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CHAPTER IX.   1677–1681.   Emmanuel College—Greenwich Observatory—Birth of Jane and William Wren—S. Bartholomew’s—Portland Quarries—Dr. and Mrs. Holder—Death of Lady Wren—Popish Plot—Papin’s Digester—Sir J. Hoskyns—All Hallow’s, Bread Street—Palace at Winchester. 215 CHAPTER X.   1681–1686.   Chelsea College—S. James’s, Westminster—A hard Winter—Chichester Spire—An Astronomical Problem—A Seat in Parliament—More City Churches—A curious Carving. 239 CHAPTER XI.   1687–1696.   Parliament dissolved—Church building—Acquittal of the Seven Bishops—James the Second’s Flight—William and Mary—College of Physicians—Hampton Court—Greenwich Hospital—Richard Whittington—S. Paul’s Organ. 259 CHAPTER XII.   1697–1699.   Opening of S. Paul’s Choir—A moveable Pulpit—Letter to his Son at Paris—Order against Swearing—Peter the Great—S. Dunstan’s Spire—Morning Prayer Chapel opened—Westminster Abbey. 279 CHAPTER XIII.   1700–1708.   Member for Weymouth—Rising of the Sap in Trees—Prince George’s Statue—Jane Wren’s Death—Thanksgiving at S. Paul’s—Letter to his Son—Son marries Mary Musard—Death of Mr. Evelyn—Queen Anne’s Act for Building fifty Churches—Letter on Church Building. 297 CHAPTER XIV.   1709–1723.   Private Houses built—Queen Anne’s Gifts—Last Stone of S. Paul’s—Wren deprived of his Salary—His Petition—‘Frauds and Abuses’—Interior work of S. Paul’s—Wren Superseded—Purchase of Wroxhall Abbey—Wren’s Thoughts on the Longitude—His Death—Burial in S. Paul’s—The End. 317 APPENDIX.   1709–1723.   I. Reverendo Patri Domino Christophoro Wren S.T.D. et D. W. Christophorus Filius Hoc Suum Panorganum Astronomicum D.D. xiii. Calend. Novem. Anno 1645. 337 II. Churches, Halls, Colleges, Palaces, other Public Buildings, and Private Houses built and repaired by Sir Christopher Wren. 338 III. A Discourse on Architecture, from Original MS. 340 INDEX 351

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CHAPTER I.
1585–1636.

ANCESTRY OF THE WRENS—MATTHEW WREN—TRAVELS TO SPAIN WITH THE PRINCE OF WALES—INTERVIEW AT WINCHESTER HOUSE—BISHOP ANDREWES’ PROPHECY—WREN MADE MASTER OF PETERHOUSE—BISHOP OF HEREFORD—CONSECRATION OF ABBEY DORE—OFFICE OF RECONCILIATION—FOREIGN CONGREGATIONS AND THE NORWICH WEAVERS—RESULT OF ‘A LECTURER’S’ DEPARTURE.

The name of Christopher Wren is no doubt familiar to the great majority of English people, and to Londoners especially; but it is to many of them little more than a name with which is connected S. Paul’s Cathedral and a now, alas! diminished number of City churches. Yet the great architect’s ninety-one years of life were passed among some of the most stirring times of our history, in which his family played no inconsiderable part, and he himself was not only the best architect of his day, but was also the foremost in many other sciences. A singularly patient and far-seeing intellect aiding a strong religious faith enabled him ‘to keep the even tenour of his way’ through a life of incessant labour and considerable temptation. It has been truly said,

‘It seems almost like a defect in such a biography as that of Wren, that it presents nothing of that picturesque struggle, in the rise from a lower to a higher condition, which has so commonly attended the conquest of genius over difficulty.’[2]

Far otherwise, the Wren family was an old one, tracing its descent from the Danes; one of the house fought in Palestine under Richard I., and his fame long survived, as in Charles I.’s time it was quoted against one of the knight’s descendants.

In 1455, during the reign of Henry VI., in the Black Book (or register) of the Order of the Garter, mention is made of a Wren who probably belonged to this family:—