Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times / With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723.

The year 1709 passed in steady work, and has little but finishing touches to the churches to be recorded, unless some of the various private houses built by Wren belong to this period. A house for Lord Oxford, and one for the Duchess of Buckingham, both in S. James’s Court; two built near the Thames for Lord Sunderland and Lord Allaston; one for Lord Newcastle in Queen’s Square, Bloomsbury; and a house, so large and magnificent that it has been divided in late years into four, in Great Russell Street. This house was afterwards occupied by Wren’s eldest son, and in turn by his second son Stephen.

Sir Christopher himself, while keeping the house in Whitehall from which his letters are dated, had received from Queen Anne the fifty years’ lease of a house at Hampton Green at a nominal rent of 10l. a year;[234] he must have found great refreshment in going there occasionally by the then undefiled Thames, to country rest and quiet. Queen Anne was uniformly gracious and friendly to her Surveyor, and presented him with a buhl cabinet inlaid with red tortoiseshell of remarkably handsome work and design.[235]

The following year saw the crown put to the labour of thirty-five years. Mr. Christopher Wren, who had been a year old when the first stone was laid, now laid the last stone of the lantern above the Dome of S. Paul’s in the presence of his father, Mr. Strong the master-builder, his son, and other free and accepted masons, most of whom had worked at the building. The scene could hardly be better painted than in the words of Dean Milman:[236]

There then the Cathedral stood, complete externally in its stately beauty, the work of one man, who, it has been truly said, ‘had the conception of a painter as well as an architect.’ View the Cathedral when and where we will, with every disadvantage of smoky atmosphere and lack of space, it yet fascinates the eye by the perfection of its lines and the majesty of the whole effect, so as to leave no power of criticising petty defects. Such was the triumphant success achieved by Wren’s patient genius, but

Envy will merit as its shade pursue;

and a series of troubles fell upon him.

There will always be a number of people who imagine that anything can be procured by money, and that for the sake of money anything and everything will be done. People of this mind considered that Sir Christopher Wren prolonged the process of building S. Paul’s in order to prolong his own enjoyment of the 200l. a year which was the salary he had himself chosen, though it was considered utterly inadequate by the Commissioners when first the work began.

Accordingly in 1696–7, a clause was inserted in the Act ‘for the completing and adorning S. Paul’s’ ‘to suspend a moiety of the Surveyor’s salary until the said Church should be finished; thereby the better to encourage him to finish the same work with the utmost diligence and expedition.’[237]

No doubt they considered that the Cathedral could be finished off regardless of details, and so left like the shell of an ordinary house to be adorned by any chance person; and to this end they offered their grim ‘encouragement’!

It was an insult to a man like Wren, who had again and again—as in the case of Greenwich—given his skill for nothing, and it was doubly unjust because, what delays there were, sprang from the conceit and ignorance of the S. Paul’s Commission. Wren protested, but took no active step until he had seen the Dome of his beloved Cathedral completed.

Then he sent in a petition to Queen Anne as follows:—

This petition was sent to the Commissioners, whose reply was, that when Sir Christopher had acted without their approbation his performances had proved very faulty;(!) they then digressed into remarks on their own devotion to the Queen’s service, and into a series of petty charges against some of the workmen employed in the Cathedral, especially the bell-founder, Richard Phelp, and Richard Jennings the master-carpenter, whom they charged with a variety of frauds and abuses, and begged should be at once dismissed; they also venture to assert that ‘Sir Christopher, or some employed by him, may be supposed to have found their advantage in this delay.’ There is little attempt at proof in this reply of the Commissioners, but much supposition and conjecture. A pamphlet, ‘Frauds and Abuses at S. Paul’s,’ published anonymously at this time, sets out all their suspicions in detail. Sir Christopher replied in a pamphlet entitled ‘An Answer to Frauds and Abuses in S. Paul’s,’ and laid a petition before the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, in which he sets out his grievances, how little power had been really given to him and how far he had ‘been limited and restrained.’

He then asks them for their warrant for the payment of the arrears, amounting to more than 1,300l., which were due to him, and says he will ever be ready in the future, to give his advice and assistance in anything about the said Cathedral. Archbishop Tenison and Bishop Compton laid Wren’s petition before the Attorney-General, Sir Edward Northey, who pronounced ‘that Sir Christopher Wren’s case was very hard, but that the terms of the Act were so positive that it could not be overridden, but the Commissioners ought in justice to find some remedy.’

