Sir Christopher Wren Part 19

[_CHURCH BUILDING._]

S. Peter's, Cornhill, a small compact brick and stone church with a low tower and a key for its vane and camerated roof, was rebuilt in this year. Several small charitable legacies belong to this church: Sir B.

Thorowgood settled three shops, at the west end of the churchyard, upon the parish for the maintenance of an organist to play on Sundays and Holydays for ever. In 1700 these shops were all three let for 24_l._!

S. Clement Danes in the Strand, which had been patched up in 1674, was taken down and rebuilt, being finished in 1682. Sir Christopher, who received the moderate salary of 100_l._ for the rebuilding of the _City_ churches, had nothing necessarily to do with S. Clement's, but yet, as is recorded on a marble slab on the north side of the chancel, he 'freely and generously bestowed his great care towards the contriving and building.' It stands in too frequented a place and is too well known to need description, and will, I think, be readily admitted to bear Wren's mark. Evelyn calls it 'that pretty and well-contrived church.'

The steeple surmounting the tower was added by Wren's pupil Gibbs[181]

in 1719. S. Antholin's, Watling Street, was entirely consumed by the fire, so that all its registers perished, a misfortune which happened to but few of the churches. Sir Christopher spent especial care upon it.

The roof was a cupola adorned with rich festoons; the octagonal spire was built of freestone, with three circles of windows and considerably ornamented, was the chief feature of this beautiful little church. At the time of its building the spire was much remarked, and must have formed a pleasant contrast to the little neighbouring church of S.

Augustine in the same street, with its tower cupola and small steeple, which was added in 1695. This church was finished in 1683 and survives S. Antholin's, which has shared the evil fate of All Hallows, Bread Street.

The hunting palace at Newmarket, of which mention has been made, was accidentally burnt down, and this made King Charles more anxious to have a palace in the ancient city of Winchester. Lands were bought for a park, a river was to have been brought from the downs with a thirty-foot cascade in the park, and a broad street planned to lead to the cathedral from the future palace. Wren designed a magnificent palace,[182] with a great cupola which would have been seen far out at sea, and laid the first stone on March 23, 1683. The work was much pressed forward both by King Charles and by the Duke of York, who frequently stayed at Winchester for a considerable time watching the progress of the building, and hunting in the forest. At such times the King was lodged in the Deanery and his train in the houses of the close, where most of them were sufficiently incongruous inmates. Ken, then a prebendary of the Cathedral, utterly refused to give a lodging in his house to the notorious Nell Gwynne.

Winchester had many a.s.sociations for Wren, to whom the name of Lancelot Andrewes must have been a household word from childhood, and it is pleasant to think that he at this time became acquainted with the saintly Ken. The palace, which was finished as far as the sh.e.l.l in 1685, was never used either by Charles II. or his successors, though Queen Anne made one visit to Winchester, and was so much struck with the situation and the sh.e.l.l of the building as it stood awaiting completion, the marble pillars sent by the Duke of Tuscany for the great staircase lying on the ground, that she resolved to finish it as a jointure house for Prince George, but his death and the cost of the great war made her give up the scheme. Sir Christopher seems to have hoped that George I.

might finish it. It is, however, now used as a barrack.

[_PALACES AT WINCHESTER._]

Dr. Morley, Bishop of Winchester, had also engaged Sir Christopher's a.s.sistance; and having pulled down a part of the old episcopal palace, he began to build another; he died when but one wing was erected and left sufficient money to finish it. Bishop Mew, his successor, as the 'Parentalia' says, 'never minded it;' but it was finished, apparently not under Wren's auspices, by Sir Jonathan Trelawney. He became Bishop of Winchester in 1707; as Bishop of Bristol he was one of the famous 'Seven Bishops.'

FOOTNOTES:

[157] It was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, a great supporter of the Puritans.

In Bishop Corbet's poem, _The Distracted Puritan_, the hero says:--

'In the house of pure Emmanuel I had my education, Where my friends surmise I dazel'd my eyes With the sight of Revelation.'

Evelyn, who visited it in September 1655, says: 'That zealous house ... the Chapel (it was but a room) is reformed _ab origine_, built N. and S. as is the Librarie.'

[158] _Vide infra_, p. 331-3.

[159] Evelyn's _Diary_, September 17, 1657, and July 23, 1678.

[160] His son Thomas was created Earl of Pomfret by George I., 1721; the t.i.tle is extinct.

[161] He appeared for the seven bishops on their trial, greatly angering King James thereby. He voted for William and Mary, and was by them created Earl of Bradford, 1694.

[162] _Repertorium_, vol. i. p. 276. Newcourt.

[163] Born 1437. a.s.sisted Tindal in translating and printing the Bible. Died 1568.

[164] _New View of London_, vol. i. p. 14. E. Hatton.

[165] The steeple has been slightly lowered by Sir W. Staines in recent years: it was 234 feet high. When this was done, it was discovered that an old hawk had inhabited the two upper circles, the open arcades of which were filled with ma.s.ses of bird's bones, chiefly those of the city pigeons upon which he had preyed.

[166] There is a quant.i.ty of stone quarried for S. Paul's still lying at the back of the island, ready for transportation.

