343
sir CHRISTOPHER WREN, k n t.
^■■.'Orthography of the North Front,' (commonly called Solomon's Porch) finishedsome time before the Surveyor’s Decease, in 1723, with the Designs intended for.the middle Tower and Spire, ( and two western Towers, for the collegiate ChurchofSt. Peten in Westminster \ contrived in the Gothick Stile, conformable to theold^Structure of the Abbey-church and Porch.
Viv-i.:
•on--. • ■
-..1
IV L -
iA
CONCLUSION.
D URING the Time oFtJie Surveyor's Employment in the Service of thePublick, and of the Crown, by virtue of Letters-patents, consistent withthe Pleasure of fix, Crowned-heads, under the Great-seals of King Charles thesecond, King fames the (second, King William and Queen Mary, Queen Anne,
.and King George the first, (besides the ordinary Duties of his Office, in theSurvey and Care of the Repairs' and New-buildings of all the royal Palaces) hebegan and compleated the. cathedral Church of St. Paul, the second greatestStructure in Europe ; fifty-one parochial Churches; the great Column called the'Monument, 'and "other publick Edifices of London ; the two royal Palaces ofHampton-ecurt and Winchester ; the royal Hospitals of Chelsea and Greenwich ;the North Front, and other Repairs of Westminster-Mbty, from the Year 1698to the Time of his Decease in 1723 ; the Theatre of Oxford ; the Theatre-royalin Drury-lane ■, the Duke’s Theatre in Salijbury-court, sometime since takendown ; the magnificent Library of Trinity College in Cambridge ; the elegantChapel of Emmanuel College there; with many other Fabricks of less Note, andprivate Scats.
" Thct 1 take the Boldness (fays the learned and ingenious John Evelyn , Eft];) to(t adorn this little Work, [ Account of ArchiteBs and ArchitcBure *] with the Name * London,
" pf the Master of the Works, (whose Patronage alone can give it Reputation) 1 fists stfstfcc have no Excuse for, but an Ambition of publickly declaring the great Esteem Chtistophcric ,i have ever had of his Virtues and Accomplishments; not only in the Art of vvxca -" Building, but through all the learned Cycle of the most useful Knowledge, andfc ab Irufer Sciences, as well as of the polite and shining. All which is lo justly“ allowed him, ..that he needs no Panegyrick, or other History to eternize them,
" than the greatest City of the Universe, which he hath rebuilt and beautified,
" and is still improving; witness the Churches, the royal Courts, stately Halls,
“ Magazines, Palaces, and other publick StruBures ; besides what he has built" of great and magnificent in both the Universities, at Chelsea, and in the" Country ; and is now advancing of the royal Marine Hospital at Greenwich,
“ &c. All of them so many Trophies of his Skill and Industry, and conducted" with that Success, that if the whole Art of Building were lost, it might be" recovered, and found again in St. Paul’s, the hi/loric-al Pillar, and those" other Monuments of his happy Talent, and extraordinary Genius."
All these Works form such a Body of civil ArchiteBure, as will appear ratherthe Production of a whole Century, than the Life and Industry of one Man, ofwhich no parallel Instance can be given.
In an Act of Parliament in the ninth Year of the Reign of King William, Forthe compleating and adorning the cathedral Church of St. Paul, London, a Clause u>em cg ‘was inserted, T 1 suspend a Moiety of the Surveyor’s Salary, until the said ChurchJhoidd be finified ; thereby the better to encourage him to finis j the fame with theutmost Diligence and Expedition.
It was at that Time a common Notion and Mifreport, that the Surveyor re-ceived a large annual Salary for Building, and, consequently, it was his In-c terest