Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/731

Rh WREN 689 ground, and the building is always domed. Hence they are commonly called &quot;Oven-birds,&quot; 1 and occasionally, from the grass used in their structure, &quot; Hay-jacks,&quot; a name common to the WHITE-THROAT (q.v.) and its allies. To return, however, to the Troglodytidx or true Wrens. If it cannot be said that they form a peculiar Family, it would be rather to the Sylviidx that they and the CerthiidtK (cf. TREE-CREEPER) should be assigned, and they seem to be very unfitly placed among the Timeliidx, as has lately been done (Cat. E. Brit. Museum, vi. p. 1). These last, so far as any definition can be given of them, belong to the Ethiopian and Indian Regions, while the pre dominance of the Troglodytidx in the Neotropical Region, as already remarked, is very obvious. (A. N.) WREN, SIR CHRISTOPHER (1631-1723), the son of a clergyman, was born at East Knoyle, Wiltshire, in 1631; he entered at Wadham College, Oxford, in 1646, took his degree in 1650, and in 1653 was made a fellow of All Souls. While at Oxford Wren distinguished himself in geometry and applied mathematics; 2 in 1657 he became professor of astronomy at Gresham College, and in 1660 was elected Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford. It is, however, as an architect that Wren is best known, and the great fire of London, by its destruction of the cathedral and nearly all the city churches, gave Wren a scope for his talent such as probably no architect has ever had to the same extent. Just before the fire Wren was asked by Charles II. to prepare a scheme for the restoration of the old St Paul s. In May 1666 Wren submitted his report and designs 3 for this work ; the old cathedral was in a very ruinous state, and Wren proposed to remodel the greater part, as he said, &quot;after a good Roman manner,&quot; and not &quot; to follow the Gothick Rudeness of the old Design.&quot; According to this scheme, only the old choir was left ; the nave and transepts were to be rebuilt after the classical style, with a lofty dome at the crossing not unlike the plan which was eventually carried out. In September of the same year (1666) the fire occurred, and the old St Paul s was completely gutted, though the greater part of its walls still remained standing. From 1668 to 1670 attempts were being made by the chapter to restore the ruined building ; but Dean Sancroft was anxious to have the cathedral wholly rebuilt, and in 1668 he had asked Wren to prepare a design for a wholly new church. This first design, the model for which is preserved in the South Kensington Museum, is very inferior to what Wren afterwards devised. In plan it is an immense rotunda surrounded by a wide aisle, and approached by a double portico ; the rotunda is covered with a dome taken from that of the Pantheon in Rome ; on this a second dome stands, set on a lofty drum, and this second dome is crowned by a tall spire. This plan was devised as being .specially suitable to the needs of a Protestant church, but the dean and chapter objected to the absence of a structural choir, nave, and aisles, and wished to follow the mediaeval cathedral arrangement, at least as far as concerned the plan. Thus, in spite of its having been approved by the king, this design was happily abandoned much to Wren s disgust ; and he prepared another scheme with a similar treatment of a dome crowned by a spire, which in 1675 was ordered to be carried out. Wren had, however, been much hampered by ignorant interference, and apparently 1 By ornithologists this name is given to a wholly distinct group not even belonging to the Oscines the Furnariidee of Garrod, con sisting of about 8 genera of Tracheophonine Birds, some of which build marvellous nests of mud spherical in form. For their habits see Darwin (Jour, of Researches, chap. v. ) and Mr Hudson s account (Argentine Ornithology, i. pp. 167-170). a Newton, in his Principia, p. 19, ed. of 1713, speaks very highly of Wren s work as a geometrician. 3 Wren s drawing for this exists in the All Souls collection. did not himself approve of this second design, for he got the king to give him permission to alter it as much as he liked, without showing models or drawings to any one. Wren fully availed himself of this permission, and the actual building bears little resemblance to the approved design, to which it is very superior in almost every possible point. Wren s earlier designs have the exterior of the church arranged with one order of columns ; the division of the whole height into two orders was an immense gain in increasing the apparent scale of the whole, and makes the exterior of St Paul s very superior to that of St Peter s in Rome, which is utterly dwarfed by the colossal size of the columns and pilasters of its single order. 4 The present very graceful dome and the drum on which it stands, masterpieces of graceful line and harmonious proportion, were very important alterations from the earlier scheme. As a scientific engineer and practical architect Wren was perhaps more remarkable than as an artistic designer. The construction of the wooden external dome, and the support of the stone lantern by an inner cone of brickwork, quite independent of either the external or internal dome, are wonderful examples of Wren s constructive ingenuity. The first stone of the new St Paul s was laid on June 21, 1675; the choir was opened for use December 2, 1697; and the last stone of the cathedral was set in 1710. The stone used is from the Portland quarries ; the wooden dome is covered with lead, not copper as was at first proposed. The fine oak stalls were carved by Grinling Gibbons, who received 1333, 7s. 5d. for them. The whole cost of the cathedral was 1,167,474, of which 810,181 was pro vided by the London import duty on coal. 5 After the destruction of the city of London Wren was employed to make designs for rebuilding its fifty burnt churches, and he also prepared a scheme for laying out the whole city on a new plan, with a series of wide streets radiating from a central space. Difficulties arising from the various ownerships of the ground prevented the accom plishment of this scheme. Among Wren s city churches the most noteworthy are St Michael s, Cornhill ; St Bride s and St Mary le Bow, Fleet Street, the latter remarkable for its graceful spire ; and St Stephen s, Walbrook, with a plain exterior, but very elaborate and graceful interior. In the design of spires Wren showed much taste and wonderful power of inven tion. He was also very judicious in the way in which he expended the limited money at his command ; he did not fritter it away in an attempt to make the whole of a building remarkable, but devoted it chiefly to one part or feature, such as a spire or a rich scheme of internal decora tion. Thus he was in some cases, as in that of St James s, Piccadilly, content to make the exterior of an almost barn- like plainness. The other buildings designed by Wren were very numer ous. Only a few of the principal ones can be mentioned : the custom house, the royal exchange, Maryborough House, Buckingham House, and the Hall of the College of Physicians now destroyed ; others which exist are at Oxford, the Sheldonian theatre, the Ashmolean museum, the Tom Tower of Christ Church, and Queen s College chapel ; at Cambridge, the library of Trinity College and 4 Proportionally the apparently greater size of St Paul s is very remarkable ; it is very difficult to realize that the top of the dome of St Paul s is only as high as the springing of that of St Peter s. In actual fact the one looks about as high as the other. 6 Wren also designed a colonnade to enclose a largo piazza forming a clear space round the church, somewhat after the fashion of Bernini s colonnade in front of St Peter s, but space in the city was too valuable to admit of this. Wren was an enthusiastic admirer of Bernini s designs, and visited Paris in 1665 in order to see him and his pro posed scheme for the rebuilding of the Louvre. Bernini showed his design to Wren, but would not let him copy it, though, as he said, lie &quot;would have given his skin&quot; to be allowed to do so. XXIV. 87