Sir Christopher Wren Part 24

The King pays for all he has.'[220]

The Czar's three months' occupancy of Sayes Court left it a wreck, and Evelyn got Sir Christopher, and the Royal gardener, Mr. Loudon, to go down and estimate the repairs which would be necessary. They allowed 150_l._ in their report to the Treasury, but could not by any money replace the beautiful holly hedge through which Peter the Great had been trundled in a wheel-barrow, or repair the garden he had laid waste.

[_S. DUNSTAN'S SPIRE._]

In 1699, Wren finished the last of those City churches which the Fire had injured or destroyed. S. Dunstan's in the East had suffered severely by the Fire: the walls of the church had not fallen, but the interior had been much damaged and the monument to the famous sailor and discoverer, Sir John Hawkins, who was buried there, perished. The old church had a lofty wooden spire cased with lead, which of course fell and was consumed. When Sir Christopher had repaired the body of the building the parishioners were anxious to have back the spire also, and Dame Dionis Williamson, a Norfolk lady, who had been a great benefactress to S. Mary's, Bow, gave 400_l._ towards this object. It is one of the most curious of all Wren's spires, as it rests on four arches springing from the angles of the tower. Three more such spires exist, two in Scotland and one at Newcastle. Tradition says that the steeple of S. Dunstan's was the design or the suggestion of Wren's daughter Jane. Perhaps, like the leaning tower of Pisa, it is more wonderful than satisfactory to the eye, but Sir Christopher was certainly proud of it and confident in its stability. Great crowds a.s.sembled to see the supports taken away, and Wren watched with a telescope, says the story, on London Bridge for the rocket which announced that all was safely done, but it is hardly probable that he was anxious about the result.

Four years later, when the tempest known as the 'great storm' raged in England, destroying twelve ships in the Royal navy, many merchant vessels, and a great number of buildings, some one came with a long face to tell Sir Christopher, that '_all_ the steeples in London had suffered;' he replied at once, 'Not S. Dunstan's, I am sure.' He was perfectly right, and the account given of the others was an exaggeration.

On February 1, 1699, the Morning Prayer Chapel of S. Paul's was opened for service. Later in the same month, a fire broke out at the west end of the choir, where 'Father Smith' was still at work. It caused considerable alarm, and was got under with some damage, especially to two of the pillars, and to a decorated arch. The gilding also lost some of its brightness. A nameless poem[221] fixes the date of this fire, which has been much disputed. It may have been in consequence of this alarm that Sir Christopher covered all the woodwork of the upper parts of the Cathedral with 'a fibrous concrete' said to resist fire so well that f.a.ggots might be kindled below it with impunity.

[_WESTMINSTER ABBEY._]

While S. Paul's was thus advancing towards its full beauty, the care of Westminster Abbey was a.s.signed to Wren. Little or no attention seems to have been spent on it between the time of Charles I.'s reign and that in which it was handed over to Wren.

With the energy which his sixty-seven years had not checked, he examined the grand building where he had worshipped as a schoolboy, and instantly ordered some of the most needful repairs.

In 1713 he sent in a statement to Dr. Atterbury, who was both Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, having in that year succeeded to Wren's old friend, Bishop Sprat: from this paper, though it is antic.i.p.ating the date, some extracts are here given.

'When I had the Honour to attend your Lordship, to congratulate your Episcopal Dignity, and pay that Respect which particularly concerned myself as employed in the chief Direction of the Works and Repairs of the Collegiate-Church of S. Peter in Westminster, you was pleased to give me this seasonable admonition, that I should consider my advanced Age; and as I had already made fair steps in the Reparation of that ancient and ruinous Structure, you thought it very requisite for the publick Service, I should leave a Memorial of what I had done, and what my Thoughts were for carrying on the Works for the future.' Then follows the history of the building of the abbey up to the reign of Henry III., who rebuilt it 'according to the Mode which came into Fashion after the Holy War.

