 
 by Pepys. 
 
160 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [c 
 
 HAP. II. 
 
 of their minds, which, if the Orators of our times 
 should use in their luxuriancy of metaphors, they 
 would stand in need of Noah’s Ark to carry about with 
 them any one of their orations. The eastern wit of 
 all ages, he considers, as being principally made up of 
 lofty and swelling comparisons, as exemplified in the 
 titles of the Sophi, and the Grand Seignor, which, he 
 doubts not, are some of their noblest fancies, yet, to 
 his understanding, they required the assistance of Ma- 
 homet’s dove to make sense of them. 
 
 Moorish wit he considered to have been similar to 
 the Spanish of his time ; that of the Italian, French, 
 English, Dutch, *if they have any , to be somewhat 
 alike, according to then’ common origin, the Lathi. 
 Of the Muscovitish or Tartarian wit, he can give but 
 little account ; but he assures his friend “ Kit Wren,” 
 that even the Irish had a wit of their own, though he 
 would hardly believe it till some of then* friends went 
 thither. Nay, to say more to then’ advantage, they 
 had this, peculiar to themselves, that almost all their 
 whole nation was, at the same time, both poets and 
 saints. 
 
 The particular wit he describes to be that which 
 arises from the frequent meetings of private assemblies, 
 and this he considers to be capable of infinite divisions ; 
 for there is hardly the least company in the world that 
 meet together but has its common sayings, figures, 
 
 * This reservation of Dr. Sprat’s is not unlike that of his witty co- 
 temporary, Father Bouhours, who raised the question, whether it be 
 possible for a German to he a wit ? 
 
A. D. 1663 | 
 
 THE WIT OF CONVERSATION. 
 
 161 
 
 characters and observations, which are great raillery in 
 theh- proper circle, but tasteless to strangers. This 
 fact, he says, is evident in several shires of England, 
 and distances as a proof, that when he was in the 
 north of England there was a buffoon that was a 
 dreadful droll among the Yorkshire gentlemen, and 
 yet scarcely spoke a grain of salt to our southern 
 tastes. 
 
 Particular wit, he continues, likewise appears in 
 several professions of men. The lawyers will laugh at 
 those jests in the Temple which, it may be, will not 
 move them at Charing Cross ; and he considered it 
 likely that “ Tom Killegrew *” himself would not seem 
 good company to a table of benchers. The wit be- 
 yond Fleet Bridge, (that is, in the city,) has another 
 colour from that on this side. The very watermen on 
 the Bankside have their quips and their repartees, 
 which are not intelligible but upon the Thames. But, 
 to say no more, this species of wit is to be found in 
 every private family ; and he had almost gone so far 
 as to say that there is scarcely a husband and wife in 
 the world but have a particular way of wit among 
 themselves ; but he would not affirm it, because his 
 evil age believed that few married persons are wont to 
 delight so much in one another’s company as to be 
 merry and witty alone. This latter thought, though 
 
 * Who, that is acquainted with the History of the English Stuarts, 
 has not read of the loyal, witty and talented brothers, Will, Tom and 
 Harry Killegrew? The second, who was the companion of Charles II. 
 in exile, and his free associate and familiar friend after his restoration, is 
 the one here alluded to. 
 
162 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 intended as a joke by the exemplary Divine, speaks 
 volumes as to the character of the dissolute age of the 
 Restoration. 
 
 Having thus discovered the mighty Proteus, which 
 puts on so many various shapes, in various places, and 
 on various occasions, he proposes to define it. The 
 wit of discourse is, he informs his friend, the greatest 
 art about the smallest things ; for, to confess a secret, 
 as Sir William Davenant’s way differs very little from 
 * Frank Bowman’s, and yet one is the gayest, and the 
 other the most insipid ; so the true pleasant talk and 
 the vainest tattle are not very different. The subjects 
 of both are a thousand little trifles, and the difference 
 lies only in the management. This wit, therefore, is 
 made up of many inexpressible excellences, it must 
 have a general evenness of humour, it must perfectly 
 observe all the rules of decency, to know when enough 
 is said ; to forbear biting things, not to be touched, and 
 to abstain from abusing; honest and virtuous matters. 
 It must apply itself to the condition and inclination 
 of the company, and rather follow than lead ; it must 
 not always strain to speak extraordinary things, for 
 that is a constant dancing on the ropes, in which, 
 though a man does often well, he may have one fall 
 that may break his neck. It must allow every one 
 their turn in speaking, for it is natural to all to love 
 better the company of those which gives them occa- 
 
 * Perhaps the Mr. Bowman mentioned by Pepys (April 20, 1661), 
 through whose favour he gamed admittance to the Cockpit Theatre, and 
 saw the King, and the Duke and Duchess of York. 
 
A. D. 1C63] 
 
 DISSERTATION ON WIT. 
 
 163 
 
 sions of speaking well, than those that do it them- 
 selves ; it must mingle stories with arguments, pleasant 
 tilings with solemn ; it must vary the subject and not 
 pump itself dry at once. He then quotes Cowley in 
 some verses which Wren had not seen, to show that 
 the latter is a wise quality. The verses quoted, say — 
 
 So the imperial eagle does not stay, 
 
 Till the whole carcase he devour 
 That’s fallen into his power ; 
 
 As if his generous hunger understood, 
 
 That it can never want supply of food, 
 
 He only sucks the tasteful blood, 
 
 And to fresh game flies cheerfully away, 
 
 To kites and meaner birds lie leaves the mangled prey. 
 
 To this poetical illustration of the preceding axiom, 
 Sprat goes on to argue, that this generous eagle-wit 
 uses the best and easiest words, is not the first to take 
 up new ones, nor the last to lay down old ones. But, 
 above all, its chief dominion is in forming new signifi- 
 cations and images of things and persons. This, he 
 conceives, may be so suddenly practised, that he has 
 known, in one afternoon, new stamps and proverbs, 
 and fashions of speech raised, which were never thought 
 of before, and yet gave occasion to most delightful 
 imaginations. He next draws Wren’s attention to the 
 extent and difficulty of this art, and confesses that it is 
 seldom to be found among men of large and full and 
 high thoughts, because such minds overlook the little 
 passages, and fly presently to general axioms, which, 
 it may be, are most useful, yet they do not affect our 
 thoughts with such an immediate and familiar delight. 
 
164 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP II. 
 
 But the learned and metaphysical Divine, hints to 
 his friend the mathematical and experimental Phi- 
 losopher, that to speak truth, the perfection of this 
 glorious faculty, without which life were no life, belongs 
 not so much to men as to the softer sex ; for they 
 have usually their heads less disturbed with busy 
 thoughts, their minds are quicker and readier for new 
 impressions, they talk more of circumstantial things, 
 they sit longer together, and, which Wren used to say 
 was of great consequence in our northern and phlegma- 
 tic climate, they keep their feet warmer and drier, and go 
 less into the moist and open air. That women are the 
 best speakers, he offers Wren two undeniable instances, 
 one in his Laura, as he thinks his friend calls her, and 
 the other, the nymph who was once his Clelia, “ The 
 one,” says the deserted Doctor, “ speaks with a great 
 freedom and spirit, and with an abundance of sweet 
 words ; the other talks less, but with as much sweet- 
 ness and nature : from the one, nothing can be taken 
 away, to the other nothing ought to be added.” 
 
 But the Doctor dared not proceed in this descrip- 
 tion, through remembrance of an old story ; that while 
 a painter was drawing from a most beautiful lady, he 
 fell desperately in love with her, and it had cost him 
 his life, had not Alexander bestowed her on him. The 
 first part of this tale, the reverend Divine felt sure 
 would be his fortune, if he should longer employ his 
 thoughts on such a lovely object ; and he was as 
 certain that he should perish long enough before he 
 should find an Alexander to pity him ! It is a question 
 
APELLES AND Dll. SPRAT. 
 
 165 
 
 A. D. 1663] 
 
 worthy the attention of the oracular Editors of “ Notes 
 and Queries ,” whether this is not a parable wherein the 
 Doctor depicts himself as the modern Apelles, imbibing 
 draughts of love from Clelia — Campaspe’s eyes, and the 
 conge (delire — bestowing Monarch of the Restoration, 
 who had no pity for the dying lover of his beauteous 
 concubine % The subsequent Lord Bishop of Rochester’s 
 apology, might be “ Homo sum,” but the quotation is 
 too trite to need completion. 
 
 To return, however, to Sprat’s definition or descrip- 
 tion of this fugitive, evaporative, spiritual essence of the 
 human mind. Wit, he considers, consists in a right 
 ordering of things and words for delight ; but fearing 
 to bore liis friend, he drops the argument, and sends 
 him news of the state of society. 
 
 The following passage shows in a lively manner the 
 occupation of the men about town, in the rampant time 
 of the beginning of the Restoration. He tells Wren, 
 “ now I look about me, what need have I to go any 
 farther % seeing the age wherein. we live runs already 
 so mad after the affairs of wit. All the world are at 
 present Poets ; the poetical bees are all at work, comedies, 
 tragedies, verses, satires, burlesques ; songs buzz every 
 where about our ears ; and, to ease my hand a little by 
 changing my pace — 
 
 Wits we have now as many, if not more. 
 
 As we had sects or preachers heretofore ; 
 
 And Heaven, in mercy grant, this crying sin, 
 
 Don’t the same judgments once more usher in. 
 
 We have our northern wits, wits of the east, 
 
 Wits of the south, and witlings of the west ; 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 166 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 South and by west, south east, east and by north, 
 From every point, like winds, they bluster forth. 
 We have our wits that write only to sway 
 At Y ork, or Hull, or ten miles thence each way. 
 Each corporation, sea-port, borough, town, 
 
 Has those that will this glorious title own. 
 
 Like Egypt’s frogs they swarm, and like them too, 
 Into the chambers of our Kings they go. 
 
 Sprat seems to have no better opinion of the 
 “ witlings of the west,” than Dr. Johnson, who, on 
 being asked by Sir Joshua Reynolds at the club on his 
 return from Devonshire, how he liked his countrymen, 
 the Plymptonians ? replied, “ to say the truth, Sir 
 Joshua, the farther I went west, the more I felt con- 
 vinced, that the wise men came originally from the 
 east.” 
 
 “ What is to be done with this furious generation of 
 wits and writers V’ asks the Reverend Doctor of his 
 philosophic friend. “ To advise them to leave off is 
 vain — 
 
 Too strong the infection is 
 To be destroyed by such quick remedies. 
 
 No, no, it is a sweet and flattering kind 
 Of poison, and deceives the clearest mind : 
 
 Cowley himself, Cowley, whom I adore, 
 
 Often resolved, nay, and I think he swore, 
 
 That he no more those barren lands would plough, 
 
 Where flowery weeds instead of com do grow. 
 
 Perchance, as Jesuits’ Powder does, each vow 
 Kept the fit off from him, three weeks or so, 
 
 But yet, at last, his vows were all in vain, 
 
 This writing ague still returns again.” 
 
 Mr. D’Israeli, in discussing the distinction between 
 the poetical and the mathematical genius, opposes the 
 
167 
 
 A. D. 1 663 ) POETICAL AND MATHEMATICAL GENIUS. 
 
 view entertained by some writers, that a man of genius 
 possessing a general capacity, may become whatever 
 be chooses, but is determined by bis first acquired habit 
 to be what he is'"', quotes a Scotch metaphysician as 
 having recently declared that “ Locke or Newton might 
 have been as eminent poets as Homer or Milton, had 
 they given themselves early to the stud} r of poetry 
 and believes that had these distinguished philosophers 
 obstinately against nature, persisted in the attempt, 
 the world have lost two great philosophers and have ob- 
 tained two supernumerary poets. Whatever may have 
 been the predisposition of Wren’s genius, it appears 
 that at the time of his intimacy with Sprat he paid 
 court to the gentle Muses, as well as to Minerva operosa, 
 that he sought the lofty regions of Apollo, as well as 
 the dusky caverns of Vulcanus, and the fairer work- 
 shops of Daedalus. 
 
 In a correspondence between these friends, Wren 
 maintained that Horace cannot well be translated ; to 
 which the Divine replies, that he takes leave to dissent, 
 for by the elegant translations of the epistle ad Lollium, 
 which he had sent him, he confuted himself. “ You 
 have well hit his genius,” he writes, “ your verse is 
 numerous, your philosophy very instructive for life, your 
 liberality in translation enough to make it seem to be an 
 English original, and yet not so much but that the mind of 
 the author is still religiously observed. So that if you 
 have not adorned the fat droll, as you pleasantly call 
 
 * The Literary Character, or the History of Men of Genius,” 
 by I. D’Israeli, D.C.L., F.S.A. Lon. 1839, 8vo. 3rd Ed. p. 26. 
 
168 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 him, with feathers, yet you have 'with jewels, which is 
 a more stately, though not so flaunting a bravery. 
 Most other attempts on him, nay those of Ben Johnson 
 himself, appear to me to have been very unfortu- 
 nate, and his translators have seemed, not so much to 
 have remembered that he was a friend to Augustus, as 
 that he was Ubertino patre natus, so rudely and so 
 clownishly have they rendered him.” Such praise, 
 from such a scholar, critic and poet as Sprat, the friend, 
 adorer and biographer of Cowley, is strong evidence of 
 Wren’s poetic power. But to borrow a phrase from 
 the distinguished collector of curiosities of literature, 
 had these eminent men cultivated solely then - poetical 
 powers, the Boyal Society would have lost a correct 
 and eloquent Historian, and London a great Architect. 
 
 From this correspondence, it appears that Wren 
 perfectly agreed with Sprat in approving this poet 
 above others. “ For ever since,” he says, “ I have 
 had the good fortune to read him otherwise than as a 
 school-boy, I have always respected him as one of the 
 most accomplished men of that incomparable age. He 
 was almost the first writer that brought poetry from 
 the fables of their ridiculous religion, and from flatter- 
 ing women’s beauties, to speak of human affairs, and 
 to show mankind to themselves. The decency of his 
 order and invention is admirable ; all things so justly 
 and admirably said, that even the hypercritical Matt. 
 Clifford himself cannot find one word in him whereon 
 to use his sponge. So natural he is, that every fancy 
 seems to flow into his pen, without any contention 
 
A. ]). 1GG3] 
 
 PRE-EMINENCE OF HORACE AS A POET. 
 
 169 
 
 of brain, and yet lie was the slowest and severest of 
 his time ; the wit which he shows is just enough for 
 the subjects ho undertakes, and no more. This I 
 esteem one of the surest and noblest of perfections 
 that belong to a liberal pen ; and I like very well 
 what Jack Birkenhead has somewhere said — “ that a 
 great Wit’s great work is to refuse.” Moderation of 
 fancy is a thing most commendable, and most difficult ; 
 it being hard for men of hot and violent, minds, such as 
 commonly most great writers have, to stop themselves 
 in full speed, and to understand when they have done 
 enough.” 
 
 In reference to complaints made against liis favour- 
 ite Roman poet, of his many downright and proverbial 
 sentences, and for his roughness of style, he says if 
 Horace’s plain morals are not wit in modern times, 
 they were in his age ; and all that the much-applauded 
 Greeks have left, are only a few such sayings, of which 
 we meet so many hundred in Horace. As to his style, 
 he says, if there be any unevenness in it, it is only 
 such as that of his own Rome, to which its hilly site 
 was advantageous. Nor are all things that are smooth 
 worthy of praise, for then, he says, Quarles might be 
 put in competition with Cowley ; and if to be oiled were 
 to be harmonious, he knows not why a coach wheel or a 
 roasting-jack, might not make good music. The 
 poetical Doctor at Oxford then commends himself 
 to his poetico-mathematico friend in London and to 
 his useful labours. 
 
 Wren’s operations at this time, were taking accurate 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 170 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 plans and sections of tlie dilapidated metropolitan 
 Cathedral, investigating their causes, and suggesting 
 remedies for then’ reinstatement. Following liis pre- 
 decessor’s ideas, he proposed to add an Italian cupola 
 instead of the ruined tower, and to make other parts 
 assimilate with Inigo Jones’s Corinthian portico, and by 
 degrees to convert it into a Protestant Metropolitan 
 Cathedral, in the Roman style of Church Architecture. 
 The report as laid before the King and the commission 
 is given at length in my Memoirs of Wren' :: '. 
 
 Wren may now he considered to have taken up 
 Architecture as a profession, having been commissioned 
 by the University of Oxford to make a design for a 
 building in which the public acts of the University 
 should be celebrated, instead of in St. Mary’s Church, 
 and no longer desecrate a building set apart for the 
 worship of God by secular practices. Tliis was Wren’s 
 first building, and its construction shows the boldness 
 
 O' 
 
 of his mathematical skill. On the 29th April 1663, 
 he submitted his model of the intended building to the 
 Royal Society, by whom it was much commended, and 
 his design and description ivas ordered to be entered 
 among the approved transactions of the Society. This 
 building, known as the Sheldonian Theatre, was erected 
 at the sole charge of the learned, pious and liberal 
 Archbishop wdiose name it bears. He not only erected 
 this theatre, and the printing house, but left an endow- 
 ment for its annual reparation, and expended, from the 
 
 * Pages 125, 130. 
 
THE SHELDONIAN THEATRE. 
 
 171 
 
 A U. 1 663 J 
 
 time of his being created Bishop of London, to his 
 death as Archbishop of Canterbury, a period of about 
 sixteen years, as his account books show, upon public, 
 pious and charitable purposes, above sixty-six thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 John Evelyn informs us in his diary, that Sir Chris- 
 topher Wren informed him it cost five and twenty 
 thousand pounds. He was also informed by the Arch- 
 bishop that lie never did nor ever would see it. The 
 Architect was highly praised for this work by the most 
 worthy of his cotemporaries, and by an elegant Pin- 
 daric Ode in Latin, on the Sheldonian Theatre and its 
 Architect, which is given at length in Parentalia, and 
 my Memoirs. This building was opened on the 9th 
 July 1669, by celebrating the Act of the University, 
 and other ceremonies, which are fully and graphically 
 described by Evelyn, who was present at this dedica- 
 tion of the Oxford Temple of the Muses, in his chary 
 under this date. The sedate Evelyn did not like the 
 wit of Dr. South, the public Orator of the University, 
 although he admits his oration to be elegant, “ very 
 long, and not without some malicious reflections on 
 the Royal Society ; the rest was in praise of the Arch- 
 bishop and the ingenious Architect/’ Among these 
 reflections is the following hitter sarcasm, “ mirantur 
 nihil nisi pulices, pediculosos — et se ipsos,” they ad- 
 mire nothing but fleas, lice — and themselves. This 
 joke from a Bishop, who said*, that it pleased God to 
 make him a wit, however pointed, had been shot 
 
 * In his controversy with Dr. William Sherlock on the Trinity. 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 172 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 twenty years before by Harrington”', against tlie same 
 men, and the same pursuits. 
 
 Wren’s fame spread from London and Oxford to 
 Cambridge, where he built the new chapel of Pem- 
 broke College, at the sole charge of Bishop Wren, his 
 uncle. Nor did these employments separate him from 
 his philosophical pursuits ; for in the survey of the 
 zodiac, which was began by the Iloyal Society, in 
 this year, the sign Taurus was assigned to him and 
 Dr. Iiooke. 
 
 The King, in order to show the nation that he was 
 not totally ruled by his “ roues et maitresses” proposed 
 to visit His Royal Society this year, and great were the 
 exertions of the President and Fellows to give their 
 Royal Patron a suitable reception. Wren was written 
 to at Oxford, to lend his aid. To this application, he 
 replied in a long lettcrt to Lord Brouncker the Presi- 
 dent, pointing out some experiments to be shown and 
 what to be avoided, for the solemnity of the occasion 
 and for the honour of the Society. “ It is not every 
 year,” he writes, “ that will produce such a master- 
 experiment as the Torricellian,” fears that many, 
 although of high value in themselves might appear too 
 jejune for this purpose, in which he thinks there ought 
 to be somewhat of pomp to please the Royal taste. 
 On the other side, he advises his noble friend to 
 eschew “ knacks and things that raise wonder, such as 
 
 * See Page 39. 
 
 t Dated Oxford, July 30, 1663. 
 
THE ENGLISH COURT IN 1 663 . 
 
 173 
 
 A. D. 1663] 
 
 Father Kirciier, Scholtus, and even jugglers abound 
 with, as scarcely becoming the gravity of the occasion.” 
 In this manner did the versatile actor, Charles the 
 second, personate the character of the King of England, 
 by the grace of a grateful people’s Restoration. Let 
 us, however, drop the curtain, dismiss the gratified, per- 
 haps gulled audience, accompany the actors and actresses 
 to their green-room ; see the King lay down his diadem, 
 doff his robes, kiss and say farewell to his Queen of a 
 day, and retire with some of the trulls, who bore her 
 hassock and her train, and the low-bred jesters, who 
 enacted the courtiers for pence, to a carousal in the 
 garret of the fairest and most impudent of the ac- 
 tresses. 
 
 Metaphor apart, the Court of Charles II., at the 
 very time when the elect of the age were preparing to 
 entertain their Monarch, as a patron of art, science and 
 literature, was scarcely more real than the Court of 
 King Arthur, in O’Hara’s inimitable burlesque-tragedy 
 of Tom Thumb. 
 
 In the second year of the “ happy Restoration,” 
 Philibert Compte de Granunont, who had the presump- 
 tion to make love to a favourite of Louis XIV. came to 
 England, and possessing similar tastes, was highly dis- 
 tinguished by King Charles II. At the same time 
 M. le Compte de Comminges, a friend of de Granunont 
 and of liis brother exile, the Epicurean St. Evremond, 
 came also to England as Ambassador from the King 
 of France to his royal Cousin of England. This noble- 
 man, as in duty bound, communicated with his august 
 
174 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 master, and to his minister for foreign affair’s, M. le 
 Marquis de Lionne, the state of things, in the restored 
 court of Whitehall. Some of these letters were copied 
 from the originals, in the “ Bibliotlieque du Hoi,” at 
 Paris, by Sir Cuthbert Sharp, F.S.A., and published, 
 with his permission, and for the first time, by Lord 
 Braybrooke, in the Appendix to the third edition of 
 Pepys’s Diary. 
 
 By a singular coincidence, the exiled favourite, and 
 the favoured ambassador met together at Calais, as 
 related by the latter to the French minister at Paris ; 
 wherein he says, you would never have thought that 
 the follies of the Chevalier de Grammont, could have 
 ever advanced the King’s affairs. Nevertheless it is 
 true that without his arrival at this port, I should 
 have been detained by the weather being too foul to 
 enable me to embark in the packet-boat ; so he left 
 Calais with his disgraced friend, in the Duke of York’s 
 yacht, which conveyed them to London. He informs 
 the King, that Sir Henry Bennett, who had a few 
 months before, been made Secretary of State, stood 
 well with liis master, which created jealousy in the 
 Chancellor’s cabal ; and that there was nothing talked 
 of at the English Court, but of the magnificent dia- 
 mond which the King of France had presented to 
 Lord Gerard"', which their Britannic Majesties, he 
 says, valued at six thousand crowns. 
 
 He then informs his colleague at Paris, that M. de 
 
 * Afterwards Earl of Macclesfield, lie was Colonel of the Life- 
 Guards, and had recently married a French lady. 
 
ILLUSTRIOUS DEBAUCHEES. 
 
 175 
 
 A. D. 1663] 
 
 Grammont had arrived at the English Court, where he 
 was most graciously received ; was at all the King’s 
 parties, and quite at home at Lady Castlomainc’s. He 
 next relates a quarrel between Lady Castlemaine and 
 Lady Gerard, who had informed the Queen of matters 
 derogatory to her character, and which led the King, 
 who took the part of Lady Castlemaine, to forbid the 
 Queen’s friend from appearing at Court. This female 
 squabble and its disgraceful cause is fully and graphi- 
 cally detailed in Pepys’s Diary of this date. 
 
 t Before the Compte de Comminges had been in 
 London many weeks, he was waited on by many dis- 
 tinguished Irish officers who proffered their services to 
 him. He describes them as much attached to France 
 and inimical to Spain ; in fact, on the look out for a 
 master, and weary of the tyranny which had been 
 exercised by all parties upon their nation. His house 
 was to be opened the following day with a grand 
 dinner, to which the King and the Duke of York pro- 
 posed to honour him with their presence*, not that he 
 had invited the King, but his Majesty desired to be of 
 the party of all the illustrious debauchees of the king- 
 dom. In a letter to the King he describes the in- 
 trigues of the court, the desire of Charles to reconcile 
 the two political parties, by marrying the eldest son of 
 the Chancellor with a daughter of the Earl of Bristol ; 
 mentions rumours of causes which had retarded his 
 
 * “ Le Roi et M. le Due d’York me feront l’lionneur de diner : ce 
 n’est pas que j’aye prie sa Majeste ; mais il a voulu etre de la parti e de 
 tous les illustres desbauchez du royaume.” 
 
176 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 public entry, as Ambassador from the great King. 
 During this seclusion the Chevalier de Grammont and 
 the Sieur de St. Evremont came to visit him, like good 
 Frenchmen, zealous for the honour and glory of his 
 Majesty. He assures the King that he will serve them 
 both as he may think fit, and if they will do their 
 duty, as he is persuaded they will, he hopes that his 
 Majesty will hear them named, and permit them, 
 should their sendees deserve it, to be forgiven, after a 
 penitence conformable to then- fault. This may show 
 in what capacity these illustrious debauchees worked 
 out their claims for pardon, in their nominal exile. 
 
 The avidity with which Louis XIY. swallowed 
 every species of flattery, has been already mentioned ; 
 and M. de Comminges was too good a Frenchman not 
 to contribute his share, which he does in a letter dated 
 April 2, 1663. In this brief epistle he tells his Royal 
 Master, that the arts and sciences sometimes abandon 
 one country to honour another. At the present time, 
 he informs the King, they had settled in France ; and 
 if there were any vestiges of them in England, it is 
 only in the memorials of Bacon, More, Buchanan and, 
 in later times, of one Milton , who is rendered more 
 infamous by his dangerous writings, than the butchers 
 and assassins of their King ! He also describes a 
 drunken fray at Lord Oxford’s, where the illustrious 
 debauchees pulled off one another’s wigs, fought with 
 swords, till separated by General Monk, which is also 
 noticed by Pepys, in his Diary, with becoming indigna- 
 tion. In other letters he informs the King of the ex- 
 
A. D. 1 663 ] 
 
 A COURT BEAUTY OF 1663. 
 
 177 
 
 pected confinement of the Duchess of York, of the 
 health of the Queen-mother, and of a great quarrel 
 among the ladies of the Court ; so high did it run, 
 that his Britannic Majesty threatened Lady Castle- 
 maine, that he would never set foot within her doors, 
 if the pretty Miss Stuart was not of the party. In 
 another, he relates the illness of the Queen and the 
 sorrow of the King, who wept over her sufferings, yet 
 supped every night with Lady Castlemaine, enjoying 
 the lively conversation of the handsome Miss Stuart. 
 Of this disgraceful conduct, Pcpys makes many strong 
 remarks ; but admits that she surpassed all the Court 
 beauties'"', “ with her hat cocked and a red plume, 
 with her sweet eyes, little Roman nose, and excellent 
 taille, is now the greatest beauty I ever saw.” 
 
 In his letter of November 5, 1663, he informs the 
 King of the arrival of M. de Catteu in London, and 
 that he lost no time in presenting him to the King of 
 England at Whitehall. Charles received the French 
 Ambassador and his friend, with great satisfaction to 
 the Envoy, and would have introduced them imme- 
 diately to the Queen, although so seriously ill, but she 
 was asleep, and the introduction was postponed till the 
 next day. They returned at the appointed hour, and 
 the King introduced them to the Queen’s bed-side, and 
 took the pains, he writes to Louis XIV. “ to make 
 the compliments of your Majesty and of the Queen, 
 with great difficulty, as the fever had left her so very 
 deaf, that he was obliged to bawl the compliments of 
 * Diary, July 14, 1663. 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 WHEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 the great Monarch into her Majesty’s ears.” The poor 
 Queen, who was obliged, by the rigid ceremony of the 
 French Court, although but slowly recovering from a 
 dangerous fever, to give audience in bed to Louis’s 
 Ambassador, received his complimentary message, he 
 says, with great satisfaction, and replied to it in a few 
 words, but very intelligible. From this moment, writes 
 the Envoy, she began to mend, and it appeared to him , 
 that the care which his gracious master had taken in 
 sending this message had contributed more to her 
 Majesty’s recovery than all her physicians ! 
 
 The Count was invited to the Lord Mayor’s show 
 and dinner, where not being received with all the 
 honours, which lie thought due to his rank, he took 
 himself off in dudgeon, and wrote to his royal master 
 an account of the indignity offered to his representa- 
 tive, and at the ample reparation he required and re- 
 ceived. Pcpys was also there, and relates*, “ that after 
 the Lords had half dined, the French Ambassador 
 came up to their table, where he was to have sat ; but 
 he would not sit down nor dine with the Lord Mayor, 
 who had not arrived, nor have a table to himself, which 
 was offered to him, but went away in great discontent.” 
 
 Pepys describes this dinner as being defrayed, half 
 by the Lord Mayor and half by the two Sheriffs, and 
 reckoned to cost, he says, from seven hundred to eight 
 hundred pomids. Before dinner, he and two City 
 friends and “ Lieutenant-Colonel Baron, a City com- 
 mander,” went up and down Guildhall to see the 
 * Diary, October 29 (November 9, N. S.), 1663. 
 
A. D. 1 (>63 J 
 
 LORD MAYOR’S DAY 1663. 
 
 17.9 
 
 tables, but none of them, except that for the Lord 
 Mayor and for the Lords of the Privy Council, had 
 table-cloths or knives, which lie thought very strange. 
 Before the arrival of the Lord Mayor, the Chancellor, 
 the Archbishop before him, the Lords of the Privy 
 Council and the Bishops, left the room into which they 
 were first conducted, and began dinner about one 
 o’clock, in the manner which offended the Compte de 
 Comminges. Lie says, there were ten good dishes to 
 a mess, and plenty of wine of all sorts ; but he found 
 it very unpleasant that they had no napkins (table- 
 cloths), nor change of trenchers ; he had before com- 
 plained of having no knives, and to drink out of earthen 
 pitchers and wooden cups. He expected music, but 
 there were none but trumpets and drums, which dis- 
 pleased him. At length, “ being wearied with looking 
 upon a company of ugly women, he went away, took 
 coach and saw the pageants in Cheapside, which were 
 very silly.” 
 
 M. de Comminges informs his Sovereign, that the 
 master of the ceremonies called upon him at eight 
 o’clock in the forenoon of Lord Mayor’s day, and took 
 him, first to see the show- by water, and then to a room 
 prepared for him in the principal street, when, after 
 seeing the cavalcade pass, he entered his coach and 
 drove round by the back streets to get a-head of the 
 procession. He, by these means, reached Guildhall 
 half-an-hour before the Lord Mayor ; and was there 
 received with all possible respect, the officers saluting 
 him with their pikes and colours when he descended 
 
180 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 from liis coach. He was then received by other 
 citizens, who placed him under the care of others, and 
 so on, from place to place, till they conducted him 
 into the dinner-hall, where he found the Chancellor 
 and Privy Councillors already at dinner. He was 
 surprised at this gross incivility ; but to avoid making 
 a scene, he determined to give these gentlemen an op- 
 portunity of repairing their fault, if it proceeded from 
 ignorance or mistake, or to evade their malice, if such 
 was intended, by an open and bold face. He therefore 
 walked up to them, with the intention, as he informs 
 the King, of rallying them upon their good appetites ; 
 but he found them so cold and so forbidding that he 
 thought fit to retire. He complains that neither the 
 Chancellor nor his companions at table rose to receive 
 him, and that Bonnet'"', who behaved with great re- 
 serve, said something, to which he replied disdainfully, 
 and retired. The Master of the ceremonies, who had 
 accompanied the Ambassador, spoke to the Chancellor 
 on the subject, but they saw him depart, he says, with- 
 out pain, or offering him any excuses or civilities. 
 
 The Frencht window at la petite Trianon de porce- 
 laine, scarcely gave the French minister Louvois 
 greater cause of anger and of a devastating war, than 
 did the Lord Mayor’s dinner of 1663, to M. de 
 Comminges. 
 
 The offended Ambassador returned home to dinner, 
 
 * Sir Henry Bennet, Secretary of State, who at this time had great 
 influence with Charles II. 
 
 f See page 147. 
 
4 
 
 A. 1). I66.3] A DIPLOMATIC REPRIMAND. 181 
 
 when, in about two hours afterwards, the two Sheriffs*, 
 who had invited him, accompanied by several citizens, 
 waited on him, leaving their retinue at his door. They 
 were ordered by thef Lord Mayor and Corporation to 
 apologize for what had happened, excusing it as having 
 arisen from being taken by surprise. 
 
 The devoted Eustace de St. Pierre and his five 
 fellow citizens of Calais, waiting their fate with halters 
 round their necks, before the exasperated Edward III. 
 scarcely trembled more than did the two Sheriffs and 
 four citizens of London before the angered representa- 
 tive of the Majesty of Louis XI V. He magnanimously 
 told them that their reasons weighed nothing in his 
 estimation ; for having been solicited by them, they 
 ought not to have doubted his coming, particularly as 
 he had promised to do so. In fact that their ignorance 
 and their want of capacity to receive persons of his 
 quality was the sole cause. In conclusion, after many 
 humble excuses and sharp rejoinders, the insulted 
 Ambassador of France told them the affair was too 
 public, and had occurred in the presence of too many 
 witnesses to be lightly passed over ; and that his duty 
 to himself and his country compelled to report the 
 transaction in full to his royal master. After this, he 
 accompanied the penitent citizens out of his saloon, 
 and to make them more ashamed as he states in his 
 despatch, he stopped them for a moment, and told 
 
 * Sir Richard Ford and Sir Richard Reeves, 
 t Sir Anthony Bateman. 
 
when ahd his times. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 II. 
 
 182 
 
 them he would repay such evil treatment hy great 
 
 next morning, he was informed « the Lmd 
 
 Mayor was in attendance, sohoitmg an ^ ^ & do zen 
 civic Lordship was who followed out of 
 
 carriages ^ [ y house,” says the gratified 
 
 curiosity. ^ the emblems of Ins 
 
 ulster to Ms master, witti ah ^ ^ by 
 
 dignity ; ^ ^ robe home by another, 
 
 Crty officer , the to ^ many honourable 
 
 the two Sherffi f a short time m my lower 
 
 citizens. He wane , l ^ o ;0 to him ; 
 
 hall, perhaps with a vrew 2eJ was a fee 
 
 hut one of ^ C " t i had not finished dressing, 
 
 “ th ° T 1 ' ^ the morning employed in wntmg 
 
 having been all tl as x learned 
 
 despatches, he camer a an; cham her, I 
 
 that ll °, v™ htt would listen to nothing till he was 
 received bun, bi regret that lie 
 
 seated. At first he expresses ^ ^ 
 
 could not address me m » ^ ^ed 
 
 , I a “ - V 
 
 “ “I.. ..n— — » I'iSr.™ 
 
 first was, that I would exc ( wou l d favour 
 
 which he had commuted, he oth^ha^ _ ^ ^ on 
 
 myanswOT ^ytS 
 
A. 1). 166.3] ])E GRAMMONT AND MISS HAMILTON. 
 
 183 
 
 I set the example.” The wrath of the ambassador 
 was appeased, and he closed his despatches with assur- 
 ing his King, that his glory had suffered no diminution, 
 not a ray of the Gallic* sun had been shorn, for lie 
 conducted the Lord Mayor to his state coach, giving 
 him the door, but always keeping on the right hand. 
 The whole past, lie says, with satisfaction on all sides. 
 
 From the City, the French ambassador returned, 
 in his despatches, to the Court. lie tells the greatLouis, 
 that the Chevalier de Grammont is ravished at the 
 news lie has just communicated to him, and said, that 
 he would rather serve your Majesty a thousand 
 times for nothing, than all the Kings of the earth 
 for all their treasures ! He is preparing to take his 
 leave of the King of Great Britain, to whom he is, 
 doubtlessly, under great obligations for the gracious 
 manner in which he has been received. In the excess 
 of his joy, he could not conceal from the penetration 
 of the Ambassador his surprise, which convinced him 
 that the business was concluded, and that he had made 
 a great sacrifice to His Majesty on leaving his new and 
 legitimate loves ; for I believe, he informs the jealous 
 Louis, that he will soon console himself with a fairf 
 Englishwoman, to whom he purposes showing the 
 Court of France. Shortly afterwards he informs the 
 King that de Grammont would have left England the 
 proceeding day, but that His Britannic Majesty de- 
 
 * Louis XIV. assumed the sun for his device, with the vaunting motto, 
 
 “ Nec pluribus impar.” 
 
 + Miss Hamilton. 
 
184 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 tained him, perhaps, as he thinks, either to make him 
 some present, or to facilitate the payment of eight hun- 
 dred pieces, which were owing to him by Lady Castle- 
 maine. He had also other similar debts, for de Gram- 
 mont was usually fortunate at play, which he told the 
 ambassador would come in when he should declare the 
 affair of Miss Hamilton, but says de Comminges to 
 his great master, he will make a general confession 
 to your Majesty. 
 
 George Digby, second Earl of Bristol, who in the 
 early part of the .Restoration wrote and published a 
 series of letters to his cousin, Sir Kenelni Digby, 
 against Popery, is another personage of this period 
 whom the French Ambassador thought worthy the 
 notice of the great monarch. He informs the most 
 Christian King, of Lord Bristol’s conversion to the true 
 faith, on the Easter eve preceding his despatch of 
 February 22, 1663, and on the 4th February 1664, 
 writes, that on Sunday last the Earl of Bristol pre- 
 sented himself in the parish church of Wimbledon*, 
 with a notary and witnesses, and declared before all 
 the people that he was a Protestant, and renounced 
 with all his heart the Roman Catholic faith. After 
 which he took the minister and some of the chief men 
 of the congregation home with him to dinner, and in 
 the afternoon returned to London on horseback, accom- 
 panied by four cavaliers. This act was, in the opinion 
 
 * Wimbledon house and manor, of which Henrietta Maria, widow of 
 Charles I. regained possession at the restoration, and in 1661, alienated 
 them to George, Earl of Bristol. Lyson’s Environs. 
 
185 
 
 A. D. 1663] SIR WM. PETTY’S DOUBLE-KEELED SHIP. 
 
 of M. de Comminges, both rash and insolent, and 
 although every one blamed it, no one took the trouble 
 to punish it. 
 
 Horace Walpole describes this Earl of Bristol as 
 “ a singular person, whose life was all contradiction : 
 lie wrote against Popery and embraced it ; lie was a 
 zealous opposed of the Court, and a sacrifice to it ; 
 he was conscientiously converted in the midst of the 
 prosecution of Lord Stratford, and was most uncon- 
 scientiously a persecutor of Lord Clarendon. With 
 great parts, he always hurt himself and his friends ; 
 with romantic bravery, he was always an unsuccessful 
 commander. He spoke for the test act, although a 
 Roman Catholic, and addicted himself to Astrology, 
 on the birthday of true Philosophy.” 
 
 In this year Sir William Petty invented and built 
 a ship at Dublin with two keels, a model of which he 
 constructed for the King, and deposited afterwards in 
 the museum of Gresham College. He also built 
 another at Rotherhithe, which was launched Decem- 
 ber 22, 1661, the King and the Duke of York being- 
 present. Sir William encountered much jeering and 
 laughter for his innovations in naval architecture. The 
 Compte de Comminges, in a despatch to Louis XIY. 
 writes, that the Irish ship which had made so much 
 noise, and was to serve as a model for all future ships, 
 had, after three months’ sailing, arrived at Woolwich ; 
 and describes it as the most ridiculous and useless 
 machine that the mind of man could have conceived. 
 The physician who invented it, lie tells the King, has 
 
[chap. II. 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 , q I1( ][ left ship-huihling 
 
 returned to Ins first occupation, 
 
 to tire carpenters^ manuS cripts in tire British 
 
 Auoso Sn 1 satirical poem on tins vessel 
 
 Museum there is an 1. „ • portu Dubhmt ad 
 
 entitle! - I- !"*" »“ X f U tin,. V»« 
 
 «** rirctr. -* - 
 
 lines m length, ° f p epys ’ s Diary, to pnnt. 
 
 less,” says the 1 2 for on the 1 st Behru- 
 
 Tlie King, too, mnstte o i ^ ° ’ u wliere , in tlie 
 ary 1664, Mr. Pep** ”g came and stayed 
 
 Duke of York’s chambc , Petty, wko 
 
 an hour or trim laughing .t^^ ^ ^ Boya l Society, 
 
 was there, about his _ » ^ « At which,” says 
 
 for spending time m werg r ^ at some loss ; 
 
 Bepys, “ poor Petty > ^ tlie reasonable 
 
 hut ho argued drsciec >> ^ o{her bystanders 
 
 follies of the King s <> K ff d t0 take odds against 
 
 ^rr^w-ri: 
 
 raillery, the calumniated stop = th e packet- 
 
 sailing from » * best ship m the King’s 
 
 boat, reckoned to have bew t o hack her 
 
 service, which success Pepys, who was 
 
 against any vessel m the wmld^ ^ t0 
 
 * Diary of this date. 
 
A. D. I6‘64j THE ENGLISH COURT IN 1664. 
 
 187 
 
 describes* tliis novel ship as about thirty tons burden, 
 carrying thirty men, with good accommodation, and 
 able, from the peculiarity of her build, to carry more 
 men, with better accommodation by half, than any 
 other ship of the same burden. She carried ten guns, 
 of about five tons weight. In returning from Holyhead 
 the rival craft started together, Petty’s reached Dublin 
 at five o’clock in the afternoon, and the packet-boat 
 not before eight the next morning. After this decisive 
 victory, Sir William affirmed in a letter, quoted by 
 Mr. Pepys, that the perfection of sailing lay in his 
 principle, find it out who can. Mr. Lodge, in his 
 Peerage of Irelandf, says, “ Sir William Petty, in 
 1663, raised his reputation still higher by the success 
 of his double-bottomed ship, against the judgment of 
 all mankind. Thomas, Earl of Ossory, and other per- 
 sons of distinction, embarked on board this ship, which 
 promised to excel all others in sailing, carriage, and 
 security ; but she was at last lost in a dreadful tempest, 
 which overwhelmed a great fleet the same night.” 
 This ship was launched in the King’s presence, and 
 named by him “ The Experiment.” 
 
 The French Ambassador’s letters to his Sovereign 
 depict the profligacy of restored royalty in the British 
 court in vivid colours. A few extracts may suffice in 
 this place. On the 24th May, 1664, he writes, the 
 calashes began to see the day, and the Queen, with all her 
 suite, often rode out on horseback. The ladies appear to 
 * Diary, July 31, 1663. 
 t Vol. ii. p. 352. 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. ii. 
 
 188 
 
 envy each other, hut that 
 
 He declares that he dever ^ey^ree^oo well, and take 
 understanding ; not .* b t it is t lie humour 
 
 ““ 1 SSU. 
 
 “» a“u.; a. a—* 1» -i— “ 
 
 France. The Cl ^ tw0 sittings eighteen 
 
 at his last gasp. haV ° ' mdy mo ney, hut his lady 
 
 hundred pieces, no 6 instalments, which will fur- 
 
 wife will have to pay it y he Chevalier’s 
 
 absence. He k a game ster does not with- 
 
 tard his journey, hi Malicious people, 
 
 draw immediately on his dl uc • fears t0 
 
 he says, think otherwise and ^ a son 
 leave his wife, on account of a 1 < text of 
 
 of the Duke of Ormond, under ^P ^ ^ 
 
 relationship, pays hei m s aga j n he writes 
 
 since, but before her marn^ ^ ^ t0 bed 
 that the Countess de G ^ ^ gallant as Ins 
 
 of a son, handsome ash^ congratulated, the Count, as 
 father. The whole Co ^ ^ youllg 
 
 did the Ambassac oi 0 f returning soon to 
 
 again, hut he tlimks it i ^ ^ on fe forehead 
 prance that lias » ™ ^ t0 tte lilies and roses 
 
 and by his ejes, ana g 
 
 on his cheeks. . » _ u c \ e Lionne that 
 
 p, another despatch ^ t0 inspect the 
 
 His Bnttanmc Maje ■ gather being exces- 
 
 royal fleet at Chatham, and ^ . 
 
 sively hot, the King threw off his perr „ 
 
A. I). 1664 | 
 
 MISTRESSES AND MINISTERS. 
 
 189 
 
 by which imprudence, he caught so violent a cold, that 
 on his return the physicians were sent for, who ordered 
 the royal sufferer to be bled ; and after three or four 
 days medical treatment, lie happily recovered. In an- 
 other he informs his brother minister in Paris, that 
 His Majesty the King of Great Britain, with twelve of 
 the principal Lords of his Court, had done him the 
 honour of supping with him ; and that all things pass- 
 ed off well and without any constraint. The health of 
 “ The King” was the preamble of the repast, given by 
 the King of Great Britain, who commanded all the 
 guests to follow his example, exempting not even the 
 ladies, who, to say the truth, he parenthetically says, 
 required no pressing. 
 
 In the same despatch, he adds, for the information 
 of his ministerial colleague, that a few days before, as 
 Lady Castlemaine was coming out of the apartments 
 of the Duchess of York, in St. James’s Palace, ac- 
 companied only by one young lady and a little page, 
 was encountered by three gentlemen, or persons ap- 
 parently so by then’ dress, in masks, who attacked 
 her with rude and insolent language, finishing by tell- 
 ing her that the mistress of Edward IY. died on a 
 dunghill, despised and abandoned by every one. As 
 soon as the lady reached her apartments she fainted ; 
 the King, who had been apprized of the occurrence, ran 
 to her assistance, ordered all the gates and doors of 
 the palace and park to be closed, and all persons who 
 were found therein to be arrested. Seven or eight per- 
 sons who were found within these precincts, were con- 
 
190 
 
 WREN AND IIIS TIMES. 
 
 CIIAP. II. 
 
 fronted with the offended Majesty of Britain, but were 
 not recognized as the offenders. The adventure soon 
 became known, although every thing possible was done 
 to keep it secret. 
 
 In another missive the Marquis de Lionne receives 
 the important intelligence, that the Count and Coun- 
 tess de Grammont left London that day, and travelled 
 in newly-married style. He will tell you, he says, a 
 hundred things which I dare not write, but he is sorely 
 afflicted by an ill turn which some one has done him 
 with the King — taxing him with being a blasphemer. 
 T have long known him, writes de Comminges, but 
 never knew him to be addicted to that vice ; moreover 
 I assure you that lie learned it not here, where they 
 swear less than any where else ; and I have seen four 
 gentlemen sent to prison, and fined a thousand pieces 
 each, for using blasphemous language when drunk ; of 
 whom two were imprisoned a long time as defaulters, 
 till the sums were raised and paid by their friends. 
 This bright spot in the dark Court of Charles the Se- 
 cond, stands out in bold relief among the murky cha- 
 racters in the back ground. 
 
 Before leaving this representative of French Majesty, 
 it will be but fair to let his Excellency speak of his 
 reconciliation with the Corporation of London. On 
 the 13th November 1664, he writes to the Great 
 Monarch, that about a fortnight before the Lord-Mayor- 
 clect of the City of London, had invited him in the 
 most honourable manner possible, to dine at Guildhall 
 on the day of his inauguration, with the Lords of the 
 
191 
 
 A. D. 1664] TIIE CORPORATION OP LONDON, ETC. 
 
 King’s Council ; and had assured him that everything 
 was so well arranged, by general consent, as to render 
 him all the honour and respect that was due to his 
 character. Also, that the error which it had been 
 their misfortune to commit, last year, should be fully 
 repaired, by a reception that should be as satisfactory 
 to him, as the former had been grievous to them. On 
 the morning of the great civic festival, the King, as 
 before, sent his master of the ceremonies to beg of the 
 Ambassador, in his Majesty’s name, to attend the civic 
 festival. This, lie says, he did sufficiently early to give 
 no pretext for another accident ; but it was quite un- 
 necessary ; for never was any one received with greater 
 honour, not only by the Gentlemen of the City, but by 
 the Lords of the Council, of whom the most consider- 
 able behaved to him with so much civility and honour, 
 as to excite envy among many. At last the Lord 
 Mayor, by command of the Chancellor, gave him the 
 compliments of the whole city ; which had no other 
 object than to do honour to his Majesty through his 
 representative. He gave the health of the King of 
 England, which M. de Comminges drank, and then the 
 Chancellor gave that of His Majesty the King of 
 France, which he did, says the despatch, most worthily, 
 and obliged all the Lords to give it with all due honour 
 and respect. After the dinner he was conducted to 
 his coach, and neither the Chancellor, nor any of his 
 noble friends, attempted to leave the table till after his 
 departure. In conclusion, he informs the great Louis, 
 that in recounting the honours which he had received, 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [CHAP. IE 
 
 ««■*"*“ "““AJSiw" l”'» ™““” J 
 
 Royal Academy o wl Ri„g inscriptions, mven 
 
 founded for the V" r P 0 *® meda l s , statues and other 
 ing designs and legem » iUust rious men of Franco, 
 monuments of tte .^ cations is the Medallic History 
 Among its principal p celebrated for the 
 
 of Louis XIV., a wok » e of its execution, 
 
 beauty of its designs an ttie Monarch whose 
 
 as it is for the surpassing 7 ^ year gave birth to 
 weaknesses it flatten. Elector of Brandenburg, 
 
 the Prussian nionaici , rf & kingdom, and 
 
 raising his dominions Ho ^ golden „gol of 
 
 covering his electoral cap, 
 
 monarchy. . LoTld on continued its uiven- 
 
 The Royal Society of H ^ ^ ^stones re- 
 
 tions, experiments and . nstroment for drawing 
 
 count. Wren invent < weatte . c lock, which » 
 correctly in pewpeoh . , history of he 
 
 described and delin a ^ ^ diary for October 
 Royal Society. Evel University of Oxfoid, 
 
 1664, an interesting tom ^ ^ found 
 
 * Vol. I. P- 341 - 
 
A D. 166'4] 
 
 wren’s FIRST ORATION, ETC. 
 
 193 
 
 visited the Sheldonian Theatre, at that time building ; 
 but as it was but little above the foundations, Wren 
 showed and explained the model to him. 
 
 In the course of this year, Wren delivered his first 
 oration to the President and Fellows of the Iioyal 
 Society ; in which he tells them to look back on what 
 they had done, and what they had to do. That it was 
 encouraging to reflect, that by the prudence and diligence 
 of the President, and the ingenious performances of the 
 Fellows, they had, hitherto, kept up their reputation 
 both at home and abroad ; and he made no question 
 but the design of the many excellent persons who 
 formed the Society, was to prove themselves benefactors 
 to mankind, and to perfect many tilings for which 
 posterity might be really obliged to them. 
 
 To effect these great purposes, he recommends three 
 modes ; namely, to advance, first knowledge, then 
 profit, and lastly the health and conveniences of life : 
 all of which he explains in detail, under those three 
 heads. He recommends also the study of physiology 
 in all its branches, and especially a history of the 
 Seasons, which being particularly useful to posterity, 
 not being the work of one person, nor of little time 
 though of little trouble, was a business well fitted for 
 a society. This excellent work he commends, em- 
 phatically, to their attention, as having been desired by 
 all modern Philosophers, although no one had then 
 had the patience to pursue it. To accomplish this 
 desirable object, he proposed two primary divisions, 
 first, a meteorological history ; and second, a history of 
 
 o 
 
when and his times. 
 
 [chap. H. 
 
 things depending to a“ P o“ts 
 
 seasons. To the first of fee ^ ^ . and 
 
 five diurnal histones, _ rf observat ions and 
 
 to the second part a sin a fi be wishes that 
 
 details of 00 « t e » S Wd he desired to 
 the Physicians of then 1 idemical diseases of 
 
 furnish a good accost of ^ ^ 8hould 
 
 the year ; histones of rf operation 
 
 happen ; changes o ^ woat }, or and seasons, hotli 
 in medicine according . ^ ttese he would hare 
 
 inwardly and m wound * , and an nuaL 
 
 added, a due consideration of 
 
 hills of mortality. tie vanity of prognosti- 
 
 Thds instead of Pt ^ tie patience, for some 
 
 cations, he wished t wbi( fc } he observes, is 
 
 years, to register pas «i ^ ’ tQ prognosticate ; 
 
 be only certain way of ** ^ rf p ro phesy- 
 
 experiment and ,c ^ on ^ M not pvess on them the 
 
 ing natural even • was confident that 
 
 of what excellent 
 
 all wlio beard him fu y VV ^ i^oiis conse- 
 speculations, what ■* c01lduci ble to profit, health, 
 
 quences must then < pro longation of life ; and 
 
 convenience, P" [ J 0 le extent of philosophy 
 that no one part m the or useful specula- 
 
 woidd afford *om “ore^d = ^ parity. 
 
A. D. 1665] SIR W. TEMPLE AND THE TURNSPIT. 195 
 
 could suggest many other tilings of that nature, which, 
 if the design be once begun, he would willingly submit 
 to the judgment of the Society*. 
 
 At this time Sir William Temple, a man of taste 
 and a lover of art, science and literature, but more 
 partial to the busy fields of politics and diplomacy, 
 than to the study or the lecture-room, was in Paris', 
 ostensibly for pleasure, but secretly on a mission of 
 importance from his Sovereign to the French King. 
 During his residence in that capital he became ac- 
 quainted with the Duke de Chevreuse, son-in-law of 
 the Minister Colbert, who often sought his company ; 
 and, one morning, he detained him in the gallery of 
 Versailles, in showing and explaining the various 
 machines and mechanical works of that grand palace, 
 so long as to fatigue the Englishman’s patience. The 
 Duke, says thef relater of this anecdote, whenever 
 engaged in this manner, forgot the march of time, and 
 had occupied two hours in declaiming on the wonders 
 of the place. The palace clock struck two, then the 
 usual dinner hour, and at the last stroke, Sir William, 
 interrupted the lecture, took the tedious Duke by the 
 arm, and said — “ I assure you, sir, that of all the ma- 
 chines with which I am acquainted, I know not one, 
 at this particular hour, which I consider finer than that 
 which is employed in turning a roasting-spit, and I 
 
 * For the whole of this address, see Parentalia, p. 224, and my Me- 
 moirs of Wren, p.p. 151-158. 
 
 t Memoires de M. le Due de St. Simon, Sup. tom. Ill, p. 128. 
 