Wren then addressed the House of Commons in a petition in which he repeats that his ‘measures for completing the Cathedral are wholly over-ruled and frustrated.’

The House considered the matter, and cut the knot by declaring the Cathedral to be finished, and directing the payment of all the arrears of the architect’s salary.

Their prompt decision gratified Sir Christopher, who contrasts it with the conduct of the Commission, ‘which was such as gave him reason enough to think that they intended him none of the suspended salary if it had been left in their power to defeat him of it.’

The attacks on Jennings, whom Wren firmly defended, fell to the ground: they probably had as little foundation as the ‘Screw Plot,’ by which at a Thanksgiving, by one man’s moving a few of the bolts and screws, the whole dome was to fall in.[238] The bell-founder Phelps, who had removed the faulty bell put up by Wightman under the direction of the Commissioners, also triumphed: he offered to give a bond to the Dean and Chapter to recast the bell at his own expense if, after a year’s trial, they were dissatisfied with it: as this offer was never claimed, Wren justly says that they were either content with the bell or else showed great neglect. Until the last few years it was the only bell possessed by the Cathedral.

To perfect S. Paul’s some things had still to be done, and, rather than these should suffer, Wren was willing still to undergo the slights and annoyances of the other S. Paul’s Commissioners, amongst whose names one wishes that of Sir Isaac Newton did not appear, without clear evidence that he stood by his early patron and friend. One hopes it may have been so, certainly he was not a frequent attendant at the meetings.

Within the Cathedral there was some important work to do. Gibbons’ carving had to be completed, and the beautiful iron-work gates on either side of the choir had yet to be set up. For this work Wren employed a M. Tijou, at that time a famous worker in iron, though no account of him is to be obtained at the present day. Possibly he was one of the French refugees. Wren saw both the carving and the gates successfully finished. But for the east end of the Cathedral he had a magnificent design which is unfulfilled to this day. He intended to inlay the columns of the apse with rich marble, to use a considerable amount of colour and gilding, and to place over the Altar a hemispherical canopy supported on four writhed pillars of the richest Greek marbles, with proper decorations of architecture and sculpture: he had prepared his model and the needful drawings, Bishop Compton had even received some specimens of marble from a Levant merchant in Holland, but unluckily the colours and the class of marble were not what Wren desired, and the plan waited for a better opportunity, which, in Wren’s lifetime, never came. Thus, of all this grand design, the only trace is the painting of the apsidal pillars, in imitation of lapis lazuli, which was meant as a temporary experiment, and the model of the canopy in the possession of the Dean and Chapter. Hardly anything could be done which would more enhance the interior beauty of S. Paul’s than the erection of this canopy.

Besides the adornment of the east end of the Cathedral there was also that of the dome to be accomplished. The decoration of S. Paul’s is so vexed a question that one almost fears to touch upon it, but the statement in the ‘Parentalia’ is explicit.

In weighing the value of this evidence as to Sir Christopher’s views, it is important to remember that the ‘Parentalia’ was, though edited by Stephen the grandson, actually written by Christopher, the son who was constantly with his father and shared in his interests, and had himself seen, and no doubt described to Sir Christopher that very cupola of S. Peter’s, of which he speaks.

The question of the iron fence round the Cathedral, of which Wren made mention in his petition, was much in his thoughts; he wished it to be low, and made of hammered iron, the Commissioners were determined that it should be high, and made of cast iron.

Wren, who doubtless intended to employ Tijou, and have a low, graceful railing which would throw up the height and solid grandeur of the Cathedral, repeatedly expressed his opinion; but the majority overruled him, and the Cathedral was imprisoned by a high, heavy, clumsy fence, the gates of which were sedulously closed, and were but too apt an emblem of the manner in which the Cathedral was soon shut off from its true uses. A century later, and Bishop Blomfield could say, ‘I never pass S. Paul’s without thinking how little it has done for Christianity.’ Now the iron fence has departed,[239] and with it all possibility of such a reproach.

