Sir Christopher Wren Part 27

Wren, who doubtless intended to employ Tijou, and have a low, graceful railing which would throw up the height and solid grandeur of the Cathedral, repeatedly expressed his opinion; but the majority overruled him, and the Cathedral was imprisoned by a high, heavy, clumsy fence, the gates of which were sedulously closed, and were but too apt an emblem of the manner in which the Cathedral was soon shut off from its true uses. A century later, and Bishop Blomfield could say, 'I never pa.s.s S. Paul's without thinking how little it has done for Christianity.' Now the iron fence has departed,[239] and with it all possibility of such a reproach.

During all this time Wren was engaged on the Abbey repairs and the affairs of Chelsea College. The Duke of Ormonde sends him a summons in November, 1713, the more pressing, as several Commissioners are out of town, to meet him 'at twelve of the clock at his Grace's house at the c.o.c.kpitt, in order to give directions for the cloathing of the Invalide Companys who are in a perishing condition for want thereof, not having been cloathed for near these three years past.' The death of Evelyn and that of Sir Stephen Fox had lost to Chelsea Hospital its two best friends, but doubtless the Duke and Sir Christopher were able to provide for this emergency.

We hear of Wren at this time busied as of old for the Royal Society, going, with his son and Sir Isaac Newton, to inspect a house in Crane Court,[240] and finally buying it as a residence for the Society.

Again he appears with Newton, and the son who seems to have been his constant companion, going down to Greenwich as visitors of the Royal Observatory there and making their report upon it. As Flamsteed hated Newton, and greatly resented any formal visitation, the expedition must have taxed even Wren's peace-making powers, but Flamsteed never seems to have quarrelled with him.

[_DEATH OF QUEEN ANNE._]

In the summer of the following year 'good Queen Anne' died, and with her all real chance of the return of the Stuart family, despite the gallant and devoted attempts made for 'Prince Charlie' in 'the '15' and 'the '45.' The sixth and last English reign which Wren was destined to see began in 1714 with the accession of George I.

The S. Paul's Commission was renewed, with, of course, Wren's name upon it, but the annoyances of his position increased.

In his design, S. Paul's stood complete with a plinth over the entablature, and with statues on the four pediments only. The Commissioners took it into their heads that a bal.u.s.trade with vases was greatly needed, and that it should be put up, unless Wren could 'set forth in writing, under his hand, that it is contrary to the principles of architecture and give his opinion in a fortnight's time.' This looks very like a device for tormenting the old man of eighty-five, and revenging themselves for their previous defeat. Exactly within the fortnight Wren sent an answer which certainly shows no trace of failing powers.

'I take leave, first, to declare that I never designed a bal.u.s.trade. Persons of little skill in architecture did expect, I believe, to see something they had been used to in Gothick structures; and ladies think nothing well without an edging. I should gladly have complied with the vulgar taste but I suspended for the reasons following.'

The technical reasons are given, and he adds:

'that as no provision was originally made in my plan for a bal.u.s.trade, the setting up one in such a confused manner over the plinth must apparently break into the harmony of the whole machine, and, in this particular case, be _contrary to the principles of architecture_.'

Nothing daunted, either by Wren's reasons or his sarcasm, and regardless of their implied promise, the wise Commissioners of the Cathedral set to work on their bal.u.s.trade.

[_DISMISSED FROM HIS OFFICE._]

This transaction belongs to the autumn of 1717. In the April of the ensuing year, George I., who cared nothing about art or architecture, and who only wished to gratify his German favourites, was easily prevailed upon to dismiss Sir Christopher Wren from that post of Surveyor-General which he had held for forty-eight years, and to bestow it upon William Benson, a favourite's favourite, as ignorant and incapable as he was grasping and unscrupulous. There was probably but little outcry, for, as Steele[241] had truly said,

'Nestor,' under which name he described Wren, 'was not only in his profession the greatest man of that age, but had given more proofs of it than any man ever did; yet for want of that natural freedom and audacity which is necessary in commerce with men, his personal modesty overthrew all his public actions.'