 0 2 
 
196 WREN AND IIIS TIMES. [CHAP. II. 
 
 must depart in all haste to try the effects of one.” So 
 saying, he turned away quickly and left M. le Due 
 in astonishment that a philosopher should think of 
 dinner. 
 
 The year 1665 is memorable in English history, 
 from the great and fatal epidemic or plague, which 
 devastated the metropolis, and is so touchingly depicted 
 in Defoe’s imaginary journal of that event, in the 
 person of a citizen supposed to have been a witness of 
 that melancholy visitation. The writer was but two 
 years of age at the time of its occurrence, therefore 
 must have gathered his information from hearsay, and 
 the trifling printed records of the time ; yet it is so 
 naturally written that it deceived Dr. Mead, who 
 thought it to be genuine, as hundreds of others have 
 thought of his Robinson Crusoe. This terrific visita- 
 tion occurred at a most unfortunate time for England, 
 who was then involved in war with Holland, and 
 whilst plague and pestilence filled the ditches and 
 monster graves of the city and its suburbs, raising 
 mounts of human carcases, fire and the sword filled 
 our hospitals, as Evelyn, who was one of the Com- 
 mission for the wounded, sick and prisoners taken in 
 this unfortunate war, relates. 
 
 The Dutch war was provoked by Louis XIV. on 
 the suggestion* of his ministers Le Tellier and the 
 
 '* Memoirs de M. le due de St. Simon, Vol. I, p. 14. Evelyn 
 confirms this opinion, in his Diary for April 5th, 1665, which he says, 
 “ was a day of public humiliation for success in this terrible Avar, began 
 doubtless at secret instigation of the French to weaken the States (of 
 Holland) and Protestant interest. Great preparation on both sides.” 
 
A. D. 1665] THE NAVAL VICTORY OFF SOLEBAY. 197 
 
 Marquis de Louvois his son, through jealousy of the 
 great Colbert, and the bigoted hatred of the former to 
 the Huguenots and the Protestant religion. One in- 
 stance of this animosity is sufficient to prove its 
 extent. On signing the royal proclamation for that 
 enormous breach of faith, the revocation of the Edict 
 of Nantes, he sung exultingly, the Nunc dimittis of the 
 holy Simeon on receiving the future Saviour of the 
 world into his arms. Yet, neither did this detestable 
 act, nor the profanation of the divine hymn, prevent 
 the pious Bishop Bossuet from exercising his craft as 
 the universal panegyrist of his contemporaries, by 
 exalting him in an eloquent funeral oration, as a great 
 man, and a consummate minister of state. The Duke 
 de Grammont thought so differently, that on seeing 
 him one da} r , gliding away like an evil spirit, from a 
 secret audience with the King, exclaimed, “ I think I 
 see a pole-cat stealing away from a hen-roost, licking 
 his blood-stained snout.” 
 
 This war led to the much-boasted naval victory 
 over the Dutch, on the 3rd June 1665 off Solebay; 
 the English fleet in two divisions under the commands 
 of the Duke of York, and the Earl of Sandwich ; and 
 the Dutch under Opdam, who was blown up in his 
 ship, and Cornelius Tromp, who effected a masterly 
 retreat with a portion of his fleet to Holland. The 
 personal courage of the Duke of York, has been much 
 extolled, but in this action off Solebay, Lord Sandwich 
 told his confidential friend and kinsman'"', Mr. Pepys, 
 
 * Diary, June 21, 1665. 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. n. 
 
 198 
 
 that although by acctot the ^egm- 
 
 "ing of the fight, m ^ ^ gandwich; occupied that 
 T That uolwithstanding all the commenda- 
 
 ^ This vdom which seems scarcely to surpass 
 tions of Ins valour, t i ie Boyne, 
 
 his well known timidity at the^h^ ^ rf ^ 
 still a jeer, in that par o nor a man killed, 
 
 ship had hardly a s 10 u ’ had above thirty in 
 
 whereas that of 01 ‘ ‘ _ i whole hut was the 
 
 her hull and not one mas 01 > ^ ^ ^ most men 
 
 most battered ship of >o > the utmost 
 
 except the Mary, shot. The sub- 
 
 the Duke chd, was aim ■ ® . tlie act ion 
 
 ject of the Duke Parliamentary enquiry, 
 
 became afterwards a subj ^ « Advice to a 
 
 but Sir J ohn Denham u 1 Duc hess’s anx- 
 
 Painter,” attributes it, ironically, tom 
 
 iety for his safety. 
 
 • Sue therefore .he 1 
 
 i « pp-nn and Coventry 9 
 
 To Brouncker, 1 ei Coventry ; 
 
 After recommending many precautions the poet adds 
 
 “ But these the Duke rejected, only chose 
 To keep for off ", let others interpose. 
 
 i -n Wo o-ohm to bed desiring the 
 He then narrates the Dukes gom e 
 
 others to keep watch, 
 
A. D. 1665 J deniiam’s advice to a painter. 199 
 
 The Duke in bed, he then first draws his steel, 
 
 Whose virtue makes the misled compass wheel. 
 
 So ere he waked, both fleets were innocent, 
 
 And Brouncker member is of Parliament.” 
 
 This admirable satirical poem gives a lively picture of 
 the state of the British Navy, its commander and 
 managers, in bold and striking colours in “ ultra ma- 
 rinish blue,” as he directs his “ Painter.” So did also 
 Andrew Marvel* in his satires, where he lays all the 
 blame, as some one must be accused, on Sir Peter Pett, 
 the eminent ship-builder, as a scape-goat, when the 
 Dutch burned the English fleet at Chatham, concluding 
 after nine or ten couplets of questions, all answered by 
 “ Pett.” 
 
 “ Who should it be but the fanatic Pett ? 
 
 Pett, the sea-architect, in making ships, 
 
 W as the first cause of all these naval slips. 
 
 Had he not built, none of these faults had been — 
 
 If no -Creation, there had been no sin.” 
 
 Troubled as the nation was with this disgraceful 
 war, it was doubly afflicted with this terrible pestilence, 
 which almost depopulated the metropolis, and deci- 
 mated the suburban counties. No better account of 
 this national calamity can be found than in the full 
 and veridical pages of Pepys and Evelyn, for, from 
 the before-mentioned reasons, the affecting narrative of 
 Defoe can be considered no more authentic, nor less of 
 a novel than his own Crusoe, or the interesting narra- 
 tive of our able contemporary, Mr. Harrison Ainsworth. 
 
 Pepys mentions great fears of the sickness in the 
 City, as early as April 29tli, 1665, two or three houses 
 
 Vol. III. Page 390. 
 
200 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 being already shut up. On the 15th June he records, 
 that the town had become very sickly, and people 
 afraid of it ; there dying that week one hundred and 
 twelve, and forty-three the week before, on the 27th 
 that the plague had greatly increased ; on the 28th in 
 his way to Westminster Hall, he observed several 
 houses shut up with the plague in King Street, and 
 near the palace ; the next day he found the court- 
 yard at Whitehall full of waggons and people preparing 
 to leave town, and the mortality daily increasing. The 
 Court removed to Hampton Court and the Queen- 
 mother returned to France to avoid the sickly metro- 
 polis. July 2nd he mentions seven or eight houses in 
 Basinghall Street shut up, being, as then called, plague 
 houses. Pepys sent his wife and her servants to be 
 out of the way of the disorder, to Woolwich, but re- 
 mained at his post and duties the whole time of its 
 duration, regardless of the dangers which surrounded 
 him. In a letter to Sir William Coventry, he wrote 
 that “ the sickness in general thickens round us, and 
 particularly in our neighbourhood. You, Sir, took 
 your turn of the sword : I must not, therefore, grudge 
 to take mine of the pestilence.” On the 5th July, he 
 walked round to Whitehall, the Park being locked up, 
 and observed a house shut up, on account of the 
 plague in Pall Mall, where heretofore, he says, “ in 
 Cromwell’s time, we young men used to keep our 
 weekly club.” On the 18th he was much troubled at 
 hearing in Westminster that the parish officers buried 
 the dead in the open Tothill-fields, for want of room 
 
TIIE GREAT PLAGUE. 
 
 201 
 
 A. I). 1665] 
 
 elsewhere. Evelyn, on the 16th records that during 
 that week eleven hundred died of that complaint, and 
 in the following week upwards of two thousand ; and 
 that two houses in his parish of Deptford was closed 
 on its account. 
 
 On the 2nd August, a solemn fast was held through- 
 out England, to deprecate Cod’s displeasure against 
 the land by war and pestilence. O 11 the 15th Evelyn 
 records the deaths of that week at five thousand, and 
 on the 7th September at nearly ten thousand weekly ; 
 and that he went through the City and Suburbs from 
 Kent Street to St. James’s. He describes it as a dis- 
 mal passage, and dangerous to see so many coffins de- 
 posited in the streets, which were thin of people ; the 
 shops shut up and all in mournful silence, not knowing 
 whose turn it might be next. Evelyn went to the 
 Duke of Albemarle for a pest ship for his infected men, 
 which were not a few. 
 
 Pepys at the latter end of the month found that 
 the fatal disease had reached his part of the city, and 
 indeed, he says, everywhere ; so that he began to think 
 of setting his affairs in order ; which he prays God to 
 enable him to accomplish, both as to soul and body. 
 He says, it is lamentable to hear the church bells toll- 
 ing so often, either for deaths or burials, and confirms 
 in many of his daily entries, the less equal records of 
 Evelyn as to great and increasing numbers of the 
 deaths in the city and suburbs. On the 3rd August, 
 being at Sir George Carteret’s, at Deptford, he learned 
 from the weekly bill of mortality, that the deaths that 
 
■WHEN AKD HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. ii. 
 
 202 i 
 
 and three thousan am ^ ^ bill increased to 
 
 the 10th he was gn^ ^ three thousand died 
 
 four thousand, of win ^ went afte r evening 
 
 ° f tlrentfora church, by water to Queenhrtte 
 
 service at Brenti t0 venture further toi 
 
 hut could not get m " j ie procured a lantern 
 
 fear of the contagion. ■ „ t0 be hurried ; he, 
 
 “ fear of SOT occasionally a link, which 
 
 however met n . ^ at a distance. 
 
 indicated such a sa. P w ife an4 servants at 
 
 Tub next day ^ ^ lie saw a 
 
 Woolwich, and, on Ins »» plague, lying » 
 
 coffin with a body therein, dead ^ P ^ had 
 
 an open close b « ^ ^ ^ offi . 
 been earned out the m ^ ^ ;t . hut only 
 
 cershad not a ^°^ v ^ffiit, that nobody should 
 
 set a watch there all do ^ ^ ob serves, “ » 
 
 g o in or come on ther than we are to dogs, 
 
 king us more cruel to o ^ troub led at going 
 He walked to R> ij“ ^ ^ plagu e was, hut 
 through the nano" • ^ hjs home well, 
 
 ventured, took water and ‘ of deat hs was di- 
 
 That the returns o n ,„ the fears of the 
 
 minished for the purp-e ° ta» ^ pepys puts a U 
 people might he conjectoed 30t h August 
 
THE GREAT PLAGUE. 
 
 203 
 
 A. D. 1665] 
 
 lie had returned but six. This, says the diarist, is an 
 ill practice, and made him think it was so in other 
 places, and that the plague was greater than people 
 thought it to be. The following day he found had 
 increased that week beyond all expectation of almost 
 two thousand, making the general bill seven thousand 
 one hundred and odd, those by the plague above six 
 thousand. It was feared that the true number of the 
 dead that week would be nearly ten thousand ; partly 
 from the poor that could not be noticed from their 
 numbers, and partly from the Quakers, who would not 
 suffer any bell to be rung for their dead. “ This 
 month,” he says, “ ends with great sadness for the 
 public, through the greatness of the plague, almost 
 every where throughout the kingdom.” 
 
 The vanity of this worthy and excellent man, who 
 “ wore his heart upon his sleeve,” as well as developed 
 it in his diary, peeps out, even on this melancholy 
 occasion. On the “ 3rd September (Lord’s day),” he 
 writes, “ up, and put on my coloured silk suit, very 
 fine, and my new perriwig, bought a good while since, 
 but durst not wear, because the plague was in West- 
 minster when I bought it ; and it is a wonder what 
 will be the fashion after the plague is done, as to 
 perriwigs, for nobody will dare to buy any hair, for 
 fear of the infection, that it had been cut off the heads 
 of people dead of the plague.” After church, Lord 
 Brouncker, Sir John Minnes and himself, went to the 
 Vestry, by desire of the Justices of the Peace, to 
 adopt measures for staying the progress of the devas- 
 
wren and his times. 
 
 [chap. 1L 
 
 , . i,: ms acrainst the madness 
 
 tating malady. An ^ 6 ' e t ^ ey were forbidden, 
 
 of the people, who W onld^ dies tQ see them 
 
 complaint broug i house . Alderman Hookei 
 
 a child from an m fte cUld 0 f a very able 
 
 told them in reply, tlra ^ ^ had burie d all the 
 citizen m Graceclmi that himself and 
 
 rest of his children from P'£ ’ ^ the 
 
 his wife, being shut ^ t he life of this 
 
 dreadful malady, desu-cd onlj bave jt re- 
 little child ; and had p jailed ^ ^ ^ f wbo 
 
 ceived stark nahei m o new fres h clothes, to 
 
 ta ^ t . t h Xe Con hearing the story, they per- 
 Greenwich , where, 1 ^ tbe town, 
 
 mitted it to he recei'C ^ se es in the streets. 
 
 He laments how fe 1 1 bad taken leave of 
 
 and those looking like pem, Exchange and 
 
 the world. He went one toy to take fare- 
 
 found not fifty people 'her , * - ^ ^ 4tb S ep- 
 
 well of the London Street ^ ^ and learned that 
 temher he agan passec t he plague at 
 
 one-and-twenty persons had 
 
 that place alone. dreadful malady the 
 
 To s^P l^tte ^iade in the streets, 
 
 Lord Mayor ordered & Albemarle’s, Pepys 
 
 ^SC^WngaUtheway 
 
A. D. 1 665 j 
 
 THE GREAT PLAGUE. 
 
 205 
 
 on both sides of the Thames ; and to his great surprise 
 and trouble saw, in broad daylight, two or three burials 
 on the Bankside, one at the very heels of the other, 
 doubtless, all of the plague ; and yet, at least, forty or 
 fifty people following each of them. On the 7th he 
 went to the Tower, sent for the weekly bill, and found 
 eight thousand two hundred and fifty-two dead in all, 
 and of them six thousand nine hundred and seventy- 
 eight of the plague. 
 
 By the 14th September, the violence of the plague 
 began to abate. Pepys went on ’Change that day, 
 found above two hundred people there ; but not a man 
 or merchant of any note, but plain men all. The 
 weekly bill of deaths showed a decrease of five hun- 
 dred since the preceding, which was the first decrease 
 since the beginning of the sickness. Yet, although 
 this general decrease was pleasing, it troubled the 
 worthy official to find, that in the City, within the 
 walls, the mortality had increased, and was close to 
 their office. He complains of meeting corpses dead of 
 the plague, carried close by him through Fenchurch 
 Street, at noon-day, to be buried ; of seeing a person 
 sick of the sores carried in a Hackney-coach close by 
 him in Gracechurch Street ; of finding the Angel 
 Tavern at the lower end of Tower Hill shut up ; and 
 more than that, he adds, that the ale-house at the 
 Tower-stairs was also closed, and the occupier dying of 
 the plague. Also, he was much troubled to hear that 
 poor Payne, his waiter, had buried a child, and was 
 dying himself ; that a labourer he had sent but a day 
 
WEEN and his times. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 206 . 
 or two before to D^nbam to mqmre afte ^ ^ ^ 
 there, was dead of the ma ^a y : * £ fell gick as B00 n 
 own watermen, who earned hi J> had 
 
 as he had landed him four days before -1 ^ 
 
 been all night upon the wateh amh ashe ( L ^ 
 
 lieved, took the '"j'^jne.' And lastly, 
 Brentford, was then dead f b-ohsorhing malady, 
 after other ill news apart fro U and Tonl 
 
 t0 find that both Ins gt Sepu lchre’s 
 
 Edwards, had lost then a e , good reason, 
 
 parish, that week, put nn . ^ ot f his rnelan- 
 
 m k. ».u, » k«r 
 
 this temfie visitation < • desolation . p e pys 
 
 faithful eye 'vitness ^ ^ grass growing 
 
 laments to see no bo* \ Court , and nobody but 
 all up and down JJ 0a ^ 20 th September, 
 
 poor wretches m the stieex . wffliam Minnes, 
 
 he accompanied Lord Brouncke ^ ^ t0 the 
 
 and Sir William Batten, on ^ 
 
 Duke of York, who "^^y the Lord Mayor, 
 for the preceding "® e ^ ; hundred, contrary to 
 
 0ft ^r t bedth 
 
 Of the monthly « ; Occasion to alight from 
 through the whole city, havm s 
 
THE GREAT PLAGUE. 
 
 207 
 
 A.D. 1665] 
 
 his coach in several places about business, he was en- 
 vironed with multitudes of poor pestiferous creatures 
 begging alms : the shops universally shut up, a dreadful 
 prospect ! He closes his diary for this year with this 
 pious exclamation — “ Now blessed be God for His ex- 
 traordinary mercies and preservation of me this year, 
 when thousands and ten thousands perished, and were 
 swept away on each side of me, there dying in our 
 parish* this year 406 of the pestilence !” 
 
 Pepys relates that in October the pestilence was 
 still on the increase in the eastern parts of the city and 
 in Greenwich. On the 7th he went to the Admiralty 
 Officef, but did little business, on account of the horrible 
 crowd, and lamentable moaning of the poor seamen 
 that were lying starving in the streets for want of 
 money, which troubled and perplexed him to the heart. 
 More came at noon, when they had to pass through 
 them, for then above a hundred of them, some cursing, 
 some swearing, and some praying to them for aid. 
 This disgraceful scene was enhanced by his afterwards 
 meeting plague-victims being carried to the grave ; but, 
 as he says, to see how custom had habituated him, that 
 lie began almost to think nothing of the infection. On 
 the 1 6th he again visited the Exchange, found it almost 
 deserted, went to the Tower, the streets empty and 
 melancholy, meeting scarcely any persons but poor, 
 sick people, covered with sores, and overheard, as he 
 walked, “ everybody talking of this friend dead and 
 
 * Deptford. 
 
 t In Seething Lane, Tower Street. 
 
[chap. II. 
 
 9 Qg WRE^ jVND HIS TIMES> 
 
 • +i,; a nlace and so many in 
 
 that one Sick, 80 ’ “ Westminste, there was not 
 
 ^ ^ - apothecary left, - the rest 
 
 being dead. conduct of the King and 
 
 lN these perilous un* Evelyn and Pepys. 
 
 his court was mo» = ee U1 reprobating their 
 
 who had full opportunity , = The very day, 
 
 disgusting wantonness a ° ; melancholy walk 
 
 just quoted, when ^ f^ r> on H s arrival at 
 from the Exchange o Dufee an d Duchess of 
 
 the latter place ie oiu ^ ^ ^ found much 
 
 Albemarle at dmnci , • Tower, his lady and 
 
 g ood cheer, the ^.tenant of the & ^ 
 
 several officers hemg 0 ^ onoug h to make him 
 
 that to hear their a 5 ‘ but fools about 
 
 mad, the Duke having hdndrable specimen of 
 
 ” im ' IX he went to the Steelyard .oa 
 
 i„ ,u. .1- - «' ft" ■“ “ 
 
 were reduced to about s . d ^ ^ ^ Dec em- 
 three hundred and thirty-tl ^ of the city, 
 
 her he records an increase u itffin ^ ^ weatber , 
 which he attributes to ^ abitants , which made 
 
A. D. 1 665 | 
 
 wren’s VISIT TO FRANCE. 
 
 20.9 
 
 return in all its horrors. He closes this unhappy year 
 by recording that the plague had almost ceased its 
 ravages, the town was tilling apace, the shops were 
 opening rapidly, and he prays for its termination, as it 
 keeps the Court away from the place of business, and 
 all, ho says, was going to rack, for, as to public mea- 
 sures, they, at that distance, think nothing about them. 
 In 1666, the plague decreased in the early months, 
 continued variable during the spring, and had resumed 
 a considerable increase during August, in London, 
 Colchester, Deal and other places, in which both 
 Evelyn and Pepys had official business. 
 
 Early in 1665, Wren went over to France, the 
 plague stopping all his occupations. Whilst in Paris 
 he inspected and studied all the principal buildings of 
 that metropolis and its neighbourhood. In a letter to 
 his friend'"', the Rev. Dr. Bateman, he declares that 
 “ he was so careful not to lose the impressions of the 
 structures he had surveyed, that he should bring away 
 all France upon paper.” It is a pity that our great 
 Architect’s lot had not fallen on better ground than 
 the land decorated by the false taste of Louis XIV. 
 Louvois, Colbert, and the two Mansarts, for too much 
 of the worst of that style pervades the earliest of his 
 works. 
 
 Wren’s first intentions were to visit Italy, taking 
 the French capital, and other great cities in his way, 
 with the view of improving his knowledge and taste in 
 
 * Ward’s Lives of the Gresham Professors, p. 102. 
 
 P 
 
w reh ahd his T1MES ' 
 
 [chap. B. 
 
 210 • 1 •„ Paris he was ridro- 
 
 x On Ins arrival m 1 a ‘ ’ . pari 
 
 Arclritectnxe. uu , ■ Roland, to tUfc} 
 
 skAsscrs-j- 
 
 Ins and «** of "Sgl^ fomiati r 
 
 carving, Bdaymg constructs 
 
 nnino- ceding, and such u 
 
 paintm 0 ,g advanced to the 
 
 i Tin von J^rni^ri tYie Court 
 
 , Henry Hc..ad^^»'X^ e , He 
 
 Earldom of St. A"*"^ suppose ,l, married to plenipoten- 
 
 0 { France, being, ns acknow e< g „ vera l times, and 
 
 ft <*• T:?st I ri. if liom'y 
 
 tiary at Vans * ™ sa ys that “ or,' 1** * . „reach with 
 
 in to diary for Al* * - q{ millio n of mone S , to • ^ ^ take tbe 
 
 expected vntli p» ople tkin k, may ten ^ Q11 tke Parliament 
 
 tbe Dutch ; and > ^ 0 f tbe necessity «£ » ckolm ley, that it 
 
 money, and there ^b ke learned from S n Mother, 
 
 again.” On the * * a nd Duchess of ^ ^ ^ int o a 
 
 was brought about . a sU m of money inte r e st felt 
 
 and Lord St. ^“’^nce, again* the Du tdn J *. 
 
 league with the Km - Queen Mother, > London, to 
 
 by lord St. *£JU French *£££ ft. Queen 
 
 ~*Z2 p aten “' Ktas ’ patnot,c Mm 
 
A. D. 166/5] 
 
 ARCHITECTURAL FLATTERY. 
 
 211 
 
 rative works. In Wren’s journal"' he writes, that “an 
 academy of painters, sculptors and architects, with the 
 chief artificers of the Louvre, meet the first and last 
 Saturday of every month. M. Colbert, superintendent 
 of the works, comes to the Louvre every Wednesday, 
 and, if business prevents not, Thursday.” 
 
 When Mansart presented his designs for the fa9adc 
 of the Louvre to the Minister Colbert, he was so 
 pleased with them, that he wished the Architect to 
 promise that lie would not alter them in any way ; but 
 Mansart properly, refused to undertake the works on 
 that condition, being desirous, as he said, to preserve 
 the right of improving them if he could. 
 
 This refusal, probably, led to the substitution of 
 Claude Perrault’s metrical facade, which Yoltairef 
 calls, “ one of the most august monuments of Architec- 
 ture in the world.” Its coupled Corinthian columns 
 Wren imitated in the western front St. Paul’s Cathe- 
 dral, and highly praised the design. The family of 
 Perrault, like that of Wren, were all men of distinction 
 in art, science and literature. Claude, like Wren, 
 studied physic in early life, and, like him, having a 
 decided taste and love for the fine arts, made Architec- 
 ture his profession, and rose, also, to distinguished 
 eminence. 
 
 Louis XI Y., enveloped, as he often was, in the dust 
 
 * Seward’s Anecdotes, 3rd Ed, Lon. 1796, vol. II. p. 76. 
 
 t Age of Louis XIV. 
 
212 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 of his buildings at Marly*, was as open to the same 
 artifices, in these trifles, as he was in those of greater 
 importance. Mansart, although the least skilful of the 
 King’s Architects, had, however, a little more taste 
 and knowledge in liis art than his royal master, and 
 was continually besetting hi m with projects of one 
 sort or another, which led to enormous expense ; 
 but gave Mansart many occasions of enriching himself. 
 He had the art of carrvinu‘ to the Kino- his unfinished 
 designs, of leading the royal builder, imperceptibly, to 
 its imperfections. These little defects the flattered 
 monarch soon discovered, hinted improvements, sug- 
 gested alterations, amendments and such like. Mansart 
 exclaimed, how just were the criticisms, how true the 
 observations, how much the design was improved ; that 
 liis Majesty was as much master of all the delicacies of 
 architecture, and of the beauties of gardening, as he 
 was of the great art of governing mighty nations ! If, 
 as it often happened, says M. de St. Simon, the King 
 obstinately insisted upon perpetrating some portion of 
 his bad taste, Mansart admired it with equal zeal, and 
 executed it, as far as the royal taste, which was ever 
 changeable, permitted him to amend it. After these 
 successes, Mansart became more enterprising, and often 
 boldly importuned the King, not only for himself, but 
 for liis relations, and sometimes liis demands were so 
 extraordinary and pertinacious, that Louis felt much 
 relieved, when he heard of his death. 
 
 The Abbe Charles introduced Wren to the Chevalier 
 
 * Memoires de M. le Due de St. Simon, Tom. I. p. 204. 
 
A. D. 1665] 
 
 FONTA INRLEA U, VERSAILLES, ETC. 
 
 213 
 
 Bemini, who showed him his designs for the Louvre, 
 which were rejected by Louis and Colbert for that by 
 Francois Mansart, which was again superseded at his 
 death in 1666 , and, as before mentioned, that of Claude 
 Perrault’s adopted. The great Italian artist, who was 
 then enjoying the distinguished reputation of having 
 put a finish to the groat Roman Cathedral began by 
 Bramante, continued by Michelangiolo and completed 
 by himself, 4 ' showed Wren other of his designs, among 
 which was a statue of Louis XIV., that he was then 
 executing. Lie went over the fine collection of medals, 
 intaglios, pictures, books, drawings of plants, birds, etc., 
 of the Duke of Orleans, which were courteously 
 shown and described to him by the Abbe Bruno, their 
 keeper. He inspected all the Royal Palaces, describes 
 Fontainbleau as having a stately wildness and vastness 
 suited to the desert in which it stood, and the antique 
 mass of the castle of St. Germaine, with its hanging 
 gardens, as delightfully surprising, to any man of 
 judgment ; but the pleasures below, vanished in the 
 breath that was spent in ascending to Hew them. The 
 palace, or as he prefers calling it, the cabinet of Ver- 
 sailles, called him twice to Hew it. The mixture of 
 brick and stone, blue tiles and gold, made it, he says, 
 look like a rich livery, and not an inch within, but was 
 crowded with little curiosities of ornament. The 
 women, he describes, as making, there, all the language, 
 setting the fashions, and meddling with religion, politics 
 and philosophy ; so also did they sway in Architecture. 
 
 * See p. 32. 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chad. ii. 
 
 214 
 
 r- n ip . latter were, that works of 
 The consequences of tl e , hut build- 
 
 filigrane, and trinkets neic 1 o j attributes 
 
 iog. assert, ought — ^ of 
 
 of eternal, and, tbeie , j a master, 
 
 new fashions. Such language, fasllion , 
 
 should command \eneia ion, ^ ^ ^ then in Pans ; 
 
 sways now m on °M 3^00 observes, “ as 
 
 and we may now see, as 
 
 good sights often mtM-ts. Kazarin Palace, 
 
 The mascuhne furnit ^ ^ rf visit, 
 
 pleaS6 t W T aTl aid' noble collection of antique 
 it contained a great . h - of porphyry, 
 
 statues and busts, pictures by the greatest 
 
 excellent bass ’ tape stry, genuhie musaics, 
 
 masters, splendid Ain . l ■ . porcelain vases 
 
 painted by BaftaeUe, ha d been re- 
 
 SL”£ TT .«■ "** 
 
 many times. belonaed to the amiable 
 
 The Mazarrn Palace the “ f jforechal de 
 
 and eccentric Duke de 5 arJim- Cardinal who 
 
 la Meilleraye an mtunato friend ot ^ The 
 
 has given historical *’" tmc 0 j,q friend, as being 
 
 Cardinal selected the ^ son ^ tQ estates and 
 
 the richest man lie knev , tte Manc mis, m 
 
 - ond US eful’ charity, polished 
 
 marriage. vvllu & . TTT D 100. 
 
 • A P AI le Due de St. Simon, \ ol. H • P 
 * Memoiies de M. ie 
 
A. D. 1665 
 
 THE DUKE DE MAZARIN. 
 
 215 
 
 manners and a fine person, M. de Mazarin possessed 
 therewith a perverse disposition that made all about 
 him miserable. Pic was jealous of his wife, perhaps 
 not without cause ; lie rendered himself so unpleasant 
 to the King, that he never received the rank of Mar- 
 shal of France, which was almost at his command. 
 He took upon himself to play the part of Censor to 
 the King and his courtiers, an office more necessary 
 than agreeable to them. Pie therefore retired to his 
 estates, and gave himself up to a life of devotion and 
 austerity, seldom appearing at Court, but when he did, 
 was always received by the courteous Louis XI V. with 
 an air of friendship and marked distinction. 
 
 In his retirement, actuated by these capricious feel- 
 ings, he mutilated his finest statues, bedaubed some of 
 his finest pictures, collected, at a vast expense, by the 
 Cardinal and his wealthy father. IPe appointed his 
 servants by lottery, so that his cook became steward, 
 and a floor-scrubber, secretary : saying such was the 
 will of God. The Chateau-Mazarin caught fire, and 
 he drove away all who came to extinguish it, for the 
 same superstitious reason. He rejoiced when he lost 
 a cause, as losing what did not belong to him ; and if 
 he gained one, it was so far satisfactory to his con- 
 science. He had his daughters’ front teeth drawn, for 
 being handsome, he considered female beauty dangerous 
 to virtue. Whenever he travelled, he always took 
 with him the body of his deceased wife, which he 
 brought from England. At the time of Wren’s visit 
 to his palace, this whimsical nobleman was governor 
 
216 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 of Vincennes, Alsace, a Lieutenant-General, and in 
 the enjoyment of many honourable, trustworthy and 
 profitable emplo} r ments, which he held, till relieved by 
 death at the age of fourscore years. 
 
 After visiting the incomparable villas of Vaux and 
 Maisons he inspected Ruel, Courances, Chilly, St. Maur, 
 St. Maude, Issy, Meudon, Rincy, Chantilly, Verneul, 
 Lincour and many others, which he recorded so mi- 
 nutely, that, to use his own expression previously 
 quoted, he brought away almost all France on paper. 
 
 In one of Wren’s interviews with Bernini, he was 
 permitted to see, the great master’s design for the 
 Louvre. He describes it, as consisting of five small 
 drawings on paper, for which he had received as many 
 thousand pistoles. He says, “ Bernini’s design for the 
 Louvre, 1 would have given my skin for ; but the old 
 reserved Italian gave me but a few minutes view. I 
 had only time to copy it in my fancy and memoiy, and 
 shall be able, by discourse and a crayon, to give a 
 tolerable account of it.” He made large purchases of 
 drawings and engravings of ornaments, that he might 
 give his countrymen examples of grotesques, foliage, 
 and similar ornamental works, in which, he says, the 
 Italians themselves confessed the French excelled all 
 others. He promised to give Iris friends, on Iris return 
 home a very good account of all the best artists of 
 France ; but his business then was, to pry into trades 
 and aids. He put himself into all shapes to humour 
 them, calling his adventures in this way, a comedy, 
 
EMINENT FRENCH ARTISTS. 
 
 217 
 
 A. U. 1665 ] 
 
 which though sometimes expensive, he was loth to 
 leave the playing in. 
 
 Of the most noted men within his knowledge or ac- 
 quaintance, he enumerates the architects, Bernini, 
 Mansart, Yaux, Gobert, Lc Pautre, Anguiere and Sa- 
 razin ; sculptors and statuaries, Perrot, celebrated for 
 bassi-rilievi, Van Ostal and Arnoldin, modellers in 
 plaster, who were then executing the admirable orna- 
 mental stucco works at the Louvre ; Orphelin and De 
 la Tour, engravers of medals and coins. Of historical 
 painters, he names Le Brun, Bourdon, Poussin, Rou- 
 vine, Champagne, Yilcien, Loyre, Coypel, Picard and 
 Mignard, the latter of whom painted both history and 
 portraits ; Beaubrun, who excelled in portraits of women, 
 and Baptiste and Bobert, eminent in flowers. Mr. 
 Matthews an English painter, who resided in the Rue 
 Gobelins, worked for the tapestry weavers, and M. 
 Bruno, an excellent artist, who made designs for the 
 same purpose. He visited many goldsmiths and cha- 
 sers, who wrought admirably well in plate ; the Abbe 
 Burdele painted well in enamel, and M. de la Quin- 
 tinye had great skill and taste in agriculture, planting 
 and gardening. 
 
 In the spring of 1666, the virulence of the plague 
 having abated, people began to return to the metropolis, 
 business to resume its former aspect, and the Royal 
 Society recommenced its meetings at Gresham College 
 in the middle of February, and after a long interruption 
 caused by the fatal malady, continued its weekly 
 discussions as formerly. 
 
WREN and his times. 
 
 [chap II. 
 
 218 , j wn = arrested in Ins 
 
 great fire of 
 
 progress to Ita y “ ^ ote d in Ins memoirs from 
 London. But m * Lor ^ Berkeley intended 
 
 ParentaUa, lie «“*’ J ' (1665), lie proposed 
 
 t0 return to England a « any , and by 
 
 t „ avail Himself of in Pand-observa- 
 
 that time to perfec archi tecture, arts and 
 
 lions on the Lren was in London at the 
 
 manufactures m and Boyle'- mentions 
 
 Boyal Society m March > ^ ^ ^ end of 
 
 that his friend arrived ' L = more than 
 
 February or the beginning of Male 
 six months before 1 10 1C - p ra l g oc i e ty was a 
 
 The earliest business & of the late and pre- 
 
 serious investigation mot ^ - ^ rf preven- 
 ts oindenncs. am feUows engaged heart y 
 
 tion and cure. d Dr. Wharton, wit 
 
 in the work. Dr. Ghsso the plague, 
 
 others who had remame * particulars of what 
 
 were requested to cmm , , ed or had collected from 
 they had themselves obs , ^ ^ t he meetingt, 
 
 others of good autliou J . 1 pla g U e, and that 
 
 and records it as t m ^ ^ de fence of to 
 
 “Dr. Goddard did h out of toivn m the 
 
 and his fellow tl °p particular patients were 
 
A. D. 1666 ] MEDICAL OPINIONS ON THE PLAGUE. 
 
 219 
 
 great deal more, etc.” Dr. Hodges'", one of the city 
 physicians, during the plague, informed Dr. Merretf, a 
 fellow of the Society, that the true pestilential spots, 
 then called “ the tokens,” were “ gangrenated flesh of a 
 pyramidal figure, penetrating to the very hone, with 
 its basis downwards, altogether mortified and insensible, 
 even if a pin or other sharp body, be thrust into it ; 
 and what Dr. Hodges thought particularly remarkable 
 was, that the next adjoining parts, though not dis- 
 coloured, were equally mortified. Among other useful 
 papers presented to the Society in the spring of this 
 year, were Boyle’s treatise on the origin of forms and 
 qualities, according to the corpuscular philosophy, 
 illustrated by experiments ; and a report from a com- 
 mittee, consisting of the President, Sir Paul Neile, Dr. 
 Wren, Wallis, Goddard, Pope and Hooke, on Hevelius’s 
 treatises on the two recent comets, and the mantissa to 
 his “ Prodromus Cometicus.” The Society continued 
 its sittings and investigations, although the contagion 
 had not ceased. 
 
 The propensity of the English people to ape the 
 manners of the French, especially in the higher ranks 
 of society, has been often noticed, but two occurrences 
 which happened in the two Courts show, that however 
 
 * Nathaniel Hodges, M.D., author of AOIMOAOTIA sive Pestis 
 nuperse populum Londinensem grassantis narratio historica. 8vo. 
 London 1672. 
 
 t Author of “ Pinax rerum naturalium Britannicarum,” 8vo. He 
 was a friend of Boyle, Wren, Hooke, etc., and distinguished himself 
 in the dispute between the College of Physicians and the Apothecaries. 
 
wren and his times. 
 
 !g 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 220 WREN ^ — - 
 
 , , n V,eved botlitlie Erencb King 
 
 powerful, flattered an 5 ’ those 0 f England. 
 
 and Ids subjects d ®^ e * that 0 n tlie solemn fast 
 
 Evelyn relates m lus an y , pestilence, 
 
 day, for the pubhc Harvey 
 
 while the King was “ [ yjbemm'le with the news of 
 arrived from the 1 } English and Dutch, 
 
 the dreadful encounter^etweenthe^E^g ^ ^ a ^ 
 fleets, which was, as E' V 1, stopped the service 
 
 verance than a ^ ^ that public thanks 
 
 to hear the P !U ’ a s f or a victory. Int 
 
 should immediately « S ■ ^ ^ genno n, Louvois 
 like manner Lotus - • ° cha pel Royal, and ap- 
 his war mmistei , on t made a sign to Pere 
 
 preached Ins Majesty ^ ^ was preaching, to 
 
 Gaillard, an eloqu ; ml tes’ audience to lus 
 
 minister, he sank th e Dauplun ; we 
 
 burg has been taken . ^ ^ one 0 f the nuhtary 
 must thank God. warrior, assisted by 
 
 achievements of this i ■ aft(JV ctal . les bad per- 
 
 Marshall Turenne, some ^ over a 
 
 formed the same pat > ■ both a disgrace and a 
 
 people, the war with whom 
 
 * June 6, 1666. 
 
 • ie M le Hue de St. Simon. Tom. HI. P- 361 ' 
 
 t Memoixes de M- le u 
 
A. D. 16G6] ARCHITECTURAL HEAD DRESSES. 221 
 
 Simon relates in liis Memoirs'*, that the wife of the 
 Duke of *■***, the English Ambassador to the Court 
 of Louis XIV. was a large, stout, masculine woman 
 in the decline of life ; had been handsome, and still 
 thought herself so ; dressed her hair behind her ears ; 
 rouged highly ; wore patches and abundance of nick- 
 nacks ; dressed low, with bare neck and shoulders ; 
 and, in fact, was an ancient version of Sir Peter Lely’s 
 beauties of the Court of Charles the second. 
 
 From the moment of the arrival of this showy 
 sample of full-blown English beauty at the Court of 
 France, she hesitated at nothing, spoke loud and often, 
 always in bad French, and made herself at home every- 
 where and with every body. All her actions and 
 manners were silly ; yet her gaming, her table, her 
 magnificence, and even her general familiarity, so con- 
 trary to the ceremonial formality and the pompous 
 dignity of the French Court, became suddenly and 
 universally the mode. The bouncing Duchess found 
 the head dresses of the French women to be ridiculous, 
 and, in fact, confesses M. de St. Simon, they were so, 
 and describes them with a vivid pencil. They were, 
 he says, buildings constructed of wire, ribands, laces, 
 hair, and all sorts of trinkets, upwards of two feet 
 high, which placed the pretty face that supported this 
 tower in the middle of the body, measured from head 
 to heel ; and the side curls were of a similar build, 
 but covered with black gauze. If the supporters 
 moved more than ordinarily quick, the whole fabric 
 
 * Supplement, Tom. III. p. 224. 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 222 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 shook, and was in danger of falling, to the great incon- 
 venience of the wearer. 
 
 An accident to one of these tower hearers is related 
 by M. de St. Simon"', in another part of his Memoirs, 
 which completely illustrates his proposition of their 
 dangerous qualities. The Marchioness de Charlus, a 
 great gambler, very rich and very avaricious, was one 
 evening at a large party at the Princess de Conti. 
 Between two games of lansquenet she retired with 
 many others to supper, wealing one of these monstrous 
 head dresses, not built upon its natural foundation, but 
 of a separate erection, of the sort then called com- 
 modes, which could be put on and taken off like a 
 man’s night-cap. The Marchioness was near to M. de 
 Tellier, Archbishop of Rheims, when, having taken an 
 egg, and broken the shell, she stooped to reach the 
 salt, and put the upper story of her coiffure into the 
 flame of a wax candle without knowing it. The Arch- 
 bishop, who witnessed the conflagration, darted upon 
 the burning edifice and cast it upon the floor. Madame 
 de Charlus, in the surprise and indignation at being 
 thus publicly uncoifed without knowing why, threw 
 the egg into the Archbishop’s face, the golden contents 
 of which ran down to the skirts of His Grace’s gar- 
 ments. The good-humoured Prelate could do nothing 
 for laughing, and the whole company burst into shouts 
 of laughter at the exposition of the gray, bald and 
 dirty head of the Marchioness, and at the omeletted 
 Archbishop ; but more especially at the fury and 
 
 * Supplement, Tom. III. p. 304. 
 
A. D. 1666 | 
 
 A PARISIAN FIRE-ANNIIIILATOR. 
 
 223 
 
 threats of the offended lady, at finding herself thus 
 suddenly and publicly scalped. It was a long time 
 before she would listen to the cause, and before assist- 
 ance could arrive, the whole building became a prey to 
 the flames. The Princess de Conti ordered another, 
 but before it could be fitted to the dilapidated head 
 of the infuriated Marchioness, much time was given 
 to the contemplation of the ruins caused by all- 
 devouring time, and wig-consuming fire. 
 
 It was against these enchanted castles that the 
 heroic Louis-le-Grand waged a war as long as that of 
 Troy, and was obliged to raise the siege, till the British 
 Amazon arrived, who with the rapidity of Csesar, came, 
 saw, and conquered. The advice of Malherbe to 
 Louis XIII. might have been recommended by M. de 
 St. Simon, in his threnodia on the Great Louis’s defeat, 
 and the Englishwoman’s victory over the Tours de 
 Versailles — 
 
 “ Prend la foudre, Louis, et va comme un Lion, 
 
 Donner le dernier coups a la dernier tete 
 De la rebellion.” 
 
 At the command of the English Minerva, the Gallic 
 belles veiled their diminished heads. From the loftiest 
 heights they cast them down to the lowest depths of 
 innovating fashion, and the Lelyan head dress, with 
 its increased simplicity and consequent increase of 
 beauty, prevailed. 
 
 Madame Charlotte Elizabeth, of Bavaria, widow 
 of the Duke of Orleans, Louis’s only brother”', gives 
 
 * Fragmens de Lettres Originales. 
 
WREN AND IDS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 994 
 
 “ T declare tliat 1 
 the King’s speech tW ! that, with ail my 
 
 am stung to the quit ", ( have lifted up my 
 
 authority as King 0 ^ j^ses, and no one has 
 
 voice against these lo{ [ ?[ verin „ he r top-knots. But, 
 
 :>r ; l - *— l» *. 
 
 mind of charies IL af ^ rf 4e Cathedra^ 
 
 of Great Britain, • ? , neglect and wilful 
 
 of St. Paul, winch ^ state . During the 
 
 dilapidation, in > , j been seized, its cleigy 
 
 Commonwealth it. tovon = hac 1 ^ dug 
 
 expelled, its ancierd menu ^ ^ ^ v enerahle 
 
 in various parts f ban -acks for the Ohveuan 
 
 choir converted into nois 
 
 troopers. 01 j g t . Paul’s, on Charles’s 
 
 Sucn was the expelled the military 
 
 return to England, deansed it from some of 
 intruders, restored its e. comm ission, of which 
 
 its pollutions, and appon Jd a^ effee t 
 
 Wren and Ins foen J tbe commissioners began 
 its restoration. In A , * of its state and 
 
 theii- operations, and mad 1 
 
 then propositions foi its ’ es [J c m issioners propose, 
 So did the lung and 1 Bor Plague 
 
 hnt Gon disposed otherwise. War 
 
 * See Evelyn’s Diavv fov August 27, 10® 
 
A. D. 1666] 
 
 THE FIRE OF LONDON. 
 
 225 
 
 were followed by a fire so destructive as to strike men’s 
 minds with horror and affright. This triple calamity 
 might have excited compassion in the breast of 
 England’s bitterest enemy, blit the bigotry that com- 
 memorated the wholesale massacre of the Protestants 
 on the eve of St. Bartholomew by medals, pictures and 
 public religious thanks ; commemorated the destruction 
 of the Protestant City of London, by sonnets and rejoic- 
 ings. The pious M. Benserade, as great an adept in the 
 arts of ingratiation as ever blessed the Courts of the two 
 Louises, the thirteenth and fourteenth, and flattered 
 both these vainglorious monarchs, their Christian min- 
 isters, the Cardinals de Richelieu and De Mazarin, and 
 the chaste and virtuous Queen-mother so profusely, 
 as to raise the Norman from poverty to wealth, and 
 from padding the streets of Paris on foot, to a splendid 
 equipage in Paris, and a handsome chateau at Gentile, 
 gave vent to his gratification in the following sonnet, 
 written to gratify the French court, and which the holy 
 Father Bohours* pronounced to be so fine, as to de- 
 serve translation into more than one language, by their 
 greatest masters. 
 
 SONNET SUR L’EMBRASEMENT DE LONDRES. 
 
 PAR. M. DE BENSERADE. 
 
 Ainsi brula jadis cette fameuse Troye, 
 
 Qui n’avoit offense ni ses Rois, ni ses Dieux. 
 
 Londres d’un bout a 1’ autre est aux flammes en proye, 
 
 Et souffre un meme sort qu’elle merite ruieux. 
 
 * Pensees ingenieuses, des anciens et des modernes. Recuellies par 
 le Pere Bouhours, Paris, 12mo. 1683. 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 Le crime* qu’elle a fait est un crime odieux, 
 
 A qui jamais d’en haut la grace ne s’octroye. 
 
 Le Soleil n’a rien vu de si prodigieux ; 
 
 Et je ne pense pas que l’avenir le croye. 
 
 L’horrenr ne s’en pouvoit pins long-terns soutenir 
 Et le Ciel accuse delenteur a punii, 
 
 Aux yeux de l’Univers entin se justifie. 
 
 On voit le clratiment par degTes arrive ; 
 
 La Guerre suit la Peste, et le Feu punhe 
 Ce que toute la Mer n’auroit pas bien lave. 
 
 Notwithsta®!* Father Bouhours’s commendation 
 of this fine sonnet, written by one of the most <tern 
 guished of their court-wits, he hesitates a doubts to the 
 correctness of the thought contained m the ^ tee ^r 
 the holy critic knew not, if in case the sea had deluged 
 London, she would not have been as well washed by 
 the waters, as she was purified by the ie > ‘ 
 caused his religious and charitable doubts was >at the 
 waters of the Deluge, as it seemed to him exprated n 
 
 less, the sins of the world, than the fire from Heaven 
 purified the infamous cities of Sodom and Go^mte 
 Pepvs, who lived in Seething Lane, near the lowe 
 and Evelyn who lived at Deptford, both give graphic 
 accounts of this terrible devastation, in their respectn c 
 diaries • and from the nature of their offices m ie a 
 ministration of public affairs, and their employment 
 during the fire, must be considered as of authority in a 
 
 ‘'Titmning of Sunday, September 2, 1666, Mr. 
 
 * Protestantisme. 
 
A. D. 1666 | THE FIRE OF LONDON. 227 
 
 Pepys was roused from his sleep, at about three o’clock 
 in the morning, and informed that a great fire had 
 broken out ; which he conceived by its appearance 
 from his window, to be in the neighbourhood of Mark 
 Lane. Shortly afterwards he was told that above three 
 hundred houses had been burned down in the night, 
 and that the fire was then burning down all Fish Street 
 towards London Bridge. Pepys went to the Tower, 
 and from one of its highest turrets saw the houses at 
 that end of the bridge all on fire, and raging exten- 
 sively on both sides. He descended, went to the 
 Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir John Bobinson, who in- 
 formed him that it began in the night at Faryner’s, the 
 King’s Baker, in Pudding Lane, and had already burnt 
 down St. Magnus’s Church, and the greater part of 
 Fish Street. He then took a boat, went through the 
 bridge, saw the fire extending to the Old Swan, and 
 before he left, the warehouses in the Steel Yard were 
 on fire. Every one was endeavouring to remove his 
 goods, some throwing them into the river in their 
 despair, others putting them into lighters ; poor people 
 staying in their houses till driven out by the flames, 
 then flying into boats, or dropping from their windows 
 into the water. 
 
 Seeing the dreadful progress of the fire, Mr. Pepys 
 went by water to Whitehall, saw the King and the 
 Duke of York, told them of what he had seen, and 
 that unless His Majesty commanded houses to be 
 pulled down nothing could stop the progress of the fire. 
 The King therefore commanded Pepys to go to the 
 
 q 2 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II- 
 
 WREN aim; — 
 
 Lord Mayor, from 1mm Section to 
 
 houses, but to pull t urn i J offered the 
 
 isolate the fire, and the Duke ot 
 
 assistance of the soldiers, lreqiaue ^ ^ mission, 
 
 M- ^SsT^ar as St. Balds, 
 
 taking Captain m alono . yy a tlmg Street, as 
 
 where he aligned, w ded w ith people laden 
 
 well as he could being ^ bm . ning houses , 
 
 with goods brought a " j; ied away in their 
 
 and here and there ceased . He at 
 
 beds, the plague not • = 1 as Blu dworth, m 
 
 length met the with anxiety and fatigue. 
 
 Cannon Street, almo 1 ^ he cried, says 
 
 When ho beau ■ > ° made loud lamentations, 
 
 Pepys, hhe a faulting — ^ not obey him, that 
 
 complained that th 1 1 that the fire followed 
 
 he had been pulling down • ded n0 more 
 
 out, went to Bankside <m ^ ^ extent of 
 
 prayers at home, w re^ ^ ole city was in flames, 
 the conflagration. ^ Thames, all along 
 
 burning from Cteapsid^ gtreet, Gracechureh 
 
 Cornhill, Tower Sheet. We8t ward to Baynards 
 
 Street, almost to the p au l’s Cathedral, the 
 
 Castle, and Northwai not caused, hy the 
 
 burning of which was increased, 
 
A. D. 1 666 j 
 
 ASPECT OF THE CITY IN FLAMES. 
 
 229 
 
 scaffolding erected around it by the Commissioners for 
 its proposed reparations. The people, says Evelyn, 
 were so astonished, that from the beginning of the fire, 
 whether by despondency or fate, he knew not, hardly 
 stirred to quench it ; so that there was nothing heard 
 or seen, but crying out and lamentation, running about 
 like distracted creatures. Such a consternation seized 
 many of them they scarcely attempted to save their 
 own goods, and those who did were often unsuccessful. 
 
 The sky, says Evelyn, was of a fiery aspect like the 
 top of a mighty burning oven, and the light was seen 
 above forty miles round for many nights ; and the air 
 appeared ignited by the preceding hot and sultry sum- 
 mer, which had prepared the materials to conceive the 
 fire, which devoured houses, churches, public halls, the 
 exchange, hospitals, monuments, ornaments, furniture, 
 goods and everything that came in its way. The noise 
 and cracking, and thunder of the impetuous flames, the 
 shrieking of women and children, the hurry of people, 
 the falling of lofty towers, houses and churches, he de- 
 scribes to have been like a hideous storm, and the at- 
 mosphere so hot as to be almost unbreathable. “ God 
 grant mine eyes may never again behold the like,” 
 writes the afflicted pious Evelyn, “ who now saw above 
 ten thousand houses all in one flame !” 
 
 The scene of devastation became at last so hot that no 
 one was able to approach it, so that people were com- 
 pelled to be awe-struck spectators of a burning city 
 nearly two miles in length, and one in breadth. The 
 clouds of smoke were thick and dismal, and upon com- 
 
WKEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II- 
 
 9 oq WHEN Ai-iu ^ 
 
 • 1 •„ 1 0-fh Pepys describes its 
 
 putation ““W^t horrid, Malicious, bloody flame, 
 appearance as a mo. ^ „ 
 
 not like the flame of an ' ortoav^ • in 
 
 The King and the D«ke of York <h ^ rewarded 
 
 a manner becoming ^ the commendation 
 
 by the gratitud e^f brother Commissioners, 
 
 of historians, bi . Penys’s recommenda- 
 
 under the King’s command heganj^ ^ ^ 
 
 tion of destroying ^me °f the h en d of 
 
 gress of the flames, of Holhorn, and 
 
 Fetter Lane, to save U , , \ands of stout sea- 
 
 distributed themselves wi r stay its devasta- 
 
 men, brought thtther by Ev ^b ^ from the ir 
 
 tions. The people also be - ^ intoricat ed, with 
 
 stupor, who till then s o ^ were at last eon- 
 
 their hands crossec e 01 ;ts progress, but the 
 
 vinced that nothing «oul ^ ^ make a wider 
 
 blowing up of hitherto been formed. Had 
 
 o-ap than any ybicl • Evelyn tlnnhs 
 
 to advice been foUov^at to** y . ^ be has 
 might have saved near counse l was rejected 
 
 put it on record, that t avario ious men, aldei- 
 
 because* “ some tenacmu houses must 
 
 — . *, *■•"« - jrSST *«. .* »• •'««» 
 
 ol ; , pv* v . >■" g a- 1 ! 
 
 - 4 *" 
 
 * Diary, Sept. 5, 1666. 
 
231 
 
 A. D. 1G'6'6'] TIIE KING AND THE DUKE OF YORK. 
 
 lie had many others, under his care, he paid great 
 attention to these depositaries of the wretched sufferers 
 in that unfortunate war. “ It now,” writes this true 
 patriot, “ pleased God, by abating the wind, and by 
 the industry of the people, when almost all was lost, 
 infusing a new spirit into them, that the fury of it 
 began sensibly to abate about noon, so that it came no 
 farther than the entrance of the Temple westward, nor 
 than the entrance* to Smithfield northward : but con- 
 tinued all this day and night so impetuous towards 
 Cripplegate and the Tower as made us all despair. It 
 also broke out again at the Temple, but the courage of 
 the multitude persisting and many houses being blown 
 up, made such extensive gaps, that with the former 
 three days consumption the back fire did not so vehe- 
 mently rage as formerly. There was yet no standing 
 near the burning and glowing ruins for nearly a fur- 
 long’s space.” 
 
