Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul Part 6

Preliminary 10,909 7 8 Purchase of Houses 14,808 3 10 Cost as in "Parentalia" 736,752 2 3 Interest on Loans 83,744 18 9 ---------------- Total 846,214 12 6

BALANCE in 1723 32,308 19 9

My balance does not tally with Mr. Longman's. He tells us that the coal duty, which was on sea-borne coal, was 1s. 6d. per chaldron, whereof four-fifths went to St. Paul's. The age of Indulgences was over, and, unlike the cathedrals of the Middle Ages, the cost of building St. Paul's was chiefly defrayed by a public impost; and this cost may be estimated in round numbers at about three-quarters of a million for the actual building, with an additional hundred thousand for incidental expenses.

FOOTNOTES:

[52] This village, near Salisbury, is called East Knoyle, Knoyle Magna, and Bishop-Knoyle. The entry of baptism runs: "Christopher (2nd sic.) sonne of Christopher Wren Doctor in Divinitie and Rector now."

The rector placed this entry, dated only "10th," before March, 1632/31 in a vacant place. Hence the statement that the surveyor was born in 1631, but both the rector and Christopher himself dated the birth October 20, 1632. My thanks are due to the Rev. Canon Milford, Rector of East Knoyle, for the above, and also to his copy of Miss Lucy Phillimore's "Life."

[53] "Parentalia," p. 227 and elsewhere, gives details of his extensive knowledge of anatomy in its various branches.

[54] His inaugural address at Gresham College, in Latin, when he was twenty-five (1657) fills eight folios in the "Parentalia," and is given in facsimile of his handwriting.

[55] The humorous letter of Sprat to Wren says: "I endeavoured to persuade him [the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford] that the drawing of Lines in Sir Harry Savill's School was not altogether of so great a Concernment for the Benefit of Christendom, as the rebuilding of St.

Paul's or the fortifying of Tangier: (for I understood those were the great Works in which that extraordinary genius of yours was judg'd necessary to be employed)" ("Parentalia," p. 260).

[56] As it seems to have been ignored how carefully Wren studied cathedrals and other buildings, the following may be of interest: "These Surveys [of Salisbury with elaborate report for the Bishop, Seth Ward] and other occasional Inspections of the most noted cathedral Churches and Chapels in _England_ and foreign Parts"

("Parentalia," p. 306). He never saw, we may a.s.sume, his three favourite buildings at Rome--the Pantheon, the Basilica of Maxentius, and St. Peter's.

[57] Ground-plan in "Parentalia," p. 268; and Blomfield's "Renaissance Architecture in England."

[58] Milman, p. 407, with geological diagram. The archaeological remains disinterred have been already mentioned, pp. 3 and 4.

[59] Mr. Longman seems to think that the cathedral rests on the loam.

The following shows that the strata are irregular, and that in some places the loam is very thin. Edward Strong the younger "also repaired all the blemishes and fractures in the several legs and arches of the dome, occasioned by the great weight of the said dome pressing upon the foundation; the earth under the same being of an unequal temper the loamy part thereof gave more way to the great weights than that which was of gravel; so that the south-west quarter of the dome, and the six smaller legs of the other quarters of the dome, having less superficies, sunk into the thinner part of the loamy ground, an inch in some places, in others two inches, and in other places something more; and the other quarters of the dome, being on the thicker part of the loamy ground and gravel, it did not give so much way to the great weights as the other did, which occasioned the fractures and blemishes in the several arches and legs of the dome." (Clutterbuck, "History of Hertfordshire," vol. i., pp. 167-168; quoted in Dugdale, note, p. 173) Clutterbuck has a great deal to say about the Strongs, father and son, and their family.

[60] "Parentalia," pp. 298, 304, _et seq._ Wren did not approve of, though he used, the term "Gothic." "The Goths were rather destroyers than builders; I think it [the Gothic] should with more reason be called the _Saracen_ style" (Ibid., p. 297). "The Saracenick Architecture refined by the Christians" (Ibid., p. 306). _Cf._ Freeman, _Fortnightly Review_, October, 1872.

[61] Wren estimated that a preacher of average voice might be heard fifty feet in front, twenty behind, and thirty on either side, provided he did not drop his voice at the end of the sentence. He contended that the French preachers were heard further than the English, because they raised their voices at the end of the sentence, just where the words often required particular emphasis to express the meaning. The omission of this was a fault even of capable preachers, was "insufferable," and ought to be corrected at school. After two centuries his criticism still holds good ("Parentalia," p. 320). His remarks upon architecture ought to be reprinted from the "Parentalia,"

and made compulsory for every student and candidate.