During all this time Wren was engaged on the Abbey repairs and the affairs of Chelsea College. The Duke of Ormonde sends him a summons in November, 1713, the more pressing, as several Commissioners are out of town, to meet him ‘at twelve of the clock at his Grace’s house at the Cockpitt, in order to give directions for the cloathing of the Invalide Companys who are in a perishing condition for want thereof, not having been cloathed for near these three years past.’ The death of Evelyn and that of Sir Stephen Fox had lost to Chelsea Hospital its two best friends, but doubtless the Duke and Sir Christopher were able to provide for this emergency.

We hear of Wren at this time busied as of old for the Royal Society, going, with his son and Sir Isaac Newton, to inspect a house in Crane Court,[240] and finally buying it as a residence for the Society.

Again he appears with Newton, and the son who seems to have been his constant companion, going down to Greenwich as visitors of the Royal Observatory there and making their report upon it. As Flamsteed hated Newton, and greatly resented any formal visitation, the expedition must have taxed even Wren’s peace-making powers, but Flamsteed never seems to have quarrelled with him.

In the summer of the following year ‘good Queen Anne’ died, and with her all real chance of the return of the Stuart family, despite the gallant and devoted attempts made for ‘Prince Charlie’ in ‘the ’15’ and ‘the ’45.’ The sixth and last English reign which Wren was destined to see began in 1714 with the accession of George I.

The S. Paul’s Commission was renewed, with, of course, Wren’s name upon it, but the annoyances of his position increased.

In his design, S. Paul’s stood complete with a plinth over the entablature, and with statues on the four pediments only. The Commissioners took it into their heads that a balustrade with vases was greatly needed, and that it should be put up, unless Wren could ‘set forth in writing, under his hand, that it is contrary to the principles of architecture and give his opinion in a fortnight’s time.’ This looks very like a device for tormenting the old man of eighty-five, and revenging themselves for their previous defeat. Exactly within the fortnight Wren sent an answer which certainly shows no trace of failing powers.

The technical reasons are given, and he adds:

Nothing daunted, either by Wren’s reasons or his sarcasm, and regardless of their implied promise, the wise Commissioners of the Cathedral set to work on their balustrade.

This transaction belongs to the autumn of 1717. In the April of the ensuing year, George I., who cared nothing about art or architecture, and who only wished to gratify his German favourites, was easily prevailed upon to dismiss Sir Christopher Wren from that post of Surveyor-General which he had held for forty-eight years, and to bestow it upon William Benson, a favourite’s favourite, as ignorant and incapable as he was grasping and unscrupulous. There was probably but little outcry, for, as Steele[241] had truly said,

The person least disposed to make a complaint was Wren himself. Finding his patent superseded, he quietly retired to his house at Hampton Court, saying, ‘Nunc me jubet Fortuna expeditius philosophari.[242] One other comment he made, as a note to the date (April 26, 1718) of this dismissal: ‘Ὁτι ἀνέστη Βασιλεύς ἕτεπος ὃς οὐκ ἤδει τὸν Ἰωσήφ: καὶ οὐδὲν τούτων τῷ Γαλλίωνι ἔμελεν.✠’[243]

It is some satisfaction to know that Benson so disgraced himself as in five years’ time to be dismissed, and narrowly escaped a prosecution by the House of Lords. Pope held him up to deserved scorn in the ‘Dunciad,’ where he also says:

While Wren with sorrow to the grave descends,

but this, one is glad to think, tells rather what might have been Sir Christopher’s state of mind than what it really was.

Wren had had the interest of watching his eldest son’s career in Parliament as member for that borough of Windsor which he had himself represented.

This son’s wife had died, and in 1715 he married again. His second wife was Constance, daughter of Sir Thomas Middleton, and widow of Sir Roger Burgoyne; by this marriage he had another son, named Stephen. On this occasion Sir Christopher bought the estate of Wroxhall Abbey[244] in Warwickshire, which had belonged to the Burgoynes and was heavily encumbered. Sir Christopher is said to have stayed at the Abbey occasionally, and to have designed the kitchen garden wall which is built in semicircles. It was probably when he thus became a Warwickshire Squire that he gave the designs for S. Mary’s Church at Warwick, designs entirely different from those adopted in the present building, which is said to have been designed and built by one Francis Smith, a mason in the town.

