Sir Christopher Wren Part 22

Two other buildings of his, one of which is called 'the Bank House,'

stand in Windsor not far from what are known as 'The Hundred Steps.'

There is another house there of his design, now used by the freemasons and the volunteers. Wren sent his eldest son to Eton, where the boy was at this time, and afterwards to Pembroke College, where his name alone was a recommendation.

In 1689 Wren finished building the College of Physicians in Warwick Lane; as far as the confined s.p.a.ce would admit, the front was handsome, but the dome and its ornament provoked the satire of Garth in the opening lines of his 'Dispensary':[203]

Not far from that most celebrated place,[204]

Where angry justice shows her awful face, Where little villains must submit to fate That great ones may enjoy the world in state; There stands a dome majestic to the sight, And sumptuous arches bear its oval height; A golden globe, placed high with artful skill Seems, to the distant sight, a gilded pill.

Whatever its exterior defects may have been, the theatre within was arranged with masterly skill so as to enable all the students to see and hear during the lectures and demonstration. The difficult science of acoustics was one to which Wren gave much attention, and his churches are, in this respect, very successful. The Physicians retained the college Wren built for them until very recent times, when they moved into the present building which does not adorn Trafalgar Square.

Not all the Halls belonging to the City Companies perished by the fire, though many suffered severely. Wren, and Jarman, the City Architect, rebuilt and repaired some seventy-nine of them.[205]

Of these, a large number have been altered or pulled down, but a few may be mentioned.

The Mercers' Hall in Cheapside; the Grocers', a portion of which was long used by the Bank of England; the Haberdashers', where the rich ceiling was its great ornament; the Tallow Chandlers', with its interior colonnade and its fountain; the Apothecaries', one of the largest in the City; the Stationers'; and, last but not least, the Alderman's Court adjoining Guildhall, rebuilt almost immediately after the fire; a very handsome room, rich in carving, and finely proportioned.

S. Edmund the King, in Lombard Street, was finished this year. The necessities of the site caused Wren to build it north and south, the altar being at the north end. The front to Lombard Street, the only part of the outside visible, is of stone and very picturesque with its belfry and little domed spire. The interior has been lately re-arranged with a wise treatment of the old work and carving. The 'marble font possesses, like that of S. Mary Abchurch, a very beautiful canopied cover; it is in two stages, the lower being domed, and above are four seated figures of the Cardinal Virtues; it is railed in and is on the west side of the church.'[206]

S. Margaret's, Lothbury, belongs to the same date, and was rebuilt of stone. Some years later Wren bestowed much rich wood carving on the interior. He chose the Corinthian style for this building and handled it with considerable skill.

[_HAMPTON COURT._]

Queen Mary, who had the Stuart love for genius, was invariably gracious and even friendly to Wren, with whom she held many a conversation on matters of art and science. He considered her to be very well versed in all these subjects and enjoyed discussing them freely with her. Queen Mary was much charmed with the situation of Cardinal Wolsey's old palace of Hampton Court, and engaged Wren to make alterations there. The old buildings were accordingly in part pulled down and two sets of royal apartments built; Queen Mary, though she amused herself with planning the gardens and making suggestions, had yet the wisdom to defer to Wren's better taste and knowledge. Her husband, with characteristic obstinacy, insisted on his own ideas, thereby dwarfing the cloisters and marring much of the architecture. It is, however, fair to say that King William always owned that the defects[207] were his, the merits, Wren's; and these merits are very great, as anyone who knows the fine old palace with its rich red brick, its arcades, and the quaint formal gardens will readily allow. He built, at about the same time, the Pavilion and Ranger's House in Bushey Park.

Kensington Palace was also under Wren's hands. It had been the property of Lord Chancellor Finch, and was sold by his son to William III. Wren added another story to the old house, which forms the north front of the palace, and also built the south front. The defect of the building as seen at the end of the long avenue of Kensington Gardens is its want of height, but on a nearer approach this fault is much diminished. King William was in the midst of his Irish campaign while the work went on, but found time to send back repeated inquiries as to its progress, and complaints when that did not answer his expectations. There, five years later, Queen Mary died, to the regret of all her subjects, and even of her cold-hearted husband.