[62] "Parentalia," pp. 281-282, shows how questions of finance entered into Wren's conception of his famous First Design.

[63] "Parentalia," p. 282.

[64] Wren's numerous designs and drawings are undated, and the "Parentalia" is anything but clear. In consequence there has been a certain amount of confusion as to the ident.i.ty both of the First Design and of the approved Warrant Design.

[65] Some say by the Bishop Humphrey Henchman, who died in the October following; some by the surveyor, and others by the master-mason, Strong. There seems to have been no religious service or great ceremony.

[66] Macaulay, followed by others, speaks merely of the "opening"; the prayer I have quoted from Dugdale shows that the opening was a consecration service. I am unaware that the rest of the cathedral has ever been consecrated; and if not, it resembles Lincoln and many another mediaeval church (Freeman's "Wells," p. 77).

[67] June 27, 1706; December 31, 1706; May 1, 1707 (for the Union); August 19, 1708.

[68] Harleian MS. 4941, quoted in Dugdale, p. 140, note. This was at the beginning.

_NEW ST. PAUL'S._

[Ill.u.s.tration: ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, FROM THE WEST.]

CHAPTER V.

NEW ST. PAUL'S.

EXTERIOR.

"It would be difficult to find two works of Art designed more essentially on the same principle than Milton's 'Paradise Lost' and Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral. The Bible narrative transposed into the forms of a Greek epic, required the genius of a Milton to make it tolerable; but the splendour of even his powers does not make us less regret that he had not poured forth the poetry with which his heart was swelling in some form that would have freed him from the trammels which the pedantry of his age imposed upon him. What the Iliad and the aeneid were to Milton, the Pantheon and the Temple of Peace were to Wren. It was necessary he should try to conceal his Christian Church in the guise of a Roman Temple. Still the idea of the Christian cathedral is always present, and reappears in every form, but so, too, does that of the Heathen temple--two conflicting elements in contact--neither subduing the other, but making their discord so apparent as to destroy to a very considerable extent the beauty either would possess if separate."[69]

I give this quotation at length, not because I by any means agree with one half of the fault-finding, but because it helps to explain the architecture. St. Paul's is often called "Cla.s.sical," or "Roman," or "Italian"; it is not one of these three: it is English Renaissance. It was, too, a distinctly happy thought of Fergusson to suggest that the Cathedral takes a like place in English architecture to that which the immortal "Paradise Lost" does in English literature. The ground-plan suggests the Gothic; the pilasters and entablature the Greek and Roman; the round arch is found in both Roman and Romanesque, and that commanding feature, the Dome, is the common property of many styles and many ages. The general plan resembles the long or Latin Cross, with transepts of greater breadth than length; and the uniformity is broken by an apse at the east, and the two chapels at the west end.

The best views are, perhaps, the two oblique ones approaching from Ludgate Hill and from Cannon Street. The upward view from the churchyard on the south side by the angle of nave and transept gives the proportions of the lower stages of the dome effectively; and those who care to make the weary ascent of one of the Crystal Palace towers, will be rewarded by the aspect of the dome emerging above the pall of surrounding smoke, and appearing to preside like a watchful and protecting deity over the destinies of the city at its feet.

The dimensions are as follows, in feet:--Length, 513, which may thus be divided: nave and portico, 223; breadth of transept, 122; length of choir, 168. Length of transepts, 248 feet. Breadth of nave, 123; of transept and choir a trifle less; of west front with chapels, 179.

Height, to summit of bal.u.s.trade, 108; to apex of roof, 120; to stone gallery, 182; to base of sphere, 220; to upper gallery at the summit of the dome, 281; to the summit of the cross, 363 feet.

The material is from the quarries of Portland, chosen because of its durability in regard to both weather and smoke, the facilities for transport, and the size of the blocks. Had Roche Abbey stone from South Yorkshire been more easily obtainable, these quarries might have been used as well. The size of the blocks contributes an important feature to the architecture, where so much depends upon the breadth of four feet; and even the procuring of this, as time went on, and the stonecutters had to work at a greater distance from the sea, became a matter of delay and difficulty, and the masons might have to wait months for their blocks.

