excellent reign, to the Church of England, and to this great city, which it is a pity in the opinion of our neighbours should longer continue the most unadorned of her bigness in the world." In the memorial from which we quote it is easy to discern exquisite perception of the sublime and beautiful-greatness and boldness of conception-talent for the minutiae of practical detail-the power of raising himself to a great undertaking, and taking such precautions as might ensure its being carried on should he die before its completion-all expressed with the unconscious eloquence of earnest love for the task. It reveals the real artist-Mr. Carlyle might say, and with truth, "the hero as architect."

Evelyn felt the truth and justice of Wren's remarks, though most of the commissioners could not raise their minds beyond mere patching and plastering ; argued, when it was pointed out to them that the main building receded outwards, "that it had been built so originally for an effect in the perspective;" and stoutly maintained that the steeple might be repaired on its old foundation. This opposition prevented anything being done, until the Great Fire took the settlement of the question into its own hands, and placed Wren on a ground of vantage. Meanwhile he went on maturing his ideas. Trained a mathematician and curious observer of nature, he brought correct taste and minute inquiry into the whole practical bearings of any task he undertook—to the architectural pursuits into which accident, rather than his own free choice, seem to have led him. In 1665 he visited France, resided some months in Paris, inspected and studied the principal buildings of that metropolis, visited the places in the vicinity most worthy of attention, took particular notice of what was most remarkable in every branch of mechanics, and contracted intimacies with the most celebrated artists and men of letters. In a letter to his friend Dr. Bateman he says that the Louvre was for a while his daily object, where no less than a thousand hands were constantly employed, "some in laying mighty foundations, some in raising the stories, columns, entablatures, &c., with vast stones, by great and useful engines; others in carving, inlaying of marbles, plastering, painting, gilding, &c., which altogether make a school of architecture, probably the best in Europe." Almost every sentence of his letter is a picture characteristic at once of the object described and the describer:-" Fontainebleau has a stately wildness and vastness suitable to the desert it stands in ;" "the Palace, or if you please the Cabinet of Versailles, called me twice to see it-the mixtures of brick and stone, blue tile and gold, made it look like a rich liverynot an inch within but is crowded with little curiosities of ornament." He adds, "the women, as they make here the language and the fashions, and meddle with politics and philosophy, so do they sway also in architecture.* Works of filigrane and little trinkets are in great vogue, but building ought certainly to have the attribute of eternal, and therefore the only thing incapable of new fashions. The masculine furniture of the Palais Mazarine pleased me much better." He adds, that he has seen many "incomparable villas"—" all which

* The case seems to have been reversed in England in the days of Kent. "His oracle," says Horace Walpole, was so much consulted by all who affected taste, that nothing was thought complete without his assistance. So impetuous was fashion, that two great ladies prevailed upon him to make designs for their birthday gowns. The one he dressed in a petticoat with columns of the five orders; the other like a bronze, in copper-coloured satin, with ornaments of gold."

I have surveyed; and that I might not lose the impressions of them, I shall bring you almost all France in paper, which I have found by some or other ready designed to my hand, in which I have spent both labour and some money." Finally, “I have purchased a great deal of taille-douce, that I might give our countrymen examples of ornaments and grotesques, in which the Italians themselves confess the French to excel." By such studies, and by the conversation of his friend Evelyn, who had already published his Fumifugium, or a Prophetic Invective against the Fire and Smoke of London, with its Reme dies,' and others of similar tastes and pursuits, Wren prepared himself for his busy after-life.

