Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular WarAnonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular War
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
great square mass, in which the Dutch taste of William is said to have
set aside Wren's original design. But surely William did not compel him
to erect that (in such circumstances) ponderous barbarism of a Grecian
colonnade in the second quadrangle of Hampton Court, attaching it to a
Gothic building. In fact, neither Wren nor Inigo Jones appears to have
had the slightest sense of the incongruity of such conjunctions. Jones
actually erected a Grecian screen to the beautiful Gothic choir of
Winchester Cathedral, and placed a Grecian bishop's throne in it, amid
the glorious canopy-work of that choir. The return to a better taste
swept these monstrosities away.
The fame of Wren must rest on St. Paul's, for in palaces he was less
happy than in churches. His additions to Windsor Castle and St.
James's Palace, and his erection of Marlborough House are by no means
calculated to do him high honour, whilst all lovers of architecture
must deplore the removal of a great part of Wolsey's palace at Hampton
Court to make way for Wren's structure. A glorious view, if old
drawings are to be believed, must all that vast and picturesque variety
of towers, battlements, tall mullioned windows, cupolas, and pinnacles,
have made, as they stood under the clear heaven glittering in the sun.
The writers who saw it in its glory describe it in its entireness
as the most splendid palace in Europe. Of the campaniles of Wren,
that of St. Bride's, Fleet Street; of Bow Church, Cheapside; of St.
Dunstan's-in-the-East; and the tower of St. Michael's, Cornhill, are
the finest. The last is almost his only Gothic one, and would have been
a fine tower had the ornament been equally diffused over it, and not
all been crowded too near the top. Wren was thwarted in his design for
the London Monument. He drew a plan for one with gilt flames issuing
from the loop-holes, and surmounted by a phœnix, but as no such design
could be found in the five Orders, it was rejected, and the existing
commonplace affair erected. One of his last undertakings was the repair
of Westminster Abbey, to which he added the towers at the west end,
and proposed to erect a spire in the centre. Sir Christopher left a
large quantity of drawings, which are preserved in All Souls' College
library, Oxford.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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