But the greater part of Wren’s declining years was spent at Hampton Court, from which he went up to London to watch the progress of the works at Westminster Abbey, the surveyorship of which he still kept. A report was spread that the ceiling of the Sheldonian Theatre, in which, as a piece of mechanical construction, Sir Christopher took great pride, was giving way. Careful examination proved this to be a perfectly groundless rumour, and no further annoyance arose to disturb the calm evening of the old man’s life. To be ‘beneficus humano generi,’ as he said, had ever been his aim and wish. He now employed his leisure in looking over old papers on astronomy and mathematics and the method of finding out the longitude at sea. It had been long considered by the general world as impossible to find out as was the secret of perpetual motion, and the attempt at either discovery was treated with equal ridicule. The merchants, and captains of merchant ships were, however, from bitter experience of vessels and crews wrecked or lost, aware of the immense importance of the discovery of the longitude, if it could be made. They presented, in 1714, a petition to Parliament, begging that a reward might be offered ‘for such as shall discover the same.’ This, after due consideration, was done by a Bill, passed rapidly through both Houses, offering a reward of 20,000l.. for the discovery.[245]

The subject was one which greatly occupied Wren, who all his life had been interested in sailors and sea matters. He amused himself by throwing his latest thoughts on the longitude into the form of three cryptographs:[246]

1. OZVCVAYINIXDNCVOCWEDCNMALNABECIRTEWNGRAMHHCCAW.

2. ZEIYEINOIEBIVTXESCIOCPSDEDMNANHSEFPRPIWHDRAEHHXCIF.

3. EZKAVEBIMOXRFCSLCEEDHWMGNNIVEOMREWWERRCSHEPCIP.

A copy, signed by Halley as a true one, of this cipher was sent to the Royal Society in 1714 by Wren’s son. Probably Sir Christopher had not perfected his instruments sufficiently to proclaim his discovery, and did not wish either to lose his idea, or, when later on he disclosed it, to appear as a plagiarist in case a similar method had suggested itself to anyone else. Old age had weakened Wren’s limbs, but had had little effect on his clear understanding; his scientific pursuits interested him still, and were among the employments of those few leisure years which closed a life of incessant work. He gave, however, the greater part of his time and care to the diligent study of the Holy Scriptures, which all his life he had loved; and thus, serene and gentle as ever, waited for his summons.

Once a year it was his habit to be driven to London, and to sit for a while under the dome of his own Cathedral. On one of these journeys he caught a cold, and soon afterwards, on February 25, 1723, his servant, thinking Sir Christopher slept longer after dinner than was his wont, came into the room and found his master dead in his chair, with an expression of perfect peace on the calm features.

They buried him near his daughter in the south-east crypt of S. Paul’s, by one of the windows, under a plain marble slab with this inscription: ‘Here lieth Sir Christopher Wren, the builder of this Cathedral Church of S. Paul, &c., who died in the year of our Lord MDCCXXIII., and of his age XCI.’

The spite of those who had hampered his genius in life showed itself again after his death. The famous inscription, written by his son:—‘Subtus conditur hujus Ecclesiae et Urbis Conditor Christophorus Wren, qui vixit annos ultra nonaginta, non sibi, sed bono publico. Lector, si Monumentum requiris circumspice.’[247]—was placed in the crypt, and in the Cathedral itself there was nothing to preserve the memory of its architect.

This has in later years been remedied and the inscription is now in gold letters over the door of the north transept. Some of Sir Christopher’s plans have, as has been shown, been executed; and further, the Cathedral has been set in green turf, and all around it is cared for instead of neglected, the once empty campanile is filled by twelve bells, whose music floats down over the roar of London, as if out of the sky itself, and the Dome is filled by vast congregations in the way which Sir Christopher almost foresaw.

In the Cathedral his memory is cherished; but in the city of London, which he rebuilt from its ashes, no statue has been erected to him, no great street has been honoured by taking as its own the name of Christopher Wren, though a name

On fame’s eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled.

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX I.

APPENDIX II.

Halls.

Many of these buildings have been considerably altered since Wren’s time, and many are now let as warehouses, or turned to other uses.

Colleges.

Palaces.

Other Public Buildings.

Private Houses.

