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Of the fifty-two churches which Wren built in London, and of which a considerable number have been demolished, every one that remains is a valuable study in planning, and they show the greatest skill in their adaptation to irregular sites and their suitability for Protestant worship. In all of them the main proportions are excellent, but minor details are not in all good alike. Nothing that has been achieved in modern architecture has surpassed the beauty of their spires, not only from the elegance of each, but from their complete variety, and at the same time their harmony with one another. Indeed Wren may be called the inventor of the English Renaissance type of steeple, in which a conical or pyramidal spire is harmoniously added to belfry on a square tower with classical details. Two of these churches in particular are especially good examples of his genius,—namely St. Mary-le-Bow and St. Stephen's Walbrook.

STEEPLE, ST. BRIDE'S CHURCH

LONDON

St. Mary-le-Bow, or simply Bow church (so named after an earlier church on the same site, borne upon stone arches, or "bows"), was one of the most historic structures of old London. "Bow bells" hung in its tower, and served the city as a curfew; and persons born within the sound of them were considered true Londoners or "cockneys." Sir Christopher's church on the same site and called by the same name, was commenced in 1671 and completed six years later. The exterior is so much closed in with houses that only a plain solid outside was required, and Wren expended his chief architectural effort on a steeple, of which Mr. Fergusson has written: "There are errors of detail which probably the architect himself would have avoided in a second attempt, and, as they arose only from an imperfect knowledge of classical details, might easily be remedied at the present day. It only wants this slight revision to harmonize what little incongruities remain, and, if this were done, this steeple might challenge comparison with any Gothic example ever erected. No modern steeple can compare with it either for beauty of outline or the appropriateness with which classical details are applied to so novel a purpose."

STEEPLE, ST. DUNSTAN'S-IN-THE-EAST LONDON

St. Stephen's Walbrook, commenced in 1672 and finished in 1679, like St. Mary-le-Bow has a plain exterior, and for the same reason; but Fergusson has rightly praised the interior for its originality, and as "the most pleasing of any Renaissance church that has yet been erected." The plain exterior tower was surmounted by a beautiful spire. One of Wren's principles was, that when sufficient funds were not available for the elaboration of the whole of a design, some one or more important features should be worked up to a higher standard than the rest, instead of adopting a lower standard for the whole.