Sir Christopher Wren Part 18

The collection contained several curious specimens of Roman, Indian, and other weapons, some clothing made of feathers; among other 'rarities,' a 'toad included in amber,' and a 'habit of feathers from the Phoenix wing as tradition goes.'[159] Ashmole was of the Royal Society and a student of astrology.

In the November of this year, Sir Christopher's only daughter Jane was born, and was baptized at S. Martin's, probably by the Rev. William Lloyd, then the vicar, who bore the high character of 'an excellent preacher, a man of great integrity and piety, one who thoroughly understood all the parts of his function and had a mind fully bent to put them in execution.' Wren's fourth and youngest child was born in June, 1679, and baptized, also at S. Martin's, by the name of William.

Sir Christopher's good friend Evelyn was one G.o.dfather, the other was Sir William Fermor, the head of an old Cavalier family of Northamptons.h.i.+re, whose father, all but ruined in the civil wars, survived to attend as one of the Knights of the Bath at Charles II.'s coronation. Sir William, who was by his mother's side first cousin to Lady Wren, was a friend of Evelyn's, whose tastes he shared. He was created Lord Lempster[160] by William and Mary. The other sponsor was Lady Newport, daughter of the Earl of Bedford, and wife of the Lord Treasurer, Lord Newport, who, greatly distinguished by his loyalty and his suffering in the Civil War, was made Comptroller of the Household, and in 1672 Lord Treasurer, an office which he held under the two succeeding monarchs.[161] Lord Newport was a friend both of Wren and of Evelyn, and entertained them, Prince Rupert, and others at his house, where he had a fine collection of pictures.

Wren began five of his churches in this year: one was the little square church of SS. Anne and Agnes, Aldersgate, with its four Corinthian columns and decorated ceiling.

'There is a constant tradition in the parish that SS. Anne and Agnes were two sisters who first built this church at their own charge,'[162]

but at what date is not said. It once bore the name of 'S.

Anne-in-the-Willows,' from the willow-trees that grew hard by.

S. Bartholomew's, Bartholomew Lane, near the Exchange, had been consumed all but its old square tower, which must have been a striking object standing up tall and fire-scathed amongst the ruins. To this tower Wren added a sort of crown of open arches, but he carefully preserved the tower, itself a curious relic of London before the fire. Internally it was a handsome basilican church, effective from the good keeping and harmony of all its parts. Its date of consecration went back to the beginning of the fourteenth century. Bishop Miles Coverdale[163] was buried there. Alas! that all must be written in the past tense! The church has been destroyed because its site was wanted for the Sun Fire Office! It is a cruel fate, having been rebuilt after the Great Fire to be destroyed for a Fire Insurance Office.

S. Michael's, Ba.s.sishaw, or Basinghall, taking this name from the great merchant family of Basing, several of whom were sheriffs, and others lord mayors of London, was rebuilt of brick and stone with a curious little stone spire.

[_LONDON STONE._]

S. Swithin's in Cannon Street is reckoned a model of excellence in construction; it is of stone with a tower and spire, and domed roof; the curious relic known as 'London Stone,' is built into the church wall; it was formerly fixed in the ground in the street. Many different opinions have been advanced about it--that it was the centre of the City, which however it was not, being too near the river; that it was a place for tendering money before the Exchange existed; and, most prosaic of all, that it was set up by one named London Stone who lived there![164] All agreed that it had been there since the time of the Saxon kings.

S. Bride's, Fleet Street, was begun in this year, but not entirely finished until twenty years later; on it Wren lavished considerable care and skill, securing a s.p.a.cious handsome interior, and a richly carved oak altar-piece. The bold tower and steeple,[165] with its graceful diminis.h.i.+ng circles with their open arcades, are thought to rival S. Mary's, Bow, but the latter is perhaps the more poetical of the two.