The Fire of London roused the indomitable spirits of Englishmen. "They beheld," wrote Dr. Sprat, with the ruins of the metropolis smoking around him, 'the ashes of their houses, gates, and temples, without the least expression of pusillanimity. If philosophers had done this, 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 amongst the poor artisans and the obscure multitude is no doubt one of the most honourable events that ever happened. *** A new city is to be built, on the most advantageous seat of all Europe for trade and command. This therefore is the fittest season for men to apply their thoughts to the improving of the materials of building, and to the inventing of better models for houses, roofs, chimneys, conduits, wharfs, and streets." On the morning of the 7th September Evelyn made a painful pilgrimage through the ruins, clambering over heaps of smoking rubbish, and frequently mistaking where he was. "The ground," he says, "was so hot that it burnt the soles of my shoes." The fruit of this excursion was a plan for the restoration of the city. "The King and Parliament,” he wrote to Sir Samuel Tuke, in December 1666, "are infinitely zealous for the rebuilding of our ruins; and I believe it will universally be the employment of next spring. *** Everybody brings in his idea: amongst the rest I presented his Majesty my own conceptions, with a discourse annexed. It was the second that was seen, within two days after the conflagration; BUT DR. WREN HAD GOT THE START OF ME." Wren was appointed Deputy Surveyor-General, and principal architect for rebuilding the whole city, having been previously appointed architect and one of the commissioners for the restoration of St. Paul's. The intimate knowledge he obtained of the topography of the metropolis in the course of his official surveys, and the natural tendency of a mind which has projected a general plan for the erection of a city to execute minor details with a constant reference to it, put him in a condition to realize some portions of his design.

The leading features of Wren's plan are given in No. XXV., but we may here mention them more in detail, as stated by himself:-" From that part of Fleet Street which remained unburnt, about St. Dunstan's church, a straight street, ninety feet wide, crosses the valley, passing by the south side of Ludgate prison, and thence in a direct line ends gracefully in a piazza at Tower Hill, but before it descends into the valley where now the great sewer (Fleet Ditch) runs, it opens into a round piazza, the centre of eight ways. *** Leaving Ludgate prison on the left side of the street (instead of which gate was designed

a triumphal arch to the founder of the new city, King Charles II.), the street divides into two others as large, and before they, spreading at acute angles, can be clear of one another, they form a triangular piazza, the basis of which is filled by the cathedral church of St. Paul. Leaving St. Paul's on the left, we proceed, as our first way led us, towards the Tower, the way being all along adorned with parochial churches. We return again to Ludgate, and, leaving St. Paul's on the right hand, pass the other great branch to the Royal Exchange, seated at the place where it was before, but free from buildings, in the middle of a piazza included between two great strects-the one from Ludgate leading to the south front, and another from Holborn over the canal to Newgate, and thence straight to the north front of the Exchange." There was to be a commodious quay on the whole bank of the river from Blackfriars to the Tower; a canal was to be cut at Bridewell, with sluices at Holborn-bridge and at the mouth, and stores for coal on each side; the Halls of the twelve chief companies were to be united into one regular square annexed to Guildhall; the churches were to be designed" according to the best forms for capacity and hearing," adorned with useful porticos and lofty ornamental towers, and steeples in the greater parishes; and all churchyards, gardens, and unnecessary vacuities, and all trades that use great fires or yield noisome smells, were to be placed out of the town. It is clear from this outline that the nucleus of Wren's plan for rebuilding London was that cathedral the capabilities of which he had so thoroughly studied and was so eagerly bent upon developing to the utmost. His plan being rejected, he was restricted to the realisation of his idea of an Anglo-episcopal cathedral, to dropping his halls and churches here and there in narrow spaces, obscured by the close proximity of tall houses, in the hope, perhaps, that a more civilised generation might deem it worth while to excavate them, and to introducing from time to time reforms in the line of streets, sewerage, and mode of constructing houses in the metropolis.

Some time, however, elapsed before he was allowed to set to work even upon the cathedral. On a particular survey by the architect and the rest of the commissioners, it was determined that part of the body of the old cathedral towards the west should, as being least damaged, be fitted up as a temporary choir, wherein the dean and prebends might have divine service until the repair of the whole (for that was still dreamed of), or a new cathedral should be built. A royal mandate was issued on the 15th January, 1667, for commencing these operations. The whole of that year and part of the next were consumed in clearing away the rubbish, and ascertaining the condition of the ruins. This examination established the correctness of Wren's judgment regarding the ineligibility of merely repairing the building. Dr. Sancroft wrote to him on the 25th of April, 1668,-" As he said of old, Prudentiam est quædam divinatio; so science, at the height you are master of it, is prophetic too. What you whispered in my ear at your last coming hither is come to pass. Our work at the west end of St. Paul's is fallen about our ears. Your quick eye discerned the walls and pillars gone off their perpendiculars, and I believe other defects too, which are now exposed to every common observer. About a week since, we being at work about the third pillar from the west end on the south side, which we had new cased with stone where it was most defective, almost up to the chapitre, a great weight falling from the