This list, which is, I fear, imperfect, only professes to give such buildings as were actually built or repaired; there are, besides, a large number of unexecuted designs.

* Signifies that the building has been destroyed.

APPENDIX III.

Sir Christopher Wren left the rough drafts of four tracts on architecture, which are printed in the ‘Parentalia,’ and a few notes on Roman and Greek buildings, some of which Mr. Elmes transcribed in his ‘Life;’ they are for the most part very technical and are incomplete. The copy of the ‘Parentalia’ now in my hands contains the autograph draft of a Discourse on Architecture, which, as I think, has never been printed; it appears to me to be of great interest. It is therefore given entire, though I regret I cannot give the quaint prints of Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel, Babylon, &c., with which the original is illustrated. The two former prints tally so exactly with the descriptions in the ‘Discourse’—the print of the ark containing a small section, an elevation, and a vignette of a man feeding one of the creatures, besides a large drawing of the floating Ark—that I incline to think they were engraved, either by Wren himself, or from his drawings. Engraving was an art he well understood. He divides with Prince Rupert the honour of the invention of mezzo-tint. The prints are numbered Pl. IV. and V. respectively, and have no signature.

Discourse on Architecture.

Whatever a man’s sentiments are upon mature deliberation, it will be still necessary for him in a conspicuous Work to preserve his Undertaking from general censure, and so for him to accomodate his Designs to the gust of the Age he lives in, thô it appears to him less rational. I have found no little difficulty to bring Persons, of otherwise a good genius, to think anything in Architecture would be better then what they had heard commended by others, and what they had view’d themselves. Many good Gothick forms of Cathedrals were to be seen in our Country, and many had been seen abroad, which they liked the better for being not much differing from ours in England: this humour with many is not yet eradicated, and therefore I judge it not improper to endeavour to reform the Generality to a truer taste in Architecture by giving a larger Idea of the whole Art, beginning with the reasons and progress of it from the most remote Antiquity; and that in short touching chiefly on some things, which have not been remarked by others.

The Project of Building is as natural to Mankind as to Birds, and was practised before the Floud. By Josephus we learn that Cain built the first City, Enos, and enclosed it with Wall and Rampires; and that the Sons of Seth, the other son of Adam, erected two Columns of Brick and Stone to preserve their Mathematical Science to Posterity, so well built that thô ye one of Brick was destroy’d by the Deluge, ye other of Stone was standing in ye time of Josephus. The first Peece of Naval Architecture we read of in Sacred History was the Arke of Noah, a work very exactly fitted and built for the Purpose intended.

It was by measure just 6 times as Long as Broad, and the Heighth was ⅗ of the Breadth. This was the Proportion of the Triremes afterwards. The Dimensions, and that It was 3 Stories high, and that It had a Window of a Cubit Square is only mention’d; but many things sure were of necessity to be contrived for Use in this Model of the Whole Earth.

First, One small Window was not sufficient to emit the Breath of all the Animals; It had certainly many other Windows as well for Light as Air. It must have Scupper-Holes and a large Sink and an Engin to Pump It; for It drew, as I compute, with all its Cargo and Ballast, at least 12 foot Water. There must be places for Insects the only Food of some Birds and Animals. Great Cisterns for Fresh Water not only for Land Animals, but for some Water fowl and Insects. Some Greens to grow in Tubs, the only food of Tortoises and some Birds and Insects; since we certainly have learnt that nothing is produced by Spontaneous Generation, and we firmly believe there was no new Creation. I need not mention stairs to the several Stories, with many other things absolutely necessary for a year’s Voyage for Men and Animals, thô not mention’d in the Story, and Providence was the Pilot of this Little World, the Embrio of the next.

Most certainly Noah was divinly qualified not only as a Preacher of Righteousness but the greatest Philosopher in the ‘Historia Animalium’ that ever was; and it was Work enough for his whole Family to feed them, and take care of the young Brood; for in a year’s time there must be a great increase in the Ark, w^ch was food for the Family, and the Beasts of Prey.

The first Peece of Civil Architecture we meet with in Holy Writ is the Tower of Babel. Providence scatter’d the first Builders, so the Work was left off, but the Successors of Belus the son of Nimrod probably finished It and made it His Sepulchre, upon his Deification.

It was built of Burnt Brick Cemented with Bitumen.

