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Transcriber’s Note
For detailed information about any corrections made, consult theNote at the end of this text.
CHRISTOPHER WREN, D.D. DEAN OF WINDSOR.
MATTHEW WREN, D.D. LORD BISHOP OF ELY.
Sr. Chris. Wren Kt
SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN
HIS FAMILY AND HIS TIMES.
WITH ORIGINAL LETTERS AND A DISCOURSE ON
ARCHITECTURE HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
1585–1723.
BY
LUCY PHILLIMORE,
AUTHOR OF ‘BISHOP WILBERFORCE, A SKETCH FOR CHILDREN’ ETC.
‘The modest man built the city, and the modest man’s skill wasunknown.’—The Tatler, No. 52.
WITH TWO ENGRAVINGS.
LONDON:
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO., 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
1881.
(The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved)
TO
CATHERINE PIGOTT,
THE LAST DIRECT DESCENDANT OF SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN,
THESE MEMOIRS OF HER ANCESTORS
ARE GRATEFULLY DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
The materials necessary for writing a life of Sir Christopher Wren areso difficult of access as possibly to explain the unsatisfactorycharacter of such biographies as do exist. Mr. James Elmes, whovenerated Wren’s genius, published in 1823, a Life which contained acareful if a dry account of Wren’s architectural works and of some ofhis scientific discoveries. He also published a smaller work, ‘Sir C.Wren and his Times,’ intended perhaps to give a flavour of personalinterest to the other volume. Neither book succeeds in doing this, andboth have suffered from the circumstance that Mr. Elmes’ failingeyesight did not permit him to correct the proofs of either work, andaccordingly many serious errors as to names and dates stand unaltered inthem. There is a sketch of Wren in the British Family Library, onepublished by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and onein the ‘Biographica Britannica,’ but in them all it is with some of theworks of the great architect that we become acquainted, not withhimself.
The ch