Sir Christopher Wren And His Times.

To return now to architectural matter , lefc us notice the death of Inigo Jones . When his royal patron stepped forth from that melancholy window of Whitehall , the illustrious Surveyor-general had attained the age of seventy-seven . But for the distractions of the times , during the latter part of his life , under the unfortunate Charles , the refined tastes of the Court , operating through the genius of so great an

artist , might have set in motion on a much more effective scale the progress of fche Palladian manner of design in England ; but the troubles of the State prevented the growth of art ; and the ultimate triumph of the Puritans came like a blig ht ; upon it . When dragoon horses were stabled in cathedrals , and the lecture-halls of science , we are not surprised to learn that the only consideration accorded to such a man

as Inigo Jones was his recognition as a papist , the infliction of a ruinous fine , neglect , and obloquy . We might say that when he died England possessed no architect worthy of the name of his successor : ifc might be more to the purpose to remark that a government composed of men who ( to use the words of Maeaulay ) " groaned in spirit at the sight of Jack-in-the-green , and thought ifc impious to taste plum

porridge on Christmas-day , "—who closed the theatres and flogged the players , and christened their children out of the Book of Nehemiah , would have had only more kicks than halfpence for so worldly-minded a dog as an architect . With no desire to disparage the merits of Oliver Cromwell , we may be permitted to believe thafc it was a beneficial thing for artwhatever it may have been for reliionor even for

, g , English honour , when the profligate and mean-spirited son of the slain king was restored to the throne , with acclamation . At the date of this event , 1660 , after twenty years of Puritanism , ifc seems really questionable whether there existed hi England a single individual who professed architecfcural design as his calling . The person appointed

Surveyor-general m the room of Jones , long deceased , was selected upon no such theoretical grounds , bufc upon the purely practical consideration of services rendered to the royalist cause : he was Denham , fche poefc . Accordingly , when the new king and his courtiers began to make themselves at home , and to look about them , and fco contemplate grand operations , —the reparation of St . Paul ' s , the

improvement of Windsor Castle , the building for his most excellent Majesty of a new palace at Greenwich , and the like , —it necessarily became a question of some importance ivhere they were to look for a person to do the work pertaining to the office of worthy Sir John Denham . In this quandary , it appears that some judicious friend advised the sovereign to send for a certain Mr . Christopher Wren , nephew of the

old Bishop of Ely , just liberated from the Tower , —a prodigious scholar , no doubt , it was said ; a miracle of genius ; a young man vastly skilled iu the knowledge of architecture , as in everything else . To speak now of the scientific career of Wren , his reputation during the last few years of the Puritan time was still advancing . In 1657 he removed from Oxford to London , having been elected Professor of Astronomy in Gresham

College . His age was then twenty-five ; but such was his celebrity , thafc his inaugural address was the event of the day amongst the learned . But ifc is curious to note in this discourse of his , as an indication of the character of thought at fche time , in the midst of what ; is often the closest reasoning , a proposal of several hypotheses whereby to account for the going back of the sun ten degrees on the dial of king

Ahaz ; as also a solution of the proposition-that Christ was three days and three nights in the tomb between a Friday and a Sunday , on the ground thafc he died for the people at the antipodes as well as here ; so that when it was a day on one side and consequently a night on the other , both the day and the night ought to be counted separately . In 1658 , Oliver Cromwell died ; and the disorder which ensued

compelled the young professor to seek shelter again iu Oxford . Gresham College became quarters for the soldiery . " This day , " writes a friend to him , " I went fco visit Gresham College , but found fche place in such a nasty condition , so defiled , and the smell so infernal , that if you should come now to make use of your tube" ( referring to some of the experiments of the day ) , "it would be like Dives looking oufc of hell into heaven . " He did not return , however , to his professorial chair in the City of Loudon ; for immediately after

the Restoration he was appointed Savihan Professor of Astronomy at Oxford . A few months afterwards he was sent for by the Government , as we have before seen , in the capacity of an architect . About the same time ifc was that he received the degree of Doctor of Civil Law afc Oxford , and almost simultaneously the same degree afc Cambridge . His age , as we before remarked , was only then twenty-eight .

Speaking of his connection with the progress of science , we must not omit to mention the institution of the Royal Society of London at the time just referred to ; the date of its charter being 1662 , the year following thafc of the Restoration . In this important transaction the young philosopher was one of the moving spirits . The little society of the votaries of science which had been formed in his student

days at Oxford had formed an almost identical cluster round him iu London , by the habit of meeting at his Gresham lectures . They were called "the club . " Dispersed for the time by the consequences of Cromwell ' s death , they rallied again when the Restoration restored personal safety to the lieges ; and one of the earliest acts of the young king was to grant his royal approvalfollowed speedilba royal

, y y charter , in which the name of Dr Christopher Wren appears in the list of the first council of the body . There might probably have been two Doctors Christopher Wren on this most honourable register ; but thafc the excellent Dean of Windsor , himself a promoter of "the club , " had passed from this life , at the age of sixty-nine , just before the time when he would have had to welcome the decease of Cromwell as a

sudden burst of sunshine after storm . There seems every probability that the court patronage which now fell to Dr . Wren in the character of an architect was , in some degree at least , due to the influence , whether personal or not , which his uncle , the restored Bishop of Ely , could not fail to possess at Whitehall . Nothing can better

lllustrafce the state of affairs afc the time than the family relationship existing between a person so gentle and even retiring as we understand our young savant to have been ( fco say nothing of our strong suspicion that he was of Low Church views ) , with a violent , uncompromising zealot like this old Churchman . The history of Dr . Matthew Wren is one which becomes graphic without an effort . In early

middle life King James appointed him chaplain to his son , that he might accompany the young prince to Spain , and give him the benefit of his astuteness in dealing with a wily people . Twelve years afterwards , in 1633 , King Charles made him Bishop of Hereford . Two years more and the see of Norwich fell vacant ; so that it became desirable to find out some resolute disciplinarian to whom to commit

the pastoral care of a people always hard to govern . Dr . Matthew Wren was the individual selected , avowedly on account of his ungentle hand . He ruled the East-Anglian diocese with a rod of iron for three years , and then exchanged ifc for the see of Ely . If one dared to hint fchafc so invincible a champion had met his match , it might be suggested that the nonconformists of Norfolk had made the place too hot to hold him . Sure enough , when the Long Parliament found

itself sufficiently strong to deal with the enemies of its faith , the indictment issued against the Bishop of Ely , late of Norwich , was of the weightiest kind . Never man had done so much resolute work of its kind , in so short a time , as had Dr . Matthew Wren done at Norwich during his three brief years of government . He had set up idolatry aud superstition , and had himself practised the same . No fewer than

fifty " godly , learned , and painful ministers " and " powerful preachers " he had excommunicated , deprived , and banished . Three thousand weavers , of tender consciences , who declined to agree with him in opinion , he had driven out of fche country ; so that they had to seek hospitality of the Hollander , to the great detriment of trade . He had established Popish ceremonial ; and , by even pulling down and

reconstructing fche church pews , had compelled the people to face the east in spite of themselves . Lastly , he had exacted tithes literally afc two shillings in the pound . So ho was cast into prison ; and , there being as ycfc no Habeas Corpus Act , there he remained . The writer of the Parentalia calculates , with what Burke calls " delightful horror , " how many times the circuit of this great globe the indomitable martyr had accomplished in pacing up and down a certain lead-flat in fche tower during twenty years . He also