absurdity, would be an indignity to one of the most accomplished and illustrious characters in history."

Ir more be wanting, let his detractors and undervaluers, for such there are, even at the present day, read what the immortal NEWTON, who knew his expanse, says of Wren, Wallis and Huygens, that they were "hujus ætatis geometrarum facilè principes."

THE passage referring to the experimental building, which fell on the weight of a Wren, and the subsequent burning of the city, has been supposed to refer to the report on the construction of the old Cathedral, and his plans for the reparation and alteration of it, so as to include Inigo Jones's fine portico and his intentions of reconstructing it in the Italian style, mentioned in page 157 of this work, and more of a personal opposition to Wren than to his plans. Wren also made another design, of which he constructed the beautiful model, described in page 271, and considered it to be the best, and he certainly was a competent judge, and would have executed with more satisfaction, had he not been over-ruled by those whom it was his duty to obey. He was also thwarted, as is well known, in the execution of his beautiful plan for rebuilding the city, by the haste of the citizens and the numerous disputes about private property.

THE burning of Lyons in Gaul (Lugdunum in Gallia Celtica), as related by Seneca, in his 92nd epistle, is the event which is considered to approach the nearest in history to the great fire of London, except that in the latter instance the whole city was not destroyed,

*

nor is it certain that it was by the malice of its enemies. Neither is there any such assertion in the original inscription, written for it by Wren, who was neither a Papist nor the son of a Papist, but a sound Church-ofEngland man, and descended from as sound and orthodox Church-of-England family as ever lived, and who would not have omitted the fact had he believed it. In the present inscription, cut, effaced, re-cut and reeffaced, the destruction of the city was roundly charged upon the malice of the Papists. It has been recently expunged-ought never to have been there, and is never likely to be there again. Had Wren's more classical and truthful inscription to his own fine design been adopted, his friend Pope's satirical couplet of

"London's proud column, pointing to the skies,

Like a tall bully, lifts his head and lies."

would never have been written.

AMONG other contrivances to annoy the venerable Wren, a rumour was raised that the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, which had been built between fifty and sixty years, was in a dangerous state. To ascertain the truth or falsehood of this report the Rev. Dr. Shippen, Vice-Chancellor of the University, commissioned William Townsend of Oxford, mason, and Jeremiah Franklin, and Thomas Speakman, of the same place, carpenters, able and experienced persons, to survey, strictly examine and report upon the state of the whole fabric. This duty they performed diligently, and reported to

* See p. 293 of my quarto Memoirs of Wren.

the Vice-Chancellor, under their hands, the 8th of March 1720.

THE report of these able builders was, that the whole fabric of the theatre was in perfect repair and good order. None of the walls appeared in the least defective, and the roof, which had formerly been swayed or sunk in the middle about eleven inches, occasioned by the shrinking of some of the timbers and the great weight of books formerly laid upon it, appeared to be in as good a condition as it was above twenty years before, when a similar examination was made. And they further certified that the whole fabric of the theatre was, in their opinion, likely to remain in as good repair and condition for one hundred or two hundred years yet to come.

THIS attack upon the great Architect proved as signal a failure as did that of Benson about the stability of the House of Peers. As a proof of the correctness of the preceding report, I surveyed the whole roof when stripped of its coverings for the great general repair it underwent, under the superintendence of Mr. Saunders, the architect, about thirty years ago. It was then discovered that the gilded cordage which

*See copy of the original in Parentalia, p. 337, and ELMES's Memoirs of Wren, p. 517.

+ Probably the most distressing weight that could be placed upon the strongest warehouse floor in our docks, except, perhaps, wheat in the grain, and this portion of the structure is only what is technically termed a ceiling floor, constructed as a covering to the area below, and not a floor to bear the weight of many persons or goods.

went under the painted ceiling, representing the ropes that were stretched from pilaster to pilaster to support the velarium or awning by which the ancients protected the spectators in their theatres from the weather, and which in this building the artist has represented being drawn aside by genii to permit the arts and sciences to descend from heaven was of iron, and an essential part of the construction of the roof; but they were only of carved oak, applied after the picture was finished, to look more truthful than painting on a flat surface. There are good engravings of this admirable roof in Parentalia, and in my larger work, which I compared with the original, at the time before mentioned. Both are illustrated by an account from Dr. Plot's Natural History of Oxfordshire, (chap. ix.,) which, from its technical peculiarity, and the author's intimacy with Wren, denotes that it was from the pen of the latter.

WREN'S long and useful life began now to draw towards a close, but accident, and, perhaps, the mortification at being removed in such an ungrateful manner from the office he had dignified so long, tended to shorten that life which activity and temperance had prolonged so much beyond the usual term of man's existence. Till his dismissal from the office of Surveyor-General he had principally resided at the house assigned to this officer, in Scotland Yard, Westminster. He afterwards occupied a town residence in St. James's Street, Piccadilly, and continued to superintend the repairs of Westminster Abbey, of which he

continued to be the Surveyor till his death. He also rented a house from the crown at Hampton Court, which he much improved. To this quiet residence the great Architect often retired from the hurry of business, and passed the greater portion of the last five years of his life in study and contemplation.

On his last journey from Hampton Court to London, he contracted a cold which probably accelerated his death, but he died as he had lived, in placid serenity. The good old man had, in his latter days, accustomed himself to sleep a short time after his dinner, and on the 25th of February 1723 his attendant servant thought his master had slept longer than usual, went into his room and found him dead in his chair. From a cast of a mask, taken shortly after his death, which I have often contemplated with veneration, the face appears as calm as if in sleep, resembling that of the saints, and might well be called “falling asleep," for the innocence of his life made him expect it as indifferently as he did his ordinary rest.

THE funeral of Sir Christopher Wren, was attended by an assemblage of honourable and distinguished personages, from his house in St. James's Street to that Cathedral, which he designed and built to his own and

* When I last saw this memorial of the illustrious dead it was at Ardbraccan House, near Navan, Co. Meath, the palace of Dr. O'Beirne, Bishop of that diocess, in whose family Miss Wren was then residing.

+ Sir RICHARD STEELE on Wren's friend, Dr. South, "Tatler," No. 61.