'This we now call the _Gothick_ manner of Architecture (so the Italians called what was not after the _Roman_ style), tho' the _Goths_ were rather Destroyers than Builders; I think it should with more Reason be called the _Saracen_ Style; for those People wanted neither Arts nor Learning, and after we in the West had lost both, we borrowed again from them, out of their Arabick Books, what they with great Diligence had translated from the _Greeks_.... They built their Mosques round, disliking the _Christian_ form of a Cross: the old quarries whence the Ancients took their large blocks of marble for whole Columns and Architraves were neglected, for they thought both impertinent. Their carriage was by camels, therefore their Buildings were fitted for small stones, and Columns of their own fancy consisting of many pieces, and their Arches were pointed without key-stones which they thought too heavy. The Reasons were the same in our Northern Climates abounding in free stone, but wanting marble.... The Saracen mode of building seen in the East, soon spread over Europe and particularly in _France_, the Fashions of which nation we affected to imitate in all ages, even when we were at enmity with it.'...

Wren laments over the mixture of oak with the less-enduring chestnut wood in the roof of the Abbey, and the use of Rygate stone which absorbed water, and in a frost scaled off. He says he cut all the ragged ashlar work of Rygate stone out of the east window, replacing it with durable Burford stone, and secured all the b.u.t.tresses on the south side.

The north side of the Abbey is so choked up by buildings, and so shaken in parts by vaults rashly dug close to its b.u.t.tresses, that he can do little.

'I have yet said nothing of King Henry VIIth's Chapel, a nice embroidered Work and performed with tender Caen stone, and though lately built in comparison, is so eaten up by our Weather, that it begs for some compa.s.sion, which I hope the Sovereign Power will take as it is the Regal Sepulture.'

[_THE ORIGINAL INTENTION._]

The most necessary outward repairs of stone-work, he says, are one-third part done; the north front, and the great Rose Window there are very ruinous; he has prepared a proper design for them. Having summed up the repairs still essential for the security of the building, he proceeds to state what are, in his judgment, the parts of the original design for the Abbey still unfinished.

'The original intention was plainly to have had a Steeple, the Beginnings of which appear on the corners of the Cross, but left off before it rose so high as the Ridge of the Roof, and the Vault of the Quire under it, is only Lath and Plaister, now rotten and must be taken care of.

I have made a Design, which will not be very expensive but light, but still in the _Gothick_ Form, and of a Style with the rest of the structure, which I would strictly adhere to, throughout the whole intention: to deviate from the old Form would be to run into a disagreeable mixture which no Person of a good Taste could relish. I have varied a little from the usual Form, in giving twelve sides to the Spire instead of eight, for Reasons, to be discerned upon the Model.

'The Angles of Pyramids in the Gothick Architecture were usually enriched with the Flower the Botanists call the Calceolus, which is a proper form to help workmen to ascend on the outside to amend any defects, without raising large scaffolds upon every slight occasion; I have done the same, being of so good Use, as well as agreeable Ornament.... It is evident, as observed before, the two West Towers were left imperfect, and have continued so since the Dissolution of the Monastery, one much higher than the other, though still too low for Bells, which are stifled by the Height of the Roof above them; they ought certainly to be carried to an equal Height, one story above the ridge of the Roof, still continuing the Gothick manner, in the stone-work, and tracery.... It will be most necessary to rebuild the great North Window with Portland stone, to answer the South Rose Window which was well rebuilt about forty years since; the stair-cases at the corners and Pyramids set upon them conformable to the old style to make the whole of a piece....

For all these new Additions I have prepared perfect Draughts and Models, such as I conceive may agree with the original scheme of the old architect, without any modern mixtures to show my own Inventions: in like manner as I have among the Parochial Churches of _London_ given some few Examples (where I was obliged to deviate from a better style), which appear not ungraceful, but ornamental to the East part of the city; and it is to be hoped, by the publick care, the West part also, in good time will be as well adorned: and surely by nothing more properly than a lofty Spire and Western Towers to Westminster Abbey.'

With this, still unfulfilled hope, Wren's interesting paper closes. Nine years afterwards he did, however, finish the north front, commonly known as Solomon's Porch.

['_MODERN MIXTURES._']

Wren is so commonly spoken of as having built--and spoilt--the western towers, that it is well here to mention that his share in them is very small; he only restored with a careful hand the lower portion of the towers then standing.[222] They were continued by Hawksmoor after Wren's death, and by two other architects in succession after the death of Hawksmoor in 1736. No one of these had, as Wren had, the high-minded desire to do justice to 'the original architect without any modern mixtures of my own.'

