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Another of Wren's most admired steeples is that for St. Bride's in Fleet Street, built in 1701. The upper stories of it have, however, been criticised because of their sameness and the want of connection between them. Another famous spire is that which he built in 1699 for the church of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East.

In 1698 Wren was appointed surveyor to Westminster Abbey, and proceeded to carry out very important repairs. He built the central tower as we see it, and intended that it should have been surmounted by a lofty spire. The western towers which formed part of the project have been built, but not as he intended. The general proportion of the towers alone is Wren's.

The "Monument," the Roman Doric column which commemorates the great fire, was built by Wren, between 1671 and 1678. He had at first intended that it should be left hollow from top to bottom to serve as a vertical telescope tube for astronomical purposes, but its height proved insufficient for this. There was great debate about the ornament for the summit. Wren wished it to be a large statue as "carrying much dignity with it, and being more valuable in the eyes of foreigners and strangers," but this project was abandoned on account of the expense, and the present ornament, a flaming vase of gilt bronze, substituted. "The great inequality of Wren's achievement," writes Fergusson, "is nowhere more marked than in a comparison of this Monument, which is one of the most successful Classical columns that have been erected in Europe, with Temple Bar, which is perhaps the most unsuccessful attempt ever made to reproduce a Classical triumphal archway."

In 1677 he commenced the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. The work, which was not finished till 1692, is one of the handsomest buildings in England, remarkable externally for breadth and correctness of style, and internally as a model of excellent arrangement. In design it is not unlike the much admired Library of Ste. Genéviève in Paris. To Greenwich Hospital he contributed gratuitously the design for two noble blocks of buildings completely in harmony with the earlier portion by Inigo Jones.

STEEPLE, ST. STEPHEN'S WALBROOK LONDON

He was long engaged on extensive works on Hampton Court Palace, where, at the desire of Queen Mary, the old buildings were in part pulled down and two sets of royal apartments built. The queen, though she amused herself with planning the gardens and making suggestions, had yet the wisdom to defer to Wren's better taste and knowledge. Her husband, with characteristic obstinacy, insisted on his own ideas, thereby dwarfing the cloisters and marring much of the architecture. It is, however, fair to say that King William always owned that the defects were his, the merits, Wren's; and these merits are very great, for in spite of defects of detail, the general design is one remarkable for dignity and breadth of conception.

PLATE LXXXIX

TEMPLE BAR: LONDON