 On the 7th Mr. Evelyn went on foot from White- 
 hall to London Bridge through the late Fleet Street, 
 Ludgate Hill, by St. Paul’s, the devastation of which 
 he feelingly deplores, Cheapside, the Exchange, Bishops- 
 gate, Aldersgate and out to Moorfields ; thence, through 
 Cornhill and its vicinity with extraordinary difficulty, 
 clambering over heaps of smoking ruins, and frequently 
 mistaking the localities ; the surface was so hot that it 
 burned his shoes. 
 
 Whilst the indefatigable Commissioner was thus 
 employed in surveying the ruins of what was, but a 
 
 * Pie Corner in Giltspur Street. 
 
232 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 few days before, London, tlie King, whose great 
 exertions is commended in the previous day’s entry, 
 went from Whitehall to the Tower by water, where he 
 landed and commanded an immediate demolition of the 
 houses which stood close round the graff or moat, for 
 had they taken fire, and attacked the white Tower 
 which was the magazine and full of powder, it would 
 have destroyed that ancient royal fortress, beaten down 
 and demolished the bridge, and sunk or burned all the 
 shipping in that part of the river. 
 
 Such, in brief, was the Fire of London, such the 
 destruction of three days, to which de Benserade tuned 
 his lyre, and Father Bouhours exultingly declaimed. 
 To the purer mind of John Evelyn it recalled, indeed, 
 a resemblance of Sodom, or the last day, by the fury 
 and extent of the conflagration ; and also of the 
 passage, “ non enim hie habemus stabilem civitatem :” 
 “ the ruins,” he saying, “ resembling the picture of 
 Troy. London was, but is no more.” 
 
 Concerning the crime for which, as Le Benserade 
 sung, Heaven, to justify"'" itself in the sight of the 
 Universe, against the accusation of slowness in punish- 
 ing the unpardonable shi of London there were differ- 
 ent opinions, and the amiable poet has recorded his. 
 Pride, vain-glory, avarice, debauchery and the deadliest 
 of sins have been called in to testify against the pros- 
 trate City. That of gluttony must be remembered ; 
 not by producing its banquets and its feastings in sup- 
 port of the proposition, but that it began in Pudding 
 
 * See his Sonnet, page 225. 
 
233 
 
 A. D. 1666] EFFECTS OF THE FIRE OF LONDON. 
 
 Lane and ended at Pie Corner. With like induction 
 did Dean Hardy, on the Sunday next after “ the Fire,” 
 in a sermon'" at Pepys’s parish church, inform his 
 hearers that the extent of the calamity was such, that 
 “ the City was reduced from a large folio to a decimo- 
 tertio.” 
 
 Whatever may have been the cause of the Fire of 
 London, no one will now doubt that the effects are, as 
 described some years afterwards, in a letter from 
 Dr. John Woodward, Professor of Physic in Gresham 
 College, to Sir Christopher Wren. That “ however 
 disastrous it might have been to the then inhabitants, it 
 proved infinitely beneficial to their posterity, and to 
 the increase and vast improvement, as well as the 
 riches and opulence of the buildings. And how by the 
 means of the common sewers and other like contri- 
 vances, such provision was made for sweetness, clean- 
 ness and salubrity, that it is not only the finest and 
 pleasantest, but the most healthy city in the world ; 
 inasmuch as for the plague and other infectious dis- 
 tempers, with which it was formerly so frequently 
 annoyed, and by which so great number of the inhabi- 
 tants were taken off the year before the fire. An ex- 
 perience of above forty years since, hath shown it so 
 wholly free from, that it is probable it will be no longer 
 obnoxious to, or ever again likely to be infested by, 
 those so fatal and malicious maladies.” To Dr. Wood- 
 ward’s forty years’ experience, we may now add nearly 
 
 * Nathaniel Hardy, D.U., Dean of Rochester. See Pepys’s Diary, 
 Sept. 9, 1666. 
 
234 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [c 
 
 HAP. II. 
 
 one hundred and fifty more, as additional proofs of the 
 beneficial effects of the great fire upon the health and 
 prosperity of the metropolis. 
 
 A new city was now to be built, and, as Dr. Sprat, 
 while the ashes of the ruined city were smoking around 
 him, said'-', “ on the most advantageous seat of all 
 Europe for trade or command.” Well did the King 
 and his people apply themselves to the task, particu- 
 larly the citizens of London, who showed a greatness of 
 mind, a philosophy of endurance, and a pious resigna- 
 tion to the will of Heaven, amidst the smoking ashes 
 of their hearths and Altars, surrounded by the green 
 graves and mounds of the remains of their kinsfolks, 
 called away by a fatal and unavoidable pestilence, and 
 by the crowded hospitals of their sick and wounded 
 countrymen in a calamitous war, worthy of all Greek 
 or Roman fame, nay higher, it was worthy of their 
 Christian profession. “ If philosophers had done this,” 
 says the before-quoted historian of the Royal Society, 
 “ it had well become their profession of wisdom ; if 
 gentlemen, the nobleness of their breeding and blood 
 would have required it : but that such greatness of 
 heart should be found among the poor artizans, and the 
 obscure multitude, is, no doubt, one of the most honour- 
 able events that ever happened.” 
 
 The fire, as we have seen, began in the night pre- 
 ceding the 3rd of September, was burning destructively 
 till the 8th, and a heap of blazing embers on the 10th, 
 yet on the 12tli Evelyn laid before the King, a survey of 
 
 * In his History of the Royal Society, 4to. London, 1667, p. 122. 
 
A. D. 1666] 
 
 PLANS FOR THE NEW CITY. 
 
 235 
 
 the ruins, a sketch for the new city, and a dissertation 
 upon the best mode of performing so large a work. 
 
 On the same day the Royal Society resumed its 
 meetings amidst the smoking ruins. The President 
 and Council were principally occupied in seeking a place 
 for their future meetings, as Gresham College, which 
 had escaped the flames, was to be occupied by the 
 merchants, etc., as an exchange till the city should be 
 rebuilt ; and in distributing the four copies of Heve- 
 lius’s second book on the late comets, which the author 
 had sent to the Society for that purpose. The council 
 awarded one to Lord Brouncker the President, and the 
 others to Sir Paul Neile, Dr. Wren and Dr. Wallis. 
 Hooke also presented a model, or plan for rebuilding 
 the city, approved by the late and present Lord 
 Mayors. 
 
 Wren, with his accustomed alacrity, and in accord- 
 ance with the duties of his office, began a plan for 
 building a new city on the site of the old one ; and* 
 presented it to the King and Council some days before 
 that of Hooke, which caused some jealousy in the 
 Society, that it had not been previously submitted to 
 them for review and approbation, so as to have given 
 the Society a name. These hints were gently insinuated 
 to Wren, by its secretary Oldenburg, to which Wren 
 answered, that he had been so pressed to hasten it, 
 before other designs came in that he could not possibly 
 consult the Society about it. The Secretary consoled 
 
 * See Mr. Oldenburg’s letter to the Hon. Robert Boyle, dated Sept. 
 18, 1666, in Boyle’s works, Vol. V. p. 358. 
 
236 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 liimself and tlie Society by the consideration, that as 
 they could not be included in the joint honour of the 
 plan, it must suffice that it was done by a member, and 
 by what he saw, so done that others will not excel it. 
 And ho hoped that wdien it was laid before Parliament, 
 as the author would be named, so his relation to the 
 Society would not be omitted. 
 
 When the business came before Parliament, there 
 were three parties in the Houses of Commons, as to 
 the best mode of proceeding. One was for an entire 
 new arrangement, as proposed by Wren ; another for 
 rebuilding it as before, but with brick, and the other 
 for a fusion of the two by building a quay along the 
 river, widening some of the streets, and rebuilding the 
 others on the old foundations and vaults, but with 
 brick. The greatest difficulty was, how to raise money 
 to carry on the war, and to build the city at the same 
 time. 
 
 Wren had now to abandon theories, lay b}^ experi- 
 ments, and apply his acquisitions to practice, as De- 
 puty Surveyor General of His Majesty’s works and 
 principal architect for rebuilding the City, the Ca- 
 thedral of St. Paul, all the parochial churches, com- 
 panies’ halls, and other public buildings of London. 
 It is not therefore to be wondered at, that his commu- 
 nications to the Royal Society, were hereafter less 
 frequent. He, however, presented a new and very 
 simple level, so constructed that its whole circum- 
 ference formed a true horizontal plane ; and conse- 
 quently, that a dioptra laid upon it gave an exact level 
 
A. D. 1666 j 
 
 THE ARUNHELIAN LIBRARY. 
 
 237 
 
 in any azimuth without moving the instrument. Hooke, 
 always Wren’s imitator, presented also his level, the 
 common spirit level of the present clay. The detailed 
 estimates of the losses occasioned by the tire, the costs 
 of reinstatements and rebuilding, the reports and de- 
 scriptions, etc. preparatory to the great work of re- 
 building are all to be found in Parentalia, Memoirs of 
 Wren, and Ward’s Lives of the Gresham Professors, 
 but are too technical for the more miscellaneous na- 
 ture of these pages. 
 
 On St. Andrew’s day 1666, the Royal Society 
 elected Wren a member of their council, and Mr. 
 Henry Howard*, of Norfolk, a fellow. This gentle- 
 man liberally accommodated the Society with apart- 
 ments in his mansion, Arundel House, in the Strand, 
 for its meetings during the occupation of Gresham 
 College by the Citizens ; and on the 9th January 1667, 
 at the instigation of his friend Evelynf, presented the 
 Society with that noble library which his grandfather, 
 Thomas, Earl of Arundel, especially, and his other 
 ancestors had collected. The Society received this 
 
 * This Henry Howard was the second son of Henry, Earl of Arun- 
 del, and became, on the death of his brother Thomas, in 1677, the 
 sixth Duke of Norfolk, having been previously created Baron Howard, 
 of Castle Rising, in 1669, and advanced to the Earldom of Norwich, in 
 1672. In addition to his benefactions to the Royal Society, he presented 
 the famous Arundelian marbles to the University of Oxford. He was a 
 proud man, valued himself highly upon his birth and family, and always 
 called and subscribed himself, “ Henry Howard of Norfolk.” 
 
 t See his diary of this date. 
 
WREN AND IIIS TIMES. 
 
 238 
 
 [chap. it. 
 
 valuable gift with graceful thankfulness, and registered 
 the liberal donor among their benefactors*. 
 
 The most valuable portion of this library was pur- 
 chased by the above mentioned Earl of Arundel, during 
 his embassy at Vienna, in the reign of Charles I. It 
 had been part of the collection of Matthew Corvinus, 
 King of Hungary, made by him at Buda, in the latter 
 part of the fifteenth century. After tire death of that 
 Prince in 1490, it went into the possession of the 
 learned historian and soldier, Bilibald Pirckheimer, 
 called by his countrymen the Xenophon of Nuremburg, 
 who died in 1530. The conditions on which this gen- 
 tleman made the donation were, only, that if a disso- 
 lution or failure of the Society should ever happen, the 
 books should revert to his family, and that the inscrip- 
 tion, “ ex dono Henrici Howard, Norfolciensis,” should 
 be lettered upon each of the books so presented ; with 
 permission to exchange any books that were duplicates, 
 or unfit for the Society’s use, for others of equal value, 
 which exchanged books were also to be lettered with a 
 similar inscription. 
 
 On the 15th of January 1667, an Order of Coun- 
 cil was issued, appointing a committee to superintend, 
 and a sub-committee, consisting of the architect and 
 former commissioners, to execute the reparation of the 
 damaged cathedral, which were finally abandoned, and 
 a new building determined on. The occupations con- 
 nected with rebuilding the city gave Wren a fine 
 opportunity of ascertaining the size and site of the 
 
 * Birch’s History of the Royal Society, Vol. II. page 136. 
 
DEATH OF COWLEY. 
 
 239 
 
 A. D. 1667] 
 
 ancient Roman city, which he did in an interesting- 
 paper, printed in Parentalia, and the before-mentioned 
 Memoirs. lie continued to attend and make commu- 
 nications to the Society, and inaugurated its first 
 meeting in Arundel House, by a paper on various 
 methods of ascertaining the diameters of planets, cal- 
 culated to seconds. 
 
 Occupied as Wren was in his architectural works, 
 more numerous and important than ever, before or 
 since, devolved upon one man, there is scarcely a 
 meeting of the Royal Society recorded in which papers 
 and experiments in astronomy, anatomy, physics, etc., 
 by him and applications to him from the Council, 
 are not recorded. 
 
 This year the Royal Society lost one of the earliest 
 and most distinguished members, Abraham Cowley, 
 who stands at the head of the metaphysical poets of 
 England, On his admission as a Fellow, he addressed 
 the Society in a Pindaric ode, which is prefixed to 
 Dr. Sprat’s History of that body, and dedicated to 
 them his “ Proposition for the Advancement of Expe- 
 rimental Philosophy.” The poet had retired from 
 court to enjoy his latter years, to a farm near Chertsey, 
 granted to him by the King. But neither his body nor 
 his mind were suited to agricultural occupations. One 
 evening, on returning from a convivial visit to a friend 
 in the neighbourhood, Yvith his friend Sprat, both being 
 on foot, and unacquainted with the locality, they lost 
 their way among the damp meadows of that marshy 
 place, which brought on the poet a violent cold and 
 
240 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 fever, which terminated his mortal life on the 27th 
 July 1667, in the forty -ninth year of his age. Evelyn, 
 who knew him well, calls him an incomparable poet, 
 and a virtuous man, his very dear friend. On the 3rd 
 August, the poet’s earthly remains were removed from 
 Wallingford House*, where it had lain in state, to its 
 earthly resting place in Westminster Abbey, where 
 they were deposited next to Chaucer, and near to 
 Spencer. The hearse drawn by six horses, and, as 
 Evelyn who was there, says, with all funeral decency, 
 was followed by nearly a hundred coaches of the 
 nobility and gentry, with all the scholars, wits and 
 philosophers of the day, and several bishops and clergy- 
 men. 
 
 Wren began the year 1668 by continuing his labours 
 in rebuilding the city, by attendances and communica- 
 tions to the Royal Society, conducting the works of the 
 Sheldonian Theatre, and his customary lectures as 
 Savillian professor of Astronomy at Oxford. Mr. 
 Howard of Norfolk, presented the Society with a piece 
 of ground one hundred feet long, and forty feet deep, 
 whereon to build a college, towards the building of 
 which they were possessed of above a thousand pounds 
 contributed. Wren was written to at Oxford to prepare 
 the drawings, and to attend Mr. Howard with them. 
 Wren’s answer, which contains a full description of his 
 design is in the letter-bookf of the Royal Society, and 
 
 * A mansion then standing on the site of the present Admiralty 
 Offices, Whitehall. 
 
 t Vol. IT. p. 220. 
 
241 
 
 a d. 1669] wilkins’s philosophical language. 
 
 my Memoirs*. The Society also appointed him one of 
 a select committee to examine and report on Dr. Wil- 
 kins’s Essay towards a real character and a philosophi- 
 cal language. Towards the close of the year Wren 
 produced to the Society, his theory of the collision of 
 bodies, with details of various experiments made to 
 verify his hypothesis, which were so favourably re- 
 ceived, that they were ordered to be registered!-, and 
 were subsequently published in the Philosophical Trans- 
 actions;];. 
 
 The year 1669 in London, is almost a repetition of 
 its predecessor, the King, the commissioners and their 
 architect proceeding in their laborious occupations of 
 clearing the ruins, settling disputed claims, building the 
 smaller streets and edifices, setting out, and preparing 
 for the greater. The Surveyor General, Sir John 
 Denham’s infirmities increasing, he deputed Wren to be 
 his nominal deputy, to execute the office of Surveyor 
 General of Iris Majesty’s works ; which appointment 
 was confirmed by the King’s letters patent, under the 
 privy seal, on the death of Sir John Denham. The 
 patent is dated March 28, 1669. 
 
 In this year Wren presented the world, through the 
 Royal Society, with a paper relative to his discovery of 
 a right line equal to a cycloid, and added continually 
 to their stock of experimental knowledge. In addition 
 to the architectural works on which he was engaged, 
 
 * Page 237. t Register Vol. IV. p. 29. 
 
 + Vol. III. No. 43. 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 WREN AND IIIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 lie was commissioned by Archbishop Sancroffc, to design 
 and execute the chapel of Emanuel College, Cambridge, 
 which he began this year ; as well as the new Custom 
 House, London. After many attempts to patch and 
 repair the remains of Old St. Paul’s, contrary to Wren’s 
 advice and opinion, which was, that being a ruin of two 
 thousand years old, to repair it by degrees, would 
 leave none of the ancient building ; it was determined 
 to clear away all the ruins, and build a new Cathedral ; 
 and a new commission was issued for that purpose. 
 Wren was also employed at this time in the reparation 
 of Salisbury Cathedral, but he was not happy in his 
 Gothic works, which was a style of architecture he 
 neither loved nor understood. 
 
 Hobbes of Malmesbury, who had been teacher of 
 mathematical philosophy to Charles II. in his youth, 
 had been engaged in a controversy relative to the quad- 
 rature of the circle, and published a work on that much- 
 debated subject, which proved him to have been but 
 little skilled in mathematics, however profound he might 
 have been as a metaphysician. Dr. Wallis undertook 
 to combat the Leviathan of the day, and satisfactorily 
 demolished liis hypothesis, in the work 4 ' which he pub- 
 lished this year, and presented twelve copies to the 
 Society, for its library, president, secretaries, Sir Robert 
 Moray, Sir John Lowther, Dr. Wren, Messrs. Hoskins, 
 Hooke and Collins. Experiments were continued 
 confirmatory of Wren’s laws of motion, from which was 
 
 * Thomas Hobbes quadratura circuli, cubatio, spherse, duplicatio 
 cubi, confutata. Oxon. 4to. 1669. 
 
wren’s laws of motion. 
 
 243 
 
 A.D. 1669 ] 
 
 deduced, that motion cannot be decreased or increased 
 infinitely, but that there are limits set both for the 
 increase and decrease of all the motion in the world. 
 Letters were received by the Society from Huygens in 
 Paris, Slusius, from Liege, and from other eminent Phi- 
 losophers on the Continent, in commendation and 
 corroboration of Wren’s demonstration of the hyper- 
 bolic cycloid, his laws of motion and other important 
 discoveries which then occupied all the learned men in 
 Europe. 
 
 The Royal Exchange was finished and opened to 
 the public in the September of this year, and is re- 
 membered by the merchants and others who frequented 
 it before its destruction by fire in 1838, as a handsome, 
 useful and commodious edifice. The buildings in 
 London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the attendances 
 at the Royal Society, occupied the whole of Wren’s 
 time. In addition to these he was appointed, with 
 Dr. Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Wilkins, 
 Bishop of Chester, Sir Robert Moray, Drs. Wallis, 
 Goddard, and Hooke, to be a committee to ascertain 
 the best way of determining the measure of a degree 
 upon the earth’s surface. In fact Wren’s name is 
 found in every important measure of the Society. 
 
 The sudden and mysterious death of the Princess 
 Henrietta Anne of England, sister of Charles II., and 
 married, shortly after his restoration, to Philip, Duke 
 of Orleans, the only brother of Louis XIV., has been 
 before alluded to. The circumstances preceding and 
 following this melancholy event, which occurred on 
 
244 
 
 WREN AND 111S TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 the 29th June 1670, were much discussed at this 
 period of our history, but, for reasons of state policy, 
 were kept as private, and as much within the precincts 
 of the two courts as was possible. It was as impene- 
 trable to the world as the scandalous partition treaty 
 between the Emperor Leopold and Louis XIV., of 
 which the former was so thoroughly ashamed that he 
 insisted there should be only one copy executed, and 
 that one kept in an iron chest with only two keys, one 
 for the most Christian King, and the other for the 
 holy Roman Emperor. But as the French say, les 
 murailles ont des oreilles, and writers of memoirs for 
 history, diaries, original letters, and such like con- 
 temporaries, noted down at the time, facts that did not 
 publicly transpire till the third and fourth generations 
 of those who acted in this sad eventful history. 
 
 A letter of Bishop Bossuet, printed, I believe, for 
 the first time in that evergreen Patriarch of periodical 
 literature, The Gentleman's Magazine*, from the me- 
 moirs of Philibert de la Maref, gives an account of the 
 last moments of the unhappy Princess. The letter is 
 dated July 1670, without the day being mentioned. 
 
 From this letter we learn that the pious and 
 
 * August 1851. Page 117. 
 
 f This author was Counsellor in the Parliament of Dijon, and con- 
 sidered equal to the President De Thou, for the elegance of Ms Latin 
 writings, among wliicli are “ Comment, de Bello Burgundico,” wMch 
 forms a part of his “ Historicorum Burgundise conspectus,” 4to. 1689, 
 and a life, in Latin, of the able diplomatist and accomplished scholar, 
 Hubert Languet, the friend of Zuinglius, the literary assistant of Gaspar 
 Peucer, and the correspondent of Sir Philip Sidney. 
 
A. D. 1670] A FEMALE EMBASSY TO ENGLAND. 245 
 
 eloquent prelate, was called up in the night between 
 Sunday and Monday, by order of the Duke, that he 
 might go to the assistance of the Duchess, who was 
 dying at St. Cloud, and earnestly desired to see him. 
 In estimating the value of the Bishop’s evidence, it 
 should be remembered, that he had at that time just 
 surrendered his Bishoprick of Condom, to become an 
 inmate of the palace as preceptor to the Dauphin, 
 which led him naturally to look forward to those dig- 
 nities, honours and emoluments, which such an ap- 
 pointment would, and did lead to, on the emancipation 
 of his royal pupil from his state of tutelage. 
 
 Before entering the dying chamber of this young 
 and unfortunate lady, let us review her short, but 
 eventful life. She was born at Exeter, the temporary 
 residence of the royal family, after their wanderings in 
 the civil war between the King and the Parliament, 
 just before the decisive battle of Nazeby ; suffered 
 such privations when in exile with her mother, in 
 France, as to have been compelled to lie in bed for 
 want of means to procure a fire, and sometimes, even 
 food ; was married after the restoration of her brother 
 to the throne of England, to the Duke of Orleans, in 
 1661 ; revisited England in May 1670, on a confiden- 
 tial political mission from Louis XIY. to her brother, 
 accompanied by the handsome Mademoiselle de Que- 
 nouailles, passed a fortnight in the important business 
 with him at Dover, left the young lady as charge 
 d'affaires, and resident minister at the Court of St. 
 James ; Mademoiselle de Quenouailles acquitted her- 
 
246 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 self so well that she was made Duchess of Portsmouth, 
 and Charles’s sister, having accomplished her mission, 
 went hack to France and died a few days after her 
 return. 
 
 The Duke de St. Simon*, m the supplementf to his 
 “ Observateur verdique sur la regne du Louis XIV.” 
 etc. and in the first volume of his memoirs of the same 
 epoch, gives a detailed account of the whole affair, 
 from the best authorities. Her gaieties, he says, 
 created jealousy in her husband, whose opposite tastes 
 and manners displeased her. His favourites, whom 
 she hated, sowed so much discord between them, that 
 the Duke was anything but comfortable at home. The 
 Chevalier de Lorraine, a young, handsome and agreeable 
 rake, governed the Duke and his whole establishment, 
 and endeavoured to make the Duchess also feel his 
 power. Madame, who was but a year younger than 
 the gay Chevalier, would not submit to his domination ; 
 and as she was in high favour with the King, she com- 
 plained to him, and procured de Lorraine’s banishment. 
 The Princess Charlotte Elizabeth of Bavaria, the 
 second wife of the Duke of Orleans, gives the follow- 
 
 * Louis de Revroi, Duke de St. Simon, the son of a nobleman of the 
 same rank and title, was introduced to the Court of Louis XIV. in his 
 fifteenth year, maintained a fair moral reputation as a courtier and a 
 good character for bravery as a soldier, went as Ambassador to Spain, 
 and after long public service retired to his estates ; where he collected 
 and wrote his memoirs, with a strong feeling of morality and religion. 
 The best edition is that of Strasburg 1791, 13 vols. 8vo. 
 
 t Tom I. p. 134. 
 
A. D. 1670] 
 
 DOMESTIC STRIFE. 
 
 247 
 
 ing account of this family quarrel*, in one of her 
 letters. Madame de C * * * * was at that time the 
 mistress of the Chevalier de Lorraine ; and by her 
 attractions caused Marshal Turenne to fall in love with 
 her. As she was in the confidence of the young 
 Duchess, who told her everything about England, she 
 reported these secrets to the Marshal and M. de 
 Lorraine. The latter recounted them to the Duke, 
 with the addition that the Duchess had spoken despa- 
 ragingly of him to the King ; and that if he did not 
 silence her, all his influence at Court would be lost, 
 and he could not answer for the consequences, if such 
 intercourse was continued. The Duke wished to know 
 all from the Duchess, who refused to tell him the 
 secrets of her brother the King of England, and the 
 conference ended in perfect discord. The Duchess was 
 exasperated and caused the dismissal of the Chevalier 
 de Lorraine and his brother, the Count de Marsan. 
 This, says the widowed Duchess, cost this Princess 
 her life. 
 
 On learning the result of this domestic strife, the 
 Duke fainted, burst into tears, hastened to throw him- 
 self at the feet of the King, his brother, prayed him 
 to revoke the sentence of banishment, which had over- 
 whelmed him with despair. He did not succeed ; he 
 returned in rage, threatened vengeance against the 
 
 * “ Fragmens des Lettres originales de Madame Charlotte Elizabeth, 
 veuve de Monsieur,” Paris 1788 and 1823, 8vo. These letters are 
 addressed to Duke Ulric of Bavaria and the Princess of Wales between 
 the years 1715 and 1720, and throw much light on the history of the 
 reign of Louis XIV. 
 
248 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 King and the Duchess ; when after a few days, and 
 some compliments from his royal brother, he resumed 
 his former manner towards both. 
 
 The Marquis D’Effiat, a man of a daring spirit, 
 chief equerry to the Duke of Orleans, and the Count 
 de Beuvrons, a pliant and obliging person, who wished 
 to stand well with the Duke, being a captain in his 
 regiment of guards, and moreover a poor younger 
 brother of a proud Norman family, were strongly 
 linked by interest with the Chevalier De Lorraine, 
 whose absence from Court disarranged then' affairs, 
 and made them fear lest some other favourite should 
 be found to supply his place, who would not be so 
 useful to them. 
 
 Not one of the three indulged any hope of the 
 termination of this exile. The increasing favour of 
 the King towards the Duchess, began to interfere with 
 their affairs and caused increased jealousy. The cause 
 of this gracious conduct of the King, arose from his 
 desire to gain the alliance of England, and he well 
 knew the fraternal love of Charles II. for his sister. 
 To accomplish this end, the Duchess and her beautiful 
 aide-de-chambre were despatched on the before-men- 
 tioned mysterious trip to Dover ; whence she returned 
 alone and in triumph on the 12th June 1670, with her 
 influence more in the ascendant than ever, full of spirits 
 and hope, and in the enjoyment of the most perfect 
 health. This triumphant ovation of the successful 
 ambassadress extraordinary, was a death-blow to the 
 hopes of return to M. De Lorraine and his allies. The 
 
RETURN OF TIIE FEMALE ENVOY. 
 
 249 
 
 A. D. I670] 
 
 banished Chevalier carried his spite through Italy and 
 to Borne. The Duke De St. Simon, speaking in his 
 own proper person, says, he knows not which of the 
 three, first made the proposition, but the Chevalier De 
 Lorraine sent to his two friends a prompt and certain 
 poison, by a courier who, perhaps, was unacquainted 
 with the nature of his despatch. 
 
 The Duchess was at St. Cloud, and being in the 
 habit of taking occasionally, about seven o’clock in the 
 evening, a glass of chicory water, a page of the 
 chamber had the charge of making and taking care of 
 it ; and kept it in a cabinet in one of the antichambers 
 of the Duchess’ own room, together with her glass. 
 This beverage was kept in a porcelain cup, with another 
 filled with plain water by its side to dilute it, if required. 
 This antichamber was the general passage to Madame’s 
 room, and no one was allowed to wait therein, because 
 there were others for that purpose. The Marquis d’Effiat 
 made himself acquainted with all these circumstances ; 
 and on the evening of the 29th of J une, in passing by this 
 anti-room, he found the happy moment he looked for, 
 nobody within it, and that he was followed by no one. 
 He turned aside to the cabinet, opened it, and threw 
 something in ; when hearing footsteps he took up the 
 cup of chicory water, and as he replaced it, the page 
 wdio had the charge of the beverage, cried out, ran to 
 him and asked him, sharply, what business he had to 
 open the cabinet 1 D’Effiat, without the least embar- 
 rassment, asked pardon, and told the attendant, that 
 being parched with thirst, and knowing that there was 
 
250 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. H. 
 
 water therein, showing the jug of water, he could not 
 resist taking a little. The page continued to complain, 
 and the other to appease ; when excusing himself from 
 paying his respects to Madame, he retired, and began 
 conversing with the other courtier in the waiting-room, 
 without the slightest emotion. What followed an hour 
 after, astonished and afflicted every one. The Duchess 
 died the following day at three o’clock in the morning ! 
 
 This portion of the tragedy is confirmed by the 
 second Duchess of Orleans, who could not have seen 
 St. Simon’s Memoirs, inasmuch as they remained in 
 manuscript till 1788*. This lady statesf, that it was 
 not the chicory water that they poisoned, but the 
 silver-gilt goblet which held it, and which could not 
 be found when enquired for after Madame was taken 
 ill. They at once thought it w T as lost, or taken away 
 to remove all marks of the deadly poison. She fur- 
 ther states that a valet-de-chambre , whom she had 
 in her service many years, and who was in the service 
 of the former Duchess at the time of her death, and 
 was much attached to her, often spoke to her on the 
 melancholy catastrophe. He said, that on that un- 
 happy day, while the Duke of Orleans was at mass, 
 D’Effiat opened the cabinet, took out the Duchess’ 
 goblet and rubbed it with a paper ; that he, the valet- 
 de-chambre\, called out to him — “ Sir ! what are you 
 
 * Eight thick 4to. Volumes, 
 t Fragmens de Lettres originates. 
 
 + This must have been the page mentioned by the Duke de St. Simon. 
 
POISONED CHICORY. 
 
 251 
 
 A. D. 1670] 
 
 doing in onr cabinet, and why do you touch Madame’s 
 goblet V’ to which the intruder replied, that being very 
 thirsty, he looked for something to drink, and seeing 
 the goblet dusty, he wiped it off with the paper. After 
 dinner, the Duchess asked for the chicory-water, and 
 as soon as she had drank it, she cried out — “ I am 
 poisoned !” All who were present drank of the same 
 beverage, but not out of the same cup. The Duchess 
 grew worse every minute, was carried to bed, the 
 agonizing pains increasing till she expired about two 
 hours after, in the most frightful sufferings. 
 
 Mademoiselle de Montpensier, daughter of Gaston, 
 Duke of Orleans, brother to Louis XIII., relates in 
 her memoirs' 5 ', that as soon as the death of the Duchess 
 was known, all the physicians and surgeons of the 
 King, as well as those of the Duke and Duchess were 
 called in to a post mortem examination. When the 
 body was opened they found all the most important 
 parts perfectly sound and healthy, which surprised them, 
 as the Duchess was delicate and mostly ailing. The 
 English! Ambassador, Lord Montagu, was present at 
 the examination, which ended in a report that her 
 death was caused by a species of colick, which they 
 called cholera morbus. 
 
 In another letter of the Duke’s widow, she says, 
 those who were engaged in this infamous plot, discussed 
 
 * Memoires de Mademoiselle Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orleans de 
 Montpensier, 8 vol. 12mo. 
 
 t Ralph Montagu, the third Lord Montagu of Boughton, created 
 Earl in 1680 and Duke in 1705. He was Ambassador from 1608 to 
 1672. 
 
252 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP II. 
 
 whether they should acquaint the Duke with it or not. 
 One of the three decided the point by saying “ No ! 
 lie will have us hanged for it, were it ten years after- 
 wards.” It was well known, she says, that such was 
 the language of these wretches. They, therefore, made 
 the Duke believe, that the Dutch had administered a 
 slow poison to the unfortunate Princess, which did not 
 take effect till that particular time. As to the poison, 
 she says, it was in vain to deny it, for there were three 
 holes corroded in her stomach. 
 
 She further writes, that one Morel”' w r as the inter- 
 medial agent who brought the poison from Dome, and 
 to recompense this confidential service, he was placed 
 on the establishment of the second Duchess, from 
 whose letters the preceding extract is made, as chief 
 maitre d’hotel. This man, after robbing her to the 
 utmost of his power, sold his appointment for a large 
 sum. She describes him as being possessed with the 
 spirit of a demon, a man devoid of all faith and fear- 
 less of all law. At his death, he would allow no one 
 to mention the name of God to him, and, speaking of 
 himself, said, “ leave my carcass alone, it is good for 
 nothing.” He stole, he lied, he perjured himself, he 
 proclaimed bis atheism, abandoned himself to the 
 vilest debaucheries and the most revolting excesses. 
 Such is the widowed Duchess’ description of one of 
 the conspirators against her predecessor’s life. 
 
 The Abbe de Choisy, whose father was Chancellor 
 to Gaston Duke of Orleans, and himself brought up 
 
 * The courier before alluded to. 
 
A. D. 1670] CONTEMPORARY WITNESSES. 253 
 
 in the family, also gives an account of this event'"', 
 lie was at that time in his sixth and twentieth year, 
 was versed in all the debaucheries of this peculiarly- 
 profligate family, and, although a member of “ the 
 company of the blessed Jesus,” a priest and abbe of 
 the Roman Catholic Church and Dean of the Cathedral 
 of Bayeux, lived for several years in female attire, 
 visiting and visited under the name of the Countess 
 des Barres, indulging in all the libertinism this scan- 
 dalous disguise afforded. After publishing a transla- 
 tion of David’s psalms, a history of the Church, and 
 other religious works, he closed his career with Memoirs 
 of the Countess des Barres, a shameless history of his 
 adventures under that name and disguisef. “ Thanks 
 be to God !” said this very reverend dignitary of the 
 Romish Church, “ I have finished my History of the 
 Church — I will now go and set about studying it.” 
 
 This historian relates that the Princess found her- 
 self ill, one summer’s evening at St. Cloud, after having- 
 partaken of a drink given to her by an attendant. 
 Her death caused a general grief ; the most afflicted 
 were the officers of her household, who feared the loss 
 of their appointments. The widowed Duke removed 
 their fears by promising that on his remarrying, they 
 should occupy the same places under the new Duchess 
 of Orleans that they held under the late Princess. 
 
 * Memoires pour servir a l’Histoire de Louis XIV. par Francois 
 Timoleon Abbe de Choisy. 
 
 t D’Alembert Hist, des Membres de l’Academie. 
 
254 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 These poor folk, says the Abbe, waited the result of 
 this promise in great pecuniary distress, not having 
 saved any thing in the service. One of them, how- 
 ever, retired to Paris, rich, and purchased a house in 
 that city, where, with a handsome establishment, he 
 passed the remainder of his days, in apparent tran- 
 quillity. 
 
 In the following year, the Duke having married the 
 Princess Palatine of Bavaria, who was the mother of 
 the Pegent Orleans, presented her with a list of the 
 servants of the late Duchess, saying that none had 
 died since their late mistress. In looking over the list, 
 Madame perceived one place vacant and enquired the 
 reason. As for that, Madam, replied the Duke, he is 
 well, but I believe will never serve you ; he had been 
 her head butler. According to all appearances, says 
 the Abbe, the Lady Duchess never dared to fathom 
 this answer further. 
 
 M. le Marquis de Paulimy confirms' 5 ' this accomit 
 of De Choisy, as far as relates to the wealthy official, 
 saying that he was acquainted with persons who well 
 knew this former servant of the Duchess Henrietta. 
 He never began to talk about the Court of the Duke, 
 and, although he lived in Paris, he never went either 
 to the Palais-Royal, St. Cloud or Versailles ; and was 
 always troubled when his former mistress was named 
 in his presence. 
 
 M. de VoLTAiREf, in his history of this period, which 
 
 * Essais dans le gout de Montagne, par M. le Marquis de Paulimy. 
 t Siecle de Louis XIV. et de Louis XV. 
 
A. D. 1670] 
 
 bossuet’s evidence. 
 
 255 
 
 lie wrote in quality of historiographer to Louis XV. 
 regardless of facts, apologizes and sneers at the event, 
 rather than give a faithful narration of facts, the 
 materials of which were within his reach. He says, 
 “ it is pretended that the Chevalier de Lorraine, the 
 favourite of Monsieur, to avenge himself for an exile 
 and imprisonment brought upon him by his blameable 
 conduct towards Madame, caused this horrible ven- 
 geance. They forgot that M. de Lorraine was then in 
 Rome, and that it is extremely difficult for a Knight 
 of Malta of twenty years of age'"', residing in Rome, 
 to purchase in Paris the death of a great Princess.” 
 This is the assertion of an advocate, not the summing 
 up of an historian, who, like a judge, should decide on 
 the evidence of facts, not the assertions of counsel. 
 
 Let us return to the chamber of the dying Princess. 
 The writer of the before-mentioned article in the 
 Gentleman’s Magazine, says, in his introduction to 
 Bossuet’s letter, “ she herself believed she was poison- 
 ed. The English Ambassador, Montaguf, writing 
 home to Charles II. says, I asked her then if she 
 believed herself poisoned. Her confessor, that was 
 by, understood that word, and told her, ‘ Madam, you 
 must accuse nobody, but offer up your death to God 
 as a sacrifice.’ So she would never answer me that 
 question, though I asked several times, but would 
 
 * M. de Voltaire forgets that the Chevalier de Lorraine was born in 
 1643, and was then seven-and -twenty years of age, and skilled in all 
 the mysteries of the Palais-Royal, improved by Italian travel. 
 
 t See note to page 251. 
 
256 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. II. 
 
 shrink up her shoulders.” From a letter written* by 
 John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, to his wife on this 
 subject, may be gathered the opinions of the best 
 informed persons ; and it appears from Bishop Burnet 
 and his annotators, that the impression of her being 
 poisoned by her husband, was universally believed. 
 
 Bossuet was, according to his before-mentioned 
 letter, immediately sent for to the dying Princess. He 
 found her quite sensible, talking and doing various 
 things without trouble, ostentation or excitement. She 
 had already received all the sacraments and extreme 
 unction, at her own request, that it might be admi- 
 nistered whilst she was sensible. The Bishop remained 
 by her side an hour, and witnessed her last breath, 
 keeping the crucifix, which she held in her hand, to 
 her lips till the last suspiration. All that she said to 
 the King, to the Duke, and to those who stood around 
 her couch, the Bishop says, was brief, to the point and 
 in an excellent feeling ; but he gives no account of it. 
 This deficiency is however supplied by her successor, 
 the Princess Charlotte Elizabeth, who saysf, in relation 
 to the reports raised by her enemies as to her gallantries, 
 that which more convinced her of the Duchess Hen- 
 rietta’s innocence was, that after she had received the 
 last sacraments, she asked pardon of her husband for 
 all the inquietude she had caused him, assured him 
 she had strong hope of salvation, because, in the main, 
 
 * See Gentleman’s Magazine for July 1773, p.p. 324-5. 
 t Fragmens de Lettres originales. 
 
A. D. 1670] BOSSUET’S FUNERAL ORATION. 257 
 
 she had never offended against him. The Bishop 
 relates the grief and agony of the King, and the Duke, 
 and that he had received his Majesty’s commands to 
 deliver the funeral oration at St. Denis in three weeks. 
 
 In this oration, the Bishop, among other praises 
 says that this illustrious Princess so well understood 
 the beauties of works of genius, that those who could 
 please her taste, felt that they had attained perfection. 
 
 Under a smiling countenance, under an air so 
 
 youthful, that it seemed to promise nothing but play- 
 fulness, there was concealed a mind and a gravity, 
 
 which surprised all who conversed with her. She 
 
 gave, not only with pleasure, but with a greatness of 
 soul, which marked at once her contempt of the gift, 
 and her estimation of the person on whom she bestowed 
 
 it. When any one discoursed with her, it appeared 
 
 as if she had forgotten her rank, and seemed to sus- 
 tain herself by reason alone. 
 
 One would scarcely perceive, he says, that they 
 were speaking to one so elevated, and would only feel 
 from the bottom of their heart, that they would wil- 
 lingly render her a hundred times the greatness she 
 had so condescendingly laid down. Of her last mo- 
 ments, the orator said, she looked sweetly upon death, 
 as she had towards the whole world. Her great soul 
 was neither embittered nor disquieted by it : nor did 
 she brave death rudely, but contented herself with 
 facing it without emotion and without fear. Sad con- 
 solation ! that with all this great magnanimity we 
 have lost her ! It shows the vanity of human affairs ; 
 
 s 
 
258 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 that after the last effort of our courage — after we have, 
 so to speak, overcome the bitterness of death, it extin- 
 guishes even that courage by which we seem to defy it. 
 
 The King, says the Duke de St. Simon, had suspi- 
 cions both of the page who had the charge of the 
 goblets, and Purnon, the Duke’s chief maitre d’hotel, who 
 had in early life been in the service of the Marquis 
 d’Effiat, the person who had meddled with the goblets. 
 Plis Majesty sent for Major Brissac the commandant 
 of his body-guard, a faithful old soldier, and commanded 
 him to go with six of his trustiest men, and bring Pur- 
 non to him in his cabinet with as much secrecy as pos- 
 sible. As soon as the King saw him, he dismissed 
 Brissac and his first valet de chambre, assumed an air 
 and tone of severity, and surveying him from head to 
 foot, said, “ My friend, listen to me attentively. If you 
 will avow all, and answer me truly as to what I would 
 know from you concerning what you have done, I will 
 pardon you, and never mention the circumstance. But 
 be careful, conceal nothing from me, for if you do, you 
 die before you leave this place. Was not Madame 
 poisoned'?” “Yes, sire,” replied Purnon. “Eh! who poi- 
 soned her V’ asked the King, “ and how was it done ?” 
 Purnon replied that the Chevalier de Lorraine sent the 
 poison to M.M. d’Effiat and Beuvron, and related the 
 foregoing circumstances. “ Ah ! my brother,” said the 
 King, “ did he know of it ?” “ No, Sire,” replied the 
 
 man, “ neither of us was fool enough to tell him ; he is 
 not in the secret ; were he so, we should be lost men.” 
 On this reply, the King gave a great ah ! like one op- 
 
A. D. 1670] 
 
 ORLEANS’ SECOND MARRIAGE. 
 
 259 
 
 pressed, and then respired. “ Go,” said he, “ that is all 
 I wanted to know, but assure me that you have spoken 
 the truth.” He then called Brissac, told him to 
 take that man away, and shortly after, gave him his 
 liberty. 
 
 It was this man, says M. de St. Simon, that many 
 years afterwards related these facts to M. Joly de 
 Fleury Procurator-General of the Parliament, from 
 whom he learned these frightful details. The same 
 magistrate informed him, further, that after the second 
 marriage of the, Duke the King drew the new Duchess 
 apart, told her of the circumstance, and assured her, 
 both for his brother and for himself, that he was too much 
 a man of probity, to permit her to marry his brother if he 
 had been capable of such a crime. Madame took ad- 
 vantage of the information. Purnon was re-established 
 as principal maitre cl’ hotel; by degrees she began to 
 enter into the expenses of the house, which pleased the 
 Duke, but annoyed Purnon so much, that it forced him 
 to sell his appointment at the end of 1676, to the 
 before-mentioned Sieur Morel de Vaulonne. 
 
 Let those persons who think with De Voltaire, that 
 it was difficult for a young knight of Malta, residing in 
 Home, and burning with rage at the greatest indignity 
 a courtier of the reign of Louis XIV. could suffer — 
 exile, to purchase the secret murder of a great Princess 
 at Paris in 1670, reflect upon the religion, morals and 
 habits of that distinguished court. Let them remember 
 the history of Olympia de Mancini, niece of the Car- 
 dinal de Mazarin, afterwards the notorious Countess de 
 
 s 2 
 
260 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 Soisons. Let them peruse the infernal history of the 
 Marchioness de Brinvilliers and her paramour Goden 
 St. Croix, whose extensive and dexterous practice in 
 the royal and noble art of secret poisoning almost sur- 
 passes belief. St. Croix learned the secrets of this 
 science from an Italian named Exili or Essuli, who 
 taught him to compound the most subtle and mortal 
 poisons. So deadly were they, that on the glass mask 
 falling from the face of St. Croix, whilst employed in 
 its concoction, the fumes killed him instantly, and 
 caused the knowledge of the demonical practices of this 
 illustrious pair to transpire, and led the survivor to the 
 scaffold. This woman in this very year, 1670, secretly 
 poisoned her father, sister, and two brothers, which 
 crimes were not discovered till this providential ac- 
 cident. 
 
 French history is full of these secret empoisonments, 
 or of sudden deaths, so mysterious as to cause grave 
 suspicions of such unnatural and atrocious crimes. 
 Among others of this period, witness the two Dauphins 
 and the Dauphiness, the Duke and Duchess of Burgun- 
 dy, and other children and grand children of this most 
 magnificent and most miserable of modern monarch s. 
 It was the misfortune of this enormously-flattered man 
 to witness the end of his whole family by premature 
 deaths. His queen died hi the forty-fifth year of her 
 age ; Louis, his only legitimate son, whose title is best 
 remembered by the admirable edition of the Latin 
 classics, which were prepared for his use in his pupil- 
 age, died in April 1711, at the age of fifty ; his eldest 
 
A. D. 1670] QUESTIONS ON THIS MYSTERIOUS DEATH. 261 
 
 son, tlie Duke of Burgundy, his wife, and their eldest 
 son, the Duke of Britanny, also died, within twelve 
 months after the grand Dauphin, as he was called, and 
 were buried in one tomb in the royal cemetry of St. 
 Denis in April 1714 ; Charles, Duke of Berry, died 
 within two years of his brother, and his only child 
 passed from the cradle to the tomb the same year ; 
 whilst the youngest child of the Duke of Burgundy, 
 who succeeded his great grandfather as Louis XY. was 
 a feeble infant, and more than once at death’s door. 
 Such was the domestic happiness of Louis le Grand ! 
 
 The cause and manner of the death of this English 
 Princess, sister of Charles II. and wife of the brother 
 of Louis XIY. is a matter of grave importance to the 
 Historian ; and its occurrence at that particular time 
 adds suspicion to a fact that deserves a full investiga- 
 tion. For it must occur to every attentive reader of 
 the political events which preceded and followed it, to 
 ask, what was the nature and object of the mission 
 from the Monarch of France to the King of England, 
 that could be entrusted to no one but the beloved 
 sister of the latter, a daughter, by marriage of France, 
 and her fair seductive attachee Mademoiselle Louise de 
 Quenouaille, the Miss Baby-face of Evelyn, and the 
 subsequent Duchess of Portsmouth in the British Peer- 
 age \ And why, when the secret service was perform- 
 ed, that lively tongue, whose communicativeness, w T e 
 have seen, was both censured and feared, was to be 
 silenced, instantly and for ever % And why, Charles, 
 whose love for this sister is so well known, was also 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 262 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 put to silence ? These are grave and important ques- 
 tions and not to be answered rashly. 
 
 In this year, 1670, an act of parliament was passed 
 imposing a duty of three shillings a chaldron upon all 
 coals brought into the Port of London ; one moiety to 
 be applied for the use of the City, and the other to- 
 wards rebuilding St. Paul’s, and the parochial churches, 
 and to continue till Michaelmas day 1687. The building 
 of these edifices occupied the greater portion of Wren’s 
 time ; and particularly in laying down the lines for the 
 construction of an extensive quay from London Bridge 
 to the Temple, a handsome and useful work, which 
 private cupidity, alone, prevented. 
 
 The first meeting of the Boyal Society, January 12, 
 1671, was signalized by a royal wager", communi- 
 cated by Sir Robert Moray, by which the King 
 betted fifty pounds to five against the President and 
 Fellows of the Royal Society, on the best method 
 of compressing ah by water, which the loyal society 
 permitted their royal patron to win. At the next 
 meeting Wren produced his demonstration of the line 
 formed by an arch constructed to support a given 
 weight, a theory of which he happily availed himself, in 
 the construction of his great Cathedral. In March, 
 Leibnitz sent over a portion of his “ Theoria motus 
 concret/i,” which he was desirous of dedicating to the 
 Society, for their opinion. Boyle, Wren, Wallis and 
 Hooke were appointed examiners of this new physical 
 hypothesis, for solving the phenomena of nature, and 
 
 * Birch’s History of the Royal Society. Vol. II. Page 4G3. 
 
A. D. lC7l] 
 
 A GENIUS DEVELOPED. 
 
 263 
 
 were desired to report upon it. In April Wren and Hooke 
 were commissioned to determine the most proper figure 
 or portion of a sphere or parabola that would converge 
 the rays of the sun into a point, for a burning concave 
 mirror. In May the Society received a communication 
 from M. Mariotte, member of the Loyal Academy of 
 Sciences of Paris, on the science of levelling, and of 
 some new methods of operation used in France. The 
 manuscript was delivered to Wren for examination and 
 opinion. At the last meeting of the Society, this year 
 the Bishop of Salisbury'" proposed Isaac Newton, M.A. 
 Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in the University 
 of Cambridge!, as a fit and proper person to be admit- 
 ted a Fellow of the Loyal Society. Wren this year 
 began his large Doric column, near London Bridge, 
 commemorative of the great fire ; upon the summit of 
 which a bronze statue of Charles II. was originally in- 
 tended to have been erected. He also began the Church 
 of St. Mary-le-Bow, and continued his multifarious pur- 
 suits with zeal and ability. Among these avocations 
 were numerous applications, petitions and memorials 
 to the Privy Council, many of which, with his decisions 
 are printed in the before-quoted memoirs, from the 
 original manuscript transactions of that body, which then 
 belonged to me, and is now in the Soanean Museum. 
 
 Early in 1671, Evelyn discovered that rare genius 
 in art, Grinling Gibbons, in a small house at Deptford, 
 
 * Seth Ward, D.D., F.R.S. Etc. Birch’s History. Vol. II. Page 501. 
 
 t He had just succeeded to that chair on the resignation of Dr. Isaac 
 Barrow, and had delivered his “ Lectiones Optical.'” 
 
264 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 working on a carved copy of Tintoretto’s picture of tire 
 Crucifixion, which he caused to he shown to Wren, 
 Pepys, Baptist May, and other competent judges of art, 
 and afterwards to be taken to Whitehall, where it v T as 
 seen and much admired by the King, the Duke of 
 York, and the Court. The King, says Evelyn'"', no 
 sooner cast his eye upon it than he was astonished, and 
 having considered it for a long time, and discoursed 
 with Gibbons about it, he ordered it to be carried into 
 the Queen’s bed-chamber, where the King admired it 
 again ; but being called away, left Evelyn and Gibbons 
 with the Queen, believing, from the subject, she would 
 have bought it. When the King was gone, one 
 Madame de Boord, whom Evelyn calls a “ French ped- 
 dling woman, who used to bring petticoats and fans and 
 baubles out of France to the Ladies, began to find 
 fault with several things in the work, which she under- 
 stood no more than an ass or a monkey.” Evelyn was 
 so indignant at this conduct, and at the attention which 
 the Queen paid to her chattering milliner, that he 
 ordered the sculpture to be removed back to the artist’s 
 “ poor solitary thatched house in a field,” near Eve- 
 lyn’s house, Saye’s Court, Deptford, the artist having 
 been, probably, a ship’s carver. This distinguished 
 critic and able artist describes this first known work of 
 Gibbons as one which, for curiosity of handling, draw- 
 ing and studious exactness, he had never seen in all his 
 travels. The original painting he had himself seen at 
 Venice, and brought home a copy of it, therefore was 
 
 * Diary, March 1, 1671. 
 
A. D. 1671] GRINLING GIBBONS* FIRST WORK. 265 
 
 well acquainted with the subject on which the obscure 
 artist was at work. Evelyn, with a desire to serve 
 him, enquired the price. Gibbons being as he said, 
 but a beginner, valued it at one hundred pounds, which 
 the enquirer thought so moderate that the very frame 
 was worth the money, there being nothing in nature 
 so tender and delicate as the flowers and festoons about 
 it, and yet the work was very strong. The piece, in 
 alto and mezzo-rilievo, had more than one hundred 
 figures of men, etc. in its composition. It was subse- 
 quently purchased for eighty pounds, by Sir Robert 
 Viner, one of the Lord Mayors whose name figures in 
 Adam Littleton the lexicographer’s seven-storied line 
 of his proposed inscription for “ the monument,” de- 
 scriptive of the seven illustrious Praetors in whose 
 mayoralties it was began, continued and ended. This 
 ingenious heptastegon runs thus — 
 
 “ Fordo- Watermanno-Hansono-Hookero-Vinero-Sheldono-Davisio- 
 
 NAM.” 
 
 From the fire of London in 1666, till the end of the 
 year 1711, the life of Wren was one uninterrupted 
 scene of useful, honourable and important activity. 
 In that period he designed and built fifty-three parish 
 churches in London, besides reparations and additions 
 to many others ; repaired and added to the Castle of 
 Windsor, the Cathedrals of Salisbury and Chichester, 
 and Westminster Abbey, built the palace called “ the 
 King’s House, at Winchester,” many of the large and 
 handsome mansions of the opulent city merchants, 
 Aldermen and Mayors, who then resided and gave their 
 
266 WEEN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. II. 
 
 splendid hospitalities in their own houses, besides the 
 Cathedral of St. Paul, the Iioyal Exchange, the public 
 halls of the incorporated City Companies, the modern 
 roof and ceiling of Guildhall, built over it in haste, 
 and for immediate use, and evidently a temporary 
 covering, and his before-mentioned and other works in 
 Oxford and Cambridge. What man, beside Wren, 
 ever did so much and so well ? 
 