The great work at S. Paul's was the while proceeding. In 1676 Compton, Bishop of London, issued an Address, urging the claims of the Cathedral, not on the citizens alone, but upon the country at large; he insisted with some eloquence that all churches should as much as possible imitate the 'exceeding magnifical' temple of Solomon in their beauty and grandeur, and especially the cathedral of wealthy London. His address, his warm interest in the work, and that of Dean Sancroft, who was a contributor until driven from his archbishopric, brought many contributions: among them may be mentioned Morley, Bishop of Winchester, who gave 1,800_l._; Dr. John Fell, who gave 100_l._, 'in lieu of his consecration dinner and gloves' when consecrated Bishop of Oxford, 1680; Bishop Ken, who gave the same sum at his consecration, 1685, also in lieu of the dinner and gloves; Bishop Wilson, of Sodor and Man, who gave from the quarries of the island the dark stone steps which lead to the west doors. Though hampered often, the architect was never actually stopped by lack of money. He himself out of his scanty salary gave 50_l._ towards the expenses.

[_PORTLAND QUARRIES._]

In a letter speaking of his progress in building S. Paul's he says, 'I have received a considerable sum, which, though not proportionable to the greatnesse of the work, is notwithstanding sufficient to begin the same--and with all the materials and other a.s.sistances which may probably be expected, will put the new quire in great forwardness.' The materials referred to are probably such parts of the old building as it was possible to use again; and it may here be said that Wren had the control of the quarries of Portland stone.[166] In 1669, King Charles issued a proclamation that--

'Whereas great waste had been for many years past made of our quarries in the Isle of Portland, ... and the great occasion we have of using much of the said stone, both for the building and repairing our houses and for the repaire of S. Paul's, our pleasure is ... that all persons forbeare to transport any more stone from our Isle of Portland without the leave and warrant first obtained from Dr. Christopher Wren, Surveyor of our Works, as hath been formerly accustomed in that behalf.'

Wren must have commanded an army of quarrymen in the little island, not then grim with convicts and with a prison; but nevertheless he had, as in the case of the Monument, not seldom to pause in his work before he could get blocks of the size he required. As the choir rose the time came in which the s.p.a.ce for the great Dome was to be marked out. The architect stood watching with some of his friends, and called to one of the workmen to bring him a stone to mark a special spot; when the man obeyed, Wren saw that the stone thus brought had an inscription upon it--the single word 'Resurgam.'[167] It was looked upon by Sir Christopher as a singularly happy omen, and he took great pleasure in telling the anecdote.

[_DR. HOLDER AND DR. WALLIS._]

In the meantime a sharp controversy was going on within the Royal Society between Dr. Wallis and Sir Christopher's brother-in-law, Dr.

Holder. Dr. Holder had a living in Hertfords.h.i.+re and had received from Bishop Henchman a canonry in S. Paul's. In 1678 he brought out a book called 'The Elements of Speech' with an appendix concerning 'Persons deaf and dumb.' In this book he described the cure he had himself performed when at Bletchingdon of a young gentleman, Mr. Alexander Popham, the son of a certain Edward Popham, admiral in the service of the Long Parliament, whom, though born dumb, he had gradually taught to speak. The youth, taken away before the cure was quite finished, lost the lately acquired power of speech, but on being sent to Dr. Wallis recovered it; thereupon Dr. Wallis claimed the entire credit. In his book Dr. Holder took occasion to speak of the Royal Society as originating in meetings held at Oxford.

Upon this Dr. Wallis wrote a pamphlet ent.i.tled 'A Defence of the Royal Society in reply to some cavils of Dr. W. Holder.' The quarrel appears to have been a hot one, turning chiefly on the credit of curing Alexander Popham.

