on the four pediments only, which," he thinks, "will be a most proper, noble, and sufficient ornament to the whole fabric." He knows, he says, that "ladies think nothing well without an edging," and if he could, therefore, he would "gladly have complied with the vulgar taste," but he cannot for reasons which he sets forth. The commissioners, however, thought the ladies knew more of architecture than the architect; the edging was tacked on, and there, out of deference to the ladies probably, it remains to the present day. Wren personally superintended the progress of his cathedral from its commencement to its completion, hence there is a unity of design throughout, of which the instances are extremely rare in buildings of such magnitude. St. Paul's was the first, and is still beyond comparison the noblest cathedral, built expressly for protestant worship. Indeed it is not too much to say, despite recent adverse criticism, that it is by far the noblest ecclesiastical edifice constructed during the last two centuries. It has faults of design and many more in the details; but many of these were forced on the architect; whilst many of the things spoken of by half-informed critics as errors arising from the architect's insufficient knowledge or imperfect taste, were in fact deliberately adopted after full consideration as the best of the available modes of procedure. After all exceptions are made the building remains, as to its exterior, the most beautiful and the most majestic of its class of modern times; whilst as to the interior, it must be remembered that Wren's design contemplated the extensive employment of sculpture, and of painting in mosaic, which would have materially added to the general magnificence of its appearance. An effort, we may add, is at the present time being made to raise funds for decorating the interior with mosaics, though on a less extensive scale than that originally proposed.
Wren erected fifty-one other churches in the city. Like the cathedral, they are all formed on a classical model, but none are mere reproductions or close imitations of ancient examples. Whilst as the rule he adopted the basilica as his type, he seems to have adapted his ground plans to the exigences of the sites, and to have sought to obtain as much variety as possible. Hence, whilst usually rectangular in plan, they are of very different proportions, and are covered in some instances with an oval, an octagonal, or a circular cupola, and the towers and steeples are of widely different forms. Instead of placing the churches as he wished in broad, open spaces, he was for the most part compelled to erect them in close narrow streets and lanes. He could not, therefore, especially with the limited sums at his disposal, impart to them much external ornament. Very judiciously he resolved to bestow his chief care on their interiors, making them as convenient as possible for seeing and hearing, and, if not magnificent, at least pleasing to the eye. For external characterization he trusted mostly to the campaniles or steeples. Of his interiors, that of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, is the most admired, but several of the others are very excellent. In looking at all, it must be borne in mind that he was strongly averse to high pews, but the citizens insisted on having them, to the material disfigurement of their churches. Of his spires those of Bow church and St. Bride's are the best known; the former is in all respects admirable, but the latter has been reduced in height and altered in its proportions. The interiors of his churches have been well illustrated in Mr. J. Clayton's Plans, Elevations, and Sections of the Parochial Churches of Sir Christopher Wren, folio, 1848; and the towers and spires in Mr. Cockerell's Tribute to the Memory of Sir Christopher Wren, 1842. These works will be found an admirable introduction to the study of the buildings themselves—a study which, whatever be his predilections, will be of inestimable value to the architectural student. Wren's other important city buildings included the halls of the twelve great civic companies, and twenty-four halls of the minor companies; of each class several have been removed. The Royal Exchange was completed in 1688; the Custom-house about the same time; Temple Bar in 1672; the lofty column, designed as a memorial of the great fire, and now known as the Monument, in 1672; and the College of Physicians in 1689.
Of his works beyond the city the briefest mention must suffice. As a palatial architect Wren was certainly not great. His extensive additions to Windsor castle undoubtedly added to its convenience as a residence, but they sadly impaired its stern feudal grandeur. Nor are his additions to the old Tudor palace at Hampton court more satisfactory. Greenwich hospital was originally a royal palace, but was greatly enlarged and altered by Wren to fit it for a naval asylum; and whilst his new parts are finer than the old, his alterations imparted to the building, as a whole, an air of magnificence which is very striking. Chelsea hospital for old and wounded soldiers, a red-brick building with stone dressings begun in 1682 and completed in 1690, is much less happy. Wren also began a spacious palace of red brick at Winchester for Charles II., who at one time intended to make that city his abode; but the fickle monarch changed his mind, the palace was left unfinished, and the portion erected is now used as a barracks. Wren commenced at the same time an episcopal palace at Winchester, which was completed in the reign of Queen Anne; but only a small portion is now standing, and that is used as a diocesan training school. The Royal Observatory at Greenwich was completed in 1675. Marlborough house, now the residence of the prince of Wales, was built in 1709; Buckingham house, a few years earlier.
Among his other more important buildings were the Ashmolean museum; the Gatehouse, Christ church; and Queen's College chapel, Oxford; Emmanuel College chapel, and the Library, Neville's court, and other buildings at Trinity college, Cambridge; Morden college, Blackheath; and St. James' church, Westminster, one of his best interiors. Wren began in 1698 extensive repairs and alterations at Westminster abbey. He continued to be for above twenty years occupied with these works, and though he had little more admiration for Gothic architecture than his contemporaries generally, and certainly no very intimate knowledge of its principles, as the towers he added to the west end of the abbey show, he yet did his best to preserve the abbey in its integrity. He was equally zealous and successful in his efforts to preserve Salisbury cathedral; and the admiration he expressed for King's College chapel, Cambridge, did something, perhaps, to keep off the hands of the improver from that and similar buildings. Wren designed a splendid mausoleum to the memory of Charles I., for which parliament voted a sum of £70,000; but Charles II. applied the money to his own use, and the mausoleum was never even commenced.
Wren was knighted in 1673, in which year he resigned the Savilian professorship, having since 1669 performed the duties by deputy. In 1681 he was elected president of the Royal Society. In 1685 he was chosen member of parliament for Plympton, in 1689 for Windsor, and in 1700 for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. After having held the office of surveyor general for fifty years, he was dismissed from it in April, 1718, and the post conferred on a wretched creature named Benson (immortalized in the Dunciad), who, however, was shortly after removed for malversation. Vanbrugh is said to have refused the office "out of tenderness to Sir Christopher." Wren spent his last years in honourable retirement at his house in Hampton Court, "in contemplation and study," to use the words of his grandson, "and principally in the consolation of the Holy Scriptures; cheerful in solitude, and as well pleased to die in the shade as in the light." Almost to the last he used to direct the works at Westminster abbey, and once a year the old man was carried to St. Paul's to see the "goodly house that his hands had builded." On one of these visits to London he passed quietly away during his customary slumber after dinner. He died at the age of ninety-one, on 25th February, 1723. His remains were interred under the choir of St. Paul's, and above them was placed an inscription concluding with words which have become famous —"Si monumentum quæris circumspice." Worthier monument architect could hardly desire; yet it is surprising that a hundred and forty years should have been allowed to pass away without a statue of Wren having been placed in his own St. Paul's—the repository of the statues of so many great and so many little men.
Wren was twice married—first to Faith, daughter of Sir John Coghill of Bletchington, Oxfordshire; and, secondly, to Jane, daughter of William, Lord Fitzwilliam, Baron of Lifford in Ireland. By his first wife he had a son, Christopher, who wrote "Numismatum Antiquorum Sylloge," 4to, 1708; and commenced the "Parentalia, or Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens," which was left unfinished at his death in 1747, and completed by his son Stephen, 4to, 1750. By his second wife Sir Christopher had a son and a daughter. A considerable collection of Wren's designs and drawings is in the library of All Souls college, Oxford; and another in Soane's museum, London.—J. T—e.
WRIGHT, Joseph, known as Wright of Derby, was the son of the town-clerk of that place, where he was born in 1734. He studied under Hudson, the master of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
