same dimension on plan as the present dome, while eight smaller and lower cupolas are arranged around it: four at the ends of the arms of the cross, and one touching each of the intermediate sides of the octagon, the smaller cupolas being all equal and their diameters bearing to that of the central one the proportion of two to five. Simple, however, as is the general plan, its architectural treatment supplies all that can be desired of picturesque beauty and intricacy. The scheme for the lighting, which would chiefly come from above, through pantheonlike apertures over the smaller cupolas, is both ample and the best possible for architectural effect. The entrance from the west is through a noble portico. This led into an area of considerable width, with entrance doors north and south, and surmounted by a cupola which in the interior is similar to those around the principal dome, but rises so as to form a feature externally. The skill, artistic and constructive, shown by Wren in the junction of his spherical surfaces has never been approached, and there is no counterpart elsewhere to the noble vistas which would have been presented to the eye in every direction by this plan. The western dome, ample as a vestibule, was sufficient to raise the expectation but not to satisfy it. Then the width was confined to that of the ordinary nave, forming a passage about forty feet wide, previous to the unrestricted burst of vision through the diagonal vistas, opening on each side along the radiating sides of the octagon referred to above, which is analogous to the sensation produced in a grand mountain defile where one passes through a confined gorge from one fine opening to one incomparably finer (Milman, Annals, p. 403 n.)
It must be fully admitted that externally this design, fine as it is, does not compete on equal terms with the existing structure, especially when we consider the height to which the surrounding buildings have grown, which gives the value of greater loftiness to the adopted design; and as to certain defects in it which Mr. Fergusson in his ‘History of Modern Architecture’ (p. 268) discusses, we must remember that Wren had not in the case of this design, as he had in the adopted one, more than forty years of study and improvement to give to it, of which he availed himself to the full as the work proceeded; but this marvellous production was the outcome of necessarily a very short incubation. John Louis Petit [q. v.], in discussing St. Front, Périgueux, observes that Wren, ‘who, though he may not have known St. Front, yet must have known St. Mark's, Venice, from which St. Front was derived, had conceived a design [viz. this model] on similar principles which, had it been carried out, would have given his cathedral the noblest interior in the world’ (Architectural Studies in France, p. 78).
Notwithstanding the approval with which this design was at first received, a commission for its execution given, and even, it seems, a commencement actually made, so much clerical opposition was brought to bear against it, on account of its being different from the usual cathedral shape, that Wren was reluctantly obliged to turn his thoughts in another direction. Elmes, in his ‘Life of Wren’ (p. 319), speaking of this model, refers to the story in Spence's ‘Anecdotes’ (ed. Singer, p. 265), that the Duke of York and his party insisted on side chapels being added contrary to Wren's opinion, and that Wren even shed tears when he found he could not prevail. Neither the model nor the plan preserved at Oxford shows any traces where side chapels could have been placed, whereas the adopted design has them, not in the earliest plans but in the church as built. It seems likely, however, that, notwithstanding this difficulty, Elmes is right in connecting the tradition of Wren's tears with the struggle which must have taken place when his favourite design had to be abandoned. As respects the side chapels, even though they had formed no part of the original design, with the fine architectural precedent in Lincoln Cathedral before him, and considering the admirable use which Wren was able to make of them both on the ground story and for the library above, their demand could scarcely have seemed to him a sufficient reason for such strenuous opposition, whereas the retention of the ‘favourite design’ would have seemed worthy of every practicable attempt he could make. The anecdote is given by Spence on the authority of a Mr. Harding. Who this person was is not stated. It might have been the Samuel Harding who, with others, published various engravings of St. Paul's and other designs of Wren's, including this model, dated 1724. These engravings with certain others were afterwards collected into a book entitled ‘Designs for Public Buildings to illustrate Parentalia,’ London, 1749, fol.; but, at any rate, Spence could not have received the anecdote till fully fifty years after the circumstance which gave rise to it. There can be little doubt but that the Duke of York would have been strongly opposed to Wren's desire to build the cathedral in a form not specially suited to Roman catholic services.