Wood, the antiquary,[168] speaks of Dr. Wallis 'as one that can make black white, and white black, for his own ends, and hath a ready knack of sophistical evasion (as the writer of these matters doth know full well),' and gives the credit to Dr. Holder. Wallis was little loved by any royalist because of his conduct in decyphering King Charles I.'s papers at Naseby.[169] In the 'Parentalia' are two finger alphabets, with two hands drawn in Indian ink, the fingers of which have different letters a.s.signed to the different joints; one is an ordinary and simple way, the other, more elaborate, is ent.i.tled 'An arte to make the Dumbe to speake, the Deafe to heare. To speake amongst others unseen and unhearde. Learned in an howre.' Minute directions are given, but the system is so elaborate that it is very sanguine to think it could have been 'learned' under several hours. The writing is not like Christopher Wren's, and I think it must belong to Dr. Holder's scheme.

Mrs. Holder went on in her tranquil course, ministering to the poor around her. In early days she had made a careful study of such medical science as was then known. Barbarous as the surgery was, the remedial part of medicine appears to have been somewhat better understood. The circulation of the blood had very lately been discovered by Harvey; and whether it was the efficacy of the herbs and simples used, or the faith of the patients, or both, it is certain that many cures were made and much suffering alleviated. It is said of Mrs. Holder that 'she happily healed thousands.' She cured Charles II. of a hurt in his hand, whether in his early days of peril and wandering, or in later life, is not said.

After the Restoration she was connected more or less with the Court, as her husband was subdean of the Chapels Royal, and she healed Queen Catharine and many of the Court. When one reads in Evelyn's or in Pepys'

diary of the frightful remedies used: the 'hot fire pans' applied to the head in cases of apoplexy, the constant bleeding, the roughness of the entire treatment, one is thankful to think that they were occasionally ministered to by the gentler hand of a woman.

A taste for the science of medicine seems to have been common in the Wren family. Sir Christopher studied it at Oxford under Sir Charles Scarborough and drew the plates for Dr. Thomas Willis' 'Cerebri Anatome,' which was in great repute. His cousin, Thomas Wren, made it a matter of serious study, probably living by it as a profession at the time when Bishop Wren's imprisonment left his younger children penniless. The same honourable calling was chosen by Sir Christopher's grandson, Stephen Wren. Among all the patients whom good Mrs. Holder tended and cared for, in none could she have taken more pride than in the brother over whose sickly childhood she had watched, and whose fame she saw daily increasing. Nor was there any drawback to her delight: loving, gentle, modest, and courteous he had been as a boy, and the famous successful architect possessed those qualities still. In a corrupt age, all testimony leaves him spotless; in positions of great trust and still greater difficulty his integrity was but the more clearly shown by the attacks made against him; among the foremost philosophers of his age, he was a striking example that 'every good gift and every perfect gift is from above;' no child could hold the truths of Christianity with a more undoubting faith than did Sir Christopher Wren.

['_I THINK THEY ARE HIGH ENOUGH._']

His personal appearance is only known to us from pictures: it seems he was 'thin and low of stature,' and it is recorded that when he was building a hunting palace at Newmarket for Charles II., the King came to see it, looked round, and was well satisfied with the general effect, but said he thought the rooms were too low. Wren, who knew the King well, and could hold his own when needful, looked up to the ceiling, and said quietly: 'Sir, I think they are high enough.'

On hearing this, King Charles stooped till he was the architect's height, crept about the room in this att.i.tude, and said laughing, 'Ay, Sir Christopher, I think _they are high enough_.'[170]

The beautiful S. Stephen's, Walbrook, was finished in 1679, and the paris.h.i.+oners, aware that their church was a gem of no common order, offered 'a purse of twenty guineas to the Lady of Sir Christopher Wren, as a testimony of the regard that the parish has for the great care and skill that Sir Christopher Wren showed in the rebuilding of our church.'[171] Lady Wren did not long survive to share in her husband's fame and to sympathise in his work.