Herodotus gives us a surprizing Relation of it w^ch being set down by measure is not beside our subject to observe. It consisted of Eight several Stories; the First was one Stade, or 625 foot square, and of the same measure in Height upon which were rais’d seven more, w^ch if they were all equal with the First would amount to 2,500 foot, which is not credible: the Form must be therefore Pyramidal and being adorn’d on the outside with Rows of Galleries in divers stories diminished in Height in Geometrical Proportion; so the whole Mass would have the Aspect of Half an Octaedron, which is that of all the Egyptian Pyramids.

These Corridors being Brick wasted in more than 1600 years: and it was these which Alexander actually began to Repair, not the whole Bulk, as I suppose.

How Herodotus had his measures I question, for He flourish’d but 100 years before Alexander’s Conquests of Babylon, so it was then 1500 years Old.

I proceed next to those mighty Works of Antiquity the Wonderful Pyramids of Egypt yet remaining without considerable decay after almost 4000 years: for 2000 years agoe, they were reckon’d by Historians of Uncertain Original.

I cannot think any Monarch however Despotick could effect such things meerly for Glory; I guess there were reasons of State for it.

Egypt was certainly very early Populous, because so Productive of Corn by the help of Nile, in a manner without labour. They deriv’d the River when it rose, all over the Flat of the Delta; and as the People increas’d, over a great deal of Land that lay higher. The Nile did not always Flow high enough for a great Part of the then inhabited Country, and without the Nile, They must either Starve or prey upon those who had Corn; This must needs create Mutiny and Bloodshed, to prevent which it was the Wisdom of their ancient Kings and Priests to Exact a certain Proportion of Corn, and lay it up for those who wanted the benefit of the Rivers when it disappointed their sowing.

Thus Joseph lay’d up for seven years, and sur’ly He was not first: this Provision being ever so essentially necessary to support the Popularity and consequently the Grandure of the Kingdom; and continued so in all Ages, till the Turks neglected all the upper Canales except one which still suppli’d Alexandria. Now what was the consequence? It was not for the Health of the Common People nor Policy of the Government for them to be fed in Idleness: great Multitudes were therefore imploy’d in that which requir’d no great Skill, the Sawing of Stone Square to a few different scantlings, nor was there any need of Scaffolding or Engines, for hands only would raise them from step to step: a little teaching serv’d to make them set Line: and thus these great Works in which some Thousands of hands might be imploy’d at once, rose with Expedition: the difficulty was in mustering the men to move in order under proper Officers, and probably with Musick, as Amphion is said much about the same Age to have built the walls of Thebes with his Harp; that is Musick made the Workmen move exactly together without which no great weight can be moved, as Seamen know, for the Sheet Anchor will by no means be moved without a fiddle to make men exert their United force in equal time: otherwise they pull one against another and lose great part of their force.

The next observable Monument of great Antiquity which yet remain is the Pillar of Absolom.

By the description given of it, and what I have learnt from Travellers who have seen it, we must allow it to be very Remarkable though not great.

It is compos’d of seven Pillars six about in a Hexagon, and one in the middle and the Tholus solid, a large Architrave, Frize and Cornice lie upon the Pillars which are larger in proportion to their height then what we now allow to the Tuscan order, so likewise is the Entablature larger.

This whole composition though at least 30 foot high, is all of the one Stone, both Basis, Pillars and Tholus cut as it stood out of the adjacent Cliff of white Marble.

I could wish some skilful Artist would give us the exact dimensions to inches, by which we might have an idea of the Antient Tyrian manner; for it was probable Solomon by his correspondence with King Hiram employ’d the Tyrian Artists, in his Temple; and from the Phœnicians I derive as well the Arts as the Letters, of the Graecians, thô it may be, the Tyrians were Imitators of the Babylonians, and they of the Egyptians. Great Monarchs are ambitious to leave great Monuments behind them, and this occasions great Inventions and Mechanick Arts.

What the Architecture was that Solomon used we know little of, though Holy Writ hath given us the general dimensions of the Temple, by which we may in some manner collect the Plan but not of all the Courts.