[167] _Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons_, vol. ii. p. 310. Seward.

It is supposed to have been part of the gravestone of Dr. John King, Bishop of London, 1611-21, called by King James 'the _King_ of preachers.' 'He was a most solid and profound divine of great gravity and piety, and a most excellent volubility of speech.'--_Repertorium_, vol. i. p. 29. Newcourt. Bishop King preached at S. Paul's Cross before King James I. and all his Court when James the First began the restoration of the Cathedral under Inigo Jones. A quaint print of this scene still exists.--_Three Cathedrals of S. Paul_, p. 20. Longman.

[168] _Fast. Oxon._, vol. i. p. 139. Wood.

[169] _Vide supra_, pp. 77, 78.

[170] _Biographical History of England_, vol. iii. p. 327. n.o.ble.

[171] _Lives of the Gresham Professors_, p. 104. Ward. The church has been lately cleansed, but the disfiguring pews most unfortunately still enc.u.mber the area.

[172] Thomas Tenison, Bishop of Lincoln and Archbishop of Canterbury; his endowments were munificent: died 1715.

[173] _Diary_, February 15, 1684. The very valuable library which Dr. Tenison founded was, alas! sold by Act of Parliament, 1861, and the proceeds ordered to be applied to middle-cla.s.s education, which was hardly what the donor intended.

[174] Denys Papin, born at Blois, was an M.D. of Paris; came to England, and in 1680 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He died in 1710.

[175] _Diary_, April 12, 1684.

[176] _The New Digester, or Engine for the Softening of Bones_, 4to.

A modification of Papin's 'digester kettle' still exists, and goes by his name, though used far less than it deserves.

[177] Born in Paris, 1643. The son of a Protestant jeweller, he went to Persia in search of diamonds, ama.s.sing a considerable fortune. He married in England in 1681, and died there in 1735. He was buried at Chiswick, but his monument is in Westminster Abbey. 'Sir John Chardin. _Nomen sibi fecit eundo._'--_Life of Sir C. Wren_, p. 419. Elmes.

[178] _Diary_, August 30, 1680.

[179] The friends.h.i.+p and connection with Sir Christopher is curious, for in 1857 Mr. Chandos Wren Hoskyns married Theodosia Anne Martha Wren, only surviving child of Christopher Roberts Wren, of Wroxall Abbey in Warwicks.h.i.+re, who was himself the great-great-grandson of Sir C. Wren, Mr. Chandos Hoskyns being the direct descendant of Sir J. Hoskyns mentioned above. To their only child, now the wife of the Rev. C. F. C. Pigott, Rector of Edgmond, Salop, and Prebendary of Lichfield, I am indebted for the use of many valuable family papers.

[180] _Biog. Hist._, vol. iii. p. 371, vol. iv. p. 314. Grainger.

[181] James Gibbs, a Scotch architect who built S. Mary-le-Strand, S. Martin's-in-the-Fields, &c.; born 1674, died 1754.

[182] _Life of Bishop Ken,_ by a layman, ed. 1854, p. 186.

CHAPTER X.

1681-1686.

CHELSEA COLLEGE--S. JAMES'S, WESTMINSTER--A HARD WINTER--CHICHESTER SPIRE--AN ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEM--A SEAT IN PARLIAMENT--MORE CITY CHURCHES--A CURIOUS CARVING.

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.--_Merchant of Venice_, act i. scene ii.

Charles II.'s gift of Chelsea College to the Royal Society had proved a gift of greater magnitude than they had been able to deal with, and the building had remained unused since 1669. Nor did their funds allow them to make use of Mr. Howard's donation of a piece of land, though the ever-ready Sir Christopher produced a design for it of some size, on the principle 'that a fair building may be easier carried on by contribution with time, than a sordid one.' At last, in 1681, he proposed the sale of Chelsea College back again to King Charles, and Wren and Evelyn undertook to manage what must have been rather a delicate transaction.

During the negotiation Sir Stephen Fox came to Evelyn and proposed that the King should buy it, and build there a hospital for soldiers. The proposal came well from Sir Stephen, who, originally a chorister of Salisbury Cathedral, by the favour and help of Bishop Duppa first, and then by that of the King, and most of all by his own honesty and dexterity, became paymaster to the whole army and acquired an honest and unenvied fortune. The King agreed to the plan, and the matter was arranged by Wren, Evelyn, and Fox, who was a liberal benefactor to the college. The three men went across to Lambeth to their old friend Sancroft and acquainted him with the plan, and received his approval.

Wren set instantly to work, and in August 1682 the foundations were being laid; the whole building was not completed until William and Mary's reign; but during all that time Wren's energy and care never flagged, but were extended even to the minutiae of the regulations, all of which he drew up, for the health, comfort, and economy of the building. As architecture the building has been severely criticised; but when the worst is said, it still remains picturesque, cheerful and s.p.a.cious, and a beautiful object as seen from the Thames.

The Royal Society continued its meetings at Gresham College, which it did not quit until, in 1710, the members purchased a house in Crane Court, which has only very lately been pulled down. The next year saw many of Wren's churches finished.