bits; and on this is constructed the exterior dome, which is chiefly of wood. When looking down into the church from the gallery around the opening at the top of the inner dome, whence men below seem but as children, the immensity of the structure is more than ordinarily felt, and reflections on the greatness and the littleness of man-his power and puerility-flit through the mind involuntarily.

The Choir is separated from the central area by an organ screen, on which appears an inscription in Latin, to the following effect, taken from the tomb of Wren, whose body reposes in the crypt, below the western aile of the choir. "Beneath lies Christopher Wren, the builder of this church and city, who lived more than ninety years, not for himself, but for the public good. Reader! if you seek his monument,-Look around.”

The Stalls of the choir present, in the shape of scrolls, festoons of flowers, &c. as shewn in our engraving of that part of the church,—some of the most splendid carvings in the world. The flowers, elegant as their originals, seem to have the elasticity of life; and one fancies each wind that blows may affect them, that with the coming morrow they must fade; language however fails in the attempt to describe their surpassing excellence, they have immortalised the artist by whom they were executed, Grinling Gibbons, and must be seen to be duly appreciated.1

The Apsis, containing the altar, is ornamented by pilas

Gibbons was first introduced to King Charles by Evelyn, who says in his Diary, 1671, that he discovered him, by accident, labouring in an obscure place. He next introduced him to Wren, who employed him in several of his buildings. In 1712 he was appointed to the office of Master Sculptor to George I, and died 1721. See "Walpole's Works," vol. iii. p. 341.

ters, painted blue, and veined with gold to imitate lapis lazuli; the capitals and some of the ornaments are gilt. The pavement, which beneath the dome is of black and white marble in geometrical figures, is here of various coloured marbles similarly disposed.

In the interior of the building a want of ornament is observable, and the decorations which are employed are not in good taste; they consist chiefly of shields, scrolls, &c. of that uncertain, irregular outline which, used in Italy soon after the re-adoption of the classic style, passed into France, and about the time of Louis XIV. became so naturalized as to be termed the style of his period.1 With regard to the general effect of the interior, we are bound to admit that much more might have been done with like opportunity; the ailes, as has been observed by others, are somewhat too small; there is a great confusion in the parts of the design throughout, and the arrangement of the junction of the ailes with the central area, must ever be regretted, as giving an appearance of weakness to a part of the construction where the greatest strength is required; we must however remember the state in which architecture was when Wren arose, and rather express our admiration that he did so much, than our surprise that he did not do more. When compared with the interior of St. Peter's at Rome, which, although

1 Within the last few years, through an inordinate desire for novelty, this frippery style has become prevalent in England, and all the old clumsy scroll work, which the French had long since rejected as unworthy, has been eagerly bought to decorate the houses of our men of taste; in fact, as Mr. Hope observes, in his "History of Architecture," not content with ransacking every pawnbroker's shop in London and in Paris, for old buhl, old porcelain, and old plate, old tapestry, and old frames, they even set every manufacturer at work, and corrupt the taste of every modern artist by the renovation of this wretched style.'