Sir Christopher Wren Part 21

He obeyed her exactly, spent his last guinea on a block of pear-wood, and wrought with all his might to get it ready by the appointed day. Sir Christopher was showing the building to a party of friends, but as soon as he saw Wood with his carving hidden in an ap.r.o.n, he beckoned him forward. Wood produced his carving; Wren looked at it a moment in silence, and then said, 'I engage you, young man; attend at my office to-morrow forenoon.' Shortly afterwards he came to Wood again and said, 'Mr. Addison[198] wishes to keep your carving, and requests me to give you ten guineas for it;' then with his gentle courtesy, he added, 'Young man, I fear I did you some injustice, but a great national work is entrusted to me, and it is my solemn duty to mind that no part of the work falls into inefficient hands. Mind and attend me to-morrow.' Wood was employed for seven years in the Cathedral, and received considerable sums of money; and it is pleasant to know that he did marry Hannah Haybittle.

Thus some of his work is in S. Paul's, and to him London streets were indeed paved with gold. Yet one cannot but think sadly, for one who thus succeeded, what numbers then and now come full of hope, to the great city, and without help or friends lose their all, and are left without even the means of returning. To the number of these the House of Charity, which occupies one corner of Wren's once handsome Soho Square, can bear but too true a testimony.

FOOTNOTES:

[183] He wrote _Primitive Christianity, Lives of the Fathers_, &c.; was a Canon of Windsor, where he died in 1713.

[184] _Vide infra_, p. 310

[185] Newcourt says, 'A lofty spire was at first built, but the tower not proving strong enough, it was taken down, and another sort of spire built.' It is said to be by Willc.o.x, a carpenter.

[186] _Diary_, December 7, 1684.

[187] It was private property and never consecrated, and has within the last few years been pulled down and the site used as a shop.

[188] _Repertorium_, p. 367. Newcourt. Now used by the Welsh congregation.

[189] _Diary_, January 9, 1684.

[190] _Memorials of the See of Chichester_, p. 306.

[191] The t.i.tle of Newton's book is _Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica_. The MS. is in the possession of the Royal Society.

[192] Matthew Griffiths, the favourite and the pupil of Dean Donne, held this living through the Rebellion, and being a hearty Episcopalian was sequestered, plundered, and twice imprisoned; he returned to London and read the Prayers of the Church in the obscure church of S. Nicholas Olave's,[193] hard by his own church, to the poor Cavaliers; for this he suffered seven violent a.s.saults and five imprisonments; the last for preaching before General Monk a strong Royalist sermon before Monk had declared himself. Mr. Griffiths was speedily released and restored to his benefice.

[193] S. Nicholas Olave was burnt to the ground and the parish incorporated with that of S. Nicholas Coleabbey.--Newcourt's _Rep._, p. 305.

[194] It would seem from the S. Gregory's vestry books that Sir C.

Wren put up at the request of the parishioners 'a wooden tabernacle' for the use of both parishes. It was set up in S.

Paul's Churchyard, and taken down after a time as interfering with the building of the Cathedral.

[195] _Repertorium_, p. 475. Newcourt.

[196] _Walks in London._ A. Hare, vol. i. p. 331.

[197] For this anecdote (taken from MS. in the British Museum) I am indebted to a number of the _British Workman_ for 1877. It is, I think, the foundation of Mr. J. Saunders' graceful story of _Jasper Deane_.

[198] Probably the father of the great writer.

CHAPTER XI.

1687-1696.

PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED--CHURCH BUILDING--ACQUITTAL OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS--JAMES II.'S FLIGHT--WILLIAM AND MARY--COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS--HAMPTON COURT--GREENWICH HOSPITAL--RICHARD WHITTINGTON--S. PAUL'S ORGAN.

Be it enacted then By the fair laws of thy firm-pointed pen, G.o.d's services no longer shall put on A s.l.u.ttishness for pure religion; No longer shall our churches' frighted stones Lie scattered like the burnt and martyr'd bones Of dead devotion.

_On a treatise on Charity._ RICHARD CRASHAW.

Wren's parliamentary career was soon interrupted, for King James dissolved, in 1687, an a.s.sembly which had done so little to forward his views.

Church building went on apace. S. Andrew's, Holborn, which, though the fire had not reached it, was in a ruinous state, was rebuilt and made a large handsome stone church, with an interior very like that of S.

James's, Westminster. The tower was merely repaired and not rebuilt.

Christ Church, Newgate, on the site of the old Franciscan Monastery of Grey Friars, had formerly been a magnificent edifice: the choir only was rebuilt by Wren, and sufficed to make a large parish church, which was filled with handsome carving; a graceful pillared steeple was added in 1704.

S. Margaret Pattens,[199] in Rood Lane, was finished in 1687: built of brick and stone with a tall tower and graceful spire, and much enriched by carving within. Its existence has been threatened, but it stands out an honourable, though fortunately not at all a solitary example, of a well-worked, and therefore well-filled, City church, and it is to be hoped may defy its threatened destroyers.

Early in the following year came the trial of those Seven Bishops who refused to publish in church the King's declaration of liberty of conscience.[200]

It was perhaps the most unwise thing that James II. ever did, and as the Bishops pa.s.sed to the barge that was to take them to the Tower, rank upon rank of kneeling people besought their blessing. It was an event to move Wren greatly: he could remember when a child hearing of Archbishop Laud's imprisonment, and the long years of Bishop Wren's captivity were frequently cheered by his nephew's visits to the Tower. Most of those who now pa.s.sed to that ill-omened abode were his friends or acquaintance. Bishop Turner of Ely was on the S. Paul's Commission; Bishop Lloyd of S. Asaph while rector of S. Martin's had baptized Wren's daughter and youngest son; Bishop White he had known in the days when he was rector. Bishop Ken at Winchester, and Archbishop Sancroft had been for years his steady friends. If he failed in dignity at one crisis, there is abundant material in Sancroft's letters, and in the rest of his life, to show he must have been a charming companion and capable of inspiring sincere affection.