 Wren began his fortieth year in connection with 
 the illustrious Isaac Newton, who on the 11th of Jan- 
 uary 1672, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society"’", 
 and communicated an account of light and colours, 
 which they published in their Philosophical Transac- 
 tions. Newton, on the day of his admission, presented 
 his improved telescope, which he had reduced from the 
 gigantic tube of Galileo, to moderate and useable di- 
 mensions, for the examination and opinion of the So- 
 ciety. Wren, Hooke, Sir Paul Neile, Sir Robert 
 Moray and the President had previously investigated 
 the improved instrument at Whitehall Palace, by com- 
 mand of the King, and reported so favourably on its 
 merits that they transmitted a description and diagrams 
 of it to Christian Huygensf, the celebrated Dutch 
 mathematician and astronomer, who, by his own im- 
 provements on the same invention, had discovered Sa- 
 turn’s ring and other important astronomical plieno- 
 
 * Birch’s Hist. Vol. III. p. 1. 
 
 t He was author of a Latin Treatise on the Plurality of Worlds, and 
 the probability of the planets being inhabited, published after his death, 
 in 1698. 
 
A. D. 1672] DISPUTES BETWEEN NEWTON AND IIOOKE. 267 
 
 mena, wlio was residing in Paris, and was a member 
 both of the French Academy and the English Society. 
 
 Newton’s various philosophical discoveries and theo- 
 ries now occupied the attention of the Society. The in- 
 genious but jealous Hooke became the principal opposer 
 of the new Fellow, and obtained the unenviable distinc- 
 tion of the Newtono-mastyx, although his censures were 
 by no means confined to the great father of the exact 
 sciences, but extended impartially to Boyle, Wren, 
 Evelyn, Flamsteed and other members of the Society. 
 After many disputations, both in the Society and by 
 letters, upon Newton’s theory of light and colours, 
 Oldenburg, the secretary, read an answer from the 
 philosopher to his impugner, which was ordered to be 
 entered on their minutes, and was afterwards published 
 in their Philosophical Transactions' 1 '. 
 
 On the 11th of June, this year, the Royal Society 
 lost a distinguished member, and Wren an affectionate 
 relative, by the death of his cousin, Matthew Wren, 
 eldest son of the persecuted Bishop of Ely. After the 
 restoration of Charles II. he was returned member for 
 the borough of St. Michael, in Cornwall, became Secre- 
 tary to Lord Clarendon, and was one of the original 
 Fellows of the Poyal Society. After the retirement of 
 his first patron, he was appointed Secretary to the 
 Duke of York, in which capacity he prevented a duel 
 between the Secretary of the Admiralty, Mr. Pepys, 
 and Sir James Barkman von Leyenberg, who had been 
 the Swedish Ambassador in London for some years, and 
 
 * Vol. VII., No. 88, for November 1672. 
 
268 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. n. 
 
 had married the widow of Sir William Batten, Com- 
 missioner of the Navy, who died largely in Pepys’s 
 debt, for which the widow was liable. Owing to some 
 dispute concerning this money, Pepys sent a hostile 
 message to the Swede, but the meeting was prevented 
 by a letter* from Matthew Wren to Pepys, which 
 states that the King having heard of some dispute 
 between him and the Resident of Sweden, had signi- 
 fied his pleasure that he should neither send any chal- 
 lenge to the said Resident, nor accept of any from 
 him ; and as soon as he had received that letter, he 
 was immediately to attend the Lord Arlington, His 
 Majesty’s principal Secretary of State. Mr. Matthew 
 Wren’s published works were principally politicals 
 including a sharp controversy with Harrington, about 
 his Oceana, and an historical essay “ On the Origin 
 and Progress of Revolutions in England.” 
 
 The Society lost also this year, by death, two other 
 distinguished Fellows. Francis Willughby the cele- 
 brated naturalist, the pupil and friend of Ray, whom 
 he accompanied in a continental tour in 1663 and 1664. 
 He paid particular attention to ornithology and ichthy- 
 ology, and formed a rich museum of animal and fossil 
 productions. He wrote two able worksj on his fa- 
 
 * The original is in the Bodleian Library, and printed in Pepys’s 
 Correspondence, November 9, 1670. 
 
 t See my Memoir of Wren, p. 313, Note. 
 
 + His premature death in 1672, being only six and thirty years of age, 
 prevented him from committing his writings to the press, but Mr. Ray, 
 his executor, edited and published them. One, F. Willughbeit Orni- 
 
A. D. 1672] 
 
 TILLOTSON ELECTED F.R.S. 
 
 269 
 
 vourite studies, and was honoured by having his name, 
 Willughbeia, given by von Schreber, the friend of Lin- 
 naeus, to a genus of plants found in Guiana. The 
 papers of this naturalist in the Philosophical Transac- 
 tions, relate to vegetation, plants and insects. The 
 other was the celebrated Bishop Wilkins, who is several 
 times mentioned in these pages, in Wren’s Memoirs and 
 other works connected with the literature and philoso- 
 phy of this period. 
 
 The same day that witnessed the introduction of 
 Newton’s improved telescope to the Itoyal Society, 
 witnessed also the introduction of that eminent Prelate 
 and distinguished pulpit orator, Dr. John Tillotson as a 
 Fellow. In addition to his matchless collection of 
 Sermons, the copy-right of which was the only legacy, 
 his liberality and charity allowed him to leave to his 
 widow, out of his large ecclesiastical revenues, this 
 eminent Christian Pastor was celebrated for his liberal 
 toleration towards the sects out of the pale of the 
 Church, and endeavoured to have the Presbyterians 
 comprehended within its boundaries, but his proposition 
 was rejected in convocation. This liberality, and his 
 defence of Christianity, on rational grounds, and his 
 correspondence with Limborch, Locke, Le Clerc and 
 other friends of toleration, peace and charity in the 
 
 thologiee, Libri tres, fo. Lon. 1668, and an English translation with ad- 
 ditions in 1678;” the other, “ F. Willughbeii de Historia Piscium, 
 Libri quatuor, jussu et sumptu Soeietatis Regise Lond. editi : to turn 
 Opus recognovit, coaptavit, supplevet, librum etiam primum et secundum 
 integros adjecit J. Raius Oxon fo. 1686. 
 
270 
 
 WEEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Christian chmch, caused him to be accused of Socinian- 
 ism. To which accusation he replied, only, by republish- 
 ing four of his sermons, “ On the divinity and incarna- 
 tion of our Saviour.” Of this mild replication Dr. Jortin 
 humorously observed that Tillotson had broken an 
 ancient and fundamental rule of theological controversy, 
 that of not allowing an adversary to have, either com- 
 mon sense or common honesty. 
 
 In this year, Wren finished Temple-bar, began the 
 churches of St. Stephen, Walbrook, St. Mary-at-liill, 
 and St. Michael, Cornhill, and continued occupied 
 upon St. Paul’s Cathedral, and his other extensive 
 works. 
 
 The Royal Society commenced its session of 1673, 
 with a series of experiments and a variety of commu- 
 nications by Newton, Boyle, Hooke, Leibnitz, who was 
 elected a Fellow, and exhibited liis new arithmetical 
 instrument, Dr. Grew, and other eminent mathema- 
 ticians and philosophers. The name of Wren does not 
 occur in any of its records till October 22, in a list of 
 fifty-seven Fellows reported as good paymasters. In 
 November, Wren was knighted by the King at White- 
 hall, and is, after that date, called Sir Christopher 
 Wren in all records and public transactions. He was 
 re-elected a member of the Council, and with Sir Wil- 
 liam Petty, Drs. Goddard, Grew and Hooke appointed 
 a Committee to propose fitting experiments for the 
 consideration of the Society. On the 9th of April, 
 Sir Christopher Wren, from the heavy pressure of his 
 engagements, resigned the chair of Savilian Professor 
 
A. D. I674-] THE RUINS OF ST. PAUL’S CLEARED AWAY. 27 l 
 
 of Astronomy in Oxford, which he had held with 
 honour to himself and satisfaction to the officers, mem- 
 bers and students of that University, for more than 
 fourteen years ; and on the 12th November was ap- 
 pointed by warrant under the great seal, Architect and 
 one of the Commissioners for rebuilding the cathedral 
 church of St. Paul. 
 
 Early in the year 1674, the rains of the old cathe- 
 dral were began to be cleared, all the serviceable old 
 stone having been previously removed and applied 
 towards building the parish churches. The Architect 
 proceeded with his designs, one of which being selected, 
 the King ordered a model to be made of it, which is 
 preserved in the present Cathedral, and a plan of it 
 drawn from the original by me, and engraved by my 
 friend the late Wilson Lowry, is in the before-men- 
 tioned memoirs. 
 
 This admirable and most original plan, was, to the 
 Architect’s great mortification, set aside, through the 
 influence of the Duke of York, and other friends of the 
 Popish faction, secretly encouraged by the King ; and 
 backed by some of the clerical commissioners, whose 
 prepossessions in what they called, a true Cathedral 
 form, namely, a nave, aisles, transepts, lateral oratories, 
 chapels, etc. Thus rejecting one of the finest and most 
 original conceptions of a Cathedral for the use of the 
 reformed Church of England, that was ever devised. 
 Let any unprejudiced judge of the fine and beautiful 
 in art, take the two plans, that before-mentioned, and 
 the executed one, also measured and delineated by me, 
 
272 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. n. 
 
 engraved by John Le Keux, and published in Britton’s 
 Fine Arts of the English School, fine and complete as 
 the latter is, abounding with striking originalities and 
 wonders in construction, and say honestly, which is the 
 best Look upon them both, weigh their respective 
 merits and their beauties, and the verdict of an unpre- 
 judiced jury, given from the evidence before them, may 
 be anticipated. 
 
 On the 12th of February 1674, the Coimcil of the 
 Loyal Society, elected Sir Christopher Wren and Sir 
 William Petty to be Vice-Presidents ; on the 3rd of 
 December, Wren was appointed on a committee, with 
 the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Seth Ward, Sir William 
 Petty and Sir J onas Moore, to examine and report on 
 the merits of Hooke’s new quadrant for making- 
 remote observations with great exactness ; and on the 
 lOtli of the same month, the Council resolved that Sir 
 Christopher Wren, Mr. Evelyn, Dr. Isaac Vossius, who 
 taught Christina of Sweden enough Greek, to make 
 her a pedant, and was now a Canon of Windsor, the 
 friend and associate of St. Evremond, the Duchess'" of 
 Mazarin and such like persons and of whom Charles II. 
 said, he was a strange Divine, for he believed in every- 
 thing but the Bible, Dr. Holder, and other Fellows of 
 the Society should be written to, soliciting a communi- 
 cation fromf each ; which the President did forthwith. 
 
 The time of Sir Christopher Wren was this year 
 
 * The lady of the eccentric Duke, who as mentioned in page 215, 
 carried her embalmed corpse about with him. 
 
 f Birch’s Hist. Vol. Ill, p. HiO. 
 
A. D. 1674 ] INTRAMURAL BURIAL GROUNDS. 273 
 
 occupied in arbitrations, complaints, memorials and 
 sucli like business, referred to him by the Privy 
 Council*. One of his greatest desires was to prevent 
 the burial of dead bodies within the walls and pre- 
 cincts of the City. At a meeting of the King and Privy 
 Councilf at Whitehall, on the 25th of November 1674, 
 the Churchwardens and Ancients (past Churchwardens) 
 of the Parish of St. Clement Danes, petitioned the 
 King for leave to build houses for the benefit of the 
 poor of then - Parish, on the north side of the new 
 church-yard, near Lincoln’s Inn Fields ; and to erect 
 columns where the new rails stood, to enclose the foot 
 passage for the conveniency of passengers. The me- 
 morial was referred to the Surveyor-General, who re- 
 ported that he had viewed the place, and saw no par- 
 ticular objection against it, considering the nature of 
 the locality and neighbourhood. He suggested, how- 
 ever, two inconveniences as likely to result to the 
 public, if it were granted. First, that the allowing of 
 grave-yards in the Metropolis, if made a precedent, 
 would be, in other places, productive of evil conse- 
 quences ; for many parishes being ill provided with 
 burying-places, if sickly times, such as the Metropolis 
 had so recently and terrifically been visited with, 
 should return, great indecencies would be committed, 
 and fatal effects would occur from the dead bodies 
 being crowded into such insufficient, and improper 
 
 * Elsies’ s Memoirs, page 332 
 
 t Privy Council M.S., page 50, quoted in the above work, page 332. 
 
274 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 places. Secondly, that a great number of the rebuilt 
 houses in the City, were still uninhabited, and that 
 the new houses proposed to be built by the petitioners 
 were therefore not then wanted. 
 
 Preparations for building the new Cathedral were 
 so much advanced in the Spring of 1675, that Mr. 
 Thomas Strong, who was then building the masonry of 
 St. Stephen’s, Walbrook, made the first contract'"' with 
 the Architect and the other Commissioners, for the 
 first portion of the masonry of that edifice. 
 
 Wren’s communications with the Poyal Society 
 were now, consequently, few and far between, and his 
 loss seems to have been felt ; for then transactions re- 
 cord little else than propositions for procuring payment 
 of arrears due from defaulting Fellows. One of the 
 entries connected with this ebbing of the Society’s de- 
 clining exchequer isf, that Mr. Newton had intimated 
 his being in such circumstances, that he desired to be 
 excused from the weekly payments, it was agreed to 
 by the Council that it should be dispensed with. 
 
 Milton, Newton, Shakspeare and Johnson, are, in 
 the language of the political economists and their sec- 
 taries, the utilitarians, unproductive labourers ; poetry, 
 astronomy, morality, false sciences ; “ they would yoke 
 and harness,” says;}; a distinguished writer of our day, 
 “ the loftier spirits to one common and vulgar destina- 
 
 * Clutterbuck’s History of Hertfordshire, Vol. I. page 167. 
 t Birch’s Hist. R. S. Vol. III. page 178. 
 t D’ Israeli’s Literary Character, page 7. 
 
INSULTED GENIUS. 
 
 275 
 
 A.D. 1675] 
 
 tion. Man is considered only as lie wheels on the 
 wharf, or as he spins in the factory.” A Milton gains 
 less for an immortal epic, than he would for a treatise 
 on the nature and properties of the grindstone. Four- 
 pence a day, it is said, was, at one time of his life, all 
 that could be earned by Samuel Johnson to support 
 his sturdy frame. How many Procters, and Haydons, 
 and Chattertons, does not history record in testifica- 
 tion of the maddening effects of unrequited genius 1 
 Thousands flocked to pay their half-crowns and vulgar 
 homage to the transatlantic abortion, called by his 
 dollar-gaining importers, Tom Thumb, and passed from 
 their carriages by the very door of poor Haydon’s 
 exhibition, where the shillings would have procured 
 them the gratification of viewing the productions of a 
 lofty mind, and of contributing to heal the pangs 
 of a wounded spirit, which they drove to suicide. 
 
 Mr. DTsraeli'" records that Porson lamented, that 
 “ it seemed to him very hard, that with all his critical 
 knowledge of Greek, he could not get a hundred 
 pounds. The political economists,” he observes, “ would 
 have demonstrated to the learned Grecian, that this 
 was just as it ought to be ; the same occurrence had 
 even happened to Homer in his own country, where 
 Greek ought to have fetched a higher price than in 
 England ; but, that both might have obtained this 
 hundred pounds, had the Grecian bard and the Greek 
 professor been employed at the same stocking-frame 
 together instead of the Iliad.” 
 
 * D’ Israeli’s Literary Character, page 8. 
 
276 
 
 WREN AND IIIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 It is, however, consolatory to think, that if a finan- 
 cial speculator can raise himself, from the dregs of society 
 to the circles of a court, drive a whole nation of philoso- 
 phers and thinkers into a race after Mammon, and then 
 to poverty and madness ; or Projectors and Managing 
 Directors of false propositions, enrich themselves by 
 spoiling others, and roll in their gaudy equipages, over 
 the wretched widows, orphans and other victims of de- 
 ceitful cupidity ; or if debased monstrosities of hu- 
 manity, apish imitators of studious manhood, by defilers 
 of infant female purity, can become millionaries ; and a 
 Newton prays forbearance from Ins creditors, and a 
 Porson sighs for bread, that Phidian representations of 
 both these illustrious men adorn the Halls of the grate- 
 ful University they both honoured, and their names 
 rendered as imperishable and as extensive as the im- 
 mortal spirit of civilization. It may be whispered in 
 the ears of the money-lovers, that the author of the 
 “ Principia,” (Sir Isaac Newton, M.P., etc , etc., etc., is 
 meant) became a Member of Parliament, was made 
 Master of the Mint, died worth £32,000, but forgot to 
 make a will, by which philosophical carelessness his 
 fortune fell into the possession of a beloved sister. 
 
 Hume does justice to the genius of Newton, although 
 he slandered the faith he believed in, and the Revela- 
 tion he supported. De Voltaire, the countryman of 
 Descartes, was the first* who introduced the Newtonian 
 Philosophy into France, whilst the Cartesian system 
 predominated, opening, thereby, a more extended field 
 
 * “ Elements of the Newtonian Philosophy.” 
 
A. D. 1675] 
 
 DE VOLTAIRE AND NEWTON. 
 
 277 
 
 to such investigations, and rendering it as triumphant in 
 that country, as in England. He dedicated also""' one 
 of the finest inspirations of his Muse to our great 
 philosopher, in which he says — 
 
 “ Dieu parle, et le Cahos se dissipe a sa voix : 
 
 Vers un centre commnn tout gravite St la fois. 
 
 Ce ressort si puissant, l’ame de la Nature, 
 
 Etoit enseveli dans une nuit obscure : 
 
 Le compas de Newton, mesurant l’univers, 
 
 Leve enfin ce grand voile, et les Cieux sont ouverts.” 
 
 Pope has expressed a similar thought in one couplet — 
 
 “ Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night, 
 
 God said, let Newton be, and all was light.” 
 
 Dr. Adam Smith asserts thatf, “ that unprosperous 
 race of men, called men of letters, must necessarily 
 occupy their present forlorn state in society, much as 
 formerly, when a scholar and a beggar seem to have 
 been terms very nearly synonymous.” Truly, men of 
 letters, scholars and beggars, all this set, whom the 
 Scotch metaphysician classes with the “ mendieij, 
 minim, balatrones” of the Roman satirist should doff 
 caps, if such a forlorn hope have such luxuries, to the 
 warm and well-clad Doctor in Philosophy. 
 
 All of this cold arithmetical class, however, do not 
 take such extreme views of this unproductive class, 
 nor pin their faith in national wealth on steam-engines, 
 
 * “ Eloge de Newton.” 
 t “ Wealth of Nations,” Vol. I. page 182. 
 t Hob. lib. I. Sat. II. 
 
278 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 power-looms and operatives alone. Maltlius steps out 
 boldly from this phalanx of cui bonists ; and readily 
 admits, that"" “ to estimate the value of Newton’s dis- 
 coveries, or the delight communicated by Shakspeare 
 and Milton, by the price at which their works have 
 sold, would be but a poor measure of the degree in 
 which they have elevated and enchanted their country,” 
 and acknowledges, “ that some unproductive labour is 
 of much more use and importance than productive 
 labour ; but is incapable of being the subject of the 
 gross calculations which relate to national wealth ; 
 contributing to other sources of happiness, besides those 
 which are derived from matter.” 
 
 Do we require further authority % What says the 
 Royal Sage of Judali \ f — “ The wisdom of a learned 
 man cometli by using well his vacant time : and he 
 that ceaseth from his own matters and labour, may 
 come by wisdom. How can he get wisdom that holdeth 
 the plough, and that hath pleasure in the goad, and in 
 driving oxen, and is occupied in their labours, and 
 talketh but of the breed of bullocks V’ 
 
 The remainder of the year was occupied by arrange- 
 ments with complainants to the Privy Council, from 
 all sorts of persons which are fully recorded, from its 
 manuscript transactions, in the before-quoted memoirs 
 of Wren. 
 
 During the repairs of the Tower of London, in 
 
 * Principles of Political Economy, p. 48. 
 t Ecclus. xxxviii. 24, 25. 
 
A. D. 1675] THE REMAINS OF EDWARD V. DISCOVERED. 279 
 
 removing the stairs which led from the royal apart- 
 ments to the chapel in the White Tower, a wooden 
 chest or coffin was discovered, containing the remains 
 of two youthful human bodies, which Wren and other 
 authorities conjectured were those of Edward V. and 
 his brother the Duke of York, whose mysterious death 
 in this fortress, placed their suspected uncle on the 
 throne of England, as Richard III. Wren communi- 
 cated this singular discovery to the King, who signified 
 his pleasure to Sir Christopher, that he should provide 
 a white marble sarcophagus for the relics so found, and 
 have them deposited in the chapel of King Henry VI I. 
 at Westminster. 
 
 In pursuance of this warrant, the marble tomb was 
 provided and so deposited ; and an elegant marble urn, 
 with a classical Latin inscription designed and written 
 by Wren, were, after being approved by the King, 
 erected in the east wall of the north aisle of that royal 
 mausoleum. As the inscription, written by a man 
 well versed in English history and antiquities, and 
 approved by the Eung and Privy Council, testify a fact 
 disputed by historians, it is given at length — 
 
 H S S 
 Reliquiae 
 
 Edvardi Vti, Regis Angliae, et Ricardi Ducis Eborac. 
 
 Hos fratres germanos in Arce Londinensi conclusos, 
 
 Injeetisque culcitris suffooatos, 
 
 Abdite et inhoneste tumulari jussit 
 Patruus Ricardus perfidus regni 
 Praedo. 
 
280 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 Ossa desideratorum diu et multum qusesita 
 Post annos CXCI. 
 
 Scalarum in ruderibus (seal® nuper istae ad sacellum 
 Turris albas ducebant) 
 
 Alte defossa indiciis certissimis sunt reperta , 
 
 XVII Die Julii, Anno Domini MDCLXXV. 
 
 Carolus Seeundus, Rex clementissimus, acerbam 
 Sortem miseratus, 
 
 Inter avita monumenta, principibus infelicissimus 
 Justa persolvit. 
 
 Anno Domini 1678, Annoque Regni sui, 80. 
 
 Flamsteed House, as the Royal observatory at 
 Greenwich is named, was erected this year under the 
 following circumstances : — M. de St. Pierre, a member 
 of the French Academy, visited London about this 
 time, and demanded a reward from the King, for his 
 discovery, how to find the longitude of a place, by the 
 moon’s distance from a star. A commission was ap- 
 pointed to examine his pretensions, and Flamsteed, one 
 of the Commissioners, furnished the claimant with cer- 
 tain data of observations from which he was to calcu- 
 late the longitude of a given place. This he w 7 as 
 unable to do, and excused himself by asserting that 
 the data were false. Flamsteed replied they were true, 
 but that nothing certain could be deduced from them, 
 for want of more exact tables of the moon, and more 
 correct places of the fixed stars, than Tycho Brahe’s 
 observations, made with plain sight, afforded. 
 
 These facts being told to the King by Sir Jonas 
 Moore, Suiweyor-General of the Ordnance, he said 
 that his pilots and sailors should no longer be in want 
 of such aid ; and resolved to found an institution, for 
 
281 
 
 A. D. 1675] GREENWICH OBSERVATORY FOUNDED. 
 
 the purpose of observing the motions of the moon and 
 the places of the fixed stars, as means of discovering 
 the longitude at sea. Sir Christopher Wren, for his 
 distinguished abilities as an astronomer, was appointed 
 one of the Commissioners for its execution, and also its 
 'Architect. The Rev. John Flamsteed, M.A., F.R.S. etc. 
 author of Historia Cselestis Britannica, 3 vols. folio, 
 London 1725, and other well-known Astronomical 
 Works, was appointed Astronomer-Royal, and the 
 building lias been called Flamsteed House ever since. 
 
 The demolition of the Ruins of Old St. Paul’s pro- 
 ceeded with system and rapidity, first by battering 
 rams, then with gunpowder, which, with many scienti- 
 fic details of the various designs made and altered by 
 Wren, are detailed in his Memoirs, to which the en- 
 quiring reader is referred, as they are too purely tech- 
 nical for the more miscellaneous nature of these pages. 
 
 The first stone of the present Cathedral of St. Paul, 
 was laid on the 21st of June 1675, by the Architect 
 assisted by Thomas Strong' 5 ' his master mason, and the 
 second by Mr. Longlandf. In the course of the pre- 
 ceding year Sir Christopher Wren added to his other 
 avocations the duties of a master, and this year of 
 father of a family, by marrying Faith, daughter of Sir 
 John Cogliill, of Bletchington, in Oxfordshire, by whom 
 he had one son, Christopher, who wrote some excellent 
 
 * Clutterbuck’s History of Hertfordshire, Vol. I., p. 168 . 
 
 t Strype’s Survey of London, 2 Vols. fo. London 1720., Vol. I., 
 p. 185. 
 
282 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 works on numismatics, etc., lie was member of Parlia- 
 ment for Windsor, a Fellow of the Itoyal Society, and 
 otherwise distinguished. 
 
 Wren’s architectural works in the Metropolis and 
 Universities proceeded with regularity and effect. The 
 year 1676, in this respect, is nearly a repetition of its 
 predecessor ; the Itoyal Society was honoured by the 
 first successful experiments of the prism by Newton ; 
 M. Joly, of Dijon, presented a manuscript containing a 
 body of mechanics professing to demonstrate an uni- 
 versal principle, by which the effects of the moving 
 power of engines is explained ; it was delivered to Wren 
 and some other mathematical Fellows to read and re- 
 port on. 
 
 In 1677 the commemorative Doric column, in the 
 City, was finished, as were some of the parochial 
 churches, which will be mentioned with the rest, in a 
 subsequent chapter. 
 
 Among other interesting experiments made this year 
 by the Itoyal Society, were several of van Leuwenhoeek’s 
 discoveries of very minute bisects in water, vinegar and 
 other fluids, in which Wren much assisted, particularly 
 in proving the viviparous birth of eels. He also re- 
 commended the island of Bermuda, as a favourable 
 station for observations on barometrical phcenomena, on 
 account of the seasons there, being regular and tempe- 
 rate, the island being encompassed by the mam ocean, 
 and lying very distant from any land. 
 
 At the close of the year Lord Brouncker resigned 
 his chair, as President of the Koyal Society, after having 
 
283 
 
 A. D. 1678 J PROPOSED MAUSOLEUM TO CHARLES I. 
 
 held it with satisfaction to the Fellows, and honour to 
 himself, for sixteen years"', that a life holding might not 
 become prescriptive. Sir Joseph Williamson, principal 
 Secretary of State was elected President, and gave a 
 splendid dinner on the occasion, at which Evelyn met, 
 he says, Prince Rupert, Viscount Falconberg, the Earl 
 of Bath, Lord O’Brien, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John 
 Lowther, Dr. Grew, and other distinguished persons. 
 
 In 1 G 78 the King expressed a wish to commemo- 
 rate the memory of his unhappy father, and commis- 
 sioned his Surveyor General to design a mausoleum for 
 that purpose, which was done with Wren’s usual alacrity 
 and talent. The House of Commons voted the sum of 
 seventy thousand pounds for that purpose. The Ar- 
 chitect made the plans and estimates, which are now 
 among many other of his designs, in the library of All- 
 souls College, Oxfordf, the Parliament voted the money, 
 Dr. Sprat preached on the anniversary of the King’s 
 Martyrdom, an eloquent sermon before the House of 
 Commons, thanking them for their liberality, congratu- 
 lating the country on the event ; the House in return 
 voted their thanks to their eloquent and pious chap- 
 lain, but — as Wren feelingly recorded it on the unexe- 
 cuted design — “ at (eheu conditionem temporum ! ) 
 nondum extructum !” 
 
 Although this intention was frustrated, yet Le 
 Soeur’s beautiful equestrian statue of Charles I. was re- 
 
 * Evelyn’s Diary, Dec. 1677. 
 
 t For a full description of them, see Memoirs of Wren, p. 368, 
 et seq. 
 
284 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 erected under the direction of Wren, who designed the 
 pedestal, and entrusted its execution to Evelyn’s newly 
 discovered genius, Grinling Gibbons. There are two 
 designs in the All-soul’s collection, beautifully drawn 
 by Wren, one as executed, the other larger and more 
 elaborate. 
 
 The new Bishop of London, wdio had been trans- 
 lated from the see of Oxford, a little before the begin- 
 ning of his new Cathedral, proved himself a staunch 
 friend of his Architect and brother Commissioner till the 
 completion of the edifice, under one Bishop, and by 
 one Architect. This distinguished Prelate, was Henry 
 Compton, youngest son of Spencer Compton, second 
 Earl of Northampton, who was slain in the battle of 
 Hopton Heath, fighting on the Boyal side. Henry 
 Compton was then only ten years old, but received an 
 education suitable to his rank, and entered as a noble- 
 man at Queen’s College, Oxford, and afterwards tra- 
 velled on the Continent. He returned to England 
 after the restoration, and served as Cornet in a cavalry 
 regiment. He subsequently left the service, went to 
 Cambridge, took degrees, received holy orders, was 
 made Master of the Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester, 
 was preferred to the Bishopric of Oxford, and transla- 
 ted to London, which he held with distinguished zeal, 
 ability and piety, till his death in 1713, in the eighty- 
 first year of his age. 
 
 At the first meeting of the Bo} T al Society in 1678, 
 Wren took the chair as Vice President, and a part in 
 a discussion on the nature and properties of the atmos- 
 
A D. 1679] DISSOLUTION OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 285 
 
 phere. At another debate on the same subject, when 
 alluding to the height of the mercury in the barometri- 
 cal tube, as a standard, Sir Christopher propounded 
 that its height should be used as the universal stan- 
 dard. Hooke related some experiments he had re- 
 cently made on atmospheric pressure, in the monu- 
 mental column on Fish Street Hill, assisted by Messrs. 
 Hunt aud Crawley. The results were, that he found 
 the quicksilver in the tube to stand higher at the bot- 
 tom of the column by nearly the third part of an inch, 
 than on the top, and that it gradually ascended as he 
 descended. To this simple experiment is owing the in- 
 vention of the mountain barometer to ascertain heights 
 above or below a given standard. 
 
 On the 30th December 1678, the first Parliament 
 of Charles II. was dissolved, after a duration of more 
 than nineteen years, from which it obtained its distinc- 
 tive name of “ The Long Parliament.” Popish plots 
 became frequent in the following year, which gave 
 birth to those of Oates and Bedloe, and the famous 
 meal-tub-plot. Never, says Evelyn, had he seen the 
 Court more brave, and the nation more in apprehen- 
 sion and consternation. The King’s indifference to- 
 wards the Church of England, his encouragement of 
 papists, and the Duke of York’s known predilection for 
 their faith, were the causes of that anomalous state of 
 the Kingdom. The Queen was accused of intending to 
 poison the King, many Homan Catholic Peers were 
 sent to the Tower, and the rest of their body excluded 
 by an act of the New Parliament from the Legislature 
 
286 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 for ever. The popish servants of the King, Queen, 
 and Duke of York, were banished the Kingdom, and a 
 test imposed upon all who held any public employ- 
 ment. A vote of the New House of Commons against 
 the recusancy of the Duke of York, gave him such 
 offence, or inspired such fear, that he retired mto Flan- 
 ders. Several Jesuits were executed for being con- 
 cerned in the plot, and a rebellion in Scotland against 
 the Popish ascendancy of the Koyal Family was appre- 
 hended, and the whole nation was in a state of alarm. 
 
 All the Roman Catholic Ambassadors were objects 
 of great suspicion, particularly the Spanish Minister, 
 from the information given by Bedloe, that an army of 
 thirty thousand Pilgrims, Friars and other Popish emis- 
 saries, had sailed from St. Jago in Spain, for Milford 
 Haven, to join forty thousand more of the same des- 
 cription, who were distributed in various parts of the 
 Kingdom, but would assemble and meet them in Lon- 
 don. The House of Commons accused the Queen of 
 participation in the plot, but the House of Peers re- 
 jected the accusation. Some circumstances, however, 
 induced the Select Committee of the Upper House, to 
 receive information at their bar, which led to an order* 
 that Sir Christopher Wren and Edward Warcup, Esq. 
 should forthwith cause padlocks to be placed upon all 
 the doors that opened out of Mr. Weld’s house into 
 that of the Spanish Ambassador, and to deliver the 
 keys thereof to the Clerk of the Parliament. 
 
 * Memoirs of Wren, p. 387. 
 
SPANIARDS PADLOCKED. 
 
 287 
 
 A. D. 1679] 
 
 In obedience to this order*, Sir Christopher and his 
 colleague reported “ To the Right Honourable the 
 Lords’ Committee, to receive information tending to 
 the discovery of the late horrid conspiracy,” that they 
 repaired to Wild Housef, and having viewed the doors, 
 they acquainted His Excellency Count Egmont with 
 the nature of their business, who, with great civility, 
 they report, gave permission for all things necessary to 
 be done on his side. On Mr. Weld’s side they fixed 
 padlocks on three doors, one of which opened upon the 
 great staircase, another upon the back stairs that led 
 into the Oratory, and one in the upper story, which 
 opened into the roof of the Ambassador’s house. One 
 of the garden doors they secured with iron bars, as 
 they did one on the second floor, which they found 
 nailed up. They also surveyed the wall, which had 
 been previously ordered to be built by the Committee 
 to keep the neighbours from the chapel, and found it 
 nearly finished, but with a doorway left through it 
 which did not answer the intention of their Lordship’s 
 order. With the report they forwarded the keys. 
 
 As evidence of the perversity of party feeling at this 
 time, Mr. Evelyn records];, that he dined with his friend 
 Pepys in the Tower ; who Protestant, nay almost 
 Puritan, as he was, suffered imprisonment, under the 
 incredible charge of being a papist, and of having, as 
 Secretary to the Admiralty, furnished information of the 
 
 * Dated “ Die Sabbati 12 Aprilis 1679.” See Privy-Council Manu- 
 script before-named. 
 
 t In Wild Street, Lincoln’ s-Inn Fields. 
 
 t Diary, June 4, 1679. 
 
288 WEEN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. II. 
 
 state of the British Navy to the French Government ; 
 that on that visit, he saluted Lords Stafford and Petre, 
 Roman Catholic peers, who were committed for the 
 Popish Plot ; and that three days afterward he witness- 
 ed the magnificent cavalcade and entry of the Portu- 
 guese ambassador. 
 
 Little has been said of Wren’s domestic affairs, but 
 Evelyn thinks it of importance to record*, that he “ was 
 Godfather to a son of Sir Christopher Wren, Surveyor 
 of His Majesty’s buildings, that most excellent and 
 learned person, with Sir William Fermorf and my 
 Lady Viscountess Newport, wife of the Treasurer of 
 the Household. This son was the second child of the 
 second Lady Wren}, who was daughter of Lord Fitz- 
 william Baron of Lifford ; he was named William, and 
 died unmarried in 1738. The first issue of this second 
 marriage was Jane, who was distinguished for taste, 
 and talent in the fine arts, particularly in music. She 
 died in 1703, in the six and twentieth year of her age, 
 and was buried in the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 
 the south-east angle of the building, which may now 
 be honourably distinguished as Artists’ Corner^. On a 
 small mural monument, opposite to the original one of 
 her illustrious father, she is represented as playing 
 
 * Diary, June 17, 1679. t Afterwards Lord Pomfret. 
 
 £ See Memoirs, Page 385. 
 
 § Besides this accomplished lady, there are, her father, close to her, 
 then Reynolds, Barry, West, Northcote, and other distinguished 
 English Artists. 
 
A. D. lf)80] WREN, THE INVENTOR OF THE BAROMETER. 
 
 289 
 
 upon an organ, with an infant angel bringing music 
 books, beautifully sculptured in an alto-rilievo of white 
 marble, with an inscription in Latin and English”', re- 
 lating her virtues, accomplishments and short life. 
 
 Wren’s professional avocations in 1680 , were a con- 
 tinuance of the public and private buildings in the 
 metropolis and two Universities, but his attendances in 
 the Royal Society were more frequent and regular. At 
 the first meeting of the session, he took the chair, and 
 made a communicationf on the nature and properties 
 of some auriferous sand which he had examined. The 
 much disputed question on the barometer was revived, 
 and as to the first discoverer of the atmospheric pres- 
 sure, when it was determined and recorded^, “ that it 
 was first propounded by Sir Christopher Wren, in order 
 to examine M. Descartes’ hypothesis, whether the 
 passing of the moon pressed upon the air, and conse- 
 quently upon the body of the water ; and that the 
 first trial, thereof was made at Mr. Boyle’s chambers in 
 Oxford.” Wren presided at all the important meet- 
 ings of the Society this year, as Vice-president, and 
 again at the anniversary election of officers on St. An- 
 drew’s day, when Sir Joseph Williamson, who was 
 absent through ill health, was re-elected President. 
 
 On the 4th of December, Mr. Hooke presented a 
 letter to the Council from Isaac Newton, dated Novem- 
 
 * Memoirs, Page 385. 
 
 t Birch’s History of the Royal Society, Vol. Ill, Page 152. 
 
 t Birch’s History of the Royal Society, Vol. Ill, Page 464, andp. 64 
 et seq. of this work. 
 
 U 
 
290 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 ber 28, 1679, with his opinions on M. Mallemont’s new 
 hypothesis of the heavens, suggesting, also, an experi- 
 ment to ascertain whether the earth moves in a diurnal 
 motion or not ; namely, by the falling of a body from 
 a great height, which, he asserted must fall to the east- 
 ward of the perpendicular, if the earth moved diumally 
 on its axis. In the discussion on this important point, 
 which is now occupying public attention in the great 
 French experiment of the oscillation of a pendulum, 
 Wren thought the experiment might be tried by firing 
 a ball upwards, at a certain angle from the perpendi- 
 cular, round the compass, and see whether the balls so 
 shot would fall in a perfect circle round the centre on 
 which the projectile was placed. Flamsteed remarked, 
 that it was an observation of gunners, that to make a 
 ball fall into the mouth of the piece whence it was fired, 
 it must be shot at an angle of eighty-seven degrees, and 
 that the reason thereof perfectly agreed with liis theory 
 that a ball shot off perpendicularly would not fall 
 perpendicularly, instancing the recoiling of a perpendi- 
 cular jet of. water. 
 
 The Society lost, by death, this year, their distin- 
 guished Fellow, Sir Jonas Moore, founder of the royal 
 observatory at Greenwich and the mathematical 
 school in Christ’s Hospital, and the public, by the 
 same fate, Hobbes of Malmsbury ; the daring, turbu- 
 lent and intriguing Cardinal de Iietz, whose comiection 
 with the war of the Fronde is well known ; the French 
 historian De Mezerai, Lely the portrait painter, Ber- 
 
 * See Page 281. 
 
A. D. 1C82] SIR STEPHEN FOX AND CHELSEA HOSPITAL. 291 
 
 liini the architect, Butler the author of Hudibras, Bar- 
 tholine, the Danish Anatomist, who first received and 
 defended the Harveian doctrine of the circulation of 
 the blood, and Kircher the inventor of the micrometer. 
 
 At the annual election of officers on St. Andrew’s 
 day, Robert Boyle was elected President, but on being 
 informed of it, he respectfully declined the honour, and 
 the Society elected Wren to fill that honourable office. 
 The new President took the required oaths on the 
 12th of January 1681, and the chair, when Sir John 
 Hoskyns was elected Vice President. 
 
 At the close of the session Sir Christopher was re- 
 elected President of the Society, and is recorded as pre- 
 siding at all its councils and general meetings. He 
 continued his professional works with unabated zeal 
 and attention, but suffered a severe loss by the death 
 of his confidential friend and able assistant Thomas 
 Strong, his master mason at St. Paul’s. In this year 
 the penny post delivery of letters in the metropolis 
 was first established. 
 
 In 1682 the Military Hospital at Chelsea was 
 founded at the instance of Sir Stephen Fox, one of the 
 Lords of the Treasury, and Paymaster to the Army, 
 and the building designed and began by Sir Christopher 
 Wren. The negociations for this monument of national 
 gratitude were conducted by Sir Stephen Fox with the 
 King, and Mr. Evelyn with the Royal Society, to whom 
 the freehold of the old Chelsea College belonged. The 
 measure was proposed to the Society by the President, 
 who, with Evelyn, a member of the Council, was ap- 
 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 pointed to settle the terms of the transfer. On the 
 25th of May Sir Stephen Fox, Sir Christopher Wren 
 and Mr. Evelyn waited upon the Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury at Lambeth Palace, with the Architect’s design, 
 and on other business connected with the undertaking. 
 Evelyn, among other vase measures, proposed that it 
 should be furnished with a library 5 ', and mentioned se- 
 veral books suitable for such an establishment, as some 
 soldiers, he observed, might possibly be studious when 
 they were at leisure to recollect. This important sug- 
 gestion has been, happily, executed in our own times, 
 under the patronage of the Duke of Wellington, and 
 on the recommendation, I believe, of the Lev. J. Gleig, 
 Chaplain to the establishment, whose literary talents, 
 and military as well as civil and ecclesiastical services 
 are so well known and appreciated by the public. 
 The building was began in August, and Wren not only 
 designed and superintended its construction, as its 
 Architect, but also drew up the statutes!, and arranged 
 the whole economy of the establishment, which has 
 been from then till now among the best designed and 
 well conducted in Europe. 
 
 Of its founder, Sir William Fox, a few words may 
 be admitted. This gentleman, says Evelynj, who knew 
 him well, came originally a poor boy from the choir 
 of Salisbury ; then he attracted the notice of Bishop 
 
 * Diary, January 27, 1682. 
 t Parentalia, p. 327. Memoirs, p. 410. 
 t Diary, September 6, 1 680. 
 
A. D. 1682] SIR STEPHEN FOX AND CHELSEA HOSPITAL. 293 
 
 Duppa, who had been Chaplain to Charles I. and 
 tutor to Charles II., and afterwards waited upon Lord 
 Percy, brother to Algernon, Duke of Northumberland, 
 who procured for him an inferior place among the 
 clerks of the royal kitchen. In this department lie 
 conducted himself with so much prudence, honesty and 
 diligence, that Charles II., then in exile, and his small 
 Court, employed him occasionally in other affairs, and 
 trusted him with receiving and paying the little money 
 they possessed. He returned with the King to Eng- 
 land, after great privations and sufferings, and was 
 promoted from Clerk of the Kitchen to that of the 
 Board of Green Cloth, and, subsequently, Paymaster 
 to the Army. By his skill and punctual dealing he 
 obtained such credit with the bankers, that he was 
 enabled to borrow large sums from them in times of 
 sudden emergency. This continual turning of money, 
 and the small commission allowed to him by the 
 soldiers for prompt payment, so enriched him that 
 he was believed to be worth two hundred thousand 
 pounds, honestly got and unenvied, says Evelyn, which 
 was next to a miracle ; and, with all this wealth and 
 patronage, he continued as humble and as willing to do 
 a courtesy as he had ever been. Evelyn describes this 
 excellent man as generous, living honourably, of a sweet 
 nature, well spoken, well bred and highly in the confi- 
 dence of the King and his Ministers. In* the next reign 
 he was dismissed from all his offices, but was restored 
 to them at the Devolution. By opposing the Bill for 
 
 * Pittis’s Memoirs of Sir Stephen Fox. 
 
294 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 a Standing Army, lie lost the favour of King William, 
 but, on the Accession of Queen Anne, was again re- 
 placed in the offices he had filled so well. He married 
 twice, and by his first wife was father to the first Earl 
 of Ilchester, and by his second to the first Lord Hol- 
 land. This patriarchal, charitable and patriotic states- 
 man retired from this world in 1716, in the ninetieth 
 year of his age. For Wren’s services in conducting* 
 and concluding this negociation with Paymaster Fox 
 the Council* resolved, that the President had done a 
 service to the Society, and passed a vote of thanks to 
 him accordingly. 
 
 During the whole of this year, the indefatigable 
 Wren presided at the Council, and general meetings of 
 the Society, taking paid in its debates, and enlightening 
 its Fellows with his knowledge and science. At one 
 meeting deciding a dispute between Hooke and Flam- 
 steed on the best mode of describing a parabola ; at 
 another criticising a work of Dr. Wiberd on the figure, 
 quality, refraction, etc. of the eye, which had been 
 submitted to him for his perusal and opinion ; then on 
 the motions of the muscles of animals ; next on pendu- 
 lum clocks, in which Hooke, the inventor of the spring 
 clock or pocket watch took a distinguished part ; then 
 as to the various measures of length in most general use, 
 and on the measurement of a degree upon the earth’s 
 surface : at another time on the emendation of the 
 Society’s statutes ; next in receiving and entertaining 
 Prince Borghese with various mathematical, mechanical 
 
 * Birch’s History of the Royal Society. 
 
A. D. 1682] PRINCE BORGHESE AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 295 
 
 and chemical experiments. The Prince subscribed his 
 name in the Charter-book as a Fellow, being elected 
 without formal proposition, according to the statutes 
 relating to personages of his Highness’ rank. The Pre- 
 sident then proposed his Excellency Don Joseppe de 
 Faria, Knight of the Order of Christ, Envoy extraor- 
 dinary from the King of Portugal, and Sir John Char- 
 din, the traveller, as candidates for the honour of Fel- 
 lowships in the Koyal Society. 
 
 On St. Andrew’s day the Portuguese Ambassador 
 and the distinguished oriental traveller, Chardin, were 
 elected Fellows, with the usual ceremonies, subscribing 
 the Charter-book, etc., when the President, who, after 
 having held the office with zeal, ability and attention, 
 resigned the Presidential Chair. Sir John Hoskins, 
 one of the Masters in Chancery, an eminent lawyer and 
 distinguished lover of science, was elected President, 
 who, at the next meeting, appointed Sir Christopher 
 Wren, Mr. Henshaw, Sir Cyril Wyche and Mr. Colwall, 
 Vice-Presidents. Notwithstanding this sedulous atten- 
 tion to the presidential duties of the Society, Wren’s 
 care of his professional engagements in continuing the 
 rebuilding of the new cathedral and city, and his public 
 works in Oxford and Cambridge, and the royal and 
 episcopal palaces at Winchester, were no "less indefati- 
 gable and useful. 
 
 In the course of this year Evelyn'”' describes the 
 reception of the Morocco, Bantam and other eastern 
 Ambassadors at the British Court by Charles II., who 
 
 * Diary, January 24, 1682. 
 
296 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 placed them in alternate mixtures of “ a lady between 
 two Moors, and amongst these were the King’s natural 
 children, namely, Lady Lichfield and Sussex, the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth, Nelly, etc., concubines and 
 cattle of that sort, as splendid as jewels and excess of 
 bravery could make them.” 
 
 Of King Charles’s “ wild and wanton herd'*,” the 
 Duke de St. Simonf relates a pleasant anecdote, told 
 to him by the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Regent of 
 France, during the minority of Louis XV. M. D’Or- 
 leans loved liberty, says his friend and advocate, as 
 well in others as for himself, and was one day extolling 
 the advantages that England possessed on this head, 
 where there was neither exile nor lettres de cachet, 
 where the King could command nothing but the en- 
 trance of his palace, nor imprison any one without 
 trial. He then related with great delight that be- 
 sides the Duchess of Portsmouth, the grand mistress, 
 Charles II. had several other minor mistresses, or, as 
 Evelyn contemptuously calls them, “ misses,” that the 
 Grand Prior of Malta, then young and agreeable, of a 
 “ race of rude unhandled colts*,” which swarmed in 
 both the English and French Courts, was exiled from 
 France for some mad frolic or wild boundings, and 
 that he selected England for his penal settlement, 
 having been previously well received by the King. 
 Perhaps, like M. De Grammont$, and the Sieur 
 
 * Shakspeare. + Memoires, Tom. II. p. 21. 
 
 ^ Shakspeare. 
 
 § Page 176 — M. If Grand Prieur was a younger brother of the Due 
 de Grammont. 
 
A. D. 1 682] CHARLES II. AND THE GRAND PRIOR. 
 
 297 
 
 Do St. Evremont, before mentioned, worked out bis 
 claim for pardon, like a good Frenchman of that day, 
 by becoming a spy for the grand Monarch. 
 
 For the favours received from the English Monarch, 
 M. le Grand-Prieur seduced one of these minors from 
 her allegiance to her Sovereign Lord, the King, who, 
 at that time so passionately adored the Cytherean 
 nymph, that he demanded her restitution as a favour, 
 offered the courtly ravisher money, and engaged to ad- 
 just his affairs with the French King, and obtain per- 
 mission for him to return to France. The Grand- 
 Prior held his ground, the King forbade him his palace, 
 the commandant laughed, and went every day to the 
 Play in company with his fair captive, and seated 
 themselves opposite to the King. In this extremity 
 Charles did his utmost to prevail upon his royal 
 brother of France to recall this unlicensed sportsman, 
 and, at length, succeeded. The Grand-Prior replied, 
 that he found himself very happy in England, and 
 continued his gay career. This conduct so incensed 
 the King, that he wrote confidentially to the French 
 Monarch informing him of the Grand-Prior’s poaching 
 in the royal preserve ; which so touched the sensitive 
 heart of Louis le Grand, that he sent an order so 
 prompt and absolute, which made the offender against 
 the purity of the English Court, incontinently return 
 to Paris, to amuse the no less chaste circles of Ver- 
 sailles with his anecdotes of sporting in England. 
 
 Charles II. had as great a love for gallantry, gar- 
 dens and fine buildings, as his distinguished Patron 
 
298 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. II. 
 
 Louis XIA T . The City of Wind) ester, which had been 
 almost destroyed by Cromwell, after the battle of 
 Nazeby, had long attracted his notice as a fit situation 
 for a Loyal Residence from its contiguity to the 
 arsenal and dockyards of Portsmouth. He therefore, 
 in the early part of the year 1683, began a Palace on 
 a commanding situation in that City, from the designs, 
 and under the superintendence of Wren. The new 
 Palace was began in May, and the works proceeded 
 with great rapidity. Its length from east to west was 
 three hundred and twenty-six feet, and breadth, or 
 depth from north to south, two hundred and sixteen 
 feet, and was to have been surmounted by a lofty 
 cupola which would have been visible from the sea ; 
 a broad street of handsome dwelling houses leading 
 from the hill on which the palace was built, in a line 
 with the central portico to the western entrance of the 
 Cathedral. For the purpose of the Palace, parks, gar- 
 dens and pleasure gardens, the necessary land was 
 procured"', and preparations made for planting it, in 
 the manner suggested by that Prince of arboriculturists 
 John Evelyn. 
 
 The architect also projected a river through the 
 
 * In the hound folios and hooks of Sir Christopher Wren’s designs, 
 drawings, estimates, reports, etc. in the library of All-Souls College, 
 Oxford, Vol. II, No. 96, is an abstract of lands, etc. purchased in 
 Winchester for the palace and its grounds, in Sir Christopher’s hand- 
 writing, which, with a full description of the palace and its apartments, 
 is given at length, as copied by me from the originals, and printed for 
 the first time, in my quarto Memoirs of Wren, Page 422 to 428, and 
 Notes. 
 
A. D. 1683] IMPROVEMENTS AT WINCHESTER. 209 
 
 park, wherein was to have been a cascade of thirty 
 feet fall, with a natural current, and navigable for 
 small vessels into the Downs ; and the whole disposi- 
 tion and arrangement of the buildings were such as 
 would have rendered it, for its size, one of the most 
 complete, elegant and comfortable royal residences in 
 Europe. It overlooked the city towards the east, the 
 principal front consisting of a central portico and facade 
 between two projecting wings. The marble columns 
 for supporting the peristyle of the grand staircase were 
 sent, as a present to the King, by the Duke of Tus- 
 cany, and the suites of rooms on each side were nu- 
 merous, spacious and well-proportioned. There was 
 to have been a raised terrace round it, like that of 
 Windsor Castle, spacious gardens, a park which was 
 marked out, eight miles in circuit, to open into a forest, 
 twenty miles round. 
 
 The palace was built and roofed in, as far as what 
 is technically called the carcase or shell, of the building, 
 in 1685, three years after its commencement, when the 
 works were stopped by the death of the King. Neither 
 his brother, James II., nor William III., the liberator of 
 these realms, proceeded with it. Queen Anne paid 
 one visit to Winchester, wherein she sojourned seven- 
 teen days, and liked the place, and the design so well, 
 that she proposed to finish it, as a jointure-residence 
 for her Royal Consort, Prince George, of Denmark ; 
 but the expensive wars in which she was engaged and 
 the Prince’s death before her, prevented its comple- 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 300 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 tion. During the French revolutionary war, it was 
 used as military barracks. 
 
 When the King’s intentions of making Winchester 
 a residence became known, many of the nobility and 
 gentry proceeded to purchase land and to begin the 
 erection of mansions and houses in the city and its 
 neighbourhood. Among others, Bishop Morley, who 
 had been in exile with the King, began a new Episcopal 
 Palace, designed and superintended by Wren, on the 
 site of the ruined ancient fortified baronial residence 
 called Wolvesley Castle. This eminent prelate, after 
 serving Charles I. and Charles II., the latter in his 
 exile, in a most disinterested and exemplary manner, 
 returned to England early in 1660, to prepare the way 
 for Charles’s restoration. In July, 1660, he was elected 
 Bishop of Worcester, and, on the death of Bishop 
 Duppa, two years afterwards, was translated to the see 
 of Winchester, on which event the King, who knew 
 his benevolent heart and truly Christian charity, ob- 
 served that Morley would be none the richer for it. 
 The event proved the correctness of the King’s predic- 
 tion, for he became a great benefactor to that see, and 
 besides building and completing one wing of the Epis- 
 copal Palace, and bequeathing a sufficient sum for the 
 rest, he expended more than eight thousand pounds in 
 repairing Farnham Castle, which had been neglected 
 and much dilapidated in Cromwell’s time, and upwards 
 of four thousand pounds in the purchase of Winchester 
 Blouse, Chelsea, for a London residence, annexed to 
 the see. He also gave a hundred pounds a year to Christ 
 
THE ASIiMOLEAN MUSEUM. 
 
 301 
 
 A. D. 1683] 
 
 Church, Oxford, for the public benefit of that college, 
 founded five scholarships of ten pounds a year each in 
 Pembroke College, gave upwards of eighteen hundred 
 pounds to the Cathedral of St. Paul, London, and 
 bequeathed a thousand pounds to purchase lands for the 
 augmentation of some small vicarages. This distin- 
 guished ornament of our national church, died at Farn- 
 ham Castle on the 29th of October 1684, in the eighty- 
 eighth year of his age, and was buried in his Cathedral 
 of Winchester. In spite of the money left by Bishop 
 Morley to complete the Palace, it was discontinued. 
 Bishop Mew, his successor, finding after the death of 
 Charles II. no prospects of a Court at Winchester, 
 neglected it ; but Sir John Prelaw ney, who succeeded 
 Dr. Mew, in Queen Anne’s reign, applied for the money 
 left by Bishop Morley, and completed it. 
 
