Charles II. had, soon after the Restoration, con templated the repair of St. Paul's Cathedral, and in 1660 commissioners were appointed, of whom Dr. Wren was one, to superintend the restoration of it. Some of the commissioners were for " patching it up any how, so the steeple might stand instead of a new building," while Sir Christopher proposed to rebuild the steeple with a cupola. With a view of preparing himself for this work, he went to Paris in 1665, to study the principal edifices of that capi tal, and after great expense and labour, he brought home views of almost all the great public buildings in France. At Paris he met with Bernini and Man sard, who were then occupied with the Louvre. He declared that he would have given his skin for Ber nini's design of that great palace, but he adds, the old reserved Italian gave him but a few minutes view of it." It was a fine little draught, on five pieces of paper, for which he had received as many thousand pistoles. I had only time to copy it with my fancy and memory, and I shall be able by dis course and a crayon, to give you a tolerable account of it." Sir Christopher returned to London in 1665, and he appears to have made more progress in a work entitled " Observations on the present State of Architecture, Arts, and Manufactures in France," but it was never published.
The repairs of St. Paul's were now begun, and the scaffolding was raised; but when the commis sioners were disputing whether the repairs should be trivial or on a great scale, the conflagration of 1666, which took place five days after, put an end to the contest, by injuring the cathedral so as to ren der its restoration impossible.
The destruction of the capital of England, and of its sacred edifices, was an opportunity furnished by providence to call forth and display the inventive genius of our great architect.
In our Article CIVIL ARCHITECTURE, Vol. VI. p. 490-495, St:c. we have given such a copious and mi nute account, not only of the erection of St. Paul's, but of the numerous churches designed by Sir Chris topher Wren, that it would be superfluous to say a word more on the subject. We shall therefore con clude this article with such particulars of the life of Sir Christopher as are not given in the above article.
A few days after the great fire Sir Christopher drew the plan of a new city, which was submitted to the king, but rejected by the parliament. He had been for some time associated with Sir John Den ham, the surveyor-general, as his deputy, but with out anv salary, till the spring of 1668, when, on the death of Sir John, he was appointed surveyor-gene ral, and had then the charge of many public edifices.
Besides St. Paul's, and the churches in the metro polis, he designed the Sheldonian theatre at Oxford, the chapel of Pembroke Hall, the library of Trinity College, the monument of London, the modern part of Hampton Court, Chelsea College, and one of the wings of Greenwich Hospital, the hunting palace at Winchester, now turned into barracks. Of these the palace at Hampton Court and Winches ter are the least favourable specimens of his genius. His pendulum stage. in the upper part of the spire of Chichester Cathedral, which he rebuilt in order to counteract the effect of the south-westerly gales, which had forced it from a vertical line, is a fine specimen of his genius.
The great pressure of his business compelled him in 1673 to resign his professorship at Oxford. In 1674, he received the honour of knighthood. He was one of the Commissioners appointed to select a place for a royal observatory, and he chose Green wich for this purpose. In 1680, he received the high honour of being elected President of the Royal Society. He was subsequently appointed architect and commissioner to Chelsea College, and in 1684, comptroller of the works in Windsor Castle. He sat twice in parliament for two different boroughs. The ingratitude of his country, or rather the base ness of the government, was strikingly displayed in its refusal to pay him the arrears of his salary of X200 per annum. They amounted to .21300, and it seems to have been wrung from the public purse, more from a feeling of shame, than from a sense of justice. He did not receive it till December 25, 1716, when he was about to enter his 80th year. After the death of Queen Anne, Sir Christopher was deprived of the royal patronage. By a wretch ed court intrigue, this ornament of his country was displaced from his office at the age of 90, but 'his religious principles and the natural vivacity of his mind, enabled him to bear this unmerited insult. The last years of his life were spent in perfect se renity, and his faculties were unclouded to the very close of his existence. His chief delight was to be carried once a year to see the great memorial of his name. He was found dead in his chair on the 23th February 1723, in the 91st year of his age. A splen did funeral was decreed to him, and his remains were deposited in the crypt under the southernmost window of the choir of St. Paul's. A plain black slab lies above the coffin, but no monument has been reared to his name. On the western jamb of the window of the crypt is a tablet with the following appropriate and sublime inscription: Subtus Conditur IIujus Ecclesim et 11Trhis Conditor