FOOTNOTES:

[215] Given in _Doc.u.ments ill.u.s.trating the History of S. Paul's_, p. 157.

[216] _History of England_, vol. iv. p. 44-51. Sherlock was born 1641, died 1707.

[217] The year is not given in the MS. original, but it must be 1698.

[218] William, Earl of Portland, whose emba.s.sy was of extraordinary splendour. Of intrigues there must have been plenty, for at the very moment that Louis XIV. was for the first time recognising the Prince of Orange as King of England, King James II. was residing at S. Germains, surrounded by his own Court.

[219] Evelyn's _Diary_, June, no date of day.

[220] Evelyn's _Diary_, Jan. 30, 1698.

[221] _Doc.u.ments ill.u.s.trating_, etc., p. 158.

[222] _Three Cathedrals_, Longman, p. 86-88.

CHAPTER XIII.

1700-1708.

MEMBER FOR WEYMOUTH--RISING OF THE SAP IN TREES--PRINCE GEORGE'S STATUE--JANE WREN'S DEATH--THANKSGIVING AT S. PAUL'S--LETTER TO HIS SON--SON MARRIES MARY MUSARD--DEATH OF MR. EVELYN--QUEEN ANNE'S ACT FOR BUILDING FIFTY CHURCHES--LETTER ON CHURCH BUILDING.

'The old knight turning about his head twice or thrice to take a survey of this great metropolis, bid me observe how thick the City was set with churches, and that there was scarce a single steeple on this side Temple Bar. "A most heathenish sight!" says Sir Roger; "there is no religion at this end of the town. The fifty new churches will very much mend the prospect, but church work is slow, church work is slow."'--_The Spectator_, No. 383.

In 1700 Wren was returned by the boroughs of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis to a somewhat stormy Parliament.

He was finishing several of the City churches by the addition of towers to some, where, as at S. Magnus, London Bridge, and S. Andrew's, Holborn, the main parts had been previously built.

He gave a design for All Saints' Church, Isleworth; it was, however, reckoned too costly, and nothing was done until, in 1705, Sir Orlando Gee left a legacy of 500_l._ towards the rebuilding of the church, when Wren's design was partially adopted, and the work done by his faithful master-mason, Edward Strong.[223]

With all this work, Wren yet found time to write a treatise on 'The rising of the sap in trees.' It is a short treatise, evidently copied by a copyist, though a little indian-ink drawing at the side is probably Wren's own. The question in dispute seems to have been whether this natural rising of the sap contradicted the newly discovered law of gravity.

'It is wonderful,' he says, 'to see the rising of the sap in Trees.

All will bleed more or less when they are tapped by boring a hole through the Bark, some very considerably, as Birch, which will afford as much liquor every day almost as the milke of a cow; in a Vine when a bough is cut off it will if not stopped bleed to death.

Now by what mechanisme is water raised to such a height, as in Palmitos to 120 foot high? A skillfull Engineer cannot effect this without great force and a complicated engine, which Nature doth without sensible motion; it steals up as freely as the water descends: the reason of this is obscure as yett to naturalists.'

After some discussion of various theories, he proceeds to show by the help of the little drawing, 'that the onely Vicissitudes of heat and cold in ye aire is sufficient to raise the sap to the height of the loftiest trees.' Then follows the proof of this by mechanics refuting the notion of

'a secret motion in nature contrary to that of the gravity, by which plants aspire upwards.

'But though I have shown how the sap may be mechanically raised from the Root to the top of the loftiest trees, yett how it comes to be varyed according to the particular nature of the Tree by a Fermentation in the Root; how the Raine water entering the Root acquires a spirit that keeps it from freezing, but also gives it such distinguishing tastes and qualities is beyond mechanical Philosophy to describe and may require a great collection of Phenomena with a large history of plants to shew how they expand the leaves and produce the Seed and Fruit from the same Raine water so wonderfully diversified and continued since the first Creation.'

Another paper of the same date was written 'On the surface of the terrestrial Globe,' but this does not appear to have been preserved.

Many of Sir Christopher's writing's and many also of his inventions were lost by Mr. Oldenburg, the Royal Society's secretary, of whom Wren frequently complained that he not only neglected to enter them on the Society's Register, but conveyed them to France and Germany, where they appeared, attributed as inventions to those who had stolen them.