Early in October she died and was buried in S. Martin's-in-the-Fields, where Dr. Thomas Tenison[172] had succeeded Dr. Lloyd, when the latter was made Bishop of S. Asaph. He, too, was a hard-working parish priest, though neither so zealous nor so whole-hearted a churchman as the former vicar. He communicated to Evelyn[173] his plan 'of erecting a library in S. Martin's parish for the public use, and desired his a.s.sistance with Sir Christopher Wren about the placing and structure thereof.' Dr.

Tenison said that he had 'between thirty and forty young men in orders in his parish either governors to young gentlemen, or chaplains to n.o.blemen, who being reproved by him on occasion for frequenting taverns or coffee-houses, told him they would employ their time better if they had books.' Wren fell readily into a scheme so congenial as this, and in a very few days the two friends were together at Dr. Tenison's making a drawing and estimate of the library to be begun in the spring of that same year.

[_POPISH PLOT._]

In 1678, the nation was excited to absolute frenzy by the declarations of the infamous t.i.tus Oates concerning the 'Popish Plot.' In the same spirit as that in which they had laid the burning of London at the door of the Romanists, the mob lent greedy, credulous ears to the tales of Oates, and were encouraged by Lord Shaftesbury and his party, who made political capital out of this madness. Looking back, it is difficult to understand how such manifest falsehoods could have obtained credit; but it should be borne in mind that only seventy-three years had pa.s.sed since the Gunpowder Plot had all but succeeded, and despite its failure left a mark in popular feeling which, however obscured and travestied, remains to this day. That it was fresh in the minds of the Members of Parliament may be seen from their insisting that a guard should be placed in the vaults over which they sate.

Bedloe, Oates' villainous ally, having declared that an army of thirty thousand pilgrims was coming from Spain to join forty thousand who were ready to rise in London, the House of Lords insisted that a communication between the Spanish amba.s.sador's house and that of his neighbour Mr. Weld should be secured. No less a person than Sir Christopher himself was to be despatched by the Lords' committee to see to this matter. Wren took the matter quietly enough; went with Mr.

Edward Warcup, one of his a.s.sistants, and sent in a report stating that they had caused 'padlocks to be hung on all such dores as open out of Mr. Weld's house into the Spanish Emba.s.sador's house;' had then 'acquainted his Excellency Count Egmont, who with great civility gave permission for all things necessary to be done on his side.' They locked the doors on his side, barred some with iron, and handed over the keys to the Clerk of the Parliament, which no doubt felt itself more secure after this precaution.

Evelyn, it is plain from pa.s.sages in his diary, disbelieved and distrusted Oates, and Wren, who gave no heed to panics, was probably of the same opinion. One wishes that Pepys had not been compelled in 1669, by failing eyesight, to give up keeping his most amusing diary, that he might have recorded his impressions of this time of frenzy. He, however, was a sufferer by it, being clapt into the Tower on a charge of 'Popery, felony, piracy, and treason,' in 1679. The 'treason' charged seems to have been that he sent information to the French Court about the state of the English navy. The 'Popery,' from which he was certainly free, was probably thrown in to give a flavour suited to the times. It is an incredible charge, and Pepys, who defended himself in a spirited letter to the Duke of York, was discharged in the following February.

The Royal Society, despite all these storms, kept its even course. Wren, who had been Vice-President, was elected President in 1680. With all his work, he contrived to take the Chair frequently at the meetings. Their discussions were very varied:--observations with the barometer, ways of sounding the sea, the curve described by a granado shot into the air, an account of the anatomy of the otter, and its power of diving;--Sir Christopher hereupon described the seal which was in S. James's Park, as having muscles by which it could contract and dilate its nostrils, and by such means sink itself and lie at the bottom of the pool made for it, for a great while together, and that it ate its food at the bottom of the river.

