Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/117

 London and in the provinces. In London he seems to have been the sole representative of what is now the Building Act, in enforcing the regulations put forth subsequent to the great fire by a royal proclamation (, pp. 300, 442). Of the thirty-six companies' halls which are named as Wren's work, many have been rebuilt and all more or less enlarged and altered. What remains of his work is chiefly to be found in the interiors. Brewers' Hall, both within and without, contains some characteristic portions.

Having been appointed by the Stuarts to the office of surveyor-general, Wren retained the royal favour unclouded through the reigns of William and Mary and Queen Anne; but on the accession of the Hanoverian family in 1714 the jealousies which his high position had created were able to prevail against him. At first he was subjected to repeated annoyances, but after having endured these for four years, during which time he was able to complete the fabric of St. Paul's, he was finally superseded in 1718, and William Benson (1682–1754) [q. v.] was made surveyor-general in his place (, Hampton Court, iii. 228 sqq.) Wren after this retired from practical business, retaining only the supervision of Westminster Abbey, which he held until his death.

For the last five years of his life Wren resided much in a house at Hampton Court which he held on lease from the crown, but also occupied a house in St. James's Street, Piccadilly. On one of his journeys to the London house he took a chill, and died after a short illness, on 25 Feb. 1723, in the ninety-first year of his age. He was buried on 5 March in St. Paul's Cathedral under the south aisle of the choir, near the east end. His successor as architect of the cathedral, Robert Mylne [q. v.], caused to be placed in his honour an inscription at the entrance into the choir, ending with the words ‘Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.’

The best known portraits of him are: (1) at the Royal Society's rooms in Burlington House, believed to be by Sir Peter Lely, though there seems some ground for attributing it to Sir Godfrey Kneller; (2) the picture by Sir Godfrey Kneller in the National Portrait Gallery, London; (3) a portrait in the Deanery, St. Paul's; and (4) the profile engraved in the ‘Parentalia.’ Besides these, (5) All Souls' College Library possesses a cast of the face taken after death, which appears to confirm particularly the likeness shown by 1 and 4. (6) There is also a bust of Wren at All Souls', and (7) a portrait by Sir James Thornhill in the Sheldonian. A fine group of Wren's works, designed by C. R. Cockerell, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1838; a reduced copy forms the frontispiece to Miss Phillimore's biography. By his will Wren left his architectural drawings to All Souls' College, where they have been ‘bound and catalogued with due veneration for his memory’ (, Worthies of All Souls, p. 233).

Wren enjoyed intimate friendships with the best and most scientific men of his age, among whom may be named specially Evelyn, Boyle, Wallis, Issac Barrow, Halley, and Newton, to whom may be added Hooke and Flamsteed; and the fact of his having preserved the continuous friendship of the two last named may be taken as evidence of the amiability of his temper, for neither was easy to get on with. He must also have reckoned among his friends a celebrated man who was an intimate associate of his cousin Matthew Wren—namely, Samuel Pepys. Miss Phillimore (p. 225) thus sums up Wren's character: ‘Loving, gentle, modest, he was as a boy; and the famous architect possessed those qualities still. In a corrupt age all testimony leaves him spotless; in positions of great trust and still greater difficulty his integrity was but the more clearly shown by the attacks made against him; among the foremost philosophers of his age he was a striking example that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” No child could hold the truths of Christianity with a more undoubting faith than did Sir Christopher Wren.’

In addition to the lectures and reports above mentioned, Wren left a few tracts on occasional subjects connected chiefly with architecture. Two of these, both unfortunately incomplete, are published in the ‘Parentalia,’ and reprinted by Elmes (App. x. pp. 118, 123), and a third was obtained in manuscript by Miss Phillimore and printed (pp. 341 et seq.). There are also in the ‘Parentalia’ attempts made by Wren to restore the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the temple of Diana at Ephesus. These are, of course, superseded by more recent restorations, assisted by data obtained by excavation. Both of them, however, seem to show all that was possible with the scanty historical data which were then accessible. In one of the two incomplete tracts referred to above he shows that the spherical vaulting he so often used is also the lightest construction that can be employed for such a purpose.

In December 1669 Wren married a lady to whom it may be inferred he had been for some years much attached, Faith, daughter