 Among Wren’s public works this year, -was that 
 useful structure, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 
 which owes its foundation to Elias Ashmole, a singular 
 compound of Archaiology, Alchemy, Astrology, He- 
 raldry, and, as much speculative and occult philosophy 
 as procured for him the dubious title of a virtuoso. 
 This singular man offered to bestow upon the Univer- 
 sity all of the extensive collections in natural history, 
 which had been bequeathed to him by John and 
 William Tradescant, the distinguished naturalists and 
 physic gardeners at South Lambeth, with the additions 
 that he had made to them, if the University would 
 erect a building suitable to their reception. This 
 liberal offer was immediately accepted, and the present 
 
302 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 edifice constructed. He subsequently added to it bis 
 books and manuscripts, and thus completed the “ Mu- 
 seum Ashmoleanum ” in his life-time. The other con- 
 tributors to this mixed museum of rarities and curiosi- 
 ties of a most miscellaneous nature were numerous ; 
 Dr. Plot the naturalist, Messrs. Lloyd, Borlase and 
 Reinliold Forster, were among the earliest followers of 
 Ashmole’s good example ; the last named traveller 
 presented many curiosities from the South seas. This 
 museum, which may be called the Oxford curiosity- 
 shop, also contains the books of Dr. Martin Lister, 
 the eminent physician and naturalist, and the valuable 
 manuscripts of Dugdale, Aubrey and Anthony Wood. 
 
 Among the public events which signalize the year 
 1683 are the execution of Lord William Russell and 
 Algernon Sidney, the discovery of the Rye House 
 Plot, the reprimand of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and 
 Sheriffs of London concerning their charter. This 
 royal correction they received on their knees with due 
 humility, were warned as to their future conduct, and 
 many severe restrictions placed upon them"'. Colbert, 
 the distinguished French minister, died this year, to 
 the great loss and regret of France. 
 
 In 1684 Sir Christopher Wren was appointed by 
 letters patent under the great seal Comptroller and 
 chief officer of the works at the Castle of Windsor, 
 and of all the manors, lodges, etc. in the forest thereof, 
 in the room of Hugh May, Esq. deceased. Hugh 
 May, who was one of the Commissioners for the repair 
 
 * Evelyn’s Diary, June 18, 1H83. 
 
DEATH OF CHARLES II. 
 
 303 
 
 A. D. 1684] 
 
 of Old St. Paul’s, as well as Comptroller of the works 
 at Windsor, was an architect of some repute and of 
 much fashion in his day. He took Palladio for his 
 model, but was far in the rear of that great master, 
 whom he imitated in a coarse and vulgar manner. 
 He was a friend of Evelyn and a patron of Grinling 
 Gibbons, whom he employed to execute some chimney 
 pieces and other sculptures in the Earl of Essex’s town 
 mansion in St. James’s Square, in conjunction with 
 Verrio, whom Evelyn almost idolized, who painted 
 some of the ceilings. He also designed and built Sir 
 Stephen Fox’s house at Chiswick, which Evelyn, a 
 sound architectural critic, complains of as being clumsy, 
 also a large house for the Earl of Berkeley, which was 
 afterwards destroyed by fire, and other works of various 
 descriptions. 
 
 These additional appointments led Wren to resign 
 the Presidency of the Itoyal Society, whose meetings he 
 attended less frequently than before. He occasionally 
 presided as Vice-President, and was re-elected of the 
 Council, and one of the Vice-Presidents, at the annual 
 election on St. Andrew’s Day. 
 
 The Royal Society, lost at this time, by death, its 
 first royal patron and founder, King Charles II. whose 
 character belongs to history. He was seized with an 
 apoplectic fit* on the 2nd February 1685, when he 
 was bled by Dr. King, who was by accident present, 
 which slightly recovered him. On the 4th he was 
 cupped, bled in both jugulars, physicked and other 
 
 * Evelyn’s Diary of this date. 
 
304 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. II. 
 
 powerful remedies applied, which much abated the 
 violence of the attack, that hopes were entertained of 
 his recovery, and a bulletin to that effect was announ- 
 ced in the London Gazette. On Thursday, the 5th, 
 the epileptic symptoms returned, and the King was 
 again physicked and bled, but after many conflicts 
 with a mightier monarch than himself, he surrendered 
 his three crowns to an unworthy successor, at half an 
 hour past eleven in the forenoon of the 6th of Feb- 
 ruary 1685, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and the 
 twenty-fifth year of his actual reign, reckoning from 
 his restoration, although Evelyn, and other royalists, 
 and the regal tables record it as the thirty-sixth. The 
 religious ceremonies in the royal death chamber are 
 fully detailed in Evelyn’s diary of this date, and in the 
 notes to the new edition*, quoted from the authority 
 of King James II. One fact is enough, the dying 
 King joined in the devotions prescribed in the Book of 
 Common Prayer, performed by the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, the Bishops of London, Durham, and Ely, 
 but more especially, says Evelyn, Dr. Ken, Bishop of 
 Bath and Wells ; and after then’ withdrawal, received 
 the last sacraments of the Romish Church from the 
 hands of Father Huddleston, the Jesuit. 
 
 On the day preceding the King’s death the Royal 
 Society lost by the same fate their first President, Lord 
 Viscount Brouncker, who died at his house in St. 
 James’s Street, on the 5th of April 1684, aged sixty- 
 four. The Society also had about this time to lament 
 
 * By William Brat, Esq. F.A.S. 
 
DEATH OF KING CHARLES II. 
 
 A. D. 1GS5] 
 
 305 
 
 the death of their able and learned coadjutor, Dr. 
 Cioune, the founder of the Crouneian Lectures in the 
 University of Cambridge. In this year the Dublin 
 Society, founded on the model of the Royal Society 
 was established by Sir William Petty, who was then 
 residing in Ireland. The new Society corresponded for 
 many years with its honoured parent in London. 
 
 x 
 
306 
 
 WREN AND IIIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. HI. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES II, TO THE DEATH OF GEORGE I. 
 
 a. d. 1G85 to 1726. 
 
 “ Then dawn’d the period destin’d to confine 
 The surge of wild Prerogative, to raise 
 A mound restraining its imperious rage, 
 
 And bid the raving deep no farther flow.” 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 James II. on his accession to the throne of his 
 ancestors, made promises* to maintain the constitu- 
 tion and government of the kingdom, both in Church 
 and State, which subsequent events proved were in- 
 sincere. The last chapter shows the death-bed of one 
 royal supporter of kingly prerogative and arbitrary 
 power ; and the contemplation of such a scene may be 
 profitable to the admirers of low people in high places. 
 A sketch of the last scene of the many-act tragedy 
 of Louis XIYf, or the Royal Jesuit, may be similarly 
 
 * Life of James II. Vol. II. Page 435. 
 
 t The Duke de St. Simon gives it as his firm conviction, founded on 
 the testimony of M. le Mareclial, the king’s surgeon and others, who 
 attended Louis XIV. in his last illness, and which is confirmed by his 
 Editor, and the public papers of the time, that the Jesuit, Pere le 
 Tellier, had persuaded the king, long before his illness, to enter the 
 Society. He magnified the privileges of the order as leading to salva- 
 tion, the plenary indulgences which were attached to it, that any crime 
 
ROYAL JESUITS. 
 
 307 
 
 A. D. 1085] 
 
 useful, and will form a companion to tliat enacted 
 under the direction of Father Huddleston. 
 
 As soon as it was known that the last illness of 
 Louis XIV. was likely to prove fatal, Father le Tellier, 
 says* the Duke de St. Simon, began to relax his at- 
 tentions to the dying monarch ; seldom coming, except 
 when a distribution of benefices was to take place. 
 The king was not only neglected by his spiritual di- 
 rector, but was abandoned by his wife, the Marchioness 
 de Maintenon, whom, for the last four days, he was 
 continually asking for, without being able to bring her 
 from her fascinating spiritual retirement at St. Cyr ; 
 and also his favourite illegitimate son, by his favourite 
 mistress Madame de Montespan, the Duke de Maine. 
 The tender hope of the dying king, saysf the same 
 authority, to Madame de Maintenon, that they should 
 soon meet again in heaven, and the manner in which 
 she received the compliment, proved that the old lady, 
 
 he might commit would be forgiven, and every difficulty that might 
 occur would be removed by joining this secret profession. The King, he 
 says, received the vows and secret signs at his initiation, and the proper 
 formulary of prayers, and absolution on giving the almost imperceptible 
 sign of the order, from the hands of Le Tellier. How far Father 
 Huddlestone, who was Charles’s companion at and after the battle of 
 Worcester, and in his exile, had initiated his penitent, only the tradi- 
 tions of the order can prove. M. de St. Simon also says, that the Jesuits 
 had in their society, numerous laics of all sorts, married and single. He 
 mentions as a certain fact that M. Desnoyers, Secretary of State, was one 
 of the aggregate members of the society, and many others of equal and 
 similar rank. Memoir es de M. le Due St. Simon, Sup. Vol. 1. Page 8. 
 
 Sup. Vol I. Page I. 
 
 X 
 
 o 
 
 t lb. Page 4. 
 
308 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 not content with being Queen in France, would also be 
 immortal, so much did she dislike tlie idea of a speedy 
 re-union with her royal spouse. Of such value are tlie 
 death-beds of Princes. 
 
 “ My son*," said the widowed queen of Louis XIII. 
 to her son, the boy King, Louis XIV. “ imitate your 
 grandfather and not your father.” The King demand- 
 ed the reason, to which the pious Queen-mother 
 replied, “ when Henry IV. died, people wept, but they 
 rejoiced at the death of Louis XIII.” In spite of 
 the maternal caution, the same effects were pro- 
 duced at the obsequies of Louis-le-Grand ; for tents, 
 drinking, and dancing booths, lined the road from Paris 
 to St. Denis, and the people shouted, drank, sang, 
 laughed, and, in short, the farce of the merry mourners 
 was as completely enacted at the funeral of Louis XIV. 
 as it was at that of his powerful rival Oliver Cromwell, 
 before-mention edf. 
 
 Louis XIV. was regretted, says M. cle St. Simon j:, 
 but by the officers of his household, and a few other 
 persons who were interested for their places. His 
 successor, Louis XA T . was then a child, Madame, the 
 widow of his brother, the Duke of Orleans, felt nothing 
 for him but fear and respect ; the Duchess de Berry, 
 loved him not, and had calculated on being Queen, 
 had he died before her husband ; the Duke of Orleans, 
 says St. Simon, was not paid for weeping, and those 
 who were, did not do then’ duty. Madame de Main- 
 
 * M. de Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. 
 t Page 124. 
 
 t Sup. Vol. 1. Page 19. 
 
FIRST PUBLIC ACTS OF JAMES II. 
 
 309 
 
 A. D. 1685] 
 
 tenon’s love for lier husband, and the Duke de Maine’s 
 for his father have been mentioned ; and the whole 
 family circle of the grand monarch, from himself, the 
 centre, to the extreme circle of the courtly satellites 
 that revolved around him, were of similar character, 
 but of different grades and phases as the light of their 
 divinity shone upon, or was eclipsed from them. A 
 more complete triunity of despotism, bigotry and 
 vanity, perhaps never lived at one time, than the three 
 Jesuit Kings, Louis, Charles and James, and few men 
 have passed from life to death, more contemptuously, 
 and less regretted. 
 
 At the time of the un lamented death of Charles II. 
 of England, the mighty kingdom and resources of 
 France, were under the despotic ride of a monarch, 
 whom M. de St. Simon, who knew him well, describes as 
 zealous for the right divine of kings, of canons, of hier- 
 archies, of ultramontane doctrines, of a pharasaical” 
 attachment to the exterior of the law, and the garb of 
 religion, who was governed by an old Magdalen, who 
 was so powerful at court that it was reckoned better to 
 offend God than Madame de Maintenonf, and who, in 
 her turn, was directed by her confessor, Gobelin, and 
 governed by the spiritual tyranny of the good Father 
 le Tellier ; and the kingdoms of Great Britain and 
 
 * Mem. Sup Tom. 1. Page 12. 
 
 t Cette vielle dame etoit si redoutee A la Corn-, qu’on auroit plutot 
 offense Dieu qu’elle. Frag mens de Lettres Originates de Madame 
 Charlotte Elizabeth, Princesse de Baviere, veuv de Monsieu - le Due 
 <r Orleans 
 
310 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 Ireland under the tender mercies of James II. who was 
 similarly governed by Charlotte Seclley, Countess of 
 Dorchester by royal favour, and directed by Father 
 Huddlestone. 
 
 All royal commissions having terminated by the 
 death of the late King, James II. issued a new one, 
 appointing Wren and his former colleagues as Architect 
 and Commissioners for rebuilding St. Paul’s, and to 
 their former appointments at Windsor Castle and other 
 royal works. Sir Christopher Wren, honoured by 
 knighthood, when that honour was more of a dis- 
 tinction than in some after reigns, by the presidency of 
 the first philosophical society in Europe, by the sur- 
 veyor-generalship of all the royal buildings, the new me- 
 tropolitan cathedral, and all the public buildings of 
 the capital and the two universities, and the associate 
 and correspondent of all the leading men in Europe, 
 was called to extend his sendees politically, in one of 
 the most critical periods of our history. Wren was 
 elected member for Plympton in Devonshire, and 
 served in the Parliament which assembled at West- 
 minster, May 19, 1685. His attendances in the 
 Council of the Royal Society, became, of course, less 
 frequent, but they are recorded in every discussion of 
 importance, and on St. Andrew’s Day he was re-elected 
 on the old Council as heretofore'”'. 
 
 The following year, 1686, is distinguished by the 
 first publication of the Newtonian philosophy, and is 
 
 * Birch’s History of the Royal Society, Vol, IV. p. 443 
 
WREN IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 311 
 
 A. D. 1686] 
 
 thus recorded in the Annals of the Royal Society*. 
 
 “ May 19, 1686, Sir Joseph Williamson in the cliah- — 
 Ordered that Mr. Newton’s Philosophic Naturalis 
 Principia Matliematica be printed forthwith, in quarto, 
 in a fair type, and that a letter be mitten to him to 
 signify the Society’s resolution, and to desire his opinion 
 as to the print, volume, cuts, etc.” Mr. Halley, then 
 clerk to the Society, did so, and the great work ap- 
 peared. 
 
 Wren’s transactions with the King and Privy 
 Council this year were many and important. Some 
 were concerning disputed property!, purchased for the 
 new royal park at Winchester, complaints from crown 
 tenants, an order to provide suitable apartments at St. 
 James’s for M. Ronchi, probably an Italian priest, an 
 investigation into the title of the Duke of Buckingham 
 to Wallingford House, which was then on the site of 
 the present Admiralty Offices, Whitehall, a complaint 
 against that noble Duke for giving a person a piece of 
 ground adjoining the spring garden in lieu of a large 
 sum of money which he owed him, and stopping the 
 buildings he had began ; many surveys and estimates 
 for repairs, alterations, etc., at St. James’s, Greenwich, 
 and Hampton Court J, accounts of Verrio for paintings, 
 etc., all of which he decided and settled equitably and 
 satisfactorily. 
 
 * Birch’s History of the R,oyal Society, Vol. IV. p. 484. 
 t Memoirs, p. 441. Privy Council M.S., p.p. 79-87. 
 
 + The Architect’s report on the Historical Painter’s bill is curious. 
 Memoirs, p. 444, note. 
 
312 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 On the 30th of June the Principia of Newton was 
 ready for publication, and the Council of the Society* 
 ordered that the President should be desired to'. license 
 it. The continuous avocations of Wren, professionally 
 and parliamentary, deprived the Society of much of 
 liis assistance this year, yet he was elected a member of 
 the old Council at the annual election on St. Andrew’s 
 Dayf, as he was again in 1687. 
 
 PvUbens’ fine pictures on the ceiling of the Banquet- 
 ing House, Whitehall, being in a state to require artis- 
 tical attention, Wren was commanded by the King to 
 examine and report upon them. He did so, and they 
 were cleaned and refreshed, under his direction, by Mr. 
 Parry Walton, a competent person, who performed his 
 task to Wren’s satisfaction. By the bills quoted from the 
 Privy Council manuscripts^, it appears that the whole 
 interior of the building, galleries, window-frames, broken 
 plaster on the walls, etc., were thoroughly repaired, the 
 inside walls painted stone colour, in oil, as at the first, 
 the gilding redone, and the grounds picked in. The pic- 
 tures were taken from their panels and lined, for Wal- 
 ton charges for that purpose cloth, priming, paste, 
 nails, colours, oil, varnish, and other materials. As he 
 charges nothing in his bill for his time or skill as an 
 artist, and as Verrio’s estimate for Whitehall is men- 
 tioned in a previous note, it is possible that this 
 painter of sprawling saints may have touched them 
 
 * Birch’s History of the Royal Society, Vol. IV. p. 491. 
 
 f Ibid, p. 505. 
 
 Elmes’s Memoirs, p. 448, note. 
 
A. D. 1 688 J A ROYAL AND CLERICAL CONTRAST. 313 
 
 where symptoms of decay appeared to render such 
 reparation necessary. 
 
 The year of King James II. accession to the throne 
 was marked by that cruel, unjust and impolitic act, the 
 revocation of the edict of Nantes ; and persecutions 
 against the Protestants in France raged during the 
 whole of James’s short and restless reign. In March 
 1688 Louis XIV. finding the blood-thirsty dragooning 
 of his Protestant subjects made no proselytes among 
 those persons of rank and others whom he had imprison- 
 ed in dungeons, and confined in monasteries and nunne- 
 ries, gave them, after long and harassing trials, a 
 general release, on the condition of expatriation ; but 
 forced them to leave then* children and property in 
 France. This new act of tyranny brought thousands of 
 these unfortunate persons over to England, Holland 
 and other places, where they were received and relieved 
 with Christian charity. 
 
 As an agreeable contrast to the barbarous exultation 
 of Louis XIV, the Court of Pome, and its clergy, who 
 vied in flattering the old tyrant, the conduct of M. de 
 Coislin, then Bishop of Orleans, stands out in fine 
 relief. This distinguished Prelate of the Gallican 
 Church had preserved through a long life, the purity, 
 simplicity and virtues of a well-educated childhood, 
 although brought up in the French Court, and in the 
 great world of that gay people. His love of residence in 
 his diocess, his pastoral solicitude for his flock, his great 
 charity and other Christian virtues, made him beloved 
 by all who lived within the beneficent circle of his in- 
 
314 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 fluence. He was happy in his choice of assistants, and 
 was well seconded by them in his avocation of teach- 
 ing and ruling his flock. After the revocation of the 
 edict of Nantes, the Chancellor le Tellier, M. de Lou- 
 vois his son, both enemies of the great Colbert, and 
 Madame de Maintenon, put it into the King’s head to 
 convert the Huguenots, by the powerful arguments of 
 dragoons, sabres, horse pistols and torments. Among 
 other places, the diocess of Orleans was selected as the 
 scene of one of these military missions for the propa- 
 gation of the faith. These novel pastors were to be 
 spread all over the diocess of Orleans to convert all its 
 heretical population. Immediately on their arrival the 
 Bishop invited the officers to his residence, and told them 
 to have no other table than his. He put their horses 
 into his stables, provided lodgings for their men, begged 
 that not a single dragoon should leave the town, that 
 no one should commit any outrage, if they had not 
 sufficient subsistence he would furnish all necessaries, 
 but, above all, they should not say a word to the 
 Huguenots, and that they should not go home with 
 one of them. As Bishop of the diocess he commanded 
 obedience, and he was obeyed. 
 
 The sojourn of the dragoons lasted a month and 
 cost the worthy M. d’Orleans much money and care. 
 At the end of that time, lie managed so that the 
 drao-oons evacuated the district, and no more were ever 
 sent to disturb him or his people. This conduct, so 
 full of charity and so opposite, says M. de St. Simon* 
 
 * Memoii'es Sup. Tom. III. p. 132. 
 
A. D. 1688] 
 
 CARDINAL SIMPLICITY. 
 
 315 
 
 to that followed in nearly all the other dioceses in 
 France and in the immediate neighbourhood of Orleans, 
 endeared him so much to the Huguenots, that more 
 persons returned to his communion than all that were 
 produced by all the dragoonings and other atrocities 
 throughout France. 
 
 When the Cardinal’s hat and other insignia of that 
 dignity were sent from Home to Versailles by the Car- 
 dinal de Janson and M. l’abbe de Barriere the Pope’s 
 Chamberlain, for Bishop Coislin, and he was invested 
 with the habiliments of a Cardinal, he appeared a few 
 days afterwards at the levee in his usual clerical dress. 
 The King enquired the reason, and the new Cardinal 
 replied — “ Sire* ! I shall ever remember that I was a 
 Priest before I became a Cardinal.” He kept his word 
 and changed nothing in his former simplicity of house 
 and table. He still wore a cloth cassock, trimmed 
 with thin stuff instead of satin, and no scarlet about 
 his dress, but his cap and hat-riband. 
 
 There is some difference between this Cardinal 
 simplicity of the good Bishop of Orleans, and the 
 bloated inanity of some of his fellow hierarchs, with 
 then’ scarlet hats borne before them on silver salvers, 
 then- corpulencies as fine as red satin, bullion lace, copes, 
 mitres, rings and golden croziers can make them, and 
 their humble tails carried by fellow mortals. Worthy 
 imitators and successors of the inspired fishermen of 
 Galilee ! Volumes have been written in eulogies, and 
 thousands have prostrated themselves at the feet of a 
 
 * Memoires Sup. Tom. III. p. 135. 
 
316 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. III. 
 
 Borgia, a Biclielieu, a Mazarin, or a Dubois, and the 
 virtues of a De Coislin are enclosed in a manuscript 
 book of memoirs, by an admiring contemporary. 
 
 King James II. in spite of liis promises to maintain 
 the Church, broke them in every point, and in June, 
 sent the Archbishop of Canterbury, with the Bishops 
 of Ely, Chichester, St. Asaph, Bristol, Peterborough, 
 and Bath and Wells, from the Privy Council, as prison- 
 ers, to the Tower. “ The concern of the people for 
 them,” says Evelyn*, “ was wonderful ; i nfi nite crowds 
 upon their knees begging their blessing, and praying 
 for them, as they passed out of the barge along the 
 Tower wharf.” Evelyn visited them in their confine- 
 ment, and their subsequent trial and acquittal, and the 
 public rejoicings which followed, are well known. 
 
 Whilst the King was pursuing these tyrannical 
 measures, surrounded by his popish troops in his en- 
 campment on Hounslow Heath, committing many 
 murders and insults, the whole nation was enraged at 
 such conduct, and all parties full of apprehension. 
 The Prince of Orange, who was personally hated by 
 Louis XIY. and the whole papistical party in Europe, 
 was making extraordinary preparations in Holland to 
 aid the constitutional party hi England, which, with 
 the increasing disaffection in the people towards the 
 King and his advisers, spread the greatest consterna- 
 tion in both court and camp. The writs which had 
 been issued for the election of a new Parliament were 
 recalled on account of the nature of the returns under 
 
 * Diary, June 8, 1688. 
 
A. D. lfi88 | INTRIGUES AND IMPUDENCE. 317 
 
 the popular discontents. The King* called over five 
 thousand Irish and four thousand Scottish troops to 
 his aid, removed Protestants from situations of trust, 
 and replaced them with Papists ; retaining his body- 
 guard of Jesuits as his advisers and directors. 
 
 The 14th of October was the King’s birtli-day, and 
 Evelyn records in his diary of that date, that the 
 Tower-guns were not fired, as had been usual ; the sun 
 was eclipsed at its rising, and the day was noted as the 
 anniversary of the victory of William the Norman over 
 Harold. The wind which had been long in the west, 
 and detained the Prince of Orange in the Dutch ports, 
 shifted to the east, and so continued, to the gratifica- 
 tion of the people. The whole of this month was 
 passed in continual alarm, discontent and disputes 
 between the King and the protestant nobility and 
 gentry. The government of the United Provinces 
 issued a declaration for the satisfaction of all the public 
 ministers at the Hague, except to those of France and 
 Enid and. The termination of the Jesuitical reign of 
 James II. and the beginning of a legal monarchy by 
 the landing of Prince William at Torbay on the 4th of 
 November 1688, and his subsequent call to the throne 
 of Great Britain by the Parliament and people, is re- 
 corded in our histories, and reverenced by every lover 
 of religious and civil liberty. 
 
 Among James’s principal advisers was M. Peguilhem, 
 a younger brother of a Gascon family, who by his in- 
 trigues and impudence, aided by the friendship of 
 
 * Evelyn’s Diary, Oct. 7, 1688. 
 
318 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 
 HAP. III. 
 
 M. le Marechal de Grammont, liis father’s first cousin, 
 was raised to high situation at home and abroad, a 
 Duke and Peer of France, married to Mademoiselle de 
 Montpensier, daughter of Gaston Duke of Orleans, 
 the King’s brother, and a Knight of the Garter in 
 England. This man, who concealed himself under 
 Madame de Montespan’s bed'"', to listen to the tete-a-tete 
 between that virtuous wife and her married lover 
 Louis XIV. that he might learn the reason of the 
 King refusing him an appointment, and many other 
 daring tricks, at the risk of his life ; after having 
 offended the King in many ways, for which he had been 
 sent to the Bastile and pardoned — to exile and recalled, 
 demanded permission to serve his Majesty in England. 
 Permission was granted, and M le due de Lauzun 
 embarked on his mission to expiate his offences 
 as other good Frenchmen had done before. He 
 was received with delight in London, for he was 
 rich, fond of gaming, and played high. James II. 
 received and treated him with distinction, the revolu- 
 tion burst forth about ten months after his arrival in 
 England, and he rendered personal sendee to the de- 
 throned King, who confided the Queen and infant 
 Prince to his care. M. de Lauzun executed his charge 
 faithfully, and conveyed the Royal fugitives, first to 
 Calais and afterwards to Versailles. This service pro- 
 cured, on the intercession of the exiled Queen, pardon 
 for the offender, who was restored to the Royal favour. 
 
 * Memoires de M. le Due de St. Simon, Tom. III. 37 et Sup. 
 Tom. II. 5(5. 
 
A NOBLE-MINDED REFUSAL. 
 
 319 
 
 A. D. 1688] 
 
 Louis XIV. personally hated the Prince of Orange, 
 who, in liis turn thoroughly despised the French 
 monarch and all that belonged to him. On one occa- 
 sion the Prince was told that one of Louis’s Marshals 
 had said, he should like to have a battle with that 
 hunch-back, replied, “ What do they know of my back % 
 they have none of them yet seen it.” When Louis 
 XIV. gave honours, orders and wealth to the Duke 
 de Maine, Guiscard, and Mezigny the engineer, who 
 surrendered Namur to the Prince of Orange, the latter 
 said* that it was his misfortune always to have to 
 envy the French monarch, who gave greater rewards 
 to those commanders who lost his towns, than he 
 could do to those who took them. 
 
 But the grand offence was, the Prince’s refusal to many 
 one of the French monarch’s illegitimate daughters. 
 The King began only by degrees to develop his inten- 
 tions of aggrandizing his natural children by great 
 alliances, and his first attempt was a failure, and a sad 
 disappointment to the vain monarch. Hef conceived 
 the project of marrying Mademoiselle de Blois, his 
 daughter by Madame la Yalliere, to the Prince of 
 Orange, and proposed the alliance to him, at a time 
 when his successes in war, and his name so renowned 
 throughout Europe, were so great, that he felt per- 
 suaded that the proposition would be gratefully re- 
 ceived as the greatest honour, and the greatest advan- 
 
 * Memoires de M. le Due de St. Simon, Sup. Tom. II. p. 372. 
 t lb. Memoires, Tom. 11. p. 152. 
 
320 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. III. 
 
 tage that could be offered. His Majesty, however, 
 deceived himself. The Prince of Orange to whom 
 this offer was made, was the son of a daughter of 
 Charles I. King of England, and his grandmother was 
 daughter of the Elector of Brandenburg. He received 
 the message with disdain, and replied, that the Princes 
 of Orange were accustomed to marry the legitimate 
 daughters of great Kings, and not the bastards of any 
 one. 
 
 This noble answer sensibly wounded the heart of 
 the King, who never forgot it, and took such offence, 
 that often, against his interest, ho showed the greatest 
 indignation. His ministers in Holland were com- 
 manded to thwart the Prince’s measures in every way, 
 not only in state affairs, but in all private and personal 
 matters ; to aid by all the means in their power all 
 persons and bodies who would oppose him ; to dis- 
 burse money largely to procure the election of persons 
 to the magistracy who were against him ; to protect 
 openly all who would declare against him ; never to 
 see him, and, in short, to do him all the ill they could, 
 and to throw all possible annoyances in his way. In 
 the end, the Prince of Orange compelled Louis XIV. 
 to acknowdedge him King of Great Britain, France 
 and Ireland, and as such to conclude a treaty of peace 
 with him. 
 
 The Parliament, or as Hume names it, the English 
 Convention, assembled at Westminster, on the 22nd 
 of January 1689, and passed, unanimously, a vote of 
 thanks to William, Prince of Orange, and declared the 
 
ACCESSION OF WILLIAM AND MARY. 
 
 321 
 
 D. 1689] 
 
 throne vacant by the abdication, or more properly, 
 abandonment of the government by James II. and 
 elected the Prince of Orange and his consort, joint 
 sovereigns under the united names of William and 
 Maiy. 
 
 In the first parliament under the new sovereigns, 
 Sir Christopher Wren was elected member for the 
 Borough of New Windsor by all the inhabitants who 
 paid, what is called scot and lot, but was set aside by 
 petition, and the House resolved, that the right of 
 election was in the Mayor, Bailiffs and Burgesses only, 
 by whom he was again elected as their representative. 
 
 During this year the capricious Christina of Swe- 
 den slept with her fathers, unlamented. Pope Inno- 
 cent XI. Benedict Odescalchi, who advised the weak 
 bigot James II, not to attempt the insensate scheme of 
 a solemn readmission of England into the pale of the 
 Roman Catholic Church, also filled up another niche 
 in the pontifical cemetry ; and our great medical philo- 
 sopher, Thomas Sydenham, who was called the father 
 of modern physic, closed his illustrious and useful 
 career in this year. 
 
 Whilst the new King was engaged in defending the 
 cause for which he was invited by the English people 
 and fighting its battles in Ireland, his Ministers, undis- 
 turbed by warfare at home, were fully occupied in do- 
 mestic affairs, particularly in completing the unfinished 
 metropolis. The rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral, 
 the parish churches, the companies’ halls and other 
 public works were renewed with activity, and Wren 
 
 Y 
 
322 
 
 WEEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 was no less engaged tlian before with the Privy Coun- 
 cil and the Lords of the Treasury in determining pri- 
 vate disputes concerning property, both in the City and 
 in Westminster. The talents and character of Wren 
 were as much esteemed by the new King and Queen 
 as they had been by their two predecessors. Queen 
 Mary had taken a great liking to the situation of the 
 ancient palace at Hampton Court, and Wren, therefore, 
 received their Majesties’ commands to execute a series 
 of plans, elevations and sections of a new design for a 
 royal residence to be erected upon the site of the old 
 edifice. The new palace was began forthwith, by 
 taking down the dilapidated parts of the old building 
 which faced the home park. Two extensive suites of 
 the royal apartments were finished just before the 
 Queen’s death in 1694, after which time little more 
 was done by Wren towards finishing the projected 
 palace. 
 
 This amiable and excellent Princess, whose taste 
 and accomplishments have been acknowledged by all 
 who were qualified to appreciate them, and who re- 
 garded idleness as the great corrupter of human na- 
 ture*, was fond of architecture and gardening, and 
 gratified her partiality for those arts by examining the 
 drawings, mechanism and progress of the works in 
 execution at Hampton Court, on which she occasionally 
 offered her opinions, and her taste in art was acknow- 
 ledged by all who knew her. 
 
 A clever living biographer of the Queens of Eng- 
 
 * Burnett. 
 
A. D. 1689] CHARACTERS OF QUEEN MARY H. 323 
 
 land lias scarcely done justice to the memory of this 
 Princess, and has traduced the character of the King, 
 her husband, more in the style of a courtier of the age 
 of Louis XIV. than in that of an Englishwoman of 
 the middle of the nineteenth century. Madame de 
 Sevigne may be a model of French letter- writers, but 
 is rather a doubtful model for either morals or religion 
 as observed in England during the present reign. 
 This French Marchioness, of an age when female de- 
 gradation could scarcely descend lower, in describing 
 to her daughter the tempest which dispersed the gal- 
 lant fleet of the Prince of Orange on its first departure 
 from Holland for the liberation of Britain, says"' “ Joy 
 is universal at the overthrow of this Prince, whose 
 wife is a Julia.” (Madame here alludes to the wife of 
 Tarquinius Superbus, who drove her chariot over the 
 body of her father, Servius Tullius.) “ Ah, how she 
 passed over the body of her father ! She has given 
 procuration to her husband to take possession of the 
 Kingdom of England, to which she says she is heiress, 
 and if her husband is killed — for her imagination is 
 not delicate — she will give it to M. de Schomberg to 
 take possession for her. What say you of this hero 
 
 * The following are the lady’s own words, “ La joie est universelle 
 de la deroute de ce Prince, dont la femme est une Julie. All ! qu’elle 
 passeroit bravement sur le corps de son pere ! Elle a donner procura- 
 tion a son mari pour prendre possession du Royaume d’Angleterre, dont 
 elle dit qu’elle est heritiere ; et si son mari est tue, car son imagination 
 n’est point delicate, elle la donne a M. de Schomberg, pour en prendre 
 possession pour elle : que dites vous de ce heros qui gate si cruellement 
 la fin d’une si belle vie.” — Lettres de Madame la Marquise De 
 SuviGNe'. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. III. 
 
 who so disgracefully spoiled the end of so great a life V’ 
 Miss Agnes Strickland has answered this question like 
 a true disciple of the Sevigne school. As for poor 
 Marshal Schomberg, who shares the calumnies of his 
 royal friends, he, after serving Louis XIV. with fidelity, 
 bravery and skill in France, Holland and Portugal, was 
 driven by that distaff-led Jesuit from his altar and 
 home, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and 
 found refuge, employment and an honourable death* in 
 the service of the first constitutional government of 
 England. 
 
 If Queen Mary did leave her father for her hus- 
 band, not only from public necessity, to which private 
 feelings must often bend, but the highest of written 
 authorities commands tliatf “ a man shall leave his 
 father and his mother, and shall cleave mito his wife, 
 and they shall be one flesh.” If, therefore, this divine 
 command be imperative upon man, a fortiori , how 
 much stronger is the converse of the text compulsive 
 upon the woman \ 
 
 After tins discerning Princess had discovered the 
 varied talents of her architect she treated him with 
 distinguished favour. Wren, in return, bore willing 
 testimony to the excellent judgment and good taste of 
 Queen Mary. He had numerous opportunities during 
 the four years he was thus engaged at Hampton Court, 
 of free communication with the Queen, not only on 
 
 * At the Battle of the Boyne, 
 f Genesis ii. 24. 
 
A. D. 1689] EFFECTS OF GOOD GOVERNMENT. 325 
 
 architecture, but on other branches of art and science, 
 in which, says a distinguished nobleman * of that day, 
 she much excelled. 
 
 Wren was equally valued by the King, who was so 
 much pleased with his designs and buildings at Hamp- 
 ton Court, that he more than once delivered his opinion to 
 the English nobility who graced his Court, that the new 
 royal apartments, for good proportion, state and con- 
 venience, were not surpassed by any palace in Europe. 
 The King’s apartments which face the privy garden 
 and the river Thames, extend to a length of three hun- 
 dred and twenty feet ; the Queen’s suite, wdiich face 
 the home park is two feet longer ; the grand entrance 
 to the principal staircase, which leads to the King’s 
 suite, is through a portico of the Ionic order, of an 
 Italian version. 
 
 However great this distinguished hero’s genius and 
 bravery in war and strategy undoubtedly were, his 
 taste in the fine arts may be doubted, for Wren, who 
 wrought at Hampton Court under Batavian influence, 
 was never less happy than at that royal residence. 
 This fact, says my former-quoted authority!-, was ac- 
 knowledged by the King, who, when the lowness and 
 disproportioned arrangement of the cloisters or arcade 
 under his apartments were complained of, honestly ex- 
 cused his architect by acknowledging that they were so 
 constructed by his express command. 
 
 * Thomas Earl of Pembroke. 
 
 t Lord Pembroke. 
 
326 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 The British nation now began to feel security under 
 a government which both executed and obeyed the 
 laws, and under a Sovereign who acted on the principle 
 that Kings were ordained for the good of the people, 
 and not the people for their Kings’. Arts, manufac- 
 tures and commerce began to flourish, and architecture 
 added its graces to the rising metropolis. The battle 
 of Aughrim and the treaty of Limerick, in 1691, put 
 an end to the civil war in Ireland, and to the hopes of 
 the royal exile at St. Germain, of ever being restored 
 to the throne of his ancestors. Public associations 
 and companies of merchants, traders and capitalists 
 were formed, and laid the foundations of the subse- 
 quent and present wealth and power of the British 
 nation. Domestic security, public confidence and in- 
 creasing wealth were among the first fruits of a na- 
 tional establishment founded on law for the good of the 
 whole community. Charitable institutions for the 
 needy and afflicted, and schools for the education and 
 clothing of the children of the poor were established 
 and liberally promoted. 
 
 In this year science and humanity mourned for the 
 death of Robert Boyle, who, with Bacon, Locke and 
 Newton form a quadrate of natural philosophers un- 
 equalled for their discoveries and the application of 
 science and learning to the wants and comforts of man- 
 kind by any age or people. “ To Bojde,” says Her- 
 man Boerhaave, “ we owe the secrets of fire, air, 
 water, animals, vegetables and fossils, so that from his 
 works may be deduced the whole system of natural 
 
A. D. I 691 .J JESUITS AND BENEDICTINES. 327 
 
 knowledge.” Though, dead he speaketh. His works 
 are beneficial to morality and religion, and the lectures 
 which he endowed, and so well known as the Boylean 
 lectures, have produced many powerful orations against 
 infidelity and atheism. 
 
 Among Wren’s employments as Surveyor-General 
 under the new monarchy was a command to ascertain 
 and report to the Privy-Council upon the buildings 
 and other properties formerly occupied by the Jesuits 
 and Benedictine Monks, in the precincts of the ancient 
 Savoy Palace in the Strand, which he reported * to 
 consist of a building called the Jesuits’ College, two 
 hundred and twelve feet along the River Thames, and 
 twenty-seven feet broad, adjoining the house, now 
 Henry Allen’s to the eastward, and to the house now 
 possessed by the widow Salisbury, to the west. The 
 tower at the east end of the College, about thirty-six 
 feet square, was then debased to a laystall and public 
 house of office, and the Jesuit’s Chapel which adjoined 
 the College on the south, and the Military Hospital or 
 Barracks, so appropriated by Evelyn in the impolitic 
 war with Holland, on the north ; with an office for the 
 priests, a kitchen, with offices and yards, for the frater- 
 nity, etc. There were also two empty houses, recently 
 occupied by the Benedictine Monks, which extended 
 from the College to the Hospital. To such base uses 
 had the College of the Jesuits and the Monastery of 
 
 * Privy Council M.S. in Elines’s Memoirs, p. 462, where the report 
 is given at length. 
 
328 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. III. 
 
 tlie Benedictines in the Boyal Palace of the Savoy 
 descended. 
 
 During King William’s absence this year in his 
 wars against France, at the head of the alliance of 
 Germany, England and Holland, against the tyranny 
 of his old enemy, Louis XIV., his Queen acted as the 
 reigning Sovereign. In this capacity, the Privy Coun- 
 cil manuscript, so often quoted in my quarto memoirs, 
 there is a report of Sir Christopher Wren to the Queen 
 in relation to the stables at the Horse Guards and 
 Boyal Mews, and Her Majesty’s warrant, headed 
 “ Marie B.” stating that her “ right-trusty and riglit- 
 well-beloved cousin and Councillor, Bichard Earl of 
 Banelagh, Paymaster of our Forces, had humbly prayed 
 us that we would be pleased to give him leave” to 
 make certain alterations and additions to those stables, 
 etc., and signed Given at our Court at Whitehall, 
 this 7th day of September, 1693, in the fifth year 
 of our reign. By Pier Majesty’s command, George 
 Clarke.” As complete an act of sovereignty as either 
 of her royal predecessors of the Tudor or the Stuart 
 lines. 
 
 King William III., although at this time weak in 
 body through his wearisome campaigns, political vexa- 
 tions, and arduous labours of his active life, had a 
 capacity of mind, a moral courage, a genius for strategy 
 and the military art, and a statesmanlike address infe- 
 rior to no man of his time. These great qualities 
 obtained for him the supreme command as Generalis- 
 simo and Stadtliolder in Holland, the crown of Eng- 
 
WILLIAM III. IN HOLLAND. 
 
 329 
 
 A. D. 1694] 
 
 land and the Dictatorship of all Europe, as the head 
 and heart of the Grand Alliance against France, whose 
 Monarch acknowledged two Kings of Great Britain at 
 once — the weak and superstitious James II. at his 
 little Court of St. Germain’s, the Monarch of his love, 
 and the brave and honest William III., the object of 
 his fear and hatred, and whom he acknowledged only 
 by compulsion and force of arms. 
 
 Whilst the King was fighting the battles of civil 
 and religious liberty abroad, the Queen, his alter-ego in 
 rank, was cultivating the arts of civilization and do- 
 mestic unity between prince and people at home. 
 
 In 1694 Sir William Morden, an opulent and cha- 
 ritable merchant and citizen of London, a worthy de- 
 scendant of Sir Thomas Gresham, founded and endowed 
 that munificent establishment for aged decayed London 
 merchants of irreproachable character, known as Mor- 
 den College, Blackheath, to which his widow, Dame 
 Morden, added considerably at her death. Wren was 
 selected as architect, and the plan, much after that of 
 Gresham College, London, is ingenious and well 
 adapted to its purpose. The elevation is in the pre- 
 vailing taste of William and Mary’s period, rather Ba- 
 tavian, with statues of the liberal founders over the 
 chief entrance, which afford correct instances of the 
 costume of a man and woman of rank of the Court of 
 Whitehall. The court yard with its surrounding colon- 
 nade afford shelter and comfort to the apartments of 
 the veteran commercialists who inhabit it. The chapel 
 is a well-proportioned building, with oak pews, carved 
 
330 
 
 WREN ANH HIS TIMES. 
 
 [0 
 
 HAP. III. 
 
 altar-piece, pulpit and organ gallery, in Wren’s best 
 style. The chapel of Dartmouth House, Blackheatli, 
 and that of Bohun’s Almshouse, at Lee, in which he 
 has repeated his Chelsea Hospital in little, are some- 
 what in the same style, and worthy of delineation by 
 the architectural amateur, before the destroying hand 
 of innovation, which has already passed sentence on 
 Bohun’s building, shall remove them for more modern 
 structures in the Merchant-Tailor’s- Almshouse style, in 
 the rear of Wren’s pretty Italian chapel, designed for 
 his charitable friend Mr. Bohun. The building of 
 Morden College, was soundly and scientifically exe- 
 cuted by his able and honest master-mason, Edward 
 Strong*. 
 
 Queen Mary II., the patron of Wren, the amiable 
 partner of the throne of England, with the brave and 
 warlike and politic William III., whose call to the 
 evacuated throne of the Stuarts gave stability and a 
 legal constitution, with civil and religious liberty, to the 
 people, who summoned them to their high station, was 
 seized in the winter of 1694-5, with small pox, which 
 terminated her life in the latter end of January 1695. 
 Wren was commanded by the widowed King, who, 
 notwithstanding his natural reserve and dislike of affec- 
 tation, deeply felt his bereavement, to design and su- 
 perintend the erection of a mausoleum to the memory 
 of the departed Queen, in Westminster Abbey, at her 
 funeral obsequies. 
 
 Both William and Mary were the staunch cham- 
 
 * Clutterbuck’s History of Hertfordshire, page 168. 
 
DEATH OF QUEEN MARY II. 
 
 331 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1695] 
 
 pions and advocates of the Protestant religion through- 
 out Europe ; and the fatal revocation of the edict of 
 Nantes, the persecution of the Huguenots, and other 
 Protestants, with the faithless conduct of James II., 
 and his subsequent evasion of liis country, to throw 
 himself under the protection of its bitterest enemy, con- 
 tributed more to establish his son-in-law and daughter 
 by his first wife, Anne Hyde, daughter of the Chancel- 
 lor Clarendon, on his deserted throne, than all the fictions 
 of Madame de Sevigne, and her romance of Julia, the 
 wife of Tarquin, and her dethroned father Servius, be- 
 fore alluded to, did to injure them. But Madame de 
 Sevigne ’s unfeminine exultation at the revocation of the 
 edict of Nantes, and at Lords XI V.’s dragooning of the 
 Huguenots and bitter wars against all Protestants, in her 
 too highly- vaunted letters to her daughter, disqualify her 
 from being an impartial judge of Mary’s filial and public 
 duties, as do her attachments to high rank and power, 
 flattery of her daughter’s beauty and talents, and her 
 ardent care for the preservation of the former, set her 
 up as a model for conducting a young female’s educa- 
 tion. She was a worthy sister of the exiled flatterer 
 of Louis XIV. and of all his acts, the witty and indecent 
 Count Bussy du Babutin, who is so often regretted and 
 eulogized by Father Bouhours, and reckoned by him, 
 that is Count de Bussy, Madame de Maintenon and 
 Madame de Sevigne, as an illustrious trio, who'" should 
 never die, as there are others who ought never to have 
 been born. 
 
 * See Page 323. t Buuhours’ Pensees Ingenieuse p. 32. 
 
332 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 The death of Queen Mary cast a gloom over all 
 England and Protestant Europe, for she was beloved 
 by all who knew her personally, and honoured and re- 
 spected by all, but the partizans of the bigotted and 
 frivolous court of Versailles. 
 
 The Duke de St. Simon in his memoirs, or rather 
 journal, of the courts of Louis XIV. and XV. in which 
 ho lived, but to which he belonged not, relates the 
 death of this Princess as one of two most remarkable 
 events that occurred in 1695. One is the death of her, 
 whom he calls the Princess of Orange*, at the end of 
 J anuary in London, and the other the conduct of the 
 French Court, which took no notice of the event ; but 
 the King of England (James II.) besought the King 
 (Louis XIV.) not to order a court mourning, which 
 request was not only complied with, but was accom- 
 panied by a command to M. M. Bouillon and Duras, 
 forbidding them and all persons related to the Prince 
 of Orange from wearing mourning ; which royal edict 
 w r as obeyed outwardly, for over the inward man, the 
 great monarch had no control. If Julia had driven 
 over Servius, Servius had life enough left to make his 
 own tearless eyes, on Julia’s death to be the fashion at 
 Versailles and his own little Goshen at St. Germain- 
 en-Laye. The great and the little courts of Louis and 
 James, soon found, says M. de St. Simon, that this 
 petty spite, and the hopes they entertained that the 
 event would change the new dynasty of England, soon 
 vanished, and the Prince of Orange, as he calls King 
 
 * Supplement Tom. III., p. 111. 
 
A, D. 1695] TIIE TOWER PREPARED FOR A STATE PRISON. 333 
 
 William III., rose higher in the estimation of the 
 thinking people of Great Britain, more accredited 
 among his European allies, and more firmly seated on 
 his constitutional throne than ever. The Duke, who 
 spoke the language of the freer members of the French 
 nobility, wrote thus justly of the Queen''''. — “ This 
 Princess, who had been always much attached to her 
 husband, seemed no less ardent than himself for his 
 usurpation, nor less flattered at their elevation to the 
 throne of her country, at the expense of her father and 
 his other children. She (bed much regretted, and the 
 Prince of Orange, who sincerely loved her, who placed 
 entire confidence in her, and treated her with marked 
 respect, was for some days after her death, seriously 
 ill with grief.” 
 
 As an indication of the temper of the times, at this 
 juncture, the jesuitical intrigues of Versailles and St. 
 Germains were so strongly at work in Ireland, to un- 
 dermine the constitutional throne of Great Britain, that 
 the Committee of the Privy Council for the affairs of 
 Ireland, held in the Council Chamber at Whitehall, on 
 the 15th of April 1695, ordered! “Sir Christopher 
 Wren, Surveyor General of his Majesty’s works,” to 
 report to their Lordships, the state of the Beauchamps 
 and the Bloody Towers, in the Tower of London, and 
 the sum it would cost to repair and put them into a 
 condition, to receive prisoners of state, and how many 
 they would accommodate ; also to survey the ground 
 
 * Supplement Tom. III., p. 112. 
 t Privy Council M.S. in Elmes’ Memoirs, p. 472, note. 
 
334 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [c 
 
 HAP. III. 
 
 behind the Chapel in the Tower, whereon they pro- 
 posed to erect some buildings for similar prisoners, 
 together with the cost of the buildings and the number 
 of prisoners they would hold, and other matters in con- 
 nection therewith. To this order Sir Christopher re- 
 ported, as given at length in my other work. 
 
 The reign of King William III. re-established the 
 ancient reformed Church of England and the protes- 
 tant scriptural religion in Church and State in full and 
 perfect freedom ; and the attendance of the Arch- 
 bishops and Bishops, by virtue of their baronial fiefs 
 and as spiritual Peers of the Realm, became more 
 frequent than in the recent reigns. The Prelates, 
 finding the accommodations in the House of Peers too 
 limited for their purpose, the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 (Dr. Tillotson) and the rest of the bench of Bishops 
 applied for some convenient apartment wherein they 
 might robe and unrobe and for other uses, and Wren 
 was ordered * by the Lords of the Treasury to make 
 an estimate of the costs and to report on the same, 
 which he did with his usual promptitude and correct- 
 ness, and the proper accommodation for the Right 
 Reverend Prelates executed accordingly. 
 
 In the course of this year the world was benefitted 
 by the publication of Robert Boyle’s posthumous work, 
 called “ A Free Discourse against Customary Swearing 
 and a Dissuasive from Blasphemy,” which Wren fol- 
 lowed up by an order, which was affixed to various 
 parts of St. Paul’s Cathedral during its building, 
 
 * Privy Council M.S. in Elmes’ Memoirs, p. 474, and notes. 
 
A. D. 1695] ORDER AGAINST CUSTOMARY SWEARING. 335 
 
 stating that * “ Whereas, among labourers, etc., that 
 ungodly custom of swearing is too frequently heard, to 
 the dishonour of God, and contempt of authority ; and 
 to the end, therefore, that such impiety may be utterly 
 banished from these works, intended for the service of 
 God, and the honour of religion— it is ordered, that 
 customary swearing shall be a sufficient crime to dis- 
 miss any labourer that comes to the call ; and the 
 clerk of the works, upon sufficient proof, shall dismiss 
 them accordingly. And if any master, working by 
 task, shall not, upon admonition, reform this profana- 
 tion among his apprentices, servants and labourers, it 
 shall be construed his fault ; and he shall be liable to 
 be censured by the Commissioners. Dated this 25th 
 of September 1695.” 
 
 At this time the Royal Palace at Greenwich, began 
 by Wren for King Charles II., was lying, like that at 
 Winchester, in an unfinished and decaying state ; and 
 as the late Queen, Mary II., had long before her death 
 proposed to found a naval hospital for aged and de- 
 cayed seamen of the royal navy, a branch of the public 
 service to which she was much attached, not only from 
 her father’s connection with it, as Lord High Admiral 
 of England, but from her marriage with the head of 
 the great maritime people of Holland, it was con- 
 tinued after her death by King William III., and com- 
 pleted by Queen Anne, whose husband, Prince George 
 
 * Malcolm’s Anecdotes of the Manners, &c. of London, 3 vol. 8vo. 
 Lon. 1811, Vol. 1. p. 392. 
 
336 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 of Denmark, was also a seaman, and her Lord High 
 Admiral. 
 
 Her Majesty, Queen Mary II., who founded this 
 royal naval hospital*, enjoined her architect, Sir Chris- 
 topher Wren, to build the fabric with great magni- 
 ficence, and being very solicitous for the execution of 
 the design, visited Greenwich at various times, to in- 
 spect the building erected by Charles II., as a part of 
 his intended palace, and also the one built by Inigo 
 Jones, called the Queen’s house. She declared her 
 unwillingness to demolish either of these buildings, as 
 some persons had proposed to her ; and therefore re- 
 served a road, or right of way, one hundred and 
 fifteen feet wide from the Thames, through the ground 
 granted to the hospital, that she might have access by 
 water, as well as by land, to the Queen’s house and 
 park. To this building, she proposed to add the four 
 pavilions designed by Inigo Jones, but left unexecuted, 
 that she might make that little palace complete as a 
 royal villa for her own retirement, or from which 
 foreign ambassadors, public ministers, and illustrious 
 foreign visiters, might make then public entry, as was 
 then the custom, into London. This decision caused the 
 present arrangement of the buildings, with the excep- 
 tion of the later additions to Jones’s unfinished struc- 
 ture, which adapted it as a handsome centre, joined by 
 
 * See Hawksmoor’s account of the founding of this Hospital, drawn 
 up by order of Parliament in 1728. He was a pupil of Wren, and his 
 deputy-surveyor at Greenwich. Ei.mes’s Memoirs, p. 480 and note. 
 
337 
 
 A. D. I696] THE NAVAL HOSPITAL, GREENWICH. 
 
 colonnades of a feeble style to some wings of no style 
 at all, for the royal naval school. 
 
 The names of the various courts and buildings, 
 which are fully described in my larger work, as the 
 royal court, nearer the river, King Charles the Second’s 
 court on the western side, and that of Queen Anne on 
 the eastern ; to the southward of each, are the painted 
 hall and chapel, the interior of the latter being the first 
 and finest specimen of Athenian architecture ever exe- 
 cuted in Europe from the designs of James Stuart, the 
 Athenian traveller and delineator, who was appointed 
 architect to the establishment by the liberality and 
 good taste of King George III. Soon after Stuart’s 
 appointment a fire destroyed Wren’s chapel, which 
 Stuart restored, externally, precisely as before, but 
 used his own taste in decorating the interior. The 
 great wing and pavilion next the river, which contains 
 the Governor’s residence, is the portion of the building 
 that was erected by Charles II. as a portion of his in- 
 tended palace. The other wing and rest of the build- 
 ing were erected by Queen Mary in the style, extern- 
 ally, of her uncle’s intention, but internally arranged, 
 for the officers and men, and finished accordingly by 
 her successors, King William and Queen Anne, from 
 the designs and under the superintendence of Wren. 
 
