time to copy it in my Fancy and Memory. I shall be able by Discourse, and Crayon, to give you a tolerable Account of it."[1]
He appears to have made the most of his time while in France, but he naturally confined his attention to the modern works of that country, which alone were then thought worthy of notice. The great chateaux of Fontainebleau, St. Germains, Chantilly, and many others, he speaks of in the same letter as having "surveyed that I might not lose the impressions of them."
Wren's first architectural work appears to have been the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, which is thus referred to in Parentalia: "This Theatre, a work of admirable Contrivance and Magnificence, was the first publick Performance of the Surveyor,[2] in Architecture; which, however, had been executed in a greater and better style, with a view to the ancient Roman Grandeur discernable in the Theatre of Marcellus at Rome, but that he was obliged to put a Stop to the bolder strokes of his Pencil, and confine the Expense within the Limits of a private Purse."[3] But his great opportunity occurred after the fire of London, when he was commissioned to prepare plans for the rebuilding of the city, including the cathedral of St. Paul and all the city churches. Before the great fire he had been ordered to submit designs for the restoration of the old cathedral of St. Paul, the grand old Norman structure, with additions in the early English style, which, notwithstanding the repairs and additions of Inigo Jones, was still thought to be in a dangerous condition. Wren made a careful survey, and worked out a plan, elevation, and section of the old structure, and expressed surprise at what he considered the negligence of the old builders. "They valued not exactness: some Inter-columns were one inch and a half too large, others as much, or more, too little. Nor were they true in their levels."[4] He thought that the whole fabric was alarmingly insecure, except the portico built by Jones, which, he said, "being an entire and excellent piece, gave great reputation to the work in the first repairs."[5]
He prepared plans for a thorough restoration, but these were