[_GREENWICH AS A HOSPITAL._]

Nor were these the only palaces which Wren contrived for Queen Mary.

That of Greenwich had been begun by Inigo Jones for Henrietta Maria, and a wing had been built for Charles II., but it had been left unfinished.

Wren, who knew Greenwich well from his visits to the Observatory, and who took a great interest in sailors, observing the entire lack of any refuge for them in illness, proposed to Queen Mary the magnificent plan of making the palace into a seaman's hospital. The Queen willingly entered into the idea, and proposed to add to the Queen's House, as it was called, so as to make it a dwelling for herself, at the same time.

Evelyn, Sir Stephen Fox and others, came readily into the scheme and contributed liberally. Wren's contribution, though not in money, was a liberal one also; for he gave his time, labour, skill and superintendence, despite his innumerable other works.

The plans were prepared and money collected, but nothing was actually done until some years later.

Wren's eldest son had in the meantime finished his Eton and Cambridge career and had obtained, by his father's interest, the post, which must surely have been a sinecure! of a.s.sistant Deputy Engrosser. He does not seem to have inherited any of the brilliant genius of his father, though apparently of very fair abilities and with much taste for antiquities.

Far more like Sir Christopher was his daughter Jane, who shared his tastes and studies and took a vivid interest in his work. She added to her other accomplishments that of being a very skilful musician. She was never married, but remained all her life her father's affectionate companion.

Wren's old friend, Dr. Bathurst of Trinity College, Oxford, appealed to him, in the spring of 1692, for help in the buildings which were still going on there.

'Worthy Sir,--When I sent Mr. Phips (the surveyor of the buildings) to wait on you with a scheme of our new building, he told me how kindly you was pleased to express your remembrance of me, and that you would send me your thoughts concerning our design; and particularly of the pinnacles, the which as they were superadded to our first draught, so I must confess I would be well content to have omitted with your approbation. The season for our falling to work again will now speedily come on; which makes me the more hasten to entreat from you the trouble of two or three lines in relation to the promises whereby you will farther oblige,

'Sir, your old friend, and ever faithful servant,

'R. BATHURST.'

Wren's answer comes promptly, and shows his generous readiness to help the schemes of others, no matter how pressing his own work was.

[_HE SENDS HIS THOUGHTS._]

'Sir,--I am extremely glad to hear of your good health, and, what is more, that you are vigorous and active, and employed in building. I considered the design you sent me of your Chapel which in the main is very well, and I believe your work is too far advanced to admit of any advice: however, I have sent my thoughts, which will be of use to the mason to form his mouldings.

'He will find two sorts of cornice; he may use either. I did not well comprehend how the tower would have good bearing upon that side where the stairs rise. I have ventured a change of the stairs, to leave the wall next the porch of sufficient scantling to bear that part which rises above the roofs adjoining.

'There is no necessity for pinnacles, and those expressed in the printed design are much too slender.

'I have given another way to the rail and bal.u.s.ter, which will admit of a vase that will stand properly upon the pilaster.[208]

'Sir, I wish you success and health and long life, with all the affection that is due from,

'Your obliged, faithful friend, and humble servant,

'CHRISTOPHER WREN.

'P.S. A little deal box, with a drawing in it, is sent by Thomas Moore, Oxford carrier.'

In the same year the Church of S. Andrew by the Wardrobe[209] was finished; recent alterations in the city have benefited this building; it now stands well above a flight of steps, with its square tower, and the red brick which contrives to be red and not black, and stone dressings.

Two years later Wren rebuilt All Hallows, Lombard Street, on an ancient foundation: outside it is one of his plainest and most solid churches, inside he spent upon it much rich work and curious carving both in stone and wood.