The combination of the stability with such lightness and gracefulness as were procurable, can in a measure be estimated by the comparative area taken up by the walls, pillars, and other points of support. This area amounts to seventeen per cent., and compares favourably with St.

Peter's at Rome, which is more than half as much again, as well as with St. Sophia and the Duomo at Florence. On the other hand many of our Gothic cathedrals require only ten per cent.[70] Wren would have said that they lack stability, and that he had calculated accurately on the minimum of ma.s.siveness requisite for security; and besides this, they have no heavy dome to be poised. Throughout there are two stages or stories. The lower has the Corinthian Order, which was always Wren's favourite, as he held that it was at once more graceful and bore a greater weight of entablature than the earlier Doric and Ionic. Wren's first design of a Greek Cross followed St. Peter's in consisting of one main order plus an attic.[71] While Bramante at St.

Peter's found stones of nine feet in diameter in the quarries of Tivoli, Wren, after making inquiries all over, could not procure sufficient stone for his columns and pilasters of a greater diameter than four feet, and he would not depart, at least to any degree, from what he held to be the correct Corinthian height of nine diameters.

Had a sufficient quant.i.ty of larger blocks been obtainable, we should have had the Corinthian order plus the attic, instead of the two regular orders of Corinthian and Composite.[72] And this, it seems, was his reason for departing in this respect from the First Design; as also partially from the Approved Design. The pilasters are grouped in pairs throughout, not only for stability, but also for sufficient s.p.a.ce for the circular-headed windows ornamented with festoons. Above the entablature rises the second stage or story, or order. Here the coupled pilasters have that slight difference in base and more particularly in capital which const.i.tutes the Composite order. The capitals have the larger scrolls or volutes of the Ionic above the acanthus leaves of the Corinthian proper. In reality the difference is, here, but slight; and the best authorities maintain that there is less difference between the Corinthian and the Composite than between different examples of the Corinthian itself. The reason for the dressed niches, with pediments instead of windows, like those in the lower stage, will come later on. A main architrave and cornice run round the entire building like an unbroken string course, and above this, excepting at the different fronts, a bal.u.s.trade, to which a history is attached.

A new commission had been nominated after the death of Queen Anne[73]

(which by the way included Sir Isaac Newton), and this commission insisted upon a bal.u.s.trade unless the surveyor "do in writing under his hand set forth that it is contrary to the principles of architecture, and give his opinion in a fortnight's time." Wren answered, "_Persons of little skill did expect, I believe, something they had been used to in Gothic structures, and ladies think nothing well without an edging._" He urged that he had already terminated the building, and that his design of pairs of pedestals in continuation of the pilasters would better resist the wind. As in other matters, he had to give way; and the difference in the effect cannot be judged from mere ill.u.s.trations.[74] The four angles, where the transepts join, are filled up with the huge supporting bastion-like piers of the dome; and internally are left, so to speak, hollow; that at the south-west being utilised as a staircase, and the others on the ground floor as vestries.

No roof is visible from below. The actual roof of oak and lead was so flattened as to be invisible in accordance with the ideas of the architect. "_No Roofs almost but Spherick raised to be visible._"

"_The Ancients affected Flatness._" "_No Roofs can have Dignity enough to appear above a Cornice, but the Circular._"[75]