The person least disposed to make a complaint was Wren himself. Finding his patent superseded, he quietly retired to his house at Hampton Court, saying, 'Nunc me jubet Fortuna expeditius philosophari.[242] One other comment he made, as a note to the date (April 26, 1718) of this dismissal: '[Greek: Hoti aneste Basileus hetepos hos ouk edei ton Ioseph: kai ouden touton to Gallioni emelen.][Maltese Cross]'[243]

It is some satisfaction to know that Benson so disgraced himself as in five years' time to be dismissed, and narrowly escaped a prosecution by the House of Lords. Pope held him up to deserved scorn in the 'Dunciad,'

where he also says:

While Wren with sorrow to the grave descends,

but this, one is glad to think, tells rather what might have been Sir Christopher's state of mind than what it really was.

Wren had had the interest of watching his eldest son's career in Parliament as member for that borough of Windsor which he had himself represented.

This son's wife had died, and in 1715 he married again. His second wife was Constance, daughter of Sir Thomas Middleton, and widow of Sir Roger Burgoyne; by this marriage he had another son, named Stephen. On this occasion Sir Christopher bought the estate of Wroxhall Abbey[244] in Warwickshire, which had belonged to the Burgoynes and was heavily enc.u.mbered. Sir Christopher is said to have stayed at the Abbey occasionally, and to have designed the kitchen garden wall which is built in semicircles. It was probably when he thus became a Warwickshire Squire that he gave the designs for S. Mary's Church at Warwick, designs entirely different from those adopted in the present building, which is said to have been designed and built by one Francis Smith, a mason in the town.

[_LONGITUDE AT SEA._]

But the greater part of Wren's declining years was spent at Hampton Court, from which he went up to London to watch the progress of the works at Westminster Abbey, the surveyorship of which he still kept. A report was spread that the ceiling of the Sheldonian Theatre, in which, as a piece of mechanical construction, Sir Christopher took great pride, was giving way. Careful examination proved this to be a perfectly groundless rumour, and no further annoyance arose to disturb the calm evening of the old man's life. To be 'beneficus humano generi,' as he said, had ever been his aim and wish. He now employed his leisure in looking over old papers on astronomy and mathematics and the method of finding out the longitude at sea. It had been long considered by the general world as impossible to find out as was the secret of perpetual motion, and the attempt at either discovery was treated with equal ridicule. The merchants, and captains of merchant ships were, however, from bitter experience of vessels and crews wrecked or lost, aware of the immense importance of the discovery of the longitude, if it could be made. They presented, in 1714, a pet.i.tion to Parliament, begging that a reward might be offered 'for such as shall discover the same.' This, after due consideration, was done by a Bill, pa.s.sed rapidly through both Houses, offering a reward of 20,000_l._. for the discovery.[245]

The subject was one which greatly occupied Wren, who all his life had been interested in sailors and sea matters. He amused himself by throwing his latest thoughts on the longitude into the form of three cryptographs:[246]

1. OZVCVAYINIXDNCVOCWEDCNMALNABECIRTEWNGRAMHHCCAW.

2. ZEIYEINOIEBIVTXESCIOCPSDEDMNANHSEFPRPIWHDRAEHHXCIF.

3. EZKAVEBIMOXRFCSLCEEDHWMGNNIVEOMREWWERRCSHEPCIP.

A copy, signed by Halley as a true one, of this cipher was sent to the Royal Society in 1714 by Wren's son. Probably Sir Christopher had not perfected his instruments sufficiently to proclaim his discovery, and did not wish either to lose his idea, or, when later on he disclosed it, to appear as a plagiarist in case a similar method had suggested itself to anyone else. Old age had weakened Wren's limbs, but had had little effect on his clear understanding; his scientific pursuits interested him still, and were among the employments of those few leisure years which closed a life of incessant work. He gave, however, the greater part of his time and care to the diligent study of the Holy Scriptures, which all his life he had loved; and thus, serene and gentle as ever, waited for his summons.