 The fine Doric colonnades on the east and west 
 sides of the southern esplanade, intended for communi- 
 cation from the hall on the -west side and the chapel on 
 the east to the wards and dormitories, and to protect 
 the men from the inclemency of the weather, as well 
 
338 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 as for air and exercise under shelter of the flat roof 
 and ceiling. The order selected or composed by the 
 architect is in the purest style of Roman architecture, 
 consisting of three hundred columns and pilasters, 
 twenty feet in height, raised on low pedestals, with a 
 protecting balustrade between them, and surmounted 
 by a well-proportioned entablature, all of Portland stone, 
 beautifully executed. The perspective under these 
 colonnades, looking either towards the river, or towards 
 Inigo Jones’s building, which Wren, with due respect 
 to his honoured predecessor, made the centre or focus 
 of his magnificent design, the key stone, as it were, of 
 his tasteful royal arch. 
 
 The western side of this colonnade is King William’s 
 court and wing, which contains the painted hall, vesti- 
 bule and western cupola, the tambour of which is com- 
 posed of a peristyle of duplicated columns of the 
 Composite order, broken at the angles with groups 
 of columns, surmounted by a circular attic without 
 breaks, and finished by a graceful cupola, and well- 
 proportioned lantern. 
 
 Opposite to King William’s building, is the court 
 and wing of Queen Mary, which, externally is dupli- 
 cate to that of King William, and contains, the before- 
 mentioned chapel, vestibule and cupola, both contain- 
 ing extensive wards and dormitories. 
 
 Queen Anne’s building and court, with its pavilions 
 next the river, forms the north-eastern "wing, in dupli- 
 cate with King Charles’s court and wing, and contains, 
 
A. D. 1697] WHITEHALL PALACE DESTROYED BY FIRE. 339 
 
 the apartments of the Deputy-governor and other 
 officers, etc. 
 
 This sketch may be termed the biography of the 
 building ; its history, and more detailed description, 
 being given in my larger work. 
 
 On the 30th of June 1696, the first stone of Queen 
 Mary’s naval hospital at Greenwich was laid by Sir 
 Christopher Wren and Mr. John Evelyn, attended by 
 a select committee of the Royal Commissioners, at five 
 o’clock in the afternoon precisely, after they had dined 
 together, the Rev. Mr. Flamsteed, the Royal Professor of 
 Astronomy, observing the precise"' time, for the opera- 
 tion by his instruments. Evelyn was appointed trea- 
 surer, and Mr. Vanburgh, nominated secretary by the 
 treasurer. The park was planted by Evelyn, for the 
 use of Queen Mary’s little palace, in 1694. 
 
 The ancient and magnificent palace of Whitehall, 
 the scene of so many important, secret and mysterious 
 events, was consumed by fire in 1697. This metropo- 
 litan residence of our royal, republican and constitu- 
 tional governments, contained upwards of one thousand 
 apartments, and even in Cromwell’s time, as mentioned 
 in a former pagef, was kept up, as Evelyn relates, in 
 royal splendour. The altar-piece of the ancient chapel, 
 designed by Wren, was destroyed with the rest of the 
 sacred edifice ; but one of marble, which he designed 
 for a private chapel of King James II., escaped the 
 
 * Evelyn’s Diary of this date, 
 t Page 127, and note, 
 z 2 
 
340 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [c 
 
 HAP. III. 
 
 flames, and was afterwards presented by Queen Anne 
 to the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, Westminster, 
 and erected therein'". 
 
 On the 2nd of December this year, the choir of the 
 new Cathedral of St. Paul, was opened for divine 
 service, on the day appointed! for a public thanksgiving 
 for the recently-signed Treaty of Ityswick. On this 
 occasion, so triumphant to the allied armies under 
 King William’s command, the following emphatic 
 prayer, from the pen of Archbishop Tillotson, was 
 added by the command of the King, to the form ap- 
 pointed for the day, and was introduced in the com- 
 munion service^. 
 
 “ Most Gracious Father, who hast remem- 
 bered thy ancient loving kindness, and restored to us 
 the public solemnities of worship in this Thy house ; 
 we offer our devout praises and thanksgivings to Thee 
 for this Thy mercy, humbly beseeching Thee to perfect 
 and establish this good work. Thou, 0 Lord ! dwellest 
 not in houses made with hands : heaven and the 
 heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee ; but, though 
 Thy throne is in heaven, earth is Thy footstool. Vouch- 
 safe, therefore, we beseech Thee, Thy gracious presence 
 in this Thy house, to hear our prayers and accept our 
 sacrifices of praise and thanksgivings : and grant it 
 may never be defiled with idolatrous worship or pro- 
 
 * Parentalia p. 330. 
 t Sir Henry Ellis’s Dugdale, p. 172. 
 t London Gazette, No. 3346, Dec. 2 to 6, 1697. 
 
A. D. 1698] 
 
 TREATY OF RYSWICK. 
 
 341 
 
 phaneness ; blit that truth and peace may dwell in 
 this place ; that sincere piety and devotion may be 
 the glory of it ; that they who minister here may attend 
 on their ministry ; that they who teach on teaching ; 
 they who exhort, on exhortation ; they who rule, with 
 diligence ; that Thy name may be in all things glori- 
 fied, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” 
 
 The Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Gilbert Burnet, 
 preached before the King and a numerous Court at 
 Whitehall, and the evening was finished with grand 
 illuminations and fireworks'"'. This thanksgiving ser- 
 vice at St. Paul’s was the first since the great fire in 
 1666, and was repeated on the two following Sundays, 
 and cathedral service, according to the reformed ritual 
 of the ancient and apostolic Church of England, has 
 been uninterruptedly continued therein from that great 
 day to the present hour. May it continue ! 
 
 The congress at Byswick and the subsequent treaty, 
 commemorated on the above-mentioned occasion, was 
 a signal triumph to King William III., whose ruling 
 passion was to humble the pride and tyranny of 
 Louis XIV. and the support of civil and religious 
 liberty in the Protestant states of Europe, which had 
 been so disgracefully outraged by the revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes and the subsequent dragooning of the 
 Huguenots, and the persecution of all Protestants 
 within the reach of that royal Jesuit. By this treaty 
 Louis XIV. was compelled to acknowledge Wil- 
 
 * Evelyn’s Diary of this date. 
 
342 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 liam III. as King of Great Britain, France and Ire- 
 land, Defender of the Faith, etc, etc., etc., in as full 
 plenitude as any of his royal predecessors on the 
 British throne. 
 
 The absurd origin of this war, so disastrous to 
 France, has been before mentioned"', and the same 
 minister, M. le Marquis de Louvois, was the cause of a 
 disgraceful retreat of Louis XIV. from the smaller 
 army and worse position of the Prince of Orange. 
 The French forces, under the command of the King 
 in person, Marshals de Schombergf, d’Humieres, de 
 la Feuillade, de Lorge, etc., assembled on horseback 
 around the King, surrounded by the most distinguished 
 general officers, ministers and courtiers, to hold a sort 
 of extempore council of war. The whole army was 
 for immediate battle. All the marshals saw clearly 
 what ought to be done, but the presence of the King 
 embarrassed them, but above all that of M. de Lou- 
 vois, who knew his master, and kept these illustrious 
 warriors caballing for upwards of two hours. 
 
 M. de Louvois, to intimidate the assembled soldiers, 
 took upon himself the office of umpire or dictator, dis- 
 suaded against giving battle. Marshal dTIumieres, 
 his intimate friend, Marshal Schomberg, who sought 
 his favours, agreed with him. Marshal de la Fuillade, 
 who was on ill terms with M. de Louvois, but in high 
 favour with the King, after some dubious propositions, 
 yielded to the minister ; but Marshal de Lorge, whom 
 
 * Page 147. 
 
 t Memoires de M. le Due de St. Simon, Tom. I. p. 15. 
 
A ROYAL SACRIFICE TO FEELING. 
 
 343 
 
 A. D. 1698] 
 
 M. de St. Simon describes as inflexible for truth, 
 anxious for the glory of his King and the welfare of 
 his country, on ill terms with the minister in whose 
 despite he was made a Marshal of France, used the 
 most powerful arguments in favour of giving instant 
 battle, to which neither de Louvois nor the others gave 
 any reply. 
 
 The King, who had attentively listened to the long 
 and important debate, yielded to the arguments or 
 rather decision of the pacific minister and his partizans, 
 without any other remark than his regrets at being 
 withheld by such cogent reasons, and the sacrifice he 
 made of his wishes to their arguments for the good of 
 the state. The submissive monarch immediately rode 
 away with his friends, and no farther question arose 
 on the subject of that battle. 
 
 The next day the Marshal de Lorge sent a trum- 
 peter to the retiring enemy, who detained him for a 
 day or two in their camp. The Prince of Orange 
 desired to see this messenger, and questioned him as to 
 the causes which hindered the King of France from 
 attacking him, being the stronger, and the two armies 
 within sight of each other, and sent a sarcastic message 
 to the French marshal. This fact was communicated 
 to M. de St. Simon, by Marshal de Lorge*, “ qui etoit 
 la verite merne” and often mentioned it with undissem- 
 bled anger. The envoy, who was proud at having 
 been so long with the Prince of Orange, gave his 
 message not only to the grieved marshal, but also to 
 
 * Memoires de M, le Due de St. Simon, Tom. I, p. 18. 
 
344 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. III. 
 
 the King, who desired to see him, and also to all the 
 other marshals and generals, and to all who would 
 listen to his tale, which greatly augmented the anger 
 of the whole army, particularly against de Louvois, 
 but more especially when the troops were excited by 
 the merciless railleries of the public and of foreign 
 courts. 
 
 The King immediately departed from the army, 
 although it was but in the month of May, and returned 
 with his courtiers to meet'* Madame de Maintenon and 
 the ladies, and returned with them to the amorous 
 glades of Versailles and Marly. 
 
 The peace and subsequent treaty of Kyswick, placed 
 the French King and his court in a state bordering on 
 despair, and is acknowledged by his personal friend 
 thet Duke de St. Simon to have been a disgrace to 
 the nation ; and most annoying to the personal feelings 
 of the King, who was thereby compelled to acknow- 
 ledge his enemy as King of Great Britain, etc. after so 
 many and persevering efforts to destroy him, even by 
 attempts at assassination ; and to receive his Am- 
 
 * This was not the first time that the gay and gallant Louis XIV. 
 abandoned the field of Mars, for the bowers of Venus. M. de St. Simon 
 records in his journal (Memoires Tom. I., p. 14) that in the war with 
 Holland, when he had conquered and taken all before him, and the city 
 of Amsterdam was on the eve of surrender, and was about to send him 
 the keys of the city ; the King gave way to his impatience to see 
 Madame de Montespan, left the army, and in one moment, destroyed all 
 the preceding effects of his arms in that campaign, and caused the most 
 fatal effects to the welfare of his country and his own glory. 
 
 t Ibid, p. 30. 
 
A. D. 16‘98J FRANCE AFTER THE TREATY OF RYSWICK. 345 
 
 bassador Yon Bentinck, afterwards Earl and Duke of 
 Portland, whom he treated, says St. Simon, as a species 
 of divinity. 
 
 After an entire chapter of lamentations, on the 
 state of France after the peace of Ryswick'*, M. de 
 St. Simon says, that all the misfortunes brought on 
 France by that event, and the subsequent conduct of 
 the King in the war of the succession, arose from the 
 military ignorance of the French Plenipotentiaries, and 
 the jealousy, pride, arrogance, self-sufficiency, greedi- 
 ness of flatteryf and vanity of the King, the latter of 
 which placed his great kingdom and crown at the brink 
 of destruction, and in the end lighted up the fires of 
 war throughout all Europe. 
 
 * Sup. Tom. II. , p. 383. 
 
 t One instance of Louis’s vanity among many others may suffice. 
 “ Le Roi etant a la promenade, au mois de Decembre 1711, dit it ses 
 courtisans : ‘ Je me crois le plus ancien Officier de Guerre du Royaume ; 
 carj’aiete au siege de Bellegarde, en 1649.’ Le Due d’Antin ajouta, 
 e et le meilleur.’ Memoires de St. Simon, Tom. III. p. 316, notes et 
 additions.” This M. d’Antin was the only son of M. and Mad. de Mon- 
 tespan, before the adulterous intercourse between the latter and Louis 
 XIV. On the death of his father, he had the boldness (lb. Sup. Tom. 
 III. p. 91) to write to the King to create him Duke d’Epernon, being 
 then simply M. le Marquis d’Antin, and to examine his claims to that 
 title and dignity. All the children of his mother, by the King, suppli- 
 cated his Majesty after supper, to grant to him that dignity, and their 
 prayers were backed by the Duke of Orleans, with whom both d’Antin 
 and his mother were great favourites. The silly title of d’Epernon was 
 but a stepping stone to the dignity of Duke, which was the essence of the 
 request ; but the happy time was not yet arrived. Madame de Mon- 
 tespan was living, and too much hated by Madame de Maintenon, to 
 please her by the elevation of her son. 
 
346 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 This grossly-flattered Monarch, who scrupled not 
 to receive from churchmen* * * § , that he united in his own 
 august person, the valour and military talents of David, 
 and the piety and wisdom of Solomon, and although 
 he made all the Kings of the earth, as high as the 
 great riverf, tremble before him, yet he humbled him- 
 self alone, to the Majesty of the living God ! Yet this 
 union of valour, majesty, piety and wisdom, this 
 Monarch, “ grand par excellence this sole disposer of 
 peace and war, this chastiser of nations, this all-con- 
 quering hero, this immortal King, on whom so much 
 pure Latin and good French, such treasures of gold 
 and silver, bronze and marble, had been lavished in 
 inscriptions, eulogiums, academic orations, medals, 
 busts, statues equestrian and pedestrian ; this modem 
 Augustus, to whom, like Alexander];, it was not per- 
 mitted for every painter or every sculptor to paint a 
 portrait or make a statue, nor for every orator or every 
 poet to laud his glories, 
 
 “ Pour chanter un Auguste, il faut etre un Virgile § 
 
 this “ monarque guerrier,” who could not be properly 
 praised or represented unless, by the greatest geniuses 
 of the day, quailed fearfully, after this terrible degra- 
 dation by the hated and despised William of Orange. 
 
 * M. l’Abbe de Choisy, Dean of Bayeux, and Father Bouhours. 
 See Pensees Ingenieuses, by the latter, Pages 169 and 170. 
 
 t The Euphrates. 
 
 t Bouhours’ s Pensees Ingenieuses, page 210. 
 
 § M. Boileau Despraux’s “ Discours on Vers, addresse au Roi.” 
 
FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND. 
 
 347 
 
 A. D. 1698] 
 
 His enemies, says* M. de St. Simon, rejoiced at his 
 rain, and negociated only to mock him. At length, 
 they saw the great King in his place, flooded with 
 tears in the midst of his deploring council, andf M. de 
 Torcy was despatched instantly to the Hague to inform 
 himself of the true state of affairs. So were the mighty 
 put down from their seat, but whether it was the 
 humble and meek that were exalted, belongs to the 
 province of the historian. 
 
 In this year Wren was appointed Surveyor-General 
 and a commissioner for the repairs of the ancient and 
 dilapidated Abbey Church of St. Peter, Westminster, 
 under the authority of an Act of Parliament, charging 
 a portion of the duty on coals to defray the expenses. 
 In the Bodleian Library, Oxford, in the collection of 
 Richard Gough, the eminent British topographer and 
 antiquary, are copies of all the bills relating to the 
 repairs of the Abbey from 1698 to 1705, attested by 
 Sir Christopher Wren in his own handwriting. Sir 
 Christopher was also elected a second time to the 
 honourable and distinguished office of Grand Master 
 of the Ancient Order of Free and Accepted Masons, 
 on the resignation of the Duke of Richmond, and 
 
 * Supplement au Memoires, Tom. II. p. 397. 
 
 t Jean Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Torcy, was son of M. Colbert de 
 Croissy brother of the great Colbert. He was secretary of state and 
 director general of the posts under Louis XIV., and was employed other- 
 wise, than as here mentioned, as a diplomatist ; and is known among other 
 productions by his “ Memoires pour servir a l’Historie des Negociations, 
 depuis le Traite de Ryswick jusq’ a le Paix d’Utrecht.” 
 
WEEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 348 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 continued to preside over the fraternity till the death 
 of King William, in 1702. 
 
 The introduction of Freemasonry into England is 
 supposed to have been prior to the Roman invasion, 
 and the remains of those gigantic works, Stonehenge, 
 Abury, Silbury, and other immense circles, called by 
 some Druidical, are adduced as proofs of the proposi- 
 tion. The fraternity flourished with varied success in 
 England till the reign of Charles I., under whom his 
 eminent architect, Inigo Jones, presided as its Grand 
 Master. The civil wars and the prevalence of puritan- 
 ism in the times of Cromwell, interrupted its progress, 
 but prevented not its meetings, which are more than 
 suspected to have contributed by its secret emissaries 
 to the restoration of monarchy. Charles II. certainly 
 patronized the brotherhood both in exile and on 
 the throne. In 1666 Wren was nominated deputy 
 Grand Master under Earl Rivers, and distinguished 
 himself above all his predecessors in legislating for 
 the body at large, and in promoting the interests of 
 the lodges under his immediate care. He was Master 
 of the St. Paul’s Lodge, which, during the building of 
 the Cathedral, assembled at the Goose and Gridiron in 
 St. Paul’s Churchyard, and is now the Lodge of An- 
 tiquity, acting by immemorial prescription, and regu- 
 larly presided at its meetings for upwards of eighteen 
 years. During his presidency he presented that lodge 
 with three mahogany candlesticks, beautifully carved, 
 and the trowel and mallet which he used in laying the 
 
a. fire in st. Paul’s. 
 
 349 
 
 a. d. 1699J 
 
 first stone of the Cathedral*, which the brethren of 
 that ancient and distinguished lodge still possess and 
 duly appreciate. 
 
 During the building of the city, lodges were held 
 by the fraternity in different places, and several new 
 ones constituted, which were attended by the leading 
 architects and the best builders of the day and amateur 
 brethren of the mystic craft. In 1674 Earl Rivers 
 resigned his grand-mastership, and George Yilliers, 
 Duke of Buckingham, was elected to the dignified 
 office. He left the care of the Grand Lodge and the 
 brotherhood to the deputy Grand Master Wren and 
 liis Wardens. During the short reign of James II. 
 who tolerated no secret societies but the Jesuits, the 
 lodges were but thinly attended; but in 1685, Sir 
 Christopher Wren was elected Grand Master of the 
 Order, and nominated Gabriel Cibber, the sculptor, and 
 Edward Strong, the master mason at St. Paul’s and 
 other of the city churches, as Grand Wardens. The 
 society has continued with various degrees of success 
 to the present day, particularly under the grand-mas- 
 terships of the Prince of Wales, afterwards King 
 George IV., and his brother, the late Duke of Sussex, 
 and since the death of the latter, under that of the 
 Earl of Zetland ; and lodges under the constitution of 
 the Grand Lodge of England are held in every part 
 of the habitable globe, as its numerical and annually- 
 increasing lists abundantly show. 
 
 On the 1st of February 1699, that beautiful struc- 
 
 Jiine 21, 1675 — See p. 281. 
 
350 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. III. 
 
 ture, the morning-prayer chapel at the north-west por- 
 tion of St. Paul’s Cathedral was opened for daily 
 service with appropriate ceremony*, and on the 27th 
 of the same month a fire broke out at the west end 
 of the north aisle of the choir, in a small room, now 
 the Prebendaries’ Vestry, which was used as a working 
 place for the organ builders, which for some time 
 threatened destruction to the edifice, but the workmen 
 broke away the communication between the flaming 
 room and the organ gallery, which, with other means, 
 stopped the progress of the flamesf. The new build- 
 ings at Greenwich, for the purpose of converting the 
 intended palace of Charles II., were began this year, 
 the former being occupied in altering the original part 
 to its new purpose. 
 
 In 1700 Wren was elected Member of Parliament 
 for the Borough of Weymouth and Melcombe-Regis in 
 Dorsetshire, and sat in that Parliament which com- 
 menced its session at Westminster on the 10th of 
 February, in the twelfth year of William III. Wren 
 had now attained the sixty-ninth year of his age, yet 
 notwithstanding his parliamentary and professional em- 
 ployments, to which he paid undeviating attention, he 
 found time to present the Royal Society with a Disser- 
 tation on the Rising of the Sap in Trees, and a Paper 
 on the Superficies of the Terraqueous Globe. 
 
 In the autumn of 1701, James II. who had been 
 
 * Ellis’s Dugdale, p. 172. 
 t Styrpe’s continuation of Stowe’s London, p. 172. 
 
LAST ILLNESS OF JAMES II. 
 
 351 
 
 A. D. 1701] 
 
 residing with the remnant of a court at St. Germain- 
 en-Laye, became so debilitated in health, that he 
 was sent by M. Fagon, first physician to Louis XI Y. 
 to drink the waters at Bourbon, and was shortly after 
 his return, taken so seriously ill as to excite great 
 alarm among his friends. On the 8th of September he 
 was siezed with paralysis, and other symptoms that 
 left no hopes of his recovery. When the French 
 monarch heard of tliis hopeless state of the royal exile, 
 he took a step, which M. de St. Simon* considers 
 more worthy the chivalrous generosity of Louis XI., 
 and of Francis I., than of the political wisdom of 
 Louis XIV., that of visiting his unfortunate guest. 
 He left Marly, where he was then residing, and reached 
 St. Germains on the 13th of September. 
 
 James was then so bad, that when the arrival of 
 the King was announced to him, he opened his eyes, 
 but for a moment, on the entrance of his august visiter. 
 The French monarch told him, that he was come to 
 assure him he might die in peace as regarded his son, 
 whom he designated the Prince of Wales, and he would 
 acknowledge him King of England, Scotland and Ire- 
 land. The few English persons who were present, 
 threw themselves at Louis’s feet ; but the King of 
 England, says M. de St. Simon, gave no signs of recog- 
 nition. Whether this breach of the treaty of Byswick, 
 which Louis had just signed with King William III., 
 recognizing him and his successors in the protestant 
 line as Kings of Great Britain, etc. or the word of pro- 
 
 Supplement aux Memoires, Tom. III. p. 248. 
 
352 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. HI. 
 
 mise, made in the dying sufferer’s ear, to be broken 
 when convenient, be the chivalrous generosity of M. le 
 Due de St. Simon, must be left for French casuists to 
 determine. 
 
 The royal promise about the Prince of Wales, fell 
 dead upon the ears of the dying prince, who knew by 
 experience, the inability of the generous promiser, wdio 
 had forgotten the good maxim to be just before he was 
 generous, of restoring him to his throne, in more pros- 
 perous times, and gave no solid hopes to the young 
 Prince, but was more probably the cause of his even- 
 tual misfortunes. During the few and brief intervals 
 of reason, which recurred to the unhappy sufferer, he 
 appeared sensible of the proffered services of the chival- 
 rous Louis XIV., and made him promise, that after 
 his death, he should be buried without pomp, and with 
 the least possible ceremony. This event occurred on 
 the 16th of September 1701, at three o’clock in the 
 afternoon. On the following day, Saturday, the re- 
 mains of the deceased prince, humbly accompanied and 
 followed by some carriages containing the principal 
 Englishmen of his establishment, were conveyed to the 
 English Benedictine convent in St. James’s Street, 
 Paris, where they were deposited in a chapel, like 
 those of a private gentleman, till the time might arrive, 
 which has not yet come, when the} 7 could be carried 
 over to England to be buried with his forefathers. 
 His heart was entrusted to the holy keeping of the 
 “ Filles de Sainte Marie de Chaillott.” This obstinate 
 and misguided Prince had many opportunities in his 
 
A. D. 1701] DEATH AND BURIAL OP JAMES II. 353 
 
 exile to reflect on the saying of Charles II. to him, 
 when pushing his violent councils, “ Brother, I am 
 too old to go again on my travels ; you may if you 
 please.” 
 
 On this faithless recognition of James’s son as 
 Prince of Wales, and rightful heir to the Crown of 
 England, the Earl of Manchester, the English am- 
 bassador to the Court of France, presented himself no 
 more at Versailles, and left the country without taking 
 leave, a few days after the arrival of the King at Fon- 
 tainebleau. King William received the news of James’s 
 death, and the recognition of his son, as his successor 
 to the well-occupied throne of England, at his favourite 
 country residence called the Loo, near the pretty village 
 of Appeldoorn in Holland. He was at table with some 
 German princes, and other noblemen ; and made no 
 answer to the information ; but coloured, beat down 
 his hat upon his forehead, and could not contain the 
 emotions of his countenance. He sent orders to Lon- 
 don for M. Poussin, the charge d’affaires and proxy for 
 the French ambassador, to be sent away forthwith, and 
 he was soon on his voyage to announce his dismissal 
 to his master. This decisive conduct of William was 
 shortly followed up by the signature of the Grand al- 
 liance, defensive and offensive, against France and 
 Spain, between the Emperor, the house of Austria, 
 England and Holland ; which confederation was joined 
 by other powers. 
 
 The conduct of Louis XIV. to the exiled prince, 
 was always conciliatory and respectful, in confident 
 
 A A 
 
354 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. III. 
 
 expectancy of replacing him and the Papal ascendancy 
 again in England. Louvois, the crafty and designing 
 minister of the Jesuit king, and his profligate court of 
 cardinals, mistresses and devotees, kept in his pay a 
 corps of French*, dancing, riding and fencing masters, 
 which he distributed as roving spies in all the courts of 
 Europe. One of these patriots, who passed for a 
 French refugee in Holland, corresponded with the 
 widowed Duchess of Orleans in the time of the war 
 with the Prince of Orange, the substance of wliichf, 
 she says, she communicated to the King, to give him 
 pleasure. The King, she says, received her informa- 
 tion agreeably enough at the beginning ; but one day 
 said to her, laughingly, “ my ministers maintain that 
 you are ill informed, and that your correspondent has 
 not written a word of truth to which the royal 
 Duchess replied, “ time will show which are the best 
 informed, Your Majesty’s ministers, or my correspon- 
 dent ; for myself, Sir, my intentions were good.” 
 
 When it became known that King William had re- 
 turned to England, M. de Torcy went to the Duchess, 
 and begged of her to acquaint him with what she knew 
 of the matter. “ I have nothing to communicate,” 
 replied Her Koyal Highness, “ you have told the 
 King, that my information was false, so I have told 
 my correspondent to write no more.” He began to 
 laugh, according to his custom in such circumstances, 
 
 * Fragmens de Lettres originales de Madame Charlotte-Elizabeth, 
 veuve de Monsieur le Due d’Orleans. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
A MINISTER REPAID. 
 
 355 
 
 A. D. 170l] 
 
 and replied, “ your news lias been always good.” The 
 Duchess retorted, “ a great and able minister like you, 
 ought to be more assured of your information than I 
 can be ; and I am angry with myself for having made 
 mine known to the King. I ought to have remem- 
 bered that his able ministers know everything.” When 
 the King saw the Duchess in the evening, he said, 
 “ you have been jeering my ministers “ I have only 
 returned them,” replied Madame briskly, “ what they 
 lent me.” M. de Louvois*, says the Duchess, was the 
 only minister of that time who was well served, be- 
 cause he spared no money to his secret- service men ; 
 and after his death, these connections being dissolved, 
 the ministers who succeeded him knew little of what 
 passed abroad. 
 
 The Court assemblies at Versailles and Marly, says 
 M. de St. Simonf, whether masked or dress balls, 
 were conducted on the same plan and eticpiette, the 
 company forming a parallelogram. At the head was 
 an arm-chair for the King, or three for His Majesty 
 and the exiled King and Queen of England when they 
 came, which was often, and at the sides of these royal 
 seats, in the same line, were placed the Royal Family 
 down to the grandchildren of France. Such was the 
 respect paid to the Ex-King and Queen of England by 
 Louis-le-Grand. 
 
 * Fragmens de Lettres originales de Madame Charlotte-Elizabeth, 
 veuve de Monsieur le Due d’Orleans. 
 
 t Supplement aux Memoires, Tom. III. p. 206. 
 
356 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. III. 
 
 The sudden death of M. de Louvois, immediately 
 after his disgrace with Louis XIV. and on the eve of 
 his committal to the Bastile, excited surprise and 
 consternation in the French Court. M. de St. Simon, 
 who witnessed the King’s reception of the news of the 
 sudden death of his able but unprincipled minister*, 
 hesitates not to say that it was by poison, and gives 
 sufficient proof, by the extraordinary conduct of M. 
 Seronf, his physician, and his miserable dying confes- 
 sion, that he did it in hopes to please the King and the 
 Duchess of Orleans^, and that he expected to be re- 
 warded with the place of Physician to the King. But 
 the death of the minister who formerly played the 
 Powers of Europe like puppets for his own purposes, 
 died, less spoken of than his miserable poisoner. 
 
 M. De St. Simon, on hearing of this sudden death, 
 was desirous, he says, of witnessing the countenance of 
 the King on such an important event, went to attend 
 upon him, being that day on duty, and followed him 
 during the whole of his usual morning’s walk. He 
 appeared^, says the courteous Duke, with his accus- 
 tomed majesty to all around him, but with somewhat 
 more of a bolder and determined air than was usual 
 with him, which much surprised the Duke. He also 
 remarked that he did not visit his fountains and other 
 improvements, of which Louvois had been the super- 
 
 * Memoires, Tom. I. p. 65. + Ibid, p. 73. 
 
 t Fragmens de Lettres Originates. 
 
 § Memoires, Tom. 1. p. 63. 
 
ROYAL COMPLIMENTS. 
 
 357 
 
 A. D. 170l] 
 
 intendent since the death of Colbert, nor did he diver- 
 sify his walks, as he had been wont to do, in the gar- 
 dens, but contented himself by walking to and fro on 
 the balustraded terrace of the Orangery, where he saw 
 on his return the apartments of his late minister and 
 superintendent, the scene of his sudden death. This 
 building formed the termination of the ancient wing of 
 the Castle of Versailles, on the side of the Orangery, 
 and from which every one coming or going to and from 
 the palace could be seen. 
 
 The name of de Louvois was never mentioned, nor 
 a word spoken about his sudden and surprising deatli. 
 During this singular promenade an English officer, sent 
 by King James from St. Germain’s, was presented to 
 the King on the terrace, and gave his royal master’s 
 condolence to His Majesty on the death of his able 
 minister. “ Sir,” said the French Monarch, with an 
 air of great carelessness, “ make my compliments and 
 thanks to the King and Queen of England, and tell 
 them, from me, that my affairs and theirs will not pro- 
 ceed less happily.” The English officer made his 
 reverence to the King and retired, astonishment de- 
 picted on his countenance and whole demeanour. “ I 
 observed,” says the Duke, “ most carefully all that 
 passed on that occasion, and that the principal person- 
 ages who were present looked interrogatively at each 
 other, but offered not a single word. 
 
 Scarcely had the mortal remains of James II. been 
 unostentatiously deposited in the English Benedictine 
 convent, Paris, when his son-in-law and successor on 
 
358 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. III. 
 
 tlie throne of Great Britain, was called upon to set his 
 house in order and prepare to follow him to the world 
 of spirits. 
 
 William III. was at this time in Holland, as before 
 mentioned, making preparations to counteract the 
 schemes of the French court, which was aided by Car- 
 dinal Porto Carrero, the Marquesses de Villena, and 
 de Villa Franca, M. le Marechal d’Harcourt, and 
 other enemies of the house of Austria ; and then- in- 
 fluence with Pope Innocent XII. over the broken- 
 down mind of the imbecile Charles II., King of Spain, 
 in favour of one of Louis’s grandsons, was successfully 
 exerted. When William heard of the death of the 
 Spanish monarch, and his will in favour of the Duke 
 of Anjou, second son of the Duke of Orleans and 
 grandson of the French King, he determined to strike 
 the first blow. But when he was told of the death of 
 James II., and the acknowledgment of his son, as 
 King of England, by the French monarch, he felt him- 
 self at liberty to make reprisals on the faithless Louis 
 XIV., and his grandson Philip V., the new King of 
 Sjiain. 
 
 William therefore in concert with his allies, the 
 Emperor of Germany, the King of Portugal, and the 
 Duke of Savoy, instantly declared war against France 
 and Spain, in support of the claims of the Archduke of 
 Austria to the crown of the latter kingdom. As soon 
 as he had accomplished this . important league, which 
 he named the Grand-alliance, he hastened to leave 
 Holland, and returned to England to excite the people 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH PHYSICIANS. 
 
 359 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1702] 
 
 against the preposterous ambition of France, and to 
 raise the necessary supplies from Parliament to carry 
 on the war. 
 
 Worn out more by the fatigues of war, the anxieties 
 of those great public duties, which were the objects of 
 his life, and a delicate frame of body'*, than by the 
 number of years he had lived, the King of England fell 
 into a weakness of health which threatened fatal conse- 
 quences at a time when he was most wanted, being 
 the most powerful opponent of a perverted ambition, 
 and a family conspiracy against the liberties and the 
 just equilibrium of the powers of Europe, and the head 
 and heart of the Grand-alliance. 
 
 This slow decay of bodily strength, without any 
 actual illness, or diminution of mental vigour, did not 
 hinder in the slightest degree, his daily intense labours 
 in the cabinet or in council. The first symptom of his 
 complaint was a difficulty of breathing, which aggrava- 
 ted the asthma he had laboured under for many years. 
 He knew the critical state of his health and disavowed 
 it not, but consulted some of the most eminent physi- 
 cians in Europe, incognito, that he might obtain a 
 more faithful opinion than were his rank and person 
 
 * The Duke de St. Simon, who, like most Frenchmen of his time, 
 thought more of the personal than of the mental qualities of his heroes, 
 describing the fine figure, address, grand mien, and majestic carriage of 
 those undoubted great men, Conde, de Luxembourg, Conti, etc., and 
 even calls the debauched gormand de Vendome, a superb man, describes 
 William III., after allowing for his military qualities, greatness of 
 mind, spirit, and so forth, calls him in another place (Supplement aux 
 Memoires, Tom. IV. p. 398) “bossu et fort vilain.” 
 
360 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 known. One* of these consultations was with M. 
 Fagon, first physician to Louis XIV., under the title of 
 a village Cure. That eminent physician gave his hum- 
 ble patient his honest opinion, and sent him away 
 without any directions, and with no other advice than 
 to prepare for a speedy death. The complaint in- 
 creased, and the King consulted Fagon again, hut 
 without disguise. The physician recognised the malady 
 of his former clerical patient, gave the same opinion, 
 but with more consideration, and prescribed gentle 
 remedies, which though they did not cure, alleviated 
 the sufferings, and somewhat lengthened the life of the 
 royal patient. Equally sincere, but less courteous, was 
 the opinion of our eminent English physician Dr. 
 Ratcliffe, who, on seeing the King’s wasting body and 
 swelling legs, said in his rugged manner, “ I would 
 not have Your Majesty’s tw T o legs for your three 
 kingdoms.” 
 
 M. Fagon’s prescriptions were followed and pro- 
 duced the promised effect of soothing the irritation of 
 the disorder. The suffering chieftain, however, knew 
 that the greatest as well as the meanest of mankind 
 must obey the inevitable call of the angel of death, 
 and duly estimating the emptiness of what the world 
 calls grand destinies, prepared himself to finish the 
 arrangements of the great work he had undertaken to 
 conduct. 
 
 At intervals between his labours with his ministers, 
 foreign ambassadors, and occasionally distinguished 
 
 * 
 
 Memoires de M. de St. Simon. Tom. III. p. 177- 
 
DEATH OF KING WILLIAM III. 
 
 361 
 
 A.D. 1702] 
 
 principals on the all-absorbing topic of the Spanish 
 succession and the Grand alliance, the King took a 
 little exercise on horseback, which was not only a fa- 
 vourite amusement, for he was passionately fond of 
 riding, especially hunting, was an accomplished and 
 elegant horseman, in days when skill in horsemanship, 
 or the science of equitation, as the French named it, 
 was a necessary part of a gentleman’s education, and 
 as many persons said, never looked really well, or so 
 much of the hero as when in the saddle. In one of 
 these little excursions or airings his weakness was 
 such, that, in spite of all his endeavours to conceal it, 
 he fell, and was so severely shaken that he did not 
 recover from its effects. 
 
 It is complained of this Prince by the * same jour- 
 nalist who elsewhere complains of the ascetic habits 
 and pharisaical observances of Louis XIV., that in his 
 last illness he occupied himself too little with religion, 
 which neglect had been his habit through life. King 
 William was certainly no Pharisee, nor pretender to 
 sanctity, nor was he a puritan ; neither did he preside 
 over such an adulterous and profligate Court as did his 
 great enemy, nor did he persecute millions for pro- 
 fessing a different creed from himself. His Christianity 
 was more practical than professional. He did not 
 discuss texts like Cromwell, nor dragoon unbelievers 
 in his creed like the most Christian King ; but if his 
 practice and Tillotson’s testimony be of any avail, he 
 served his God and the country which called him to 
 
 * Memoires de M. De St. Simon, Tom. III. p. 178. 
 
362 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 the throne as the Israelites did David, like a patriot 
 King. Not but he would have ruled with a higher 
 hand had he been permitted, as his unconstitutional 
 attempts upon the liberties of his Dutch subjects and 
 his endeavours to establish a standing army in Eng- 
 land, which ended in his discomforture and the morti- 
 fying necessity of dismissing his Walloon Guards, 
 abundantly show. 
 
 In his last hours he preserved his characteristic 
 decision and firmness, his enlarged and comprehensive 
 mind and business-like habits. He ordered all things, 
 conversed with his ministers and familiar friends, gave 
 instructions for future proceedings with a coolness, deli- 
 beration, foresight and presence of mind that surprised 
 all about him, and died heroically, like Nelson, doing 
 his duty as a wise statesman, a brave soldier and a 
 politic King. All these counsels were attended to, in 
 spite of dreadful sufferings, interrupted by violent 
 retching, solely occupied with the immediate object of 
 his wishes, the accomplishment of the Grand alliance, 
 a prevention of disunion among its members, and the 
 hope of humbling the arrogance of France, the great 
 enemy of the civil and religious liberties of Europe. 
 
 His waning life was sustained the last two days by 
 cordials and restoratives, and how much of that time 
 was occupied in spiritual communion with the King of 
 kings, the only Eider of princes, who heareth in secret, 
 is more than his detractors can say. His last earthly 
 nourishment was a cup of chocolate, when he shortly 
 after resigned his spirit to Him who gave it, on the 
 
A. D. 1702] CLOSING SCENES OF LIFE. 363 
 
 19th of March, 1702, at the hour of ten in the fore- 
 noon, in the fifty-second year of his age, and the four- 
 teenth of his reign. 
 
 The closing scenes of life among men who have 
 been deemed great, fortunate and happy by the world, 
 afford excellent materials for thinking, and it was not 
 without reason that a distinguished * French general 
 said of his commander when he saw him fall at the 
 head of his troops in the moment of victory — “ that 
 man was always lucky.” 
 
 The death of Marshal de Montmorenci, Duke of 
 Luxembourg, one of the bravest and most successful 
 opponents of William III. of England, whom the 
 Prince de Conti named “ le tapissiere de Notre Dame,” 
 because the walls of that church were completely 
 covered with the flags he took from the enemy, is a 
 case in point. This hero acknowledged on his death 
 bed that the brilliancy of his career and the vast 
 renown he had acquired afforded him less consolation 
 at that moment than the remembrance of a single 
 good act. His biographerf, quoted in M. de St. 
 Simon’s Memoirs, assures us that his regrets at having 
 served his King better than his God, were so great 
 that he cried out “ qu’il auroit prefere a l' eclat de tant 
 des victoires qui devenoient inutiles au tribunal de Juge 
 des Rois et des her os, le me rite d'un verve d’eau donne 
 aux pauvres pour V amour de VEtre Supreme 
 
 Nor is the last act of the life of the celebrated 
 
 * Memoires de M. de St. Simon, 
 t Supplement, Tom. II. p. 203. 
 
364 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 Duke cle Vendome, whose services to Louis XI Y. in 
 the affair of the Spanish succession, and many heroic 
 deeds less instructive. 
 
 This distinguished French general was the grandson 
 of one of the illegitimate sons of Henry IV., and 
 married one of the Mancinis, a niece of Cardinal Ma- 
 zarin. This illustrious birth and happy marriage pro- 
 cured for him the rank of a prince of the blood from 
 Louis XIV., who* took every and any measure to raise 
 
 * Among other plans in furtherance of this object, was that of pa- 
 tronising a new history of France, in opposition to that of M. de Mezerai, 
 by father Daniel, a Jesuit of Normandy, who was removed to the 
 Jesuit’s College, wherein he held the office of librarian, and was ap- 
 pointed Historiographer Royal of France, with a pension of two thousand 
 francs. The work was published in three thick folio volumes, on 
 excellent paper and beautiful typography. The style has been much 
 commended, and the work was preceded by an admirable preface, magni- 
 ficent promises and learned dissertation, with an air of authority 
 becoming a veracious historian. He introduces many romantic episodes 
 in the first race of the French Kings, more in the second, and an increase 
 in the third. It is written with great art, and with all the appearance 
 of liberality and candour, which while it discards prejudice, looks at 
 facts with impartial discernments, and seeks for nothing so much as 
 truth. The result is that according to Father Daniel, the greater part 
 of the boldest and bravest of the Kings of the first race, many of 
 the second, and some of the third, were mostly of adulterous and 
 double adulterous birth, and that this trifling defect in blood, did not 
 exclude them from the throne. The effect of this very new history of 
 France, says M. de St. Simon (Tom. Ill, p. 143), was prodigious, like a 
 fascination, and became the supreme ton ; every one ran for it, even the 
 women, and the same interest which caused its composition, promoted 
 its circulation. Praises of the work transpired at the parties of Mad. de 
 Maintenon ; the King, asked everybody, had they read Pere Daniel’s 
 history. The wide awake soon caught up who were its patrons, and 
 that it must be an admirable history to be admired by the King and 
 Mad. de Maintenon, and read at Versailles ! It was to be found on the 
 
A. D. 1702] CLOSING SCENES OF LIFE. 365 
 
 his own adulterous progeny to the highest rank in the 
 state. After a brilliant career in France, Germany 
 and Spain, loaded with honours, satiated with self- 
 indulgence, this high and mighty prince and (bastard) 
 son of France proposed to himself a grand round of 
 enjoyments during the cessation of the Austrian army 
 from offensive operations. 
 
 In order to be more at liberty to indulge himself at 
 his ease he left his general officers at head quarters 
 and took up his abode with two or three of his 
 familiars and a company of valets, cooks and the other 
 concomitants of a French prince’s establishment at 
 Vignard, a small thinly-inhabited town on the sea 
 coast of Yalentia. In this distant and almost-deserted 
 village the prince of the blood royal of France and his 
 roistering companions pitched their tents and encamped 
 themselves that their souls might enjoy themselves in 
 comfort. “ Thou fool,” says the most precious of books, 
 “ this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” 
 
 One of the reasons for selecting this peculiar spot 
 was that His Royal Highness might have an unlimited 
 feast of fish, of which he was extravagantly fond, and 
 he took his fill. In the morning he found himself 
 much indisposed, which he attributed to his previous 
 
 tables of all who wished to stand well at Court, and its author was 
 loaded with eulogiums, verses, etc. Truly father Daniel well deserved 
 the title of Historiographer Royal, and his pension from this most distin- 
 guished patron of double and treble adulterers. When the book had 
 served its purpose, it went out of fashion, was answered, but Father 
 Daniel closed the door of his cell in the J esuit College, and answered 
 not his revilers. 
 
366 -WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. HI. 
 
 debauch, but his illness increased so rapidly and with 
 such extraordinary symptoms, that the few persons 
 who were about his person, concluded it was the effect 
 of poison, and sent in all directions for medical aid. 
 The complaint, however, would not wait for the doc- 
 tors, and the symptoms increased so rapidly that he 
 was unable to sign a will that was presented to him 
 ready drawn, nor a letter to the King, soliciting per- 
 mission for his brother to return to Court, whence he 
 had been banished. 
 
 His familiar friends who accompanied him on this 
 gormondizing * trip immediately fled from the scene of 
 desolation, and left the royal glutton to the tender 
 mercies of the lowest of the valets, the others occu- 
 pying themselves in pillaging all the} 7, could lay their 
 hands on, and in following the footsteps of their 
 superiors. 
 
 In this pitiable condition did the deserted Prince 
 pass the last two or three days of his life, without any 
 attendant but a strange surgeon. The under servants 
 who were compelled to remain with the Duke, seeing 
 his extremity, seized the few things their fellows had 
 left, and even, says the Duke de St. Simonf, who was 
 well acquainted with the Prince, and his miserable 
 end, tore the covering off his miserable body, and the 
 
 * “ II soupoit avec ses faniiliers largement ; il etoit grand mangeur, 
 (Tune gourmandise extraordinaire, ne se connoissoit a aucun mets, aimoit 
 fort le poisson, et encore plus celui dont l’odeur revoltoit les autres.” 
 Memoires de St. Simon, Tom. II. p. 255. 
 
 t Supplement aux Memoires, Tom II. p. 208. 
 
CLOSING SCENES OF LIFE. 
 
 367 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1702 ] 
 
 mattress from under him. He cried out pitiably not to 
 be left to die naked upon the bare paillasse, and I 
 know not, says M. de St. Simon, if they left him even 
 that. 
 
 Thus perished miserably, in his fifty-eighth year, the 
 great grandson of the illustrious Henry IV., even more 
 miserably, and more deserted than George Villiers, 
 the second Duke of Buckingham. 
 
 The Princess des Ursins, wife of a grandee of 
 Spain, descended from the noble French family of de la 
 Tremouille, and at the time of this shocking death, 
 first lady of the bed-chamber to the Queen of Spain, 
 and an intriguante of the first order in favour of the 
 French influence at Madrid, and had profited by the 
 sendees of M. de Vendome in his life, determined to 
 profit no less by his death. Therefore to make a pro- 
 fitable court to the Duke du Maine, Louis’s favourite 
 son by Madame de Montespan, to Madame de Main- 
 tenon, who first won Louis’s heart by her attentions to 
 this son, as his governess, and to the King himself, 
 ordered that the body of the deceased Generalissimo 
 should be buried, with all honour, in the Escurial. 
 Thus was the deceased warrior overwhelmed with 
 honours, who was suffered to die the death of a dog. 
 This funereal honour was the more extraordinary, as 
 the deceased was not slain in battle, nor w T as it usual 
 to bury any but members of the Iloyal family in the 
 Escurial. 
 
 This death and burial has had many counterparts 
 in the last act of life, of many of the Popes. When the 
 
368 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. HI. 
 
 last breath has escaped the lips of his Holiness, the 
 velvet pall that covered his cadaverous body, the 
 golden and jewelled crucifix, the massive candlesticks, 
 and all the decorations of the Papal death-chamber, 
 have fled by means as venal as those of the poor Duke 
 de Vendome, and the holy corpse has been left as de- 
 serted. Nor has the death of the Holy Father been 
 made known to the proper authorities, till his dutiful 
 nephews and nieces , and his familiars, have removed as 
 much as they can from the Pontifical apartments, and 
 taken their departure. Then the holy remains are re- 
 dressed, decorated, laid in state, and buried with all 
 pomp in the Papal catacombs of the Vatican. 
 
 As a soothing contrast to these horrible facts, let us 
 read, and calmly enjoy, a picture of the closing scene 
 of life, as consoling as the others are revolting to our 
 nature, drawn by the pen of one of England’s'"' purest 
 worthies. 
 
 “ The sublimity! of true wisdom is to do those 
 things living, which are to be desired when dying. 
 For the death of the righteous is like the descending of 
 ripe and wholesome fruits from a pleasant and florid 
 tree. Our senses entire, our limbs unbroken, without 
 horrid tortures ; after provision made for our children, 
 with a blessing entailed upon posterity, in the presence 
 of our friends, our dearest relative closing our eyes and 
 binding our feet, leaving a good name behind us.” 
 
 * Bishop Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 t Hie est apex surnmae sapientise, ea viventem facere, quae morienti 
 essent appetenda. 
 
A.D. 1702] 
 
 ACCESSION OF QUEEN ANNE. 
 
 369 
 
 The Princess Anne, wife of Prince George of Den- 
 mark, and sister of the late Queen Mary II., was, ac- 
 cording to the act of settlement proclaimed Queen of 
 Great Britain, etc. A few days afterwards she ap- 
 pointed her consort, Prince George, Lord High Ad- 
 miral of England, and Generalissimo of her forces ; 
 called the Earl of Rochester, her maternal uncle, and 
 Lord Sunderland, to her councils, and despatched the 
 Earl of Marlborough to Holland to execute the plans, 
 and take the place of the late King William in the 
 allied armies. 
 
 Queen Anne continued Wren in all his appoint- 
 ments, and he proceeded with all the public works, as 
 in the time of her predecessors. Wren’s reputation 
 continued undiminished, and Dr. Flamsteed, the astro- 
 nomer royal, dedicated to him his remarks on Cassini’s 
 Theory of the Earth’s motion, in which he says the 
 French Astronomer had performed nothing of what he 
 proposed, concerning the effects of the earth’s motion, 
 or the parallax of the orb at the fixed stars. Lie also 
 complains to his friend of the want of truth, honesty 
 and sincerity of Mr. Halley, as detailed in the corres- 
 pondence in my larger work*. 
 
 Robert Hooke, the able associate and coadjutor of 
 Wren, the architect of the late British Museum, Aske’s 
 Hospital, Hoxton, the former Bethlehem Hospital, 
 Moorfields, and Author of Micographia, and of many 
 philosophical treatises, and one of the original members 
 
 * Page 489 and note. 
 B B 
 
370 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 of tlie Royal Society, died on the 3rd of March 1705, 
 in the 68th year of his age, after many years suffering 
 from internal decay. He was buried in the church of 
 St. Helen, Bishopsgate-street, and attended to the 
 grave by all the Fellows of the Royal Society, who 
 were then in London ; performing the last offices of 
 respect and friendship to him, who when alive had 
 contributed so much to science, and been in such close 
 connection with the greatest philosophers of the day, 
 both English and foreign. 
 
 In the following year Wren lost his old and valuable 
 friend, John Evelyn, who lived for the good of his 
 country and humanity to the patriarchal age of eighty- 
 five. Few men that have done more honour to the 
 English nation, left a greater debt of gratitude due from 
 posterity than this great, good and amiable man, John 
 Evelyn, who stands in the foremost rank of British 
 worthies and benefactors. Steady in undeviating loy- 
 alty to his Sovereigns, he could see and point out their 
 profligacy and lament their errors. Descended from 
 an ancient and honourable family, possessed of suffi- 
 cient wealth for all his wants and charities, he served 
 his country in various public capacities, particularly in 
 that of the royal navy, and no one deserves a statue of 
 gratitude in the Royal Hospital of Greenwich more 
 than this benefactor of the human race. His works 
 on the sanatory improvements of the country, in the 
 abolition of the smoke nuisance, his writings, and, 
 moreover, his doings on planting and arboriculture, 
 have contributed more to the materials of “ the wooden 
 
A. D. 1708] ACT FOR BUILDING FIFTY NEW CHURCHES. 371 
 
 walls of old England,” to borrow a nautical phrase, 
 and probably thereby to the salvation of the country 
 during the terrific and proselyting war of destruction 
 of the French revolution than all the money Pitt was 
 able to raise by his loans, had Evelyn not written nor 
 planted. The next statue that England raises in gra- 
 titude to a true British patriot ought to be to John 
 Evelyn. His Diary is one of the finest pictures of 
 the mind of a virtuous honest man, a true patriot and 
 a pure Christian, that was ever penned. 
 
 In 1708 the cupola of St. Paul’s was covered with 
 lead, and the statue of Queen Anne, supported by 
 figures representing the four quarters of the globe, in 
 the western court of its enclosure, from the chisel of 
 Francis Bird, was erected. This sculptor also carved 
 the * basso-rilievo of St. Paul’s conversion, in the 
 tympanum of the western pediment and the sculptures 
 under the western portico. 
 
 In the course of this year the Act of Parliament 
 (Anno 7° Anme Iteginae, Cap. XXXII., Sec. 9) for 
 building fifty new churches in the metropolis was 
 passed, and Wren was appointed one of the commis- 
 sioners for carrying it into execution. Preparatory to 
 entering on his new appointment, he communicated his 
 opinions to one of his brother commissioners upon 
 the best manner of conducting this important business. 
 This document, which is very long, consisting of eight 
 sections, with a proemium and conclusion, is given at 
 
 * Walpole’s Anecdotes of Paintings, etc. 
 B B 2 
 
372 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. III. 
 
 length in the Parentalia, page 328, and in my larger 
 work * on the architect’s life and works. 
 
 This important paper begins by stating that since 
 Providence in great mercy had protracted his age — his 
 seventy-eighth year — to the finishing of the Cathedral 
 of St. Paul f and the parochial churches of London, 
 all of which were executed during the fatigues of his 
 employment in the service of the crown for so many 
 reigns, and being constituted one of the commissioners 
 for building fifty more churches in London and West- 
 minster, he presumed to communicate his sentiments, 
 after long experience. He advised that the new 
 churches be built not in the extremities of the suburbs, 
 but among the thicker inhabitants, even if the ground 
 should cost more. He wished that all burials in 
 churches should be disallowed, as being not only un- 
 healthy, but that the pavements could not be kept 
 even, nor the pews upright ; and if the churchyards 
 were close about the church, would be bad, because the 
 ground being continually raised by the graves would 
 cause in time, a descent into the church by steps, 
 which renders it damp and unwholesome, and causes 
 the walls to be green, as seen in all old churches. 
 
 Wiiat a pity it is, that this sound practical advice, 
 given a century and a half ago, had not been followed. 
 Had it been, the shocking unwholesome nuisances of 
 
 * Page 492, and note. 
 
 t The first stone of St. Paul’s was laid in 1675, and the last on the 
 summit of the lantern in 1710. See the last entry but one in the Wren 
 MS., Chap. IV. of this work. 
 
A. D. 1710 1 WREN ON INTERMENT. 373 
 
 most of the City Churches built by Wren, would have 
 been avoided, particularly those disgusting heaps of 
 rotting humanity, St. Andrew Holborn and St. Bride 
 Fleet Street, where the charnel heaps rise up as high 
 as the one-pair windows of the dwelling-houses, and 
 the vaults exhale pestilence into the nostril of the 
 resident citizens. 
 