We now come to that peculiarity upon which so much adverse criticism has been bestowed. The usual observer will wonder why there are niches instead of windows in the upper stage, as light is so much needed. On entering the interior he will notice that the height of the aisles does not correspond with the exterior; and on ascending to the Stone Gallery will ascertain that this upper stage of the exterior is not part of the actual wall of the church, which stands back some thirty feet. It is, in fact, a screen or curtain wall; the lower stage alone is the wall of the aisles, and the disfiguring square openings with which the pedestals below the niches are pierced, give light to the pa.s.sages and galleries between the aisles and the roof. Externally one is supposed to see the wall of the cathedral; in reality one sees the lower story forming the wall, and an upper story in continuation made to look as though the church were immediately behind, but in reality quite disengaged from it. The following is an able specimen of the adverse criticisms that have been directed against this curtain: "It is a mere empty show with nothing behind it, and when once this is known it is impossible to forget it, or to have the same feeling towards the building which a spectator might have, despite its defects of detail, who believed its external ma.s.s to represent its interior arrangements."[76] Yet an attentive study of the "Parentalia" enables us to plead a great deal in mitigation. The spectator will notice that there are no substantial b.u.t.tresses; and the reason is the simple one that Wren held them to be disfigurements. "_The Romans always concealed their Butments._"[77] "_Oblique Positions are Discord to the Eye unless answered in Pairs, as in the Sides of an equicrural Triangle.... Gothick b.u.t.tresses are all ill-favoured, and were avoided by the Ancients._"[78] Such were the opinions of Wren; but how was he to procure stability? The answer is, by the curtain wall. By its dead weight pressing on the walls of the aisles it renders them stable and immobile, free from all danger of thrust, while it conceals the b.u.t.tresses which render secure the clerestory stage of the building proper. To paraphrase his own words: "_I do not add b.u.t.tresses, but I build up the wall so high as by the addition of this extra weight, I establish it as firmly as if I had added b.u.t.tresses._"[79] Thus this wall performs a double function: it is a subst.i.tute for b.u.t.tresses in respect to the aisle walls, and a screen for the actual b.u.t.tresses of the clerestory stage.

Such is the purpose of the upper story. An ingenious critic who did not seem to know this vindicates it on the plea that "uninterrupted alt.i.tude of the bulk in the same plane, is absolutely necessary to the substructure of the mighty dome."[80] No doubt the size of the dome requires a proportionate rise in the lower elevations; but the fact remains that the exterior and interior do not correspond. A greater authority than this critic has thus defined good architecture: "The essence of good architecture of any kind is that its constructive system should be put boldly forward, that its decorative system should be such as in no way conceals or masks the construction, but makes the constructive features themselves ornamental."[81] And at his uncle's cathedral of Ely, Wren might have borrowed and worked out an idea which would have silenced all accusation of fraud and deceit. There, in the central part of the choir on the south side, the roof was removed and placed lower down centuries ago, the better to light up certain shrines below. This roof was never restored to its original position; and the upper stage of the wall is pierced with empty windows through which flying-b.u.t.tresses can now be seen. The effect, though altogether unusual, is far from displeasing; and the spectator who remembers that Wren was perfectly familiar with this building, is led to wonder why he did not by piercing the niches, imitate Ely at St. Paul's.

The Windows, round-headed and without tracery, contrast unfavourably with the Lancet and Decorated. Wren recognised the value of tracery, as is evident from his remarks on Salisbury Cathedral, although he objected to the Perpendicular mullions and transoms.[82] Yet it is difficult to see how he could have devised anything more elaborate or graceful to harmonise. The carving above and below, in the conventional festoons of the day, is almost universally voted as respectable and nothing more. Mr. Ruskin is very severe on these festoons, on the ground that they are tied heavily into a long bunch thickest in the middle, and pinned up by both ends against a dead wall, and contends that the architecture has no business with rich ornament in any place. Yet he admits that the sculpture is as careful and rich as may be; and let any one study, for instance, the window immediately east of the south portico, and particularly below, where the details can be better observed. In spite of a heavy top-coat of smoke, the combination of cherubs, birds, grapes, and foliage is as graceful and artistic as possible; and the work beneath the east end and north transept windows will also well repay careful study. These details are apt to be neglected, possibly because they seem dwarfed by the immense proportions of the building.[83]

The North and South Chapels, as we hear on probably trustworthy authority, were added at the instance of James, Duke of York, who looked forward to the day when the Roman Catholic services would be subst.i.tuted for the Anglican. Although Stephen is silent as to his grandfather's intentions, there is evidence given by Mr. Longman and Miss Lucy Phillimore to show that Wren tried his best to finish the building without them. Whether seen from the north-east or south-west they interfere with the perspective, and the independence of the lowest stage of the West Towers is completely lost; and curiously enough in this last respect the South-West or Consistory Chapel does very much what St. Gregory's did to the Lollards' Tower in Old St.

Paul's.

We now turn to the different parts and members.

=North and South Fronts.=--These are similar, each part corresponding to each, excepting a slight difference in the steps of the porticoes caused by the ground on the south side sloping towards the Thames; and this uniformity or symmetry is invariably carried out in the different parts wherever feasible. Take the three main windows of the choir aisles on either side, and compare them with the three of the nave aisles on either side between the transepts and the chapels. The windows themselves and their pilasters exactly agree, as do their distances.