[_HIS DEATH._]

Once a year it was his habit to be driven to London, and to sit for a while under the dome of his own Cathedral. On one of these journeys he caught a cold, and soon afterwards, on February 25, 1723, his servant, thinking Sir Christopher slept longer after dinner than was his wont, came into the room and found his master dead in his chair, with an expression of perfect peace on the calm features.

They buried him near his daughter in the south-east crypt of S. Paul's, by one of the windows, under a plain marble slab with this inscription: 'Here lieth Sir Christopher Wren, the builder of this Cathedral Church of S. Paul, &c., who died in the year of our Lord MDCCXXIII., and of his age XCI.'

The spite of those who had hampered his genius in life showed itself again after his death. The famous inscription, written by his son:--'Subtus conditur hujus Ecclesiae et Urbis Conditor Christophorus Wren, qui vixit annos ultra nonaginta, non sibi, sed bono publico.

Lector, si Monumentum requiris circ.u.mspice.'[247]--was placed in the crypt, and in the Cathedral itself there was nothing to preserve the memory of its architect.

This has in later years been remedied and the inscription is now in gold letters over the door of the north transept. Some of Sir Christopher's plans have, as has been shown, been executed; and further, the Cathedral has been set in green turf, and all around it is cared for instead of neglected, the once empty campanile is filled by twelve bells, whose music floats down over the roar of London, as if out of the sky itself, and the Dome is filled by vast congregations in the way which Sir Christopher almost foresaw.

In the Cathedral his memory is cherished; but in the city of London, which he rebuilt from its ashes, no statue has been erected to him, no great street has been honoured by taking as its own the name of Christopher Wren, though a name

On fame's eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled.

FOOTNOTES:

[234] This lease was renewed to his eldest son in 1737 for 28-1/2 years, running on from 1758.

[235] Now in the possession of Mrs. Pigott.

[236] _Annals of S. Paul's_, p. 432.

[237] It must be to this that Wren refers in his letter to his son, p. 282.

[238] _Doc.u.ments ill.u.s.trating, &c._, p. 62.

[239] The Dean and Chapter of S. Paul's removed the fence in 1874, and subst.i.tuted the present open, low one, thus removing a blemish from the exterior of the Cathedral.

[240] The Royal Society occupied this house, till 1847, when it was pulled down to make room for the new Record Office.--_Hist. R.

S._, p. 399. Weld.

[241] _The Tatler_, No. 52, 1709. Both the paper and its note contain eloquent tributes to Wren. It is remarkable that Steele wrote this at the very time Wren's salary was first 'suspended.'

[242] 'Now Fortune commands me to apply myself more closely to Philosophy.'

[243] 'Then another king arose which knew not Joseph.'--_Acts_ vii.

18. 'And Gallio cared for none of these things.'--_Acts_ xviii. 17.

[244] Now spelt Wroxall. This property remained in the hands of Sir Christopher's direct lineal descendants (five Christophers held it in succession) until 1861. Wren's son and heir died in 1747, and is buried in Wroxhall Abbey; his son Christopher displeasing him, he left away much of the estate to his stepson, Sir Roger Burgoyne. At the death of the elder Christopher many of the great architect's plans and drawings were bought by Mr. Justice Blackburn, who presented them to All Souls' College. The _Parentalia_ was princ.i.p.ally written at Wroxhall by Sir Christopher's son Christopher, and was published by his second son Stephen Wren, M.D., in 1750. See _Worthies of Warwickshire_, p. 852, and _Biog. Hist. of England_, vol. iii. p. 329. n.o.ble.

[245] The reward was adjudged in two portions of 10,000_l._, to Mr.