 In reply to a question, where shall be the burials % 
 Wren answers, in cemeteries situated in the outskirts 
 of the town. A piece of ground of two acres in the 
 fields he says, may be purchased for much less than 
 two roods among the buildings ; and that in such 
 cemeteries decently planted, the dead need not be dis- 
 turbed at the pleasure of the sexton, or piled four or 
 five upon each other, or bones thrown out to gain room. 
 The other parts of his recommendations for the plant- 
 ing and arrangement of cemeteries, then monuments, etc. 
 agree so well with those of Pere la Chaise near Paris, 
 that he no doubt had it in his mind’s eye when he 
 wrote it ; and it has been followed in our lately 
 constructed cemeteries round the metropolis. Another 
 consideration, he mentions, is, that if the cemeteries 
 were thus thrown into the fields, that they would bound 
 the metropolis, with a graceful border, which was then 
 encircled with scavengers’ dunghills. How very short 
 time ago is it, that the upper part of Gray’s-inn Lane 
 was a colony of cinder-sifters and pigs, and the site of 
 the London University and the Begent’s Park, a lay- 
 stall for night-carts, and thence called by the facetious 
 Theodore Hook, the Spice Islands and Stinkomalee \ 
 
374 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 He next discusses the best situations, forms, orna- 
 ments and materials, as stone, lime and brick, which 
 latter material he proves from ancient ruins could be 
 made as good in London as in ancient Rome if properly 
 managed, although those made for the thousand and 
 one houses hastily run up after the fire, would scarcely 
 bear the slightest weight. In this discussion, Wren 
 takes occasion to mention, incidentally, the superiority 
 of stone-lime over that burned from chalk, then and 
 subsequently so much used in London, from its con- 
 tiguity to the chalk cliffs of Kent and Essex. The 
 vaulting of St. Raid’s he says, is coated by a rendering 
 as hard as stone, composed of cockleshell-lime and 
 sand well beaten, and the more labour in the beating, 
 the better, and the mortar the better. 
 
 Churchwardens, he says, may be careless in speedi- 
 ly repairing drips, but they will usually wdiitewash the 
 church and set up their names, but neglect to preserve 
 the roof over their heads. He next proceeds to discuss 
 the capacity and dimensions of the proposed new 
 churches and a mode of calculation to determine them. 
 From the number of inhabitants for whom these 
 churches were to be built, which he calculated at four 
 hundred thousand, or five times as many as were 
 burnt out in the city. The churches, therefore, he says, 
 must necessarily be large, and if they were built to 
 hold two thousand persons each the accommodation 
 would fall very short of the requisites. But, he adds, 
 in our reformed religion it would seem vain to make a 
 parish church larger than that all who are present can 
 
WREN ON CHURCH BUILDING. 
 
 375 
 
 A D. 1710] 
 
 both hear and see the preacher. The Romanists in- 
 deed may build larger churches — it is enough if they 
 hear the murmur of the mass and the elevation of the 
 host, but ours should be fitted for auditories. He con- 
 sidered it to be hardly practicable to make a single 
 room so capacious, with pews and galleries, as to hold 
 above two thousand persons, and all to hear the service, 
 and both to hear distinctly and see the preacher. He en- 
 deavoured to effect these objects, he says, in building the 
 parish church of St. James, Westminster, which he pre- 
 sumed was the most capacious, with these qualifica- 
 tions, that had then been built ; and yet at a solemn 
 time when the church was much crowded, he could not 
 discern from a gallery that two thousand persons were 
 present. 
 
 In this admirable church, which is a school of scien- 
 tific construction and architectural economy, our great 
 architect mentions, that although very broad, seventy feet 
 between the walls, and the nave arched over, yet as there 
 are no walls of a second order, nor lanterns, nor buttresses, 
 but that the whole roof rests upon the columns, as do 
 also the galleries, he considered it to be found beautiful 
 and convenient, and, as such, the cheapest of any form 
 he could invent. In my quarto memoirs of Wren is 
 an engraved section of this very original piece of con- 
 struction, engraved by the late Wilson Lowry, F.R.S., 
 from a drawing made from actual measurement, by my 
 excellent friend, Charles Robert Cockerell, R. A., Regius 
 Professor of Architecture in the Royal Academy ot 
 Arts, and Wren’s worthy successor in the care of our 
 
376 - 
 
 wren AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 great metropolitan cathedral when the church above 
 alluded to was being repaired under his scientific direc- 
 tions. It may be said of this church, and many of this 
 great architect’s works, whoever wishes to acquire a 
 knowledge of architectural construction, which is at the 
 same time scientific, durable, beautiful and economical, 
 must give his days and nights to the study of the 
 executed works of Wren. 
 
 Concerning the placing the pulpit, Wren conceived 
 that a moderate voice might be heard fifty feet distant 
 in front of the preacher, thirty feet on each side, and 
 twenty feet behind him ; and not so far, unless the pro- 
 nunciation be distinct and equal, without losing the 
 voice at the last word of the sentence, which is com- 
 monly empliatical, and if obscured spoils the whole 
 sense. A Frenchman is heard further than an English 
 preacher, because he raises his voice and sinks not his 
 last words. He mentions this subject as being an 
 insufferable fault in the pronunciation of some other- 
 wise excellent preachers, which schoolmasters might 
 correct in the young, as a vicious pronunciation, and 
 not as the Roman orators spoke ; for the principal verb 
 is in Latin usually the last word, and if that be lost, 
 what becomes of the sentence \ 
 
 An eminent Prelate and many distinguished preachers 
 of our reformed Church have assured me that they have 
 found Wren’s three largest and perhaps best churches, 
 those of St. James, Westminster, St. Andrew, Holborn, 
 and St. Bride, Fleet Street, to be incomparably the 
 easiest churches they ever preached in, and wherein 
 
A. D. 1 71 0 j WREN AGAINST PEWS IN CHURCHES. 377 
 
 they found, by the demeanour of their congregation, 
 they made themselves the best heard and understood. 
 
 From the preceding facts Wren drew the conclusion 
 that the best size for the proposed new chinches 
 were at least sixty feet broad and ninety feet long, 
 besides a chancel at one end and a belfry and portico 
 at the other. 
 
 He would not have a church so filled with pews but 
 that the poor might have room enough to stand and 
 sit in the aisles, for to them equally is the gospel 
 preached. He moreover considered it to be desirable 
 that there should be no pews in churches but only 
 benches, and complains there was no stemming the 
 tide of profit and the advantage of the pew-openers. 
 
 Wren’s advice for the purchase of houses and tene- 
 ments required for the new churches was judicious, and 
 the plan having been successful at St. Paul’s, he re- 
 commended its adoption to his brother commissioners for 
 the fifty new churches. His method was in purchasing 
 the houses and ground on the north side of St. Paul’s 
 Cathedral, where in some places houses were but 
 eleven feet distant from the fabric, which was thereby ex- 
 posed to the continual danger of fire. These houses had 
 been hastily built immediately after the fire, on the old 
 sites, without waiting for the adoption of Wren’s novel 
 and beautiful plan for rebuilding the city. These houses, 
 seventeen in number, were all held on leases from the 
 Bishop of London, the Dean alone or the Dean and 
 
 * Not Bishop Compton, who did not become Bishop of London till 
 nearly sixteen years after the fire. 
 
378 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. III. 
 
 Chapter, and the Minor Canons of the Cathedral, with a 
 variety of under-tenants. He first recompensed the 
 clerical body and their successors with freehold rents 
 of equal value, and had to assess an equitable conside- 
 ration for the property held by the tenants in posses- 
 sion, to find the value of which he learned by diligent 
 enquiry what the inheritance of houses in that quarter 
 were usually valued at. This he found to be fifteen 
 years’ purchase at the most, and proportionally to that 
 the value of each lease was soon ascertained by refer- 
 ring to the map and rental of the estate. 
 
 These rates, he and his fellow-commissioners were 
 determined not to recede from, and such value was 
 offered to each tenant in possession, and to shorten de- 
 bate, which all abounded in, they were informed, that 
 the commissioners were guided by one uniform method, 
 from which they would not deviate. They soon found 
 three or four reasonable men, who agreed to those 
 terms, which were immediately paid, and then* houses 
 taken down. Others, who stood out at first, soon 
 found themselves enveloped in dust and rubbish, and 
 that ready money was better, in their situations, than 
 a continuance of rent, taxes and dues, followed their 
 neighbours’ examples, and made way for the whole- 
 some improvement. 
 
 The greatest dispute about the tenants’ charges, 
 was for the fittings up of their houses, for their parti- 
 cular trades ; for which Wren allowed one year’s pur- 
 chase, and permitted them to remove their fittings and 
 wainscot, reserving to the commissioners, only the 
 
A. D. 171 1 | 
 
 MALIGNANT ATTACKS ON WREN. 
 
 379 
 
 fabric of the house. This affair, says Wren, gratula- 
 torily, was finished, without a judicatory or a jury. 
 
 Censure is a tax which all distinguished men must 
 pay for their eminence, and Wren escaped not its 
 penalties. The attacks made upon him, verbally and 
 by pamphlets, are detailed in my larger work'"'. One 
 mode was, that there being a clause in an Act of Par- 
 liament, which suspended a moiety of the Architect’s 
 salary at St. Paul’s till the building was finished, some 
 of the new and younger commissioners, who knew not 
 Wren, nor his services, obstructed to the utmost of 
 their power all his measures for completing the fabric. 
 Wren, therefore, petitioned the Queen, to interpose her 
 royal authority, so that he might be suffered to finish 
 the Cathedral, in such manner as Her Majesty should 
 please to direct. The Queen commanded this petition 
 to be delivered by the Duke of Shrewsbury, the Lord 
 Chamberlain, to the commissioners, who replied in a 
 long series of excuses, denials, and accusations against 
 under workmen, artificers, etc. which did not inculpate 
 the Architect in any way. 
 
 To this document, Wren replied by a pamphlet f, 
 and an address to the Archbishop of Canterbury and 
 the Bishop of London, the chief commissioners for the 
 building. In the latter, he recites the clauses relative 
 to the coal duty and its application ; and that which 
 related to the detention of half his salary till the 
 
 * See Part I, page 30, and Part II, p. 408. 
 
 t Called “ An Answer to a Pamphlet, entitled Frauds and Abuses at 
 St. Paul’s, 8vo. 1713. 
 
380 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CIIAP. 111. 
 
 works were completed. By this latter clause, he con- 
 ceived it to imply that the building, and everything 
 connected therewith, was under his management and 
 direction, and that it was in his power to hasten or 
 retard it. Both of which he appealed to them as 
 knowing the contrary, and to what extent he had 
 been limited and confined. However, as it had pleased 
 God so to bless his sincere endeavours, that he had 
 brought the building to a conclusion, so far as was in 
 his power ; he thought nothing could be said to 
 remain unperfected, but the iron fence round the 
 church, and painting the cupola ; the directing of 
 which had been taken from him. He, therefore, hoped 
 that he was neither answerable for them, nor that the 
 suspending clause could, or ought to affect him any 
 further on that account, and prayed that it be so con- 
 sidered, and the balance paid to him. 
 
 This representation was referred to the Attorney- 
 General, who gave his opinion, that he considered 
 Sir Christopher Wren’s case to be very hard ; inas- 
 much as the stopping half his salary, being intended 
 to encourage him to use his utmost diligence to finish 
 the Cathedral ; which for all that appeared, he had 
 done, and the not finishing it was not his fault, but 
 that of others. But if the church remained unfinished 
 the commissioners had no alternative ; but in justice 
 should determine the manner of doing it, that the 
 charge of an architect might be saved, and Sir Chris- 
 topher receive the balance of his salary. 
 
 The opinion of the Attorney-General being incon- 
 
A. D. 171l] 
 
 st. Paul’s declared finished. 
 
 381 
 
 elusive, and the architectural part of the Cathedral 
 being completed, Wren petitioned the House of Com- 
 mons to the same effect ; whereupon the Honourable 
 House considered his case, and were so well satisfied 
 with its justice, as to declare the Cathedral to be 
 finished, so far as was required to he done by Sir 
 Christopher Wren, as Surveyor-General, and ordered 
 that the suspended salary he paid to him on or before 
 the 25th of December 1711. 
 
 Wren expressed his grateful sense of this just de- 
 cision of the British Senate, whilst he remembered the 
 unjust treatment he had received from some members 
 of the late commission for building St. Paul’s, which 
 was such as gave him reason to think, they intended 
 that he should receive none of his suspended salary, if 
 it had been in their power to have kept it from him. 
 All the documents connected with these disputes, as 
 well as a petition to the Queen, in relation to the 
 blocks of marble, which Her Majesty had, on Wren’s 
 application, given for her statue and surrounding 
 figures, the completion of which had been frustrated by 
 the same unworthy commissioners, and which led again 
 to their discomfiture, are given at length in Parentalia, 
 and my quarto memoirs of Wren. 
 
 In 1712, Dr. John Woodward, Professor of Physic 
 in Gresham College, a Fellow, and on the Council, of 
 the Royal Society, and author of several archaeological 
 works of some repute in his day, dedicated his work* 
 
 * This work went through three editions, the first printed in London, 
 1707, the second at Oxford, 1712, and the third in London, 1723. 
 
382 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. m. 
 
 on various Roman antiquities, excavated in London, 
 with reflections on its ancient, and, then, present 
 state, to Wren, who wrote some observations on its 
 antiquities, but could not be persuaded by the learned 
 Doctor, that the Roman temple of Diana, stood on the 
 site now occupied by St. Paul’s, although Dr. Wood- 
 ward had prepared a dissertation upon her statue, as 
 represented on a sacrifical vessel dug up near the 
 Cathedral. 
 
 This gentleman was possessor of the celebrated 
 antique shield, representing, as he contended, Rome 
 after its destruction by the Gauls, and the weighing 
 of the gold to purchase their retreat. The doctor had 
 several casts made from it, and in 1705, an engraving 
 by Yan Gunst, of Amsterdam, the size of the original 
 antique, prints * from which he sent to the most 
 learned men and bodies in Europe. This is the cele- 
 brated shield that was so unmercifully scoured by 
 Arbuthnot and Pope, in then - Memoirs of Martinus 
 Scriblerus. 
 
 t “ Poor Vadius, long with learned spleen devour’d, 
 
 Can taste no pleasure since his shield was scour’d. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1 712 Wren’s eldest son, 
 Christopher, was elected Member of Parliament for 
 the Borough of Windsor, for which place his father 
 had previously sat in several Parliaments, and in 1713 
 he presented his late constituents of that place with a 
 statue of the Prince of Denmark, which, with a Latin 
 
 W ard’s Lives of the Gresham Professors, p. 290. 
 t Pope. 
 
A. D. 1714J DEATH AND CHARACTER OP QUEEN ANNE. 383 
 
 inscription, indicating who it represents, and by whom 
 it was presented, was placed in a niche on the south 
 side of the Town Hall, in correspondence with one on 
 the north side, which represents his Royal Consort 
 and Sovereign, Queen Anne. 
 
 On the 14th of July, 1714, Wren lost the last of 
 his English royal patrons, Queen Anne, whose charac- 
 ter belongs to history, which has done justice to the 
 great military and political events of her reign, but her 
 personal virtues and excellencies have not yet been 
 duly estimated. 
 
 Swift, who was neither a courtier nor a flatterer, 
 and knew as well as any man of his time the character 
 of that excellent Princess, says of her — “ When was 
 there ever a better Princess on the throne than the 
 present Queen \ I do not talk of her government, 
 her love, of the people, or qualities that are purely 
 regal, but her piety, charity, temperance and conjugal 
 love.” 
 
 Pursuant to the Act of Succession, the late Queen 
 was immediately succeeded by the Elector of Hanover, 
 and was proclaimed as George, King of Great Britain, 
 etc. At the meeting of the new Parliament, Mr. Chris- 
 topher Wren was again returned as member for the 
 borough of Windsor. The commission, under the 
 great seal, for building St. Paul’s having also expired 
 by the death of the good Queen Anne, a new commis- 
 sion, dated 1° Geo. for carrying on, finishing and 
 adorning the Cathedral was issued in which Sir Chris- 
 topher Wren was again included, and the name of his 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 384 
 
 [chap. ih. 
 
 illustrious friend and philosophical coadjutor, Sir Isaac 
 Newton, appeared for the first time. 
 
 • The finishing and adorning the new Cathedral con- 
 tinued under the new commission, and the persecution 
 of the veteran architect, now in the eighty-fourth year 
 of his age, increased as they proceeded, and he had 
 now no patron on the throne, for King George pre- 
 ferred his own countrymen and those Englishmen with 
 whom he had been connected on the Continent, to 
 the forming of new connections in England and the 
 patronising of art and science. One of King George’s 
 maxims was, never to desert an old friend. 
 
 The new King, George, had the wisdom to call into 
 his councils, James, the first Earl of Stanhope, an ac- 
 complished statesman sincerely attached to the prin- 
 ciples of the revolution. He had accompanied his 
 father when ambassador from William III. to the 
 Court of Spain, was a brave and able soldier who had 
 served as a volunteer in Flanders under King William, 
 and as a Brigadier-General under the Earl of Peter- 
 borough at the taking of Barcelona, and was also a 
 well-educated English gentleman, as his correspon- 
 dence with the Abbe Vcrtot, respecting the Constitu- 
 tion of the Homan Senate, published in 1721, suffi- 
 ciently proves. 
 
 On the accession of King George, Lord Stanhope 
 was received at court with great favour, and appointed 
 one of His Majesty’s Secretaries of State. In 1716 
 he accompanied the King to Hanover, where he w r as 
 
A. D. 1 7 1 1> J EXPULSION OF THE JACOBITES FROM FRANCE. 385 
 
 principally occupied in negoc-iating with the Duke of * 
 Orleans, Regent of France, during the minority of the 
 young King, Louis XV., who had just succeeded to the 
 crown of his great-grandfather, Louis XIV., and with 
 the States General, which negociation removed the 
 Pretender and his partizans beyond the Alps. 
 
 The execution of this treaty by the profligate Re- 
 gent and his infamous minister and preceptor, Cardinal 
 Dubois, is thus described by one + of the Duke of 
 Orleans’ most attached friends and apologists. The 
 government proclaimed, with sound of trumpet, an 
 ordinance commanding all Foreign rebels to leave every 
 part of the kingdom of France within eight days. 
 Strict search was made for all who disobeyed this 
 order, and all who were found were punished with the 
 greatest rigour. These Foreign rebels were no other 
 than the English followers and friends of the Prince, 
 who had been recognised as King of England by 
 Louis XIV., together with their unfortunate master 
 and his little Court. This, says M. de St. Simon, was 
 one of the effects of the journey of the Earl of Stan- 
 hope to Paris, and only the execution of an infamous 
 clause, till then suspended, in the treaty made by Car- 
 dinal Dubois with England, which gained everything, 
 and France nothing, but a destructive infamy. 
 
 * This Prince married Mademoiselle de Blois, the refusal of whom 
 by King William 111. gave such mortal offence to Louis XIV. See 
 page 319 of this work. 
 
 t Supple'ment aux Memoires de M. le Due de St. Simon, Tom. III., 
 
386 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [c 
 
 HAP. III. 
 
 The French protestants who found an asylum in 
 England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes 
 gave no disquietude to France, where no one had a 
 right to the crown but the heirs male in the direct line. 
 Therefore, says M. de St. Simon, the reciprocity stipu- 
 lated for in the same treaty could have no reference to 
 the French refugees in England, who were neither 
 rebels nor enemies to the reigning family of France. 
 The reciprocal article he therefore considered as a blind 
 to hide the intentions and to serve the interests, not of 
 the English people, but of the King of England and 
 his ministers, who feared even the shadow of a true 
 and legitimate King, even when confined to Home with 
 his English partizans, or supported by those who 
 through dissatisfaction favoured his party without 
 caring for his person. 
 
 M. de St. Simon, however, did not know the feelings 
 of the majority of the English people against the in- 
 sincerity, fraud and treachery of the Stuart race, which 
 they were so long in shaking off, though he himself 
 has exposed the hypocritical conduct of Louis XIV. 
 towards James II., and his faithless disregard of 
 treaties made with William III. Being then in a 
 peaceful and honourable retirement from the most irre- 
 ligious and profligate Court in Europe, as distant from 
 the intrigues which fomented and fostered the rebellion 
 in Scotland, in favour of Louis the fourteenth’s prote- 
 gee, and the signal defeat at the battle of Preston Pans, 
 he could form no sound opinion of English feeling. 
 Nor could he know how far they repudiated, as a con- 
 
A. D. 1716] ENGLISH AND FRENCH DIPLOMACY. 387 
 
 stitutional King, tlie son of a Popisli Monarch, whom 
 they had driven from the throne, for attacking all their 
 privileges, a Prince who had been brought up in France, 
 who had learned all his lessons of Government from 
 his expatriated father, and nourished all the vices 
 and bigotries of the Ludovican court ; and preferred 
 the succession of the Hanoverian family, which could 
 be withheld by the bridle of the law. 
 
 Lord Viscount Stair”', who was at that time the 
 English Ambassador in France, and the Abbe Dubois, 
 who sought the Roman purple through the interest of 
 King George, who was then on the best terms with 
 the Emperor Charles VI., were the chief instruments 
 of the good understanding between the English minis- 
 ters and the French Regent. Lord Stair, like an 
 able ambassador, did his best for the interests of 
 the government who had sent him to France for 
 the good of his country, and often turned trifles to 
 great advantage. Among other arts, he cultivated 
 the good services of M. Remond, a low, intriguing 
 savant, a debauchee, a slave to every Gee, but was 
 a favourite of the Abbe Dubois, who governed both 
 the Regent and the King. He was also in great 
 favour with the Marquis cle Canillac, who patronised 
 him on account of his agreeable manners, his wit, his 
 
 * M. cle St. Simon in an interesting account of the origin of the 
 connection between the English court, and that of the Regent Orleans, 
 continually calls this nobleman, the eldest son of John Dalrymple, 
 who was created Viscount Stair, by William III. “ Mi-lord Flairs,'’ 
 but Frenchmen are not remarkably attentive to foreign orthography. 
 Supp. Tom. 1. p. 208. 
 
388 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 pleasant explanations of obscure Greek obscenities ; 
 and the Abbe used him for his abilities in intrigue, his 
 respectful manners and adulation. 
 
 This man was too useful to be neglected by the 
 sagacious Englishman, and he paid his court, accord- 
 ingly, to this useful political instrument ; who, in re- 
 turn for his Lordship’s condescention, lauded his abili- 
 ties, vaunted his genius, his impartiality, and otherwise 
 magnified the great and good Lord Stair to his two 
 especial patrons ; and to his Lordship, he promised 
 their influence with the Regent. He acted between 
 these great parties as if he was commissioned by one 
 of them to make confidential advances to the other ; 
 and played his part so well, that the meetings of these 
 distinguished personages, which appeared at first to be 
 merely those of society and politeness, arising from 
 mutual esteem, were soon converted into real business. 
 
 M. de Canillac, whom his friend describes as a 
 man with much wit and little sense, a luminary who 
 dimmed his own light by his frivolities, and who occu- 
 pied the seat of judgment in his own house, and was 
 afflicted with a continual flux of speech, that pleased 
 no one so much as himself, and led him into many 
 mistakes. The prudent Lord Stair, well instructed by 
 the convenient M. Remond, omitted neither silent 
 respect, nor liberal protestations of admiration, which 
 was the weak side of M. de Canillac. The continued 
 cajolings of Lord Stair gained the heart of the French 
 Marquis, who could not resist the fascination, of imagin- 
 ing that the English Ambassador bowed before his 
 
ENGLISH AND FRENCH DIPLOMACY. 
 
 389 
 
 A. D. 1716] 
 
 merit, and that the great personage humbled himself 
 before his vast talents. In return, he, of course, ad- 
 mired and applauded the wit, the capacity, and the 
 extended views, of the British Plenipotentiary. The 
 open rupture between Lord Stair, and^ the government 
 of the late King, was a powerful attraction for Canillac, 
 who hated all persons in credit and in place, and all 
 who placed them there ; and finally the English Envoy 
 managed the French Statesman so well, that the latter 
 saw nothing, but through Lord Stair. The intimacy of 
 Canillac with the Duke de Noailles, whose brilliant 
 military successes in Spain, had procured him a high 
 reputation and the appointment of Viceroy of Cata- 
 lonia, led Bemond to wish the same to exist between 
 Lord Stair and Marshal Noailles. To effect this object, 
 he took similar measures with the Duke to those which 
 had been so successful with the Viscount ; his maxim 
 being, never to contradict and always to admire ; and 
 he again succeeded. As for the Abbe Dubois, the 
 connection was soon concluded, as the churchman no 
 less desired it than the diplomatist. 
 
 The Earl of Stanhope was then Secretary of State 
 to King George, who disliked the measures of Queen 
 Anne and her ministers, no less than the French 
 ministry did those of Louis XIV. The Earl’s father, 
 Mr. Stanhope, Envoy-extraordinary from William III. 
 to the Court of Spain had passed some time in Paris, 
 and had often met the Abbe Dubois at the house of 
 Lady Sandwich, who had resided many years at the 
 
390 
 
 WHEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 French Court, and intrigued" with Dubois. Dubois 
 and Mr. Stanhope were great friends and companions, 
 and was introduced by his reverend and gallant friend 
 to the Duke of Orleans, who afterwards received him 
 familiarly and invited him to some of his parties. 
 Stanhope and Dubois often corresponded, through 
 Lady Sandwich, after the return of the former to 
 England. 
 
 Tiie Earl of Stanhope had also been in Paris, during 
 the tour lie made in France and Italy, and had also 
 become acquainted with Dubois and his coterie ; and 
 when he became Secretary of State to the King of 
 England, the Abbe whose ambition and love of intrigue, 
 allowed him no repose, built all manner of imaginary 
 plans on his former intimacy with the English minister, 
 tie therefore directed the views of his former pupil, 
 the Kegent of France, towards the King of England. 
 Dubois renewed his acquaintance with Stair, and used 
 all his influence to get him to speak on the business 
 to the Regent, and reminded him of their former in- 
 timacy with Lord Stanhope. The English Ambassador 
 Avished for this opportunity, no less than the Abbe, 
 and communicated through the subtle priest, that he 
 had affairs, which could not be delivered but in person. 
 Every tiling proceeded to their wishes, but being mu- 
 tually unacquainted with the union which Remond had 
 concerted between Stair, Canillac and Dubois, and that 
 which Canillac had accomplished between the English 
 Ambassador and M. de Noailles ; but a triumvirate 
 
 * Supplement aux Memoires de M. le due de St. Simon, Tom. I. p. 211. 
 
ENGLISH AND FRENCH DIPLOMACY. 
 
 391 
 
 A. D. 1716 ] 
 
 had been formed between de Noailles, Canillac and 
 Dubois, which formed a plot, underplot and counterplot 
 enough for a Spanish comedy. 
 
 By these means, the Jacobites were expelled from 
 every part of France ; Dubois obtained the purple, put 
 away the wife, whom he had clandestinely married, 
 became Archbishop of Cambray, the richest in France, 
 a member of the Council of Regency, was consecrated 
 with extraordinary pomp in the Cathedral of Val-de- 
 Grace, by Cardinal de Rohan, and a pensioner* of 
 England. To show his gratitude for the latter favour, 
 he procured the aid of Monseigneur le Due, son of the 
 Prince de Conde, through the influence of Madame de 
 Prie, a woman endowed with the beauty, the air and 
 the form of a nymph ; witty and well read, for her 
 time, but possessed of the direst passions, as ambition, 
 avarice, hatred, revenge, and unbounded domination, 
 for whom the all-powerful Cardinal procured a pension 
 
 * Supplement aux Memoires de M. le Due de St. Simon, Tom. I. 
 p. 333. M. de St. Simon (Memoires, Tom. III. p. 23) gives the follow- 
 ing abstract of the Revenues enj oved by this eminent son of the Romish 
 Church — 
 
 Cambray 120,000 ' 
 
 Nogent sous Corny . . . 10,000 
 
 Saint-Just 10,000 
 
 Marivaux 
 
 Bourgueil 
 
 Berguet-Saint-Vinox . . 
 
 Saint-Bertin 
 
 Cercamp 
 
 Premier Ministre .... 
 Les Postes ..... 
 Pension d’Angleterre . . 
 
 20,000 J 
 
 150.000 "| 
 
 100.000 > 
 980,000 J 
 
 \ 1,230,000 livres 
 
 Total e 
 
 . . 1,554,000 livres 
 
392 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 of equal amount* with his own. Four months after 
 the death of Dubois, M. de Floury, preceptor to the 
 young King, accused ( bombarded , says M. de St. Simon) 
 M. le Due, in his place, of this profligate act ; yet 
 made him a phantom Prime Minister to his pupil, 
 Louis XV. who had then attained his majority, and 
 be, himself, “ Viceroy over him.” 
 
 Such were the secret causes which effected the ex- 
 pulsion of the wretched Stuarts and the unfortunate 
 Jacobites, from the kingdom of France. 
 
 Bribery and corruption, which led to these results 
 abroad, were employed so openly at home, that no one 
 considered Sir Bobert Walpole’s assertion, that “ every 
 man had his price” to be untrue. Wren, one of the 
 most disinterested of men, and who knew and studied 
 every thing better than the art of enriching himself, 
 fell a victim to the arts of intrigue and bribery. 
 
 The King preferred his own country and his former 
 friends, both to England . and new acquaintances, for 
 whatever faults he may have possessed, desertion of his 
 friends was not among them. But as money had 
 worked such wonders in Paris, and the aid of the 
 Begent of France and his pious ministry, had been 
 bought at a very high price, the conscientious ministers 
 of the King of England, found it necessary to become 
 sellers, and therefore every place at their disposal be- 
 came a marketable commodity ; and Wren’s office of 
 Surveyor-General of His Majesty’s works and build- 
 ings, which he had held with unequalled ability and 
 
 * 980,000 livres. 
 
A. D 1718] WREN SUPERSEDED AS SURVEYOR-GENERAL. 393 
 
 lion our to himself and advantage to liis country, for 
 a period of more than half a century, being appointed 
 deputy to Sir John Denham, “ '"one of the Fathers of 
 English poetry,” in 1666, and succeeded as principal, 
 by warrant under the Privy Seal, March 6, 1668, after 
 the death of the poet, (who held it more as a means 
 for supplying his necessities than to exhibit his qualifi- 
 cations,) till he was superseded in favour of Mr. Benson 
 in April 1718. 
 
 It is not a little singular, that Wren succeeded a 
 poet and was superseded by a poetaster. William 
 Benson was a critic of some repute in his day and a 
 very minor poet. He published, among other forgotten 
 thingsf, “ Virgil’s Husbandry, with notes critical and 
 rustical “ Letters on Poetical Translations,” and an 
 edition of Arthur Johnson’s Latin version of the 
 Psalms. In a scarce j work, the author, a man of 
 good repute, asserts that “ it is very well known that 
 Mr. Benson was a favourite with the Germans ; and I 
 believe nobody had more occasion to be convinced of 
 the power of its influence than myself ; so great indeed 
 was it, that Sir Christopher Wren, the famous Architect, 
 who contrived the stately edifice of St. Paul’s Cathedral, 
 and finished it in his own time, was turned out of his 
 employment of Master of the King’s Works, which he 
 had possessed ever since the Restoration, to make room 
 
 * Dr. Johnson. 
 
 t Nichols’s Literary Anecdotes. 
 
 X Memoirs of John Ker of Kersland in North Britain by himself, 
 and dedicated to Sir Robert Walpole, 8vo. London, 1726. 
 
394 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 for this favourite of Foreigners.” In another part of 
 the same work, Mr. Ker says of the corruption of King 
 George’s court*, “ Robert Walpole, Esq. had obtained 
 a patent for the reversion of a place in the Customs 
 for his son, which Mr. Benson, before-mentioned, being 
 informed of, he told Mr. Walpole, he was in terms of 
 disposing of it to another for £1500, but would let 
 Mr. Walpole have it for the same sum, if he pleased ; 
 and upon that gentleman contemptuously rejecting it, 
 he so resented it, that Mr. Walpole was turned out of 
 his posts, and of all favour at court, even at a time 
 when he was about to execute a great public good, 
 that of reducing the National Debt.” 
 
 Thus was removed the man, of whom Sir Robert 
 Walpolet said, “ the length of whose life enriched the 
 reigns of several Princes, and disgraced the last of 
 them.” Another close examiner into the facts of this 
 reign, remarks on this transaction, thatj “ none could 
 credit it, but those who know how the demon of politics, 
 like that of fate, confounds all distinctions ; how it 
 elevates blockheads, how it depresses men of talents, 
 how it tears from the mouth of genius, exhausted with 
 toil for the public good and bending under a load of 
 helpless age, for which it has made no provision, that 
 bread which it bestows upon the idle and the selfish ; 
 upon those whose life and death, as the acute Roman 
 historian, Sallust, says, are nearly the same.” 
 
 * Ker’s Memoirs, p. 109. t Ibid, p. 110. 
 
 Seward’s Anecdotes. 
 
A. D. 1718] 
 
 BENSON AND THE DUNCIAD. 
 
 395 
 
 In tlie first edition of the Dunciad, Pope thus cele- 
 brates the supplanter of Wren — 
 
 “ Beneath this reign shall Eusden wear the bays, 
 
 Cibber preside Lord Chancellor of plays, 
 
 Benson sole judge of architecture sit, 
 
 And namby-pamby be preferr’d for wit !” 
 
 In the subsequent editions the satirist altered this 
 passage as follows — 
 
 “ See, see, our own true Phoebus wears the bays ! 
 
 Our Midas sits Lord Chancellor of plays ! 
 
 On poets’* tombs see Benson’s titles writ ! 
 
 Lo, Ambrose Phillips is preferr’d for wit 1” 
 
 In a notef, he adds, “ in favour of this man, the 
 famous Sir Christopher Wren, who had been Architect 
 to the crown for above fifty years, who had built most 
 of the chinches in London, laid the first stone of 
 St. Paul’s, and lived to finish it, had been displaced 
 from his employment at the age of near ninety years.” 
 But of Wren our great poet says — 
 
 “ See under t Ripley rise a new Whitehall, 
 
 While Jones’ and Boyle’s united labours fall ; 
 
 While Wren with sorrow to the grave descends, 
 
 Gay dies unpension’d with a hundred friends.” 
 
 Horace Walpole, in writing of the beginning and 
 completion of St. Paul’s, and of Wren’s occasional visits 
 
 * Alluding to Benson’s monument to Milton in Westminster Abbey, 
 t The Dunciad, Book III. v. 325, and note. 
 
 f Architect to the Admiralty Offices, Whitehall, and inventor of the 
 lanky bed-post columns of the portico, now hidden from public con- 
 tempt, by Adams’s Grecian screen. 
 
396 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 to survey Lis great work, considers them, “ as a fabric 
 and an event which, one cannot wonder, left such an 
 impression of content on the mind of the good old 
 man ; that being carried to see it once a year, it seemed 
 to recall a memory that was almost deadened to every 
 other use.” 
 
 In allusion to the unmerited persecutions inflicted 
 upon his old friend and much-loved companion in early 
 life, Bishop Sprat condoled with Wren, in an epigra- 
 matic quatrain, saying — 
 
 “ Heroic souls a nobler lustre find, 
 
 E’en from those griefs which break a vulgar mind : 
 
 That frost which cracks the brittle common glass, 
 
 Makes crystal into stronger brightness pass.” 
 
 The persecution of Wren by the higher powers, en- 
 couraged his former minor persecutors, now he had lost 
 his protectors, to imitate their superiors, and, as a Ro- 
 man poet says, imitators are but a servile race of cattle, 
 their coarse flings could not but affect a sensitive mind. 
 Either to renew then - charge that the architectural part 
 of St. Paul’s was unfinished, or an unmitigated bad 
 taste in the commissioners, they met in conclave, and 
 determined that the classical termination of the upper 
 cornice by an acroterium, or blocking course, with 
 which the Architect, after the most approved ancient 
 examples, was not a sufficient finish. They therefore 
 resolved to go beyond their last, and condemn the 
 judgment of the British Vitruvius, by ordering a balus- 
 trade, such as is only proper to a terrace walk, should 
 be erected, over the gutters of the roofs, wherein no one 
 
A. D. 1718] 
 
 MINOR PERSECUTIONS. 
 
 397 
 
 ever walked, or through which no one wished to peer, 
 hut the dingy city sparrows or the labourers who might 
 be required to clean and repair them. Neither is there 
 any example of such a needless excrescence in any 
 Greek or Roman building, although many historical 
 painters of the ornamental school, have thus disfigured 
 their imaginary edifices. They accordingly sent him a 
 copy of their resolution of the 15th of October 1 71 7", 
 “ that a balustrade of stone be set up on the top of the 
 Church, unless Sir Christopher Wren, do in writing, 
 under his hand, set forth, that it is contrary to the prin- 
 ciples of Architecture, and give his opinion in a fort- 
 night’s time ; and if he doth not, then the resolution of 
 a balustrade is to be proceeded with.” 
 
 To this requisition, which did not reach Sir Christo- 
 pher till the 21st, six days out of the allotted fortnight, 
 he replied at length. In this reply, written on the 
 23rd, he took leave, first, to declare, that he never de- 
 signed a balustrade ; that persons of little skill in Ar- 
 chitecture, did expect, he believed, to see something 
 they had been used to in Gothic structures ; and ladies, 
 he sarcastically adds, think nothing well without an edg- 
 ing. He further informs them, that he would have 
 complied with the vulgar taste, but for the following 
 reasons, given at length in my larger work, but ob- 
 serves, that there was already, over the entablature, a 
 proper plinth, which regularly terminated the building, 
 and as no provision was originally made, in his design, 
 
 * From some family papers belonging to the late Mr. Hunt, and given 
 in full in my quarto Memoirs of Wren, p. 568. 
 
398 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 for a balustrade, the setting up one in such a confused 
 manner over the plinth, must break into the harmony 
 of the whole machine, and, in this particular case, be 
 contrary to the principles of Architecture. He also 
 forcibly condemns the false taste, of vases and urns 
 placed indiscriminately on all sorts of building, what- 
 ever were their character or destination. 
 
 He, also, explains that it was his intention to have 
 had statues erected on the four pediments only, which 
 he thought would have been a most proper, noble and 
 sufficient ornament to the whole fabric, and was never 
 omitted in the best ancient Greek and Homan architec- 
 ture ; the principles of which, throughout all his 
 schemes of that colossal structure, he had, he says em- 
 phatically, religiously endeavoured to follow. The 
 pedestals for these statues he had already constructed 
 on the building, which then stood naked for want of 
 these sculptural finishings. 
 
 “ If I glory/’ concludes this venerable and venerated 
 Sage, then in his eighty-seventh year, “ it is in the 
 singular mercy of God, who has enabled me to begin 
 and finish my great work so conformable to the ancient 
 model.” 
 
 By this emphatic protest, the world may now learn, 
 who placed this useless, expensive and ridiculous “ edg- 
 ing,” on the top of the already-finished entablature of 
 Wren’s admirable work. The first* drawing that I 
 
 * One of a series of the Cathedral made for Britton’s Fine Arts of 
 the English school, published by Messrs. Longman & Co. London, 
 4 to. 1810. 
 
A D. 1718] BALUSTRADES AND LACE EDGINGS. 399 
 
 made for John Le Keux’s fine engraving of the west 
 front of the Cathedral, from actual measurement I made 
 at first, without the incumbering balustrade, and added 
 it afterwards, and it is surprising how superior in effect 
 the former was to the latter ; how much better the 
 manly garment was without the French edging. Some 
 years after this experiment, I passed some time in Ox- 
 ford, hunting for documents for the Memoirs, and all 
 the drawings and sketches by Wren, in the library of 
 All Souls’ College, are without the addition, which was 
 evidently made after October 1717, when Wren de- 
 clared his work finished, and the inapplicability and 
 unsightliness of the fillagree, which much resembles 
 Lord Peter’s embroidery, shoulder knots and tags, 
 clumsily stitched on to the handsome and comely coat, 
 his father’s legacy, which concealed and damaged the 
 wholesome material and graceful cut of the original. 
 I much question whether Wren had any thing to do 
 with the tawdry atrocity he repudiated ; and as Pro- 
 fessor Cockerell so religiously preserved every part of 
 Wren’s design in his skilful restoration of the ball and 
 cross, so ought he to have been permitted to have un- 
 stitched the lace from Wren’s graceful garment. The 
 materials would have paid the cost of taking down, or 
 would have served for the parapet of Rennie’s London 
 Bridge, which would have been so belaced by the Com- 
 mittee, had not the above letter of Wren, and the ex- 
 hibition of some elevations of the bridges of the Holy 
 Trinity at Florence, and of Neuilly in France, and some 
 other unlaced bridges, carried it in favour of good taste, 
 
400 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 to tlie manifest improvement of the structure, and the 
 saving of several thousands of pounds of the revenues 
 of the Bridge-house estates. 
 
 At the time when Wren wrote the preceding re- 
 monstrance, his rival, the pseudo-architect Benson, oc- 
 cupied his degraded chair ; but, if such a mind as 
 Wren’s could feel any compensation in the fall of a fel- 
 low man, even if that man were his enemy, his inju- 
 ries were amply revenged, for Benson held the import- 
 ant and dignified situation, honoured by Jones and 
 Wren, scarcely twelve months, with unparalleled in- 
 capacity. 
 
 Among Benson’s first employments, he was commis- 
 sioned to survey the buildings of the House of Lords, 
 and presented a report to then Lordships in 1719, that 
 the house, and the apartment called the Painted- 
 Chamber, which adjoined it, were in immediate danger 
 of falling. On receiving this intimation the Lords met 
 in committee, to appoint another place for then meet- 
 ings, during the taking down and rebuilding the edifice, 
 when one of them suggested the expediency of having 
 the opinion of some other persons. The new survey 
 was made by competent judges, who, after carefully in- 
 vestigating the state of the buildings, reported to their 
 Lordships, that they were in a sound and perfectly safe 
 condition. In fact, Wren had continually kept them 
 in repair, particularly when he added the Bishops’ 
 robing rooms, in William the Third’s reign ; and the 
 time they stood afterwards, till destined by the fire 
 in 1834, when this very building was converted for the 
 
A. D. 1719] benson’s REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 401 
 
 use of the House of Commons, and taken down during 
 the recess of 1851-52, proves the falsehood of Benson’s, 
 and the truth of the subsequent report, were fully es- 
 tablished. 
 
 The Peers, justly indignant at Benson’s ignorance, 
 incapacity or cupidity, or the admixture of the three 
 ingredients, which went to the composition of the new 
 Surveyor-General of Plis Majesty’s works and build- 
 ings, presented an* address to the King to remove and 
 prosecute him for the shameful delinquency. The Earl 
 of Sunderland brought down His Majesty’s most gra- 
 cious answer to this complaint, in which he not only 
 announced that he had dismissed Benson from the 
 office he had so signally dishonoured, but had com- 
 manded that he should be publicly prosecuted by the 
 law officers of the Crown. 
 
 Benson’s influence until the German camerilla, from 
 whom he had purchased Wren’s place and his own dis- 
 grace, was so great, that instead of a prosecution, he 
 was solaced with tliet presentation of the Wharf at 
 Whitehall, worth above £1500 a-year for a term of 
 thirty years. He was also further consoled by the 
 assignment of a debt, in Ireland, due to the Crown, 
 which he, no doubt, collected until becoming diligence. 
 He was also rewarded by the reversion of one of the 
 two offices^, of auditor of the imprests, held by Mr. 
 Harley, which he enjoyed after that gentleman’s death. 
 
 * Ker’s Memoirs, p. 110. t Ibid, p. 111. 
 
 t Chalmers’s Biog. Diet. 
 
402 WREN AND Ills TIMES. [CHAP. III. 
 
 Who can say, after this, that in George’s reign, desert 
 in art was left uncrowned. 
 
 Wren, during this disgraceful conflict, left the 
 Right-honourable, and Most-dishonourable combatants 
 to their internecinal war, and took his departure for a 
 more peaceful retirement, at his house near Hampton- 
 Court, full of years and honours, saying* “ nunc me 
 jabet fortuna expeditius philosophari.” In this philoso- 
 phical retreat, the venerable patriarch passed the 
 greater portion of the remaining five years of his calm 
 contemplative existence, varied by occasional visits to 
 London, to inspect the progress of the reparations going 
 on at Westminster Abbey, and to view his great work, 
 St. Paul’s. The rest of his calm and peaceful days, 
 was passed in the placid indulgence, after such a busy 
 life, of contemplation and study ; to which he added 
 the daily consolation of the Holy Scriptures, which had 
 been his guide through life, and in the Learning of 
 which, he was well versed. Thus, this venerable sage, 
 employed the leisure of his age, in those useful studies 
 and pursuits, to which Providence had been pleased to 
 call him. 
 
 Among these philosophic musings, Wren revised his 
 calculations for the discovery of the longitude at sea, 
 reviewed some of his former works on mathematics 
 and astronomy, and other mental researches, which 
 proved, that although time had enfeebled his limbs, 
 which was his principal ailment, yet that great leveller 
 had produced but little effect upon his mental powers, 
 
 * Parentalia. 
 
DEATH OF FLAMSTEED. 
 
 403 
 
 A. D. 1719] 
 
 which continued with a strength and vivacity seldom 
 found in a nonagenarian, till within a few days of his 
 closing scene. Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, 
 for whose use Wren built the observatory at Green- 
 wich, called Flamsteed House, took his departure from 
 this planet, on the last day of December 1719, in his 
 74 th year, shortly after he had prepared for the press, 
 the whole, and had printed the greater part of his 
 celebrated work “ Historia Ccelestis Britannica,” which 
 was published in 1725, 3 vol. folio. 
 
 Sir Richard Steele, in his “ Tatler,” the progenitor 
 of those lively periodical essays, which gave so healthy 
 a tone to English didactic literature, and elevated the 
 sentiment, manners and general feeling of the people, 
 felt so much the injustice practised upon the great 
 architect, that he wrote, in No. 52, a character of Wren, 
 in the form of an apologue. The intention of this 
 eminent writer, was to show r that although modesty is 
 to the other virtues, what shade is to a picture, the 
 cause of making the other beauties more conspicuous, 
 it should bear a just proportion ; for if there be an 
 excess, it hides instead of heightens the other virtues 
 and beauties. 
 
 Steele must have been disinterested in his motives, 
 for we know not whether the gay guardsman, of thirty- 
 eight, the lively man about town, was ever personally 
 acquainted with the grave philosopher of seventy-eight ; 
 the probability is, that he was not, but in his character 
 of a news-writer, for this father of periodicals, con- 
 tained news as well as speculations ; he had learned the 
 
 d d 2 
 
WEEN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 404 
 
 [chap. hi. 
 
 persecutions of the sage and determined to expose 
 them. 
 
 He named the hero of his fable Nestor, who was, 
 he says, an unhappy instance of the foregoing proposi- 
 tion of the bad effects of an excess of modesty, or, 
 rather, diffidence. “ Nestor,” he continues, “ was not 
 only in his profession, the greatest man of that age, 
 but had given more proofs of it, than any other man 
 ever did ; but for want of that natural freedom and 
 audacity which is necessary in commerce with men, 
 his personal modesty overthrew all his public actions. 
 Nestor was in those days a skilful architect, and, in a 
 manner, the inventor of the use of mechanical powers, 
 which he brought to so great perfection, that he knew 
 to an atom, what foundation would bear such a super- 
 structure : and they record of him, that he was so pro- 
 digiously exact, that for the experiment’s sake, he 
 built an edifice of great seeming strength ; but con- 
 trived so as to bear only its own weight, and not to 
 admit the addition of the least particle. This building 
 was beheld with much admiration by all the virtuosi 
 of that tunc ; but fell down with no other pressure 
 than the settling of a Wren upon the top of it. Yet 
 Nestor’s modesty was such, that his art and skill were 
 soon disregarded, for want of that manner with which 
 men of the world support and assert the merit of their 
 own performances. Soon after this instance of his art, 
 Athens was by the treachery of its enemies burned to 
 the ground. This gave Nestor the greatest occasion 
 that ever builder had, to render his name immortal, 
 
a. d. 1720] steele’s character of wren. 405 
 
 and his person venerable : for all the new city rose 
 according to his disposition, and all the monuments of 
 the glories and distresses of that people were erected 
 by that sole artist. Nay, all their temples as well as 
 houses, were the effects of his study and labour ; inso- 
 much that it was said by an old sage, £ Sure Nestor 
 will now be famous, for the habitation of Gods as well 
 as men, are built by his contrivance !’ But this bash- 
 ful quality still put a damp upon his great knowledge, 
 which has as fatal an effect upon men’s reputation as 
 poverty, for it was said* £ the poor man saved the city, 
 yet no man remembered him,’ so here we find, the 
 modest man built the city, and the modest man’s skill 
 was unknown. But surely posterity are obliged to 
 allow him that praise after his death, which he so in- 
 dustriously declined while he was living. Thus, we 
 see, every man is the maker of his own fortune ; and, 
 what is very odd to consider, lie must in some measure 
 be the trumpeter of his own fame. Not that men are 
 to be tolerated who directly praise themselves ; but 
 they are to be endued with a sort of defensive eloquence, 
 by which they shall be always capable of expressing 
 the rules and arts whereby they govern themselves.” 
 In a note to this paper, the distinguished author adds, 
 ££ that any attempt to declare his extensive merits, to 
 enumerate his manifold inventions, or even to mention 
 his literary productions and architectural works, in a 
 note to a paper of half a sheet, to say nothing of the 
 
 * Eccles. ix. 15. 
 
406 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [c 
 
 HAP. III. 
 
 absurdity, would be an indignity to one of the most 
 accomplished and illustrious characters in history.” 
 
 If more be wanting, let his detractors and under- 
 valuers, for such there are, even at the present day, read 
 what the immortal Newton, who knew his expanse, 
 says of Wren, Wallis and Huygens, that they were 
 “ hujus aetatis geometrarum facile principes.” 
 
 The passage referring to the experimental building, 
 which fell on the weight of a Wren, and the subse- 
 quent burning of the city, has been supposed to refer 
 to the report on the construction of the old Cathedral, 
 and his plans for the reparation and alteration of it, so 
 as to include Inigo Jones’s fine portico and his inten- 
 tions of reconstructing it in the Italian style, mentioned 
 in page 157 of this work, and more of a personal op- 
 position to Wren than to his plans. Wren also made 
 another design, of which he constructed the beautiful 
 model, described in page 271, and considered it to be 
 the best, and he certainly was a competent judge, and 
 would have executed with more satisfaction, had he 
 not been over-ruled by those whom it was his duty to 
 obey. He was also thwarted, as is well known, in the 
 execution of his beautiful plan for rebuilding the city, 
 by the haste of the citizens and the numerous disputes 
 about private property. 
 
 The burning of Lyons in Gaul ( Lug dunum in Gal- 
 lia Celtica), as related by Seneca, in his 92nd epistle, 
 is the event which is considered to approach the near- 
 est in history to the great fire of London, except that 
 in the latter instance the whole city was not destroyed, 
 
A. D. 1720] 
 
 LYONS AND LONDON. 
 
 407 
 
 nor is it certain that it was by the malice of its enemies. 
 Neither is there any such assertion in the " f original 
 inscription, written for it by Wren, who was neither a 
 Papist nor the son of a Papist, but a sound Church-of- 
 England man, and descended from as sound and ortho- 
 dox Churcli-of-England family as ever lived, and who 
 would not have omitted the fact had he believed it. 
 In the present inscription, cut, effaced, re-cut and re- 
 effaced, the destruction of the city was roundly charged 
 upon the malice of the Papists. It has been recently 
 expunged — ought never to have been there, and is 
 never likely to be there again. Had Wren’s more 
 classical and truthful inscription to his own fine design 
 been adopted, his friend Pope’s satirical couplet of 
 
 “ London’s proud column, pointing to the skies. 
 
 Like a tall bully, lifts his head and lies.” 
 
 would never have been written. 
 
 Among other contrivances to annoy the venerable 
 Wren, a rumour was raised that the Sheldonian Thea- 
 tre, Oxford, which had been built between fifty and 
 sixty years, was in a dangerous state. To ascertain the 
 truth or falsehood of this report the Ilev. Dr, Shippen, 
 Vice-Chancellor of the University, commissioned Wil- 
 liam Townsend of Oxford, mason, and Jeremiah Frank- 
 lin, and Thomas Speakman, of the same place, carpen- 
 ters, able and experienced persons, to survey, strictly 
 examine and report upon the state of the whole fabric. 
 This duty they performed diligently, and reported to 
 
 * 
 
 See p. 293 of my quarto Memoirs of Wren. 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 408 
 
 [chap. hi. 
 
 the Vice-Chancellor, under their * hands, the 8tli of 
 March 1720. 
 
 The report of these able builders was, that the 
 whole fabric of the theatre was in perfect repair and 
 good order. None of the walls appeared in the least 
 defective, and the roof, which had formerly been swayed 
 or sunk in the middle about eleven inches, occasioned 
 by the shrinking of some of the timbers and the great 
 weight f of books formerly laid upon it, appeared to 
 be in as good a condition as it was above twenty years 
 before, when a similar examination was made. And 
 they further certified that the whole fabric of the 
 theatre was, in their opinion, likely to remain in as 
 good repair and condition for one hundred or two hun- 
 dred years yet to come. 
 
 This attack upon the great Architect proved as 
 signal a failure as did that of Benson about the sta- 
 bility of the House of Peers. As a proof of the cor- 
 rectness of the preceding report, I surveyed the whole 
 roof when stripped of its coverings for the great gene- 
 ral repair it underwent, under the superintendence of 
 Mr. Saunders, the architect, about thirty years ago. It 
 was then discovered that the gilded cordage which 
 
 * See copy of the original in Parentalia, p. 337, and Elmes’s Memoirs 
 of Wren, p. 517- 
 
 t Probably the most distressing weight that could be placed upon 
 the strongest warehouse floor in our docks, except, perhaps, wheat in 
 the grain, and this portion of the structure is only what is technically 
 termed a ceiling floor, constructed as a covering to the area below, and 
 not a floor to bear the weight of many persons or goods. 
 
A. D. 1720] 
 
 MORE ATTACKS ON WREN. 
 