[_A PHILOSOPHICAL SUPPER._]

A new discovery by a French doctor named Papin[174] of a 'digester' for softening bones, caused much discussion at the Society. Wren inquired whether a contrary process to M. Papin's could not be devised to harden bones, but Papin could give no answer. Two years later M. Papin gave a supper to which several of the Society went. Evelyn says, it was[175]--

'All dress'd, both fish and flesh, in M. Papin's Digestors, by which the hardest bones of beef itselfe and mutton were made as soft as cheese, without water or any other liquor, and with lesse than eight ounces of coales producing an incredible quant.i.ty of gravy; and, for close of all, a jelly made of the bones of beef, the best for clearness and good relish, and the most delicious that I had seene or tasted. We eat pike and other fish bones, and all without impediment; but nothing exceeded the pigeons, which tasted just as if baked in a pie, all these being stewed in their own juice, without any addition of water, save what swam about the Digestor, as _in balneo_; the natural juice of these provisions acting on the grosser substances, reduced the hardest bones to tenderness; but it is best descanted with more particulars for extracting tinctures, preserving and stewing fruite, and saving fuel, in Dr. Papin's booke[176] published and dedicated to our Society, of which he is a member.... This philosophical supper caus'd much mirth amongst us, and exceedingly pleased all the company. I sent a gla.s.s of the jelly to my wife, to the reproch of all that the ladies ever made of the best hartshorn.'

[_SIR JOHN HOSKYNS._]

The Royal Society had another foreign visitor, M. Chardin,[177] the Persian traveller. Sir Christopher, Sir John Hoskyns, and Evelyn[178]

went to visit him when he arrived in England in 1680, and invited him to honour the Royal Society with his company. They found him dressed in his Eastern habit, speaking Latin, and understanding Greek, Arabic, and Persian from his eleven years of travel in those parts. He was a well-bred, modest man 'not inclined to talk wonders.' Chardin was a fair draughtsman and had besides taken two artists with him to draw landscapes, to measure and design the palaces and temples burnt at Persepolis. He was then on his way to France, but on his return promised to show the drawings. He returned, finding the persecution of the Protestants still hot in France, and Sir Christopher proposed him as a member of the Royal Society. His book, 'Travels of Sir John Chardin,'

was published in London and is still in high esteem both for its special interest and the accuracy of its statements. Evelyn a.s.sisted him in engraving the plates and in the translation of the book. Charles II.

made him a knight, and he was employed in Holland as the agent of the English East India Company.

At the meeting of the Royal Society on November 30, 1681, Wren was re-elected President and chose Sir John Hoskyns as Vice-president.[179]

Sir John Hoskyns, who, like Wren, had been educated at Westminster, was a Master in Chancery highly thought of for his legal attainments and his integrity; he and Wren appear always to have been friends; and when Wren resigned the presidency, Sir John succeeded him. Tradition[180] says that Sir John

'affected plainness in his garb, walked in the street with a cudgel in his hand and an old hat over his eyes. That he was often observed to be in a reverie; but when his spirits were elevated over a bottle, he was remarkable for his presence of mind and quickness of apprehension and became a most agreeable and instructive companion.'

It also says that he bore an irreproachable character.

The great western front of Christ Church, Oxford, was at this time occupying Wren's attention. Wolsey had laid the foundations of the gateway, but it had been left unfinished until Wren took it in hand and built the grand gateway and n.o.ble tower which are among the features of Oxford.

The churches which at this time were building in London were All Hallows, Bread Street; the original church dated back to the beginning of the thirteenth century. Lyndwode, the author of the 'Provincial Const.i.tutions,' was rector there in 1418. The poet Milton was baptized there December 20, 1608. An inscription on a tablet at the west end of the church recorded this, and also Dryden's lines:--

Three Poets in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn; The first in loftiness of thought surpa.s.sed, The next in majesty; in both the last.

The force of nature could no further go, To make a third she joined the other two.

Here also it is supposed that Sir Isaac Newton was buried, though the exact spot was not known.

Wren built on the old site a stone church of considerable beauty, whose tall pinnacled tower had a singular grace of its own. All, alas!

destroyed, the ancient site desecrated, and the materials sold, no matter for what purpose.