it was spent in seclusion, relieved by scientific pursuits and the study of the Scriptures; until a cold, caught in coming from Hampton Court to London, put a period to days unexampled for national services, in the month of February, 1723. Wren is said to have indulged a very pardonable act of proud regard for his great work, by causing himself to be conveyed to St. Paul's once every year, when he was most particular in surveying every part of the edifice. His interment, as is sometimes, though not always, the case with great men who have been unmeritedly injured and wantonly neglected, was in every respect suitable to the dignity of his reputation. The grave was sunk in the south transept of the crypt of the Cathedral, where a plain stone tomb covers his remains.

The spot is supposed to be that on which the high altar of the old structure stood, and the stone is thus inscribed :--

Here lieth

Sir CHRISTOPHER WREN, Knight,
The Builder of the Cathedral Church of
ST. PAUL,

Who Died

In the Year of Our LORD

MDCCXXIII.

And of His Age xcr.

Sir Christopher Wren was eminently fortunate in the prominent circumstances of his life. Of his rank as an author in science, no other estimate need be quoted than that of Sir Isaac Newton, who distinguishes him as one of the chief princes of mathematics during the age in which he lived. His moral character was equal to the excellence of his mind; equanimity in temper, sobriety in habit, modesty in the developement of his talents, and piety in his principles, made his life satisfactory to himself and estimable to his cotemporaries. He lived at a period which afforded a scope and employment for the exercise of his art, not only unprecedented in the history of his country, but since his time without a parallel; and he proved himself highly worthy of his peculiar fortune. Sir Christopher Wren has

always been, and still is, placed at the head of the list of British Architects. St. Paul's is the test of his fame; in religious edifices no man has displayed an ability equally varied, beautiful, and ingenious. In his towers, steeples, and spires, this taste is peculiarly observable; and his judgment cannot be better evidenced than by remarking the many gross and heavy anomalies which disfigure the works of his successors, and were so cautiously avoided in all his productions. Perhaps no one has effected so much, and but few indeed have done any thing that is better. A large collection of his drawings and designs was purchased after his death by his College, All Souls', and are honourably deposited in its library, where a good bust has been placed as a tribute to the greatness of his memory.

THE END.

Beresford, John Theophilus, ii. Chambers, Ephraim, i. 219.

Essex, Devereux, Earl of, i. 419: Harvey, James, ii. 614.

Sandwich, Montague, Earl of, ii.
828.

Saville, Sir George. See Halifax.

Montague, Edward. See Sand- Sebert, King, i. xviii.