 409 
 
 went under the painted ceiling, representing the ropes 
 that were stretched from pilaster to pilaster to support 
 the velarium or awning by which the ancients protected 
 the spectators in their theatres from the weather, and 
 which in this building the artist has represented being 
 drawn aside by genii to permit the arts and sciences to 
 descend from heaven was of iron, and an essential part 
 of the construction of the roof ; but they were only of 
 carved oak, applied after the picture was finished, to 
 look more truthful than painting on a flat surface. 
 There are good engravings of tliis admirable roof 
 in Parentalia, and in my larger work, which I com- 
 pared with the original, at the time before mentioned. 
 Both are illustrated by an account from Dr. Plot’s 
 Natural History of Oxfordshire, (chap, ix.,) which, 
 from its technical peculiarity, and the author’s intimacy 
 with Wren, denotes that it was from the pen of 
 the latter. 
 
 Wren’s long and useful life began now to draw 
 towards a close, but accident, and, perhaps, the mortifi- 
 cation at being removed in such an ungrateful manner 
 from the office he had dignified so long, tended to 
 shorten that life which activity and temperance had 
 prolonged so much beyond the usual term of man’s 
 existence. Till his dismissal from the office of Sur- 
 veyor-General he had principally resided at the house 
 assigned to this officer, in Scotland Yard, West- 
 minster. Ho afterwards occupied a town residence in 
 St. James’s Street, Piccadilly, and continued to super- 
 intend the repairs of Westminster Abbey, of which he 
 
410 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. HI. 
 
 continued to be the Surveyor till his death. He also 
 rented a house from the crown at Hampton Court, 
 which he much improved. To this quiet residence the 
 great Architect often retired from the hurry of business, 
 and passed the greater portion of the last five years of 
 his life in study and contemplation. 
 
 Ox his last journey from Hampton Court to Lon- 
 don, he contracted a cold which probably accelerated 
 his death, but he died as he had lived, in placid se- 
 renity. The good old man had, in Iris latter days, ac- 
 customed himself to sleep a short time after his dinner, 
 and on the 25th of February 1723 his attendant ser- 
 vant thought his master had slept longer than usual, 
 went into his room and found him dead in his chair. 
 From a cast * of a mask, taken shortly after his 
 death, which I have often contemplated with vene- 
 ration, the face appears as calm as if in sleep, re- 
 sembling t that of the saints, and might well be 
 called “ falling asleep/’ for the innocence of his life 
 made him expect it as indifferently as he did his ordi- 
 nary rest. 
 
 The funeral of Sir Christopher Wren, was attended 
 by an assemblage of honourable and distinguished per- 
 sonages, from his house in St. James's Street to that 
 Cathedral, which he designed and built to his own and 
 
 * When. I last saw this memorial of the illustrious dead it was at 
 Ardhraccan House, near Navan, Co. Meath, the palace of Dr. O’Beirne, 
 Bishop of that diocess, in whose family Miss Wren was then residing. 
 
 t Sir Richard Steele on Wren’s Mend, Dr. South, “ Tatler,” 
 No. 61. 
 
A. D. 1723] 
 
 DEATH OF WREN. 
 
 411 
 
 his country’s honour. Ilis mortal remains were depo- 
 sited in the crypt, in the recess of the south-eastern 
 window, under the choir*, adjoining to others of his 
 family, who had gone before. This honoured spot, 
 sacred to him and his kinsfolk, is separated from the 
 aisle by dwarf iron rails, and on the plain black marble 
 slab which covers his coffin, is inscribed in deeply cut 
 letters ; 
 
 + 
 
 Here lieth 
 
 Sir Christopher W ren, the Builder of this Cathedral Church 
 of St. Paul, etc. Who died in the year of our Lord, 
 
 MDCCXXIII, and of his age XCI. 
 
 On the western jamb of the recess of the window 
 under which he is buried, is a handsome marble tablet, 
 with a sunk panel, bordered by a moulding of eggs and 
 tongues, which contains an inscription written by the 
 Architect’s son, Christopher, as follows : 
 
 Subtus Conditur 
 
 Huius EcCLESI/E et urbis conditor 
 CHRISTOPHORUS WHEN, 
 
 Qui VIXIT ANNOS ULTRA NONAGENTA, 
 
 Non sibi sed bono publico. 
 
 Lector, si monumentum requiris, 
 circumspice. 
 
 Obiit XXV. Feb. Anno MDCCXXIII. JEt. XCI. 
 
 From the architectural character and large size of 
 the tablet, and by the last sentence, calling on the 
 reader, who required his monument, “ to look around,” 
 
 See page 288 of this work. 
 
412 
 
 WREN ANT) HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. III. 
 
 it is blit reasonable to conclude that it was intended for 
 the body of the Cathedral, where the congregation 
 assembled daily to worship, and the public to survey 
 its beauties, rather than for the solemn sepulchral 
 vaults, where it has appealed in vain to the few read- 
 ers who had scanned its contents, for more than a century 
 and a quarter. 
 
 The malice of the commissioners pursued Wren 
 beyond the grave, and condemned the explanatory 
 epitaph to the “ dim religious light” of the crypt, in- 
 stead of the broad day of the superstructure. If cabal 
 and intrigue prevailed in 1723, the justice and decision 
 of Robert Milne"', who had the architectural care of 
 the cathedral till death removed him, to make way for 
 Professor Cockerell, who yields nothing in love and ad- 
 miration for their predecessor, redressed it nearly a 
 century afterwards, by placing a large and handsome 
 copy of the inscription in raised gilt metal letters on a 
 well-proportioned marble tablet, affixed to the western 
 front of the organ, and forming a sort of attic to the 
 elegant veined marble screen to the chon - , of the 
 Corinthian order, designed by Wren, which sup- 
 ports it. 
 
 Several other epitaphs and complimentary verses, 
 are given in Parentalia and my Memoirs, which the 
 limits assigned to this work, will not admit ; but a 
 
 * It was this gentleman, who, in my youth, set me upon the task 
 of measuring and delineating this fine machine of architecture, as the 
 old gentleman called it, and pointed cut its beauties to me. 
 
DEATH OF WREN. 
 
 413 
 
 A. D. 1723] 
 
 distich, said, in Parentalia, to have been intended by 
 his son as a close to bis pious epitaph, may conclude 
 
 “ Dii majorum umbris tenuem et sine pondere terrain*, 
 Spirantesque crocos, et in urna perpetuam ver.” 
 
 * Juvenal, Sub. VII. The “tenuem et sine pondere terrain,” a 
 poetical paraphrase of the Roman wish to their deceased friends, S. T. T. L. 
 or, “ sit tibi terra levis,” is as complete an antithesis to the satirist’s pro- 
 posed epitaph to Vanbrugh — ■ 
 
 “ Lie heavy on him, earth, for he 
 Laid many many a heavy load on thee,” 
 
 as was the styles of these distinguished architects. 
 
414 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. IY. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF WREN’S ARCHITECTURAL WORKS. 
 
 A. D. 16C1 TO 1723. 
 
 “ A variety of knowledge proclaims the universality, a multiplicity of 
 works the abundance, and St. Paul’s Cathedral the greatness of Sir 
 Christopher Wren’s genius.” Horace Walpoi.e. 
 
 “ Of him I must affirm, that since the time of Archimedes, there 
 scarce ever met in one man so great perfection, with such a mecha- 
 nical head, and so philosophical a mind.” Robert Hooke. 
 
 In the Lansdowne collection of manuscripts, in the 
 British Museum, is one by the eldest son of Sir Chris- 
 topher Wren, countersigned by the great Architect. 
 Being of undoubted authority, it was used throughout 
 my quarto memoirs, to reconcile contradictory accounts 
 in other biographies, and quoted in the notes where 
 necessary. It is now given entire, as a remarkable 
 breviate of the life of one of the greatest men of any 
 time. It is as follows : — 
 
 Chronolocjica series vitce et actorum, Ilonmi. Patris 
 mei Dni. Ghr. Wren, Eq. A ur. &c. &c. &c. Quern Deus 
 conserved. *Collata Octr. 1720. C. W. 
 
 Octob. 20 , 1632. Ds. Christophorus Wren a Christophero natus est 
 apud Knoyle Epi in agro Wiltoniensi, Die 5 inter 7 am et (juxta) 
 
 In Sir Christopher’s hand- writing, two years before his death. 
 
wren’s birtii and schooling. 
 
 415 
 
 A.D. 1632] 
 
 Sam horam post merid. cyclo solis, 17 ; Lunae 18 ; litera domini- 
 cali B ; 3o. post bissextum. Ex sckedis avltis. 
 
 1646. Admissus in Collegio de Wod/iam., Oxoniae, commensalis gene-- 
 rosus. Ex sched. avit. 
 
 1646. Gulielmi Oughtred, geometriam, horologium , sciotericorum ra- 
 tionem , ex Anglico idiomate in Latinum vertit, nondum sexdecim 
 annos natus. 
 
 1650 [March 18]. Baccalaureus in artibus. Fasti Oxon. p. 772. 
 Primus erat inventor artis micrographics , seu delineandi et descri- 
 bendi minutissima corpora et invisibiles antehac corporum partes, 
 opera microscopii. Sprat Hist. Reg. Soc. et ex autographis Dni. 
 Paul Neil, Robt. Murray, Eq., D. D. Wilkins et Ward, Dnus. 
 Hooke, Microg Praef. 
 
 1650. Observationes de Saturno et theoriam istius planetae instituit, 
 priusquam dissertatio Hugenii de isto argumento erat edita. Hist. 
 Reg. Soc. 
 
 1653 [[Nov. 2]. Electus in societatem eollegii omnium animarum 
 communi consensu. Ex sched. avit. 
 
 1653 [[Dec. 12]. Ad gradum magisterii evectus. Ex sched. avit . — 
 Fasti Oxon. Vol. II. cap. 102. 
 
 1656. Primus erat inventor (Oxoniae) nobilis istius experimenti ana- 
 tomici, injiciendi quoscunque liquores in venas animalium, et 
 massam sanguinis. Phil. Trans. No. VII. p. 128. Nat. Hist. 
 Oxon. p. 30. 
 
 1657 [Aug. ID- Electus professor Astronomiae in Collegio Gresh- 
 amensi Londini. Ex sched. avit. et Fasti Oxon. p. 820. 
 
 1657. Oratio inauguralis, habita in Collegio Greshamensi Lond. cum 
 Cathedram Astronomiae Professor electus conscendisset. Anno 
 aet. 25. 
 
 1 658. Solutio problematis propositi a Jean de *Montfert, ad Mathe- 
 seios professores, et alios Mathematicos in Anglia, ut solvere dig- 
 narentur. Imprim. et apud nos. 
 
 1658. De cycloidibus, eorumque segmentis, necnon de sphaeroidibus 
 
 A name assumed by M. Pascal for this purpose. 
 
416 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 cycloidalibus, et segmentorum cycloidalium solidis rotundis. M.S. 
 apud nos. 
 
 1658. Literae ad D. Pascal, Parisiis, De doctrina cycloidum Liter® a 
 D. Pascal, De eodem argumento, dat® Parisii, 1658. 
 
 1658. Pr®lectiones Greshamenses in astronomiam Kepleri. 
 
 1658. Epistol® ad D. Dominos de Carcavy et Pascal; Parisiis; cum 
 solutione problematis ab illis missi et propositi, de cycloidis ejusque 
 solidis , centrisque gravitatis. M.S. apud nos. 
 
 1659. Lectur® Anglice et Latine Greshamenses de luce et refrac- 
 tione. 
 
 1660 QJan. 31]. Resignante clarissimo viro Doctore Setho Ward, 
 postea Episcopo Sarisburiensi. 
 
 1660 QFeb. 6]. Electus professor Savilianus astronomer; in academia 
 Oxon. Ex autographo electorum. Christophorum Wren, A.M. 
 Collegii Omnium Animarum socius electus erat in professorem 
 astronomi® Savilianum in academia Oxon. Feb. 5, 1660, admissus 
 15 Maii sequentis. Doctoratum postea in jure civili suscepit ; et 
 regi® majestati rei architectonic® prourator supremus, sive gene- 
 ralis, meritissimus audet. Hist, et Antiq. Univer. Oxon. Lib. II. 
 p. 42. 
 
 1660. vel ante ab ipso. Descriptio Machin® invent® ad delineandas 
 lineas exteriores cujuscunque rei, optica projectiones. Phil. Trans. 
 No. XLV. p. 898. cum fig. 
 
 1661 [jSept. 12]. Ad gradum Doctoralum in jure civili promotas 
 Oxonics. Fasti Oxon. p. 820. 
 
 1661. Ad eundum gradum Cantabrigice. 
 
 1662. Pr®lectiones Astronomic® Oxoni® lect. de problematibus 
 sph®ribus : de Pascale, De re nautica verum ( apud nos ). 
 
 1663. Selenographia vera, i. e. globus hunc in solido, opere geometrice, 
 formatus (hunc orbem selenesph®rio expressum), serenissimo Regi 
 Carolo II. cujus amplitudini quia unus non sufficit, D. D. D. I. 
 Apud nos. 
 
 1663. Clarissimo ac eruditissimo viro Doetori Tho. Willis, suppetias 
 attulit in opere suo celeberrimo, cerebri anatome, utpote qui disser- 
 tationibus istis interesse, et circa partium usus rationes conferre 
 
A. D. lG6l to 1723] 
 
 when’s works. 
 
 417 
 
 solebat : qui insuper plurimus cerebri et calvarke figuras, quo 
 exactiores essent opera, eruditissimis suis manibus delineare non 
 fuit gravatus. Willis, Anatome cerebri. 
 
 Prater suppetias ab hujus manu (Doctori Lower) in dissecando 
 peritissima allatas, celare non decet, quantas insuper acceperim a 
 viris clarissimis, domino Tho. Millington, M.D., necnon a domino 
 Ciiristophero Wren, L.L.D. et astronomiae professore Saviliano ; 
 qui utrique dissectionibus nostris cerebro interesse, et circa portium 
 usus rationes conferre solebant. Porrb prior ille vir doctissimus, 
 cui privato observationes meas, et conjecturas, de die in diem 
 proponebam, me animo incertum, et propriae sententiae minus 
 fidentem, suffrages suis saepe confirmabat. Ceterum alter vir 
 insignissimus Doctor Wren, pro singulari qua pollet humanitate, 
 plurimas cerebri et calvaria; figuras, quo exactiores essent opera, 
 euriditissimis suis manibus delineare non fuit gravatus. Willis, 
 Anatome Cerebri, prafatio. Lond. 1664. 
 
 1666. Civitatem Londinensem flammarum diluvio absorptam metitus, 
 Ichnographium seu modulum novae urbis excogitavit et delineavit. 
 Ex autographo de mandato regis Car. II. Ex au/ographo. 
 
 Ecclesiarum parochialium, operumque publicorum Londinensis 
 post fatale incendium. Architectus et /Edilis. Per decretum 
 Regis , Archiep. Cant. Epi. Lond. cceterce q. commiss. 
 
 1667. Epistola ad Docm. Carolm. Scarborough Dc. ossibus brachii, etc. 
 Anotomiae Anguillae fluviatilis, longae plusquam 40 digitos cir- 
 cuitu ciria (umbilicum) 6 el amplius, cum fig. Experhnentum 
 Anatomicum , in canem de abscidendo splene , et methodo ganandi , 
 apud nos. 
 
 1669 [Jan.] Doctrina motus lex naturae de collisione corporum. 
 Philosoph. Trans. No. 43, p. 867. 
 
 1669 [Mar. 28]. /Edifieorum regalium per totam Angliam prafec- 
 tus ; per literas patentes sub magno sigillo Ex Uteris patentes. 
 
 1668. Primus invenit lineam rectam requalem esse cycloidi ejusque 
 partibus : quod testimoniis confirmatur nobilissimi ac serenissimi 
 Dili. Yicecomitis Brouncker, Regalis Societatis Prasidiis, et doc- 
 tissimi viri Doctoris Johannis Wallis, etc. Philos. Trans. No. 98. 
 
 E E 
 
418 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. 1Y. 
 
 1668. Theatrum Oxonice Sheldonianum extruxit : cujus fundamenta 
 jecit 1664. 
 
 1668. Theatrum quod in toto hoc nostro Britannico (annon et ter- 
 rarum orbe ?) nec habet ullum sibi par, nec ullum secundum 
 theatrum quod exoptet Apollo templum, Musas Parnassum, Plato 
 Acaaemiam, Aristoteles Lyceium, Cicero Tusculanum, Gratice 
 omnes Veneresq. donum. Gul. Walker , S. T. B. 
 
 1668. Capellam Collegii Emmanuelis Cantab. 
 
 1668. Telonium portus Londinensis. 
 
 1669. Generatio cylindroidis hyperbolici, elaborandis lentibus hyper- 
 bolicis accommodati. Philos. Trans. No. 48. Inventio machinae, 
 cujus beneficio lentes elaborentur hyperbolicae cum fig. Philos. 
 Trans. No. 53. Vide insuper Hist. Reg. Soc. per Dm. Sprat, 
 Sect. XL. Part II. 
 
 1671 ad 1677. Structuram columnse colosseae speculatoriae Londi- 
 nensis, ex ordine Dorico, inchoavit et perfecit. 
 
 1671. Portam urbis, vulgo dictam Temple Bar. 
 
 Ab annos 1670 ad annos 1711. Quinquiginta et tres ecclesias paro- 
 chiales Londini,cum tholis, turribus, pyramidus,et ornamentis erexit. 
 
 1673 fNov. 12]. Architectus et commissionarius ad aedificandum 
 novam basilicam Dvi. Pauli Lond. per mandatum regis sub magno 
 sigillo, ex mandato R. 
 
 1675. Novae basilicae Dvi. Paulae Lon. primum posuit lapidem. 
 
 1678. Mausoleum divi Caroli Regii Martyris (de Mandato Regis, 
 et suffragiis inferioris domus parliamenti) excogitavit et deline - 
 avit ; at, eheu conditionem temporum ! nondurn perfecit. 
 
 The following is in Sir Christopher Wren’s writing 
 on the cover of the book of designs in the collection of 
 All Soul’s College. 
 
 Mausoleum Divi Caroli Martyris 
 Excogitatum, Anno Salutis 1678, 
 de Mandato Serenissimi Regis Caroli secundi, 
 
 Consentaneo cum votivis Inferioris Domus Parliamenti Suffragiis ; 
 at (eheu condition m temporum !) 
 nondurn exstructum. 
 
A. D. lG6l to 1723] 
 
 WRENS WORKS. 
 
 411 ) 
 
 1677 — 1680. Bibliothecam magnificam collegii incepit S. S. Trini- 
 tatis Cantobrigiae, et erexit. 
 
 1680. Illustrissimae Societatis Regalis ad Philosophiam promovendam 
 Prseses. Vid. Archiv. Soc. Reg. 
 
 1682. Capellam collegii Regin : apud Oxon extruxit. 
 
 1683. Fabricam novi palatii Regalis de Winchester incepit, et tan- 
 tum non 1685, perfecit. [[Perfeciat Georgius R.*] 
 
 1684. Portam Medii Templi proxime plateam. — Wren M. S. 
 Surrexit impensis Societ. Med. Templi. 1688. — Inscription over 
 the gateway. 
 
 1685. Electus in publica regni comitia, parliamentum nempe, Bur- 
 gensis Burgi de Plympton in agro Devoniae. Rot. Pari. 
 
 1689. Bis electus in Parliamentum pro Burgo de Windsor. Rot. 
 Pari. 
 
 1692. Hospitium Regale militum emeritum de Chelsea funditus, ex- 
 truxit, et exegit. 
 
 1698 [[Mar. 11]. Architectus et sub-commissionarius (ut vocatur) 
 ad reparandam antiquam basilicam Dvi. Petri Westmonasterii. 
 Ex originali. 
 
 1 69S [[Mar. 11]. Instaurationem antiquae basilicae Dvi. Petri W estm. 
 suscepit et continuavit ad hunc annum, 1720. Ibid. 
 
 1699. Hospitium Regale nauticum de Greenwich excogitavit et in- 
 cepit et continuavit ; perfecit feliciter Rex Georgius II. 
 
 1700. Electus in Parliamentum Burgensis Burgi de Weymouth et 
 Meleomb Regis in agro Dorsetensis. Rot. Pari. 
 
 1675. Novae basilicae Dvi. Pauli Lon. primum posuit lapidem : — 
 1710. Supremum in epitholio et exegit. 
 
 1718 [[April 26]. Exauctoratus est : Anno, set Octogesimo sexto, et 
 praefectune quae operum regiorum quadragesimo nono. 
 
 L cl^pis 8 ayisi i jZotcnXivs eteo®' os ux ijchi ron 'lutrhty. 4 xercuv 
 
 ru> TaWtuvv e[/.e/\ev. Qjj 
 
 * The words included within the brackets are an addition in pencil, apparently 
 by Sir C. W. 
 
 t npa| TWV Awoxt + lb. t'n i 
 
 e e 2 
 

 420 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 In the following list, I shall give, with very few 
 exceptions, the date only of the finishing of each 
 building. 
 
 1. Sir Christopher Wren’s first architectural appointment was 
 that of Deputy Surveyor-General of the Royal Works and Buildings, 
 in September 1661, and his first works the reparation of old St. 
 Paul’s, the restoration of Windsor Castle, and the King’s new pa- 
 lace at Greenwich, etc. 
 
 2. £1663] Fitted up the choir of Old St. Paul’s for divine ser- 
 vice, and designed the new fortifications of Tangier, which had 
 been given to Charles II as part of the dower of Catherine, Infanta 
 of Portugal, whom he had recently married. 
 
 3. £1663] Made plans, elevations and sections of Old St. Paul’s, 
 for the purpose of the proposed alterations and repairs. He also 
 began the Sheldonian theatre, which will be enumerated when fi- 
 nished, and is only mentioned as being his first executed building. 
 
 4. £1663] * The chapel of Pembroke College, Cambridge, built at 
 the sole cost of his uncle, Bishop Wren. 
 
 £1666] The great fire of London. 
 
 5. £1666] Made a design, and laid it before Parliament, for re- 
 building the City of London, and a detailed estimate of the damage 
 sustained, which amounted to <^10,780,500. He was appointed this 
 year Architect to St. Paul’s and for rebuilding the whole city. 
 
 6. £1666] Fitted up a portion of the old cathedral for divine 
 service. 
 
 7. £1668] Finished the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, which was 
 opened with much ceremony in the following year. 
 
 8. £1669] Reported on the state of St. Paul’s Cathedral. 
 
 9. £1669] The new Royal Exchange opened by Sir William Tur- 
 ner, the Lord Mayor, and the Gresham Committee, ninety-nine years 
 after its opening by Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 10. £1672] Temble Bar finished. 
 
 * The dimensions and architectural descriptions, etc. of these buildings are given 
 in my quarto Memoirs of Wren. 
 
A. D. 1 661 to 1723] wren’s ARCHITECTURAL WORKS. 421 
 
 11. [16773 The Doric column, commemorative of the fire of 
 London, finished. 
 
 12. [167?3 The parish church of St. Mary-le-Bovv, in Cheapside, 
 and its fine steeple finished. 
 
 13. Q 1 677] Finished the chapel of Emanuel College, Cambridge, 
 under the auspices of Archbishop Sancroft. 
 
 14. [16783 Finished the Custom House, London. 
 
 15. [16783 Restored and enlarged the parish church of St. Mary- 
 at-Hill, Tower Street, called in ancient records St. Maria ad Montem , 
 to suit the purpose of the united parishes of St. Mary-at-Hill and 
 St. Andrew Hubbard, the latter church having been destroyed, whilst 
 the walls and ancient tower of the former were not much injured. 
 
 16. [16793 The parish church of St. Michael-on-Cornhill, to 
 which the lofty tower, a humble imitation of that at Magdalen Col- 
 lege, Oxford, was added, from Wren’s designs, in 1722. 
 
 17. [16793 The parish church of St. Olave-Jewry, on the 
 western side of the street called the Old Jewry, finished about this 
 time. 
 
 18. [16793 The beautiful little elliptical church of St. Benedict 
 or Bene’t Fink, Threadneedle Street, a free imitation of the twin 
 churches by the Piazza del Popolo, Rome. It was taken down after 
 the rebuilding of the present Royal Exchange, to make room for the 
 row of houses on its eastern side, which reach from Threadneedle 
 Street to Cornhill. 
 
 19. [16793 About this time he finished the parish church of St. 
 Dionis-back-church, in Fenchurch Street and Lime Street, and added 
 the tower and steeple in 1684. 
 
 20. [16793 Also the parish church of St. George Botolph, on 
 the western side of Botolph Lane, near Billingsgate. 
 
 21. [16793 The parish church of St. Sepulchre, opposite the 
 north end of the Old Bailey, about this time, the tower is the ancient 
 one repaired, 
 
 22. [16793 Flamsteed House finished about this time 
 
 23. [16803 The parish church of St. Magnus, London Bridge, 
 to which he added the tower and spire in 1705. 
 
422 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 24. [1680] Also the parish church of St. Mildred, in the 
 Poultry. 
 
 25. [1680] About this time the parish church of St. Stephen, 
 Coleman Street. 
 
 26 [1680] The parish church of St. Lawrence Jewry, at the 
 corner of Gresham Street and Guildhall Yard. In this church lie the 
 remains of Archbishop Tillotson. 
 
 27. [1680] About this time also the parish church of St. Mary, 
 Aldermanbury, and also 
 
 28. [1680] That of St. Nicholas, Cole Abbey, on the south side 
 of Fish Street, Doctors’ Commons. 
 
 28. [1680 or rather earlier] Repaired that of St. Mary-Wool- 
 noth, Lombard Street, which was afterwards rebuilt on a larger scale, 
 to serve two parishes, in 1719, by Nicholas Hawksmoor, a worthy 
 pupil of Wren, in a singularly bold, solid and original style. 
 
 29. [1680] Also the parish church of St. Michael-le-Quern, 
 Queenhithe, formerly Quern or Cornhithe, Upper Thames Street. 
 
 30. [1681] Design, estimate, etc., for a mausoleum for Charles I. 
 {See p. 283). 
 
 81. [1680] Designed the pedestal and superintended the erection 
 of Le Soeur’s fine equestrian statue of Charles I. at Charing Cross. 
 
 32. [1680] The parish church of St. Michael, Bassishaw, or 
 Basinghall Street, so named after an opulent mercantile family of 
 that name which resided there. 
 
 33. [1680] The parish church of St. Swithin, London Stone, 
 Cannon Street, the interior and construction of which are worthy the 
 attention of the architectural student. I can speak from many in- 
 spections of the skill of the latter, during a thorough repair, in or 
 about the year 1826. The London Stone, enshrined in a stone 
 case, is the remains of the ancient Roman miliarium, from which the 
 distances from the metropolis were measured, and upon which the 
 rebel, Jack Cade, laid his sword, when he proclaimed himself King 
 of England, in the reign of Richard II. 
 
 34. [1680] The parish church of St. Bartholomew, in Thread- 
 needle Street, except its ancient tower It was taken down to en- 
 
A, D. 1661 to 1723] WREN’S ARCHITECTURAL WORKS. 423 
 
 large the area round the Royal Exchange, and its site occupied by 
 the Sun Fire and Life Assurance Office. 
 
 35. [1681] The parish church of St. Stephen, Walbrook, a plan 
 and section of which, measured and delineated by myself during its 
 repairs, with full description and dimensions, are given in my quarto 
 memoirs of its Architect. 
 
 36. [4681] The parish church and its fine but now diminished 
 spire of St. Bridget or St. Bride, Fleet Street, which was farther 
 embellished by its Architect in 1699. 
 
 37- [1681] Also the church and incomparable steeple of St. 
 Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside. An elevation and section of the latter, 
 measured and delineated by me when last under repair, with des- 
 criptions, etc., are given in my quarto memoirs of its Architect. 
 
 38. [1681] The parish church of St. Clement Dane, in the 
 Strand, to which the present tower and steeple were added in 1719, 
 by James Gibbs, the architect of the churches of St. Mary-le-Strand, 
 St. Martin in-the-fields, the Ratcliffe Library, Oxford, etc. 
 
 39. [1681] The parish church of St. Anne and St. Agnes, in St. 
 Anne’s Lane, at the northern end of the General Post Office, St. Mar- 
 tin’s-le-Grand. 
 
 40. [1681] Rebuilding the part of the Temple destroyed by the 
 great fire. 
 
 41. [1682] The parish church of St. Peter, on Cornhill. 
 
 42. [1682] The parish church of St. Antholin, Watling Street. 
 
 43. [16S3 scy.] The episcopal palace, Winchester, for and at 
 the sole expense of Bishop Morley. (*Si?e page 300) 
 
 43. [1683] The royal palace, at Winchester, for Charles II. 
 
 44. [1683] The parish church of St. Allhallows the Great, Up- 
 per Thames Street, near the Steel Yard. 
 
 45. [1683] The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. (See page 302). 
 
 46. [1688] The parish church and tower of St. Augustin and St. 
 Faith ; the elegant spire, which has been recently spoiled by some 
 modern Goths, was added in 1699. The united parishes, being un- 
 able to agree upon an architect to superintend the reparation of Wren’s 
 work, each employed their own “ Surveyor,” one whitewashed the 
 interior and the other ruined the spire. 
 
424 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 [chap. IV. 
 
 47- [1683] The parish church of St. Bene’t, Paul’s Wharf, on 
 the north side of Upper Thames Street, and near to its western end. 
 This parish is distinguished as the birth and burying place of Inigo 
 Jones. (See page 55). 
 
 48. [1683] Also the parish church of St. James, Westminster, 
 situated between Piccadilly and Jermyn Street, built at the expense 
 of Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, and other of the principal in- 
 habitants of that district, which was, before that time, a precinct of 
 St. Martin-in-the-fields, and made parochial by Act of Parliament, 
 the third, James II- ( See page 375). 
 
 49. [1683] The parish church of St. Mildred, Bread Street, was 
 also finished this year. In this parish John Milton was born, which 
 event is commemorated on a tablet outside the church. 
 
 50. Ql 6 84^1 The entrance and frontispiece to the Inner Temple 
 was began this year and finished, according to the inscription, in 
 1688. 
 
 51. [4684] The church of the united parishes of St. Allhallows 
 and St. John the Evangelist, Bread Street. 
 
 51. [[1684] The parish church of St. Martin, Ludgate, on the 
 north side of Ludgate Hill, just inside the side whereon stood Lud 
 Gate, in the western wall of the original city of London. 
 
 52. [[1684] The Chapter House of the Dean and Chapter of St. 
 Pauls. 
 
 53. [[1685] Finished the parish church of St. Alban, on the east 
 side of Wood Street, Cheapside ; an indifferent attempt, as far as 
 style, of the ancient pointed mode. 
 
 54. [[1 685] Also the handsome, capacious and conspicuous parish 
 church of St. Bene’t Gracechurch, at the corner of Fenchurch Street 
 and Gracechurch Street. The interior is a double cube of sixty feet 
 by thirty. 
 
 55. [[1685] Archbishop Tennison’s Library, near St. Martin’s 
 Lane, Westminster, in conjunction with his friend John Evelyn. 
 
 56. [[1685] The handsome, well-proportioned parish church of 
 St. Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street, Doctors’ Commons, near St. 
 Paul’s. 
 
A. D. 1661 to 1723J wren’s ARCHITECTURAL WORKS. 425 
 
 57. [4685] The parish church of St. Matthew, Friday Street. 
 
 58. [1685] Also that of St. Clement, Eastcheap, and 
 
 59. [[1685] That of St. Mary Abchureh, near Cannon Street. 
 
 60. Ql 686] The handsome capacious parish church of St. Andrew, 
 Holborn, one of the finest and most appropriate churches for the 
 service of the reformed Church of England, that has yet been built. 
 The Tower, which was not destroyed by the great fire, was repaired, 
 and faced with stone, in 1704. 
 
 61. [1687] The parish church of St. Margaret Pattens, at the 
 comer of Rood Lane and Tower Street. In ancient times this part 
 of the City was the principal residence of the Patten Makers, hence 
 its second name. 
 
 62. [[1687] Repaired the banqueting house, Whitehall. (See 
 page 312.) 
 
 63. [1687] Finished the parish church of St. Michael, Crooked 
 Lane. It was taken down by the authority of an act of Parliament 
 in 1830, to widen the approach to London Bridge. 
 
 64. [1689] Finished the College of Physicians, in Ivy Lane, 
 Newgate Street, which has, since the removal of that learned body to 
 Pall Mall East, been desecrated to all manner of vile and unhealthy 
 purposes. A full account, with two plans, an elevation, and a sec- 
 tion of its singular and well. imagined theatre is given in my larger 
 work on its architect. The gilt globe on its summit, intended, per- 
 haps, to intimate the universality of the healing art, gave occasion to 
 Garth, in his “ Dispensary,” the scene of which is laid in this build- 
 ing, to say 
 
 “ A golden globe, placed high with artful skill, 
 
 Seems, to the distant sight, a gilded pill.” 
 
 65. [1690] Finished the Royal Military Hospital Chelsea. See 
 page 291. 
 
 66. [1690] Also the parish-church of St. Edmund the King, on 
 the north side of Lombard Street, near the eastern end. 
 
 67. [1690] And that of St. Margaret, Lothbury, opposite the 
 north front of the Bank of England. It is one of Wren’s best works. 
 
 68. [1690] Began the modern part of Hampton Court Palace, 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 426 
 
 [chap. IV. 
 
 part of which was finished and occupied by King William and Queen 
 Mary in 1694. See page 322. 
 
 69. 31691] Surveyed and repaired the buildings used for the 
 sittings of the House of Commons. 
 
 70. Q 1 69 1 31 Built the Mint, or Moneyer’s Hall in the Tower of 
 London. 
 
 71. 31691] Finished the parish church of St. Andrew in the 
 Wardrobe near Doctors’ Commons, where the Royal Wardrobe 
 formerly stood, and so much spoken of in Pepy’s Diary, when his 
 kinsman and patron, Admiral Montague, first Earl of Sandwich, re- 
 sided there as keeper of the Royal Wardrobe. 
 
 72. 31692] Finished the library, the quadrangle called Nevile’s 
 Court, and other new buildings, at Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 
 73. 31692] Made the New Road from Hyde Park Corner to 
 Kensington Palace, which was then becoming a favourite residence of 
 King William III. 
 
 74 to 77- 31694] Morden College, Blackheath, Dartmouth Chapel, 
 in the same village, Bohun’s, or Boone’s, Chapel, etc. See page 329. 
 
 78. 31694] Finished the parish church of St. Allhallows, Lom- 
 bard Street, a handsome spacious building, with an entrance only 
 from the street, the Church itself being in Ball Alley. 
 
 79. 31694] Also the spacious and well-proportioned parish 
 church of St. Michael-Royal, on the eastern side of College Hill, near 
 Queen Street, Cheapside. In this church is Hilton’s fine picture of 
 Mary Magdalen washing Christ’s feet, presented to the parish by the 
 Directors of the British Institution*, through the intervention of the 
 author of this work. 
 
 In this year, the choir of St. Paul’s was finished as far as the 
 stone work and vaulting, and the scaffolding, both inside and out, 
 removed. Evelyn, who was a profound critic in architecture, as well 
 as in the other branches of the fine arts, declared t it to be a piece of 
 architecture without reproach. See No. 81. 
 
 80. 31694] Converted the Benedictine Convent, in the Savoy, 
 
 Memoirs of Wren, page 469 and note, 
 f Diary of this date. 
 
A. D. 1661 to 1723] wren’s ARCHITECTURAL WORKS. 427 
 
 into a prison for state prisoners, who were then about to be tried, and 
 as barracks for troops. 
 
 81. [1694]) Built apartments for state prisoners of higher rank, 
 in the Tower of London. 
 
 82. [1695]] Finished the plain substantial parish church of 
 St. Mary Somerset, on the north side of Upper Thames Street, near 
 Broken Wharf. It received its second name from the ancient church 
 being built near to a small haven called Somers’ Hut or Hithe. 
 
 83. [1695]] Also the parish church of St. Vedast Foster, with 
 its original, and somewhat beautiful, steeple, on the eastern side of 
 Foster Lane, Cheapside. 
 
 84. [1695]] Repaired the celebrated old English mansion of Aud- 
 ley End, in the County of Essex, about which, a correspondence, 
 as to its dilapidated state, between the Earl of Suffolk, wjio then 
 occupied it as tenant under the crown, having been purchased by 
 King Charles I., and Wren, as Surveyor- General, is given in my 
 Memoirs of Wren, page 477 and note. 
 
 85. [1696 et seq.~\ Began the completion of Charles the second’s 
 unfinished palace at Greenwich, and built the additional wings, etc. 
 to adapt it for a Royal Naval Hospital, by command of Queen 
 Mary II. See page 337. 
 
 86. [1696 et seq.~\ The parish church of St. Christopher, Thread- 
 needle Street, taken down for Sir Robert Taylor’s western wing of 
 the Bank of England ; its church yard is now the garden in front of 
 the Director’s parloui - , and visible on the western side of the first court 
 from Threadneedle Street. 
 
 87. [1696 et seq7\ St. Paul’s Cathedral. The choir of St. 
 Paul, being finished, was opened for Divine service on the 2nd of 
 December 1696, the day appointed for public thanksgiving for the 
 victory and treaty of Ryswick. See page 341. 
 
 1699. The beautiful chapel near the north-west comer of St. 
 Paul’s Cathedral, called the Morning Prayer Chapel, was opened for 
 public worship, with appropriate ceremony. To obviate mistakes in 
 the number of Wren’s works , his great work is only numbered in this 
 place, however many times mentioned. 
 
428 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 88. Q 1 699]] The church of St. Allhallows Barking repaired. 
 
 89. £1699] Finished his exquisitely beautiful and geometrical 
 tower and steeple of the ancient parish church of St. Dunstan-in-the- 
 East, the body of which, not being much damaged by the great fire, 
 was repaired by Wren, but the present body was built by Mr. Laing 
 about twenty years ago. An engraving, and description of this 
 master-piece of construction, is given in my larger work, p. 486 
 and notes. 
 
 90. £1705] Finished the parish church of Isleworth, Middlesex. 
 (See Lyson’s Environs, vol. III. p. 1004.) 
 
 In 1708 the outer cupola of St. Paul’s was covered with lead. 
 
 91. £1708] Appointed one of the Commissioners for building 
 the fifty new churches, ordered by Act of Parliament, and wrote his 
 opinions, as an architect, thereon. ((Seepage 371, et seq.) 
 
 In 1710, when Wren had attained the seventy-eighth year of his 
 age, the highest stone of the lantern on the cupola of St. Paul’s was 
 laid, with masonic ceremony, by Mr. Christopher Wren, the architect’s 
 son, attended by his venerable father, Mr. Strong the master-mason 
 of the Cathedral, and the lodge of freemasons, of which Sir Christopher 
 was for so many years the acting and active master. (See page 372. 
 
 92. £From 1698 to 1723] The reparations and additions to West- 
 minster Abbey. 
 
 93. £1711] The spacious and handsome church of St. Mary 
 Aldermary, on the east side of Bow Lane, Cheapside, built at the 
 expence of Mr. Henry Rogers, a pious and munificent citizen. The 
 interior, although bold in design and ingenious in construction, is a 
 defective imitation of the ancient pointed style, with the additional 
 defect of an altar-piece of the Roman composite order. 
 
 94. £1711] St. Thomas’s Hospital, Southwark, began in 1692, 
 and finished about this time. 
 
 95. £1711] Sion College, Aldermanbury, for the use of the col- 
 legiate body of “ the President and Fellows of the College of Sion, 
 within the City of London,” consisting of the parochial clergy of the 
 City, with the Bishop of London as visitor. The ancient building 
 was destroyed by the great fire, the present edifice began about two 
 years afterwards, subsequently enlarged, and the new library added. 
 
429 
 
 A. D. 1661 to 1723] wren’s ARCHITECTURAL WORKS. 
 
 96. [1711] The building for the Royal Society on a site of 
 ground presented by Mr. Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, on 
 his estate on the south side of the Strand, which is fully described in 
 the Letter-Book of the Royal Society, vol. II. p. 220, and in my 
 larger work, p. 237. 
 
 Public Halls. [1668 to about 1700] All the Pub- 
 lic Halls of the Livery Companies of the Corporation 
 of London, which, according to the second Report of 
 the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Muni- 
 cipal Corporations in England and Wales, as regards 
 the London Companies, printed by order of the House 
 of Commons, April 25, 1837, amount now to eighty- 
 nine, as the Commissioners excluded from their list, 
 several Companies which were practically extinct or 
 nearly so. 
 
 They consist of twelve chief Companies, whose 
 arms are emblazoned, in their rotation, 011 shields over the 
 capitals of the attached pillars in Guildhall, where the 
 Livery meet in Common Hall. Of these Halls Wren 
 built the following between 1668 and about 1700. 
 
 97. fNo. 1 of the twelve chief companies] Mercers’ Hall, on 
 the north side of Cheapside, extending behind the houses, from Iron- 
 monger Lane to Frederick’s Place, Old Jewry, in each of which streets 
 it has an entrance. This fine and substantial building consists of the 
 hall, court room and offices, a handsome chapel, clerk’s, architect’s 
 and beadle’s offices, and residences for the clerk and beadle. 
 
 98. £No. 2] Grocers’ Hall, in Grocers’ Hall Court, on the 
 north side of the Poultry. Wren’s building was so capacious that a 
 portion of it served for the use of the Bank of England when first 
 established. It was taken down some years since, and the present 
 commodious building erected by the late Thomas Leverton, Esq. By 
 
430 
 
 WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 the enlargement of the Bank, and the continuation of Princes Street 
 from Mansion House Street into Lothbury, the rear front of the hall 
 now opens into that street, and gives the company an entrance for 
 carriages. 
 
 98. [No. 3^ Drapers’ Hall, on the north side of Throgmorton 
 Street, a short distance westward of Austin Friars, Old Broad Street. 
 It is a spacious and commodious building, replete with every accom- 
 modation for so wealthy a corporation. They are built on the site of 
 the ancient palace of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, in Henry the 
 Eighth’s reign. It has been since repaired and a new street front, 
 before Wren’s quadrangle, by Robert Adam, the architect of the 
 Adelphi Buildings, and other edifices of that mixed Greek and lower 
 Roman style which stamps his works. 
 
 99. ("No. 4] Fishmongers’ Hall, well remembered by ancient 
 citizens for its wine cellars, wherein they drank their genuine old 
 port and sherry, drawn from the casks, and viewed the bridge shooters 
 and boat racers. It has given its name “ Shades” to many others. 
 Wren’s buildings have given way to the new bridge and the present 
 plain, substantial and commodious building, by H. Roberts, Esq. 
 
 100. [No. 5 ~] Goldsmiths’ Hall, in Foster Lane, eastward of 
 the General Post Office, St. Martin’s-le-Grand. Wren’s building 
 was taken down about 1831, and the present larger, splendid, sub- 
 stantial, ornate building, erected by Philip Hardwich, Esq. R. A. etc. 
 soon afterwards. 
 
 101. [No. 6]] Skinners’ Hall, Dowgate Hill, Cannon Street. 
 A spacious and commodious pile of building fit for this opulent Com- 
 pany and its officers. Like that of the Drapers, it has been substan- 
 tially renovated, and a new street-front added by Robert Adam, of 
 Adelphi celebrity . 
 
 102. [No. 7] Merchant-Tailors’ Hall, on the south side of 
 Threadneedle Street, nearly opposite the South-Sea House. The 
 hall, or banqueting room of this building is reckoned to be one of 
 the finest in Europe, and has been the scene of some of the most 
 distinguished banquets ever held in the City of London. 
 
 103. Merchant-Tailors’ School, on the east side of Suffolk 
 
A. D. 1 661 to 1723] wren’s architectural works. 431 
 
 Lane, consisting of a large hall, or school room, with studies for 
 the junior masters, a colonnade and court-yard for the pupils, a 
 library, head master’s study, and spacious residence for the same 
 reverend officers. 
 
 104. [No. 83 Haberdashers’ Hall, on the north side of Gres- 
 ham Street West, at the corner of Staining Lane. This pile of 
 buildings consists of the hall, or banqueting room, the fine foliaged 
 ceiling of which was destroyed a few years since, and a common-place 
 piece of vulgar lath and plaster put up in its stead. There are also 
 houses and offices for the clerk, beadle, etc. next Gresham Street, and 
 a chapel, down Staining Lane. 
 
 105. [No. 93 Salters’ Hall, on the western side of St. 
 Swithin’s Lane, Cannon Street. Wren’s buildings were taken down 
 a few years since, and a new Hall, and offices on a larger scale, were 
 erected by George Smith, Esq. 
 
 106. [No. 103 Ironmongers’ Hall, on the north side of Fen- 
 church Street, nearly opposite Mark Lane. The street front is in a 
 bold Italian style, of a more recent date. 
 
 107. [No. 113 Vintners’ Hall, on the south of Upper Thames 
 Street, and the approach to Southwark Bridge. The front court and 
 gardens at the back of the Hall, which looked on to the Thames, was 
 a minor Campus Martins , at the beginning of the French revolution- 
 ary war, for the Vintry Ward volunteers to drill and practice their 
 military exercises. 
 
 108. [No. 123 Clothworkers’ Hall, on the eastern side of 
 Mincing Lane, Fenchurch Street. It was not entirely consumed in 
 the great fire, and some ancient wainscoting, with figures of James I. 
 and Charles I., and a window of stained glass, decorate the dining 
 hall. 
 
 Other Halls of the minor Companies, many of 
 which are of great wealth, although the first twelve 
 have had precedence, and certain privileges and estates 
 in the province of Ulster, in the kingdom of Ireland, 
 given them by James I. for aiding him with funds for 
 
WREN AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 432 
 
 [chap. iv. 
 
 establishing a Protestant plantation, or colony, in that 
 portion of the sister island. 
 
 109. [No. 13] Dyers’ Hall, on the north side of Great College 
 Street, Dowgate Hill, recently rebuilt on a larger scale. 
 
 110. [No. 14] Brewers’ Haul, on the north side of Addle 
 Street, Aldermanbury, a spacious, commodious hall and offices. 
 
 111. [No. 15] Leathersellers’ Hall, at the bottom of St. 
 Helen’s Place, taken down a few years since, and rebuilt on a larger 
 scale, by the late W. F. Pocock, Esq. 
 
 1 12. [No. 18] Cutlers’ Hall, on the south side of Cloak Lane, 
 Dowgate Hill. 
 
 113. [No. 19] Bakers’ Hall, on the eastern side of Harp Lane, 
 Great Tower Street. 
 
 114. [No. 21] Tallow-Chandlers’ Hall, on the west side of 
 Dowgate Hill, a handsome and spacious building, with an interior 
 colonnade of the Tuscan order ; and, for London, the singular addition 
 of a circular basin, and a fountain throwing up a jet of water from a 
 conch shell, blown by a Cupid. 
 
 115. [No. 23] Girdlers’ Hall, on the eastern side of Basing- 
 hall Street. Although the business of a girdle maker is no longer 
 extant among city trades, yet the ancient and worshipful Master and 
 Wardens of the art and mystery of the Girdlers of London, are Trus- 
 tees for several very excellent charities. 
 
 116. [No. 25] Saddlers’ Hall, on the north side of Cheapside, 
 between Gutter Lane and Foster Lane. 
 
 117. [No. 27] Cordwainers’ Hall, on the north side of Distaff 
 Lane, Doctors’ Commons. The Hall has been remodeled and 
 thoroughly repaired, and a handsome stone-fronted building, for offices, 
 etc., added to it, by Robert Adam. 
 
 118. [No. 28] Painter-Stainers’ Hall, on the western side of 
 Little Trinity Lane, Upper Thames Street. The livery hall, or refec- 
 tory, is a handsome, well-proportioned apartment, with a plaster- 
 modelled ceiling, painted with allegorical subjects, by Fuller. This 
 hall is worthy of notice for the fine collection of pictures, by Palmatier, 
 
A, D. 1 661 to 1723 ] when’s ARCHITECTURAL WORKS. 433 
 
 Brull, Hungis, Houseman, Reynolds, etc., many of whom were mem- 
 bers of the Company. 
 
 119. [No. 29] Curriers’ Hall, on the south side of London 
 Wall, near Wood Street. 
 
 120 [No. 30] Masons’ Hall, in Masons’ Alley, between Ba- 
 singhall Street and Coleman Street ; a small but commodious struc- 
 ture formerly used by the Grand Lodge of Freemasons ; since that 
 time for various other purposes, as for auctions, debating societies, and 
 more recently for a tavern and public dining-rooms. 
 
 121 [No. 31] Plumbers’ Hall on the eastern side of Great 
 Bush Lane, Cannon Street. It was pulled down some years since, 
 and its site covered by lofty warehouses, but a doorway, marked by 
 dressings and the arms of the company, carved in relief, indicate its 
 site and owners. 
 
 122 [No. 32] Innholders’ Hall, at the corners of Great and 
 Little College Streets, Dowgate Hill. 
 
 123 [No. 33] Founders’ Hall, in Founders’ Hall Court, Lotli- 
 bury, taken down for the improvements between that Street and 
 Moorfields. 
 
 124 [No. 36] Coopers’ Hall, on the western side of Basinghall 
 Street, near to the eastern entrance of Guildhall. It is a large, sub- 
 stantial building, the banqueting room of which, wainscoted to the 
 height of fourteen feet, and paved with marble, was formerly used for 
 drawing the state lotteries. It has commodious offices, and residences 
 for the clerk, beadle, and other officers of the company. 
 
 125. [No. 37] Tilers’ and Bricklayers’ Hall, on the south 
 side of Leadenhall Street. It was formerly let as the synagogue of 
 the Dutch Jews in London, but is now occupied by a literary and 
 scientific institution, and called Sussex Hall, after his Royal Highness, 
 the late Duke of Sussex. 
 
 126. [No. 41] Joiners’ Hall, on the east side of Joiners’ Hall 
 Buildings, Upper Thames Street, near Dowgate Dock, but has been 
 let to a packer, and used as extensive warehouses. 
 
 126 [No. 42] Weavers’ Hall, on the eastern side of Basing- 
 hall Street. 
 
 F F 
 
434 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [ciIAP. IV. 
 
 128 [No. 46] Plasterers’ Hall, Addle Street, Aldermanbury. 
 A substantial and spacious hall, court room, and offices. 
 
 129 [No. 4?3 Stationers’ Hall, on the western side of Sta- 
 tioners’ Hall Court, Ludgate Street. A spacious, and well-propor- 
 tioned hall, with court rooms, clerks, and beadles dwelling houses, 
 warehouses for their stock, etc. The hall and offices underwent a 
 thorough repair, the eastern front cased with stone, and the roofs 
 newly guttered and slated by Piobert Milne, Esq. in 1 805. There 
 are some excellent pictures of the English school in the court room, 
 presented by Alderman Boydell, who was a past master of the 
 Company. 
 
 130. [No. 38] Apothecaries’ Hall, on the eastern side of 
 Water Lane, Bridge Street, Blackfriars, one of the largest halls in 
 the City, with elegant court room, spacious dining hall, for the mem- 
 bers of the society, pictures and bust of benefactors. The warehouses, 
 drug mills, laboratories, etc. are of more recent date. 
 
 131. [No. 683 Pinmakers’ or Pinners’ Hall, on the north 
 side of Old Broad Street, near Winchester Street. The Livery Hall 
 was, for some years, used as a dissenting meeting house, and subse- 
 quently the whole building as commercial chambers and offices. 
 
 132. [No. 793 Coach-Makers’ Hall, Noble Street, Foster Lane, 
 Cheapside, is a spacious and was a handsome Hall, with court room, 
 offices, etc., built originally for the worshipful Company of Scriveners, 
 which falling into poverty, sold it to the wealthier Company of Coach 
 and Coach-Hamess-Makers. They, in their turn, went downwards 
 in the wheel of Fortune, let it for balls, concerts, a dancing school, 
 and, during the first years of the French revolution, to the less har- 
 monious purpose of a political debating society, in which many dema- 
 gogues, and some orators of after distinction, made their earliest rheto- 
 rical essays. 
 
 To these authenticated and enumerated works, may 
 he added many of the Alms-houses of these Compa- 
 nies, humble, but like those of the Merchant-Tailors’ 
 Company, at Lee, founded by Mr. Boliun, or Boone, 
 
A. D. l(>6l to 1723] WREN’S ARCHITECTURAL WORKS. 435 
 
 before mentioned ( see page 329), bear the Hall-mark 
 of a master in his art, many fine mansions in the city, 
 as the Deanery House of St. Paul’s, and its entrance 
 from St. Paul’s Church Yard; one on Lawrence Pount- 
 ney Hill, Cannon Street ; two on College Hill, with 
 their sculptured pediments ; one in the Old Jewry, for- 
 merly used by the London Institution, till it was re- 
 moved to their new building, in Finsbury Circus ; and 
 many others, which have been pulled down, in my re- 
 membrance ; two in Chichester, besides repairing the 
 Cathedral, which would fairly raise the number of 
 Wren’s public works to an average of at least one 
 hundred and fifty — an unprecedented number for one 
 man. 
 
 Nearly all these great works can be surveyed from 
 one spot, the stone gallery of the cupola of St. Paul’s, 
 whence they may be viewed as in a panorama. — 
 “ Circumspice.” Let any one who undervalues either 
 the talents or the genius of Wren, and there are such, 
 even in the profession he so raised, adorned and 
 honoured, mount the dragon’s back, on Bow Church, 
 descend through the varied courses of masonry, their 
 curious and scientific junctions and bondings, the co- 
 lumns and arched buttresses, adorning and supporting 
 at once, from finial to foundation : let them ascend the 
 mystic windings, from the bottom to the top of St. 
 Bride’s steeple ; the vaulted roofs, and geometrical in- 
 tricacies between the two cupolas of St. Paul’s, and 
 discover the hidden mysteries of the catenaria, which 
 pervades its section, and upholds the cupolas, cone 
 
436 WREN AND HIS TIMES. [CHAP. IV, 
 
 and lantern, as one self-supporting body, of that won- 
 drous edifice, which contains less material than West- 
 minster Bridge, as M. Labelye, the architect of that 
 failing erection, boastingly asserts, in his published 
 account of it : let them search into his earliest work, 
 the before-mentioned roof of the Sheldonian Theatre : 
 let them, in fact, examine, any of his works : or, let 
 them look at and admire Professor Cockerell’s beautiful 
 pictorial combination of our great master’s works, ar- 
 ranged in harmony around the majestic St. Paul’s, like 
 the Muses around Apollo, and say — who is the man 
 able to dim the unassuming genius of 
 
 CHBISTOPHEB WBEN ? 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 London : — Printed 6y Darling & Son, 51, Leadenhall Street. 
 
#"7 f ?