Villapandus hath made a fine Romantick Piece after the Corinthian Order, which in that age was not used by any Nation: for the First Ages used grosser Pillars then Dorick. In after Times they began to refine from the Dorick, as in the Temple of Ephesus (the United Work of all Asia) and afterwards improved into a Slenderer Pillar, and Leavy Capital of various inventions which they called Corinthian. So that if we run back to the Age of Solomon, we may with reason believe they used the Tyrian manner, as gross at least as the Dorick, and that the Corinthian manner of Villapandus is meer fancy: Nay when long after Herod built the Atrium Gentium, he that carefully considers the description in Josephus will find it to be a Tripple Portico, and thick Pillars of the grosser Proportions which being whole stones of an incredible Bulk—our Saviour’s Disciples admired them: Master, said they, see what stones are here! Titus would have sav’d this noble structure, but a soldier throwing a torch upon the Roof which was Cedar planks covered with Bitumen, it easily took Fire and consumed the whole Building. All the City was thus covered flat with Bitumen (easily gathered from the Lake of Sodom) and upon the flat roofs the Jews celebrated under Palm-boughs the Feast of Tabernacles.

The Body of the First Temple was gilt upon Bitumen, which is good Size for gilding and will preserve the timber. The Roof and Cedar Wainscot within being carved with Knotts was gilded all over with a thick Leaf, so I understand the word Overlay’d; for if it was cover’d with plate apply’d over the knots and Imbossments the gold nails to fix it on would have increased the Weight of the plate, whereas the quantity of the Nails is reckoned but small in Proportion. The Doors might be plated over and nail’d, and the Hinges and Bars, called Chains, might be solid; for these were afterwards stripp’d when the Egyptians pillaged the Temple in the Reign of Rehoboam.

That Herod did more than the Upper Portico doth not appear, for the substruction under the Portico was certainly Solomon’s Work. The whole Hill Moriah was wall’d upright by him from the bottom of the Valley which render’d a broad Area above for all the Buildings of the Courts. This is the work in which were us’d stone of 10 and 12 Cubits, call’d as well they might Costly Stones.

Now it may well be inquired how in an uneven craggy Country, as it is about Jerusalem, such mighty Loads of Stone could be brought. I shall give my thoughts.

Solomon had an Army of Labourers in his Works; now suppose 12 Cubits long and 2 broad, and 1 thick, this would amount to 648 of our solid feet, which in marble would be 64 Tuns and more. Eight men can draw a Tun, but the ground being hilly, we will allow 10 men to a Tun which would be 640 men. Now how all these men can be brought to draw together I show as follows. First, 10 men draw in a Rope (as bargemen with us) at the end of this Rope is a Spring-tree (as our Coachmen use for ye two fore Horses) to each end of which is a rope so 20 men can draw in the second rank; each rope hath again its Spring-tree, and so on to a sixth rank each rank doubling the number and supposing 10 men to govern the rest (possibly with Musick) makes the number 640 men; and this will be found readier than capsterns, and by this means much vaster stones may be mov’d and even by Barbarous People without Engins. I cannot otherwise see what need Solomon had of such great multitudes of Labourers as Threescore and ten Thousand Bearers of Burdens, and Fourscore Thousand Hewers of stone in the Mountains, &c. Probably too they were employ’d by Months, and the rest were by turns to till the ground and bring food for the Labourers that the Country Work might proceed.

The Walls of Babylon were most stupendious Works, built with Brick and Cement with Bitumen; the Height of them, according to Herodotus, was Two Hundred Royal Cubits, and the Breadth Fifty; which in our measure (reckoning every Royal Cubit with Herodotus 1 foot 9 inches which is 3 inches above the common cubit measure) makes the Height 375 foot and the Breadth 93 ft. 9 in.

In these Walls were one hundred gates of Brass with Ornaments in Architecture of the same metal. Besides the first Wall, (which was encompassed with a wide and deep Foss always supply’d with water the sides of which were Lin’d with Brick) was an inner Wall built of near the same strength, thô not altogether of the same Breadth.

The extent of the City must add to the Surprise which being a Square contained a Front on every Side of one hundred and Twenty Stadia, that is Fifteen of our miles, and makes up in the whole Threescore miles.

Another stupendious Fabrick of I think also Tyrian architecture, was the monument of Porsenna, King of Etruria. This Sepulchre we have describ’d by Pliny, with the particular Dimensions in Feet which I have accordingly Delineated.