high wall so disabled the vaulting of the side aisle by it, that it threatened a sudden ruin so visibly that the workmen presently removed, and the next night the whole pillar fell, and carried scaffolds and all to the very ground. The second pillar, which you know is bigger than the rest, stands now alone, with an enormous weight on the top of it, which we cannot hope should stand long, and yet we dare not venture to take it down." Some entries in the Diary of Pepys, rather later in the same year, convey an impressive though sufficiently grotesque picture of the state of the ruins, and enable us to conjecture the utter helplessness of the dilettanti who obstructed Wren and fancied themselves adequate to the task of restoring St. Paul's: "I stopped at St. Paul's, and there did go into St. Faith's church, and also in the body of the west part of the church; and do see a hideous sight of the walls of the church ready to fall, that I was in fear as long as I was in it; and here I saw the great vaults underneath the body of the church." And again—“ Up betimes, and walked to the Temple, and stopped viewing the Exchange, and Paul's, and St. Faith's, where strange how the very sight of the stones falling from the top of the steeple do make me sea-sick!" It was therefore natural enough on the part of Dr. Sancroft earnestly to require Wren's "presence and assistance with all possible speed" in April, and to inform him in July that they could do nothing without him.

In consequence of the urgency of the commissioners, Wren made a report in which he demonstrated that it was impossible permanently to save the existing building. At the same time he stated in the most emphatic language the difficulties in the way of a new erection :-"The very substruction and repair of St. Faith's will cost so much that I shall but frighten this age with the computation of what is to be done in the dark, before anything will appear for the use desired.” Nevertheless, with the hopefulness characteristic of great minds, he pointed out how the task might be begun. An order was issued in consequence of his report by the King in council, to take down the walls, clear the ground, and proceed precisely as recommended by Wren. Still the half-hearted and narrow-minded portion of the commissioners contrived to throw so many impediments in the way of the architect, that in April, 1671, we find them still prating of repairing instead of rebuilding, and the site so encumbered with the old materials that it was impossible to proceed with the inspection of the ruins. A representation to this effect from Wren elicited an order for the removal and sale of the rubbish from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop and Lord Mayor of London, in which, alluding to "the new fabric," a significant " which we hope may speedily begin" is added. It was not, however, till 1673 that the intention of repairing the old edifice was finally abandoned, and the architect desired to make designs for an entirely new edifice worthy the greatness of the nation, and calculated to rival every edifice of the kind in Europe. Even then the difficulties and annoyances to which Wren was subjected rather changed their character than abated.

His original design for the cathedral (of which the elevation is subjoined) embodied the great principles expressed in his first report on the old church. The length of aisle to which he objected was necessary perhaps for the processions and pageantry of the Romish ritual, but was uncalled for in the reformed cathedral service. He availed himself of this circumstance to give greater compactness and squareness to the church which was to be the basis and substruc

ture of his dome. His judges, however, could not emancipate themselves from the notion that the form and arrangement of a cathedral to which they had all

their lives been accustomed was the only proper and possible form for such a building. The Duke of York, too, insisted, Spence tells us on the authority of Mr. Harding, that side oratories should be added the anecdotist suggests because he already meditated converting the fabric to the use of the Romish worship. He adds-"It narrowed the building, and broke in very much upon the beauty of the design. Sir Christopher insisted so strongly on the prejudice they would be of, that he actually shed tears in speaking of it, but it was all in vain. The Duke insisted on the long aisles and oratories being inserted, and he was obliged to comply." The modification of the original design which has been erected a cruciform Italian cathedral, closely resembling that of St. Peter at Rome-was accordingly resolved to be carried into execution; and letters patent were issued superseding the old commission for "upholding and repairing" the ancient cathedral church, authorising the commissioners to "rebuild, new erect, finish, and adorn the said cathedral church upon new foundations," and empowering them to "take down and demolish what is yet remaining of the old fabric." Sir Christopher now commenced his great work by making the necessary preliminary arrangements for the accomplishment of his design. He appointed officers and chief workmen, with their proper officers, subalterns, and departments, all in subordination and rendering their accounts to himself. Early in the year 1674 the workmen began to clear away the ruins of the ancient cathedral, preparatory to laying the new foundation. The pulling down of the old walls, which were in many places eighty feet high and five in thickness, was an