S. Michael Royal, College Hill, belongs to this same date, and was built under Wren's directions by Edward Strong, his master-mason. It is a well-lit, handsome church with a tower at one corner, and contains an altar-piece of singular beauty, carved by Grinling Gibbons in 'right wainscot oak.' The old church was founded and made a collegiate church of S. Spiritus and S. Mary by no less a person than Sir Richard Whittington, three times Lord Mayor of London (1397, 1406, 1419), whose fame, with that of his cat, survives in the well-known story. He founded also another college, known as the Whittington College, and endowed it with a divinity lecture 'for ever.' Edward VI., however, suppressed both the colleges and the lecture, though the Whittington College was allowed partially to survive as almshouses for poor men. Whittington[210] was buried in this church, but his monument perished in the Fire.

In the following year Wren added a well-proportioned, peculiar steeple, the gift of the paris.h.i.+oners, to the little stone Church of S.

Vedast[211] in Foster Lane, a church to which a painful interest now attaches from the recent persecution and imprisonment of its rector, the Rev. T. P. Dale.

The church was decorated, as was Wren's custom, with fret-work, carving, and stucco, but is not otherwise remarkable.

S. Mary's, Somerset, or Somers'hithe, was likewise finished in this year: a stone church with two aisles surmounted by a handsome cornice and bal.u.s.trade; its great feature was the beautiful pinnacled tower, which, though the church is gone, still stands a perpetual memorial of that reckless disregard of G.o.d's honour, which has counted any common want, any farthing of money, of more importance than the claims of His service, or than gifts solemnly offered to Him.[212]

[_CLIPT WINGS._]

[_A GRAND DESIGN._]

The Cathedral meanwhile grew slowly, though many a hindrance annoyed its architect. The Parliament took part of the fabric money and applied it to the expenses of King William's wars, so that, as Sir Christopher complained, his wings were clipt and the Church was deprived of its ornaments.[213] The organ was another annoyance. Sir Christopher's wish and intention was to place the organ where it now is, on either side of the choir, in order to leave the vista clear from the west door to the altar, which in his design stood grandly raised under a handsome canopy.

This was overruled, and the organ was to be placed in a gallery cutting right across the entrance of the choir. With his wonted philosophy, Wren bent his mind to reducing as much as possible the injury to the architectural effect, by keeping the pipes as low as he could. But in the builder of the organ, Bernard Smith, or 'Father' Smith, as he is called, Wren had a difficult person to deal with. Far from lowering the pipes, Smith made them higher than in his estimate, so that the case and ornaments had to be enlarged, and Sir Christopher complained bitterly that the Cathedral 'was spoilt by that box of whistles.' The rival organ builder, Renatus Harris, if indeed he was the author of an anonymous paper, called 'Queries about the S. Paul's Organ,[214] was not sparing in his criticisms. One query asks

'Whether Sir C. Wren wou'd not have been well pleas'd to have receiv'd such a proposal from the organ builder of S. Paul's, as shou'd have erected an organ, so as to have separated twenty foot in the middle, as low as the gallery, and thereby a full and airy prospect of the whole length of the church, and six fronts with towers as high as requisite?'

This question is easy enough to answer, and fortunately Wren's wishes have been at last fulfilled by that division of the organ, which now leaves the desired clear view from the great western doors to the altar.

Harris, in 1712, proposed to erect a great organ over the west doors of the Cathedral,

'study'd to be in all respects made the most artful, costly and magnificent piece of organ-work that ever has. .h.i.therto been invented. The use of it will be for the reception of the Queen, on all publick occasions of thanksgivings for the good effect of peace or war, upon all state days, S. Cecilia's Day, the entertainment of foreigners of quality, and artists, and on all times of greatest concourse etc., and by the advice and a.s.sistance of Sir C. Wren, the external figure and ornaments may be contrived so proportionable to the order of the building, as to be a decoration to that part of the edifice and no obstruction to any of the rest.... Sir Christopher Wren approves it.'

Alas! at that time Wren's approval was enough to determine the majority of the commission to reject any plan thus sanctioned, and Renatus Harris's grand design survives on paper alone.

FOOTNOTES:

[199] The name is often supposed to originate in the patten-makers who are said to have lived near, but its origin is more probably 'S. Margaret _with the Paten_.'