First, a Basis of squar’d stone fifty foot high rais’d the Pile above any vulgar contiguous Buildings which being solid only in those Parts that bore weight was so contriv’d within-side as to form a very intricate Labyrinth, into which whoever enter’d without a clew of thread would not be able to find the way out. Upon this Basis stood five Pyramids of 150 foot high; Four in the Angles, and one in the Centre; Bodies call’d Pyramids thô it is manifest they must have been so cut off as to have a large space on the Top to carry a Second Story of Four more lofty Pyramids of 100 foot high; and over them a third Order of Five more. Now how these could be borne is worth the consideration of an architect. I conceive it might be thus perform’d securely.

Set half Hemispherical Arches, such as we make the heads of Niches, but lay’d back to back, so that each of these have its Bearing upon three Pyramids of the Lower Order, that is two angular ones and the middle Pyramids; and these cutting one another upon the Diagonals will have a firm bearing for all the Works above.

Pliny mentions a Brass Circle and Cupola, lay’d upon the Five Lower Pyramids, not I suppose to bear anything, but chiefly for Ornament, and to cover the stone work of the Arches upon the strong Spandrells of which if another Platform were rais’d upon that might the upper structure be built and the whole have a stupendious effect, and seemingly very open. Pliny took his Description of this extraordinary Pile from the Measures set down by Varro, a diligent and therefore credible author, who probably might have taken his Dimensions when it was standing before the absolute conquest of Etruria by the Romans; the summary then of this prodigious Edifice (erected to show the Vanity of the Eastern Monarchy could be exceeded by the Italians) may be thus compriz’d.

The Basis of the whole was 300 ft. square, and 50 ft. high; upon which stood Five Pyramids each of 75 ft. square at 150 ft. high; upon which rested the Brazen Circle and Cupola, stil’d by Pliny Petasus, (which I take to be a Brass Covering securing the Arches) from which hung little Bells by Chains, which sounded as they mov’d by the Winds.

The Four Pyramids of the Second Order of 100 ft. high standing upon the Circle or Brim of the Petasus as upon an Entablature, were evidently the Four First Angular Pyramids continu’d to an Apex, or near to a Point, so each will be in all from the Basis 450 ft. high, and rise as high as the Petasus; above which was again a Platform containing the Third Order of Five more Pyramids, of which the four angular Pyramids rested firmly upon the keys of the Diagonal Sections of the half Hemispherical Vaultings, which were called by the Ancients Conchae resembling the heads of Niches joyn’d back to back. This Platform I take to have been round as being the Horizontal Section of the Petasus; and the Bases of the Five Upper Pyramids would be contiguous, and thus would be of the same shape and as high as the same below, as Varro asserts with some suspicion, fearing how they would stand, but I with confidence, the Proportions persuading, which indeed are very fine.

The Heighth to the Breadth of the Basis is 6 to 1. The Heighth of the Pyramids to the Brass Petasus is 2 to 1, but taking in their whole heighth it would have 4 to 1, but allowing the Point of the Pyramid to be taken off (as it ought) and allowing for the Brasen Brim and Bells it will be 250 foot, above which was the Floor that bore the Five upper Pyramids of 4 to 1, so the Heighth is 550 foot as 6 to 11.

I have ventured to put some Ornaments, at ye Top belonging to the Tuscan superstition, (They then us’d not Statues) They are Golden Thunderbolts, so the whole will be 600 foot high, that is double to the Basis and the Heighth to the Brass circle will appear half the Face, or like the Façade of a Tuscan Temple, to which the Breadth of the Brim of the Petasus and the Bells supply the Place of an Entablature:

I have been the longer in this Description because the Fabrick was in the Age of Pythagoras and his School, when the World began to be fond of Geometry and Arithmetick.

N.B. In all the Editions of Pliny for Tricenum read Tricentinûm as the sense requires.

At the end of the Discourse on Architecture is an elevation, drawn in pen and sepia, of the tomb of Mausolus, as Sir Christopher supposed from Pliny’s account that it must have been constructed. It is drawn to a scale, with indications of statues, of which he supposed there to have been forty-eight. It is remarkable how closely Sir Christopher’s conjectural elevation tallies with what recent excavations have brought to light.