[_DEATH OF MRS. HOLDER._]

They remained in the Tower about a week, and on June 29 were triumphantly acquitted. The story of their acquittal has been told once for all by Lord Macaulay and need not be re-told here. London was full of illuminations, the favourite device being seven candles--the tallest central one representing the arch-bishop--and all the newly-hung bells of the city were set ringing. Wren had private sorrows to hinder him from entering into the public rejoicing: his only surviving sister, Susan, died just at this time, and Wren must have been watching by her on the very day of the Bishops' acquittal. A little later, he, and her husband, Dr. William Holder, brought her body to the crypt of S. Paul's and laid her there. The epitaph, on a marble monument, is written with all the diffuseness of style common to those of that time, but is touching from its real affection.

The crypt of S. Paul's was of course the part of the building first finished. Long ago Wren had spoken of 'the quant.i.ty of work to be done in the dark,' and it certainly proved enormous. The crypt of S. Paul's is one of the largest and most intricate that exists, extending under the entire church, not the choir only, as is the case in S. Peter's at Rome. The dimness of a London atmosphere renders it hard to get much effect of light and shade, but on a clear day the curious twilight effect is striking. There are all the tombs which were preserved from the old cathedral, there are now the remains of some of our greatest dead, and there is the Church of S. Faith, the floor of which is now being slowly covered with a beautiful mosaic.[201]

When, however, Sir Christopher laid his sister there, all was empty and not fully complete; the cl.u.s.ter of pillars and arches that sustain the great dome with their ma.s.sive strength must have been but newly finished.

Only one church was completed by Sir Christopher in this troubled year, that of S. Michael, Crooked Lane; a handsome stone church with a stately tower and spire. It contained the tomb of a famous city worthy, Sir William Walworth:

Who with courage stout and manly might Slew Wat Tyler in King Richard's sight.[202]

This a.s.sociation had no value in the eyes of the Corporation of London, with whom it might have weighed: they were as indifferent to this lesser reason as to the infinitely higher claim of consecrated ground, and in 1830 the church was swept away for the new London Bridge.

All through the year the relations between King James and his people were growing more and more strained. Messages were pa.s.sed and repa.s.sed between many of the high officials and the Prince of Orange, and in their dread of the Church of Rome, the people forgot what they had suffered under the tyranny of the Puritan sects. Hurry and confusion were everywhere; as the year advanced the Prince of Orange's landing was hourly reported on all parts of the coast. Too late King James took some of the measures which, taken earlier, might have saved all; and on November 5, 1688, the Prince landed at Brixham in Torbay.

[_WILLIAM AND MARY._]

For some time all was confusion and all private business was suspended.

Early in the next year a convention was called of the Lords and Commons, and the crown offered to William and Mary. The Queen's behaviour, the absence of even the show of feeling for her father, were much remarked on at the time and are a great stain on her memory. A Parliament was called on the 13th of February, to which Sir C. Wren was returned for the borough of New Windsor. His election was set aside for a technical error in the manner of his return, but he was instantly re-elected. It is evident from this that he took the new oath of allegiance, probably holding, with Evelyn and other honourable men, that King James had abdicated and that therefore the throne was vacant. The S. Paul's commission was renewed, and amid all the changes the work there went on; making in its steady, undeviating progress, its unity of design, a fair type of the growth of the spiritual church, despite the sharp contrast apparently existing between the peaceful, regular growth of the material edifice, and the hindrances and trials that beset the spiritual one.

Those were the days when some of the best and most learned churchmen, unable to reconcile the contradiction of the two oaths, lost high office, honours, and all prospects of worldly success by becoming 'non-jurors.' It should be borne in mind that it was on no doctrinal ground that they left the Communion of the Church in England, but simply because, considering James II. still as King, they could not honestly take an oath of allegiance to William as his successor, or attend services where an usurper was prayed for as the rightful sovereign.

It was a most grievous blow to the Church, by no means recovered from the struggle with Puritanism or from the semi-Puritan clergy she had been constrained to accept. Yet, in the midst of all these misfortunes, thus much at least was gained; men were forced to understand the true grounds of their position and to learn, as the Church in Scotland learnt by a sharper lesson, that State aid, and State protection, are not among the essentials of the Church. The misfortune of so many friends, and especially that of good Archbishop Sancroft, must greatly have moved Wren, and it is provoking that his grandson has given no intimation of his ancestor's views, not even saying on which side he voted in the Convention Parliament, which offered the crown to William and Mary.

Wren certainly knew how to manage his Windsor const.i.tuents. He had erected from time to time several buildings there, among which was the Town Hall, built upon arches, with a wide vaulted s.p.a.ce below, which is now used as the Corn Exchange.

When all was finished, the mayor and corporation came in state to inspect the new building, and to stamp with their approval another of the great architect's works. Much seems to have been approved of, but one member of the munic.i.p.ality declared in alarm that the room above the vaulted s.p.a.ce was inadequately supported and would one day fall in.

[_ADDITIONAL PROPS._]

In vain Wren, who had built vault after vault and knew to a nicety what weight each of his arches would bear, explained the perfect security of the upper room; the anxious man could not be pacified and the architect promised to put two columns below. He did so, and the alderman was calmed, little knowing that Sir Christopher's columns when complete had about half an inch of s.p.a.ce between themselves and the ceiling they were supposed to support! Wren must many a time have laughed to himself when he pa.s.sed that way.