In his works, Chantrey trusted entirely to form and effect; and his dislike to ornament appears to have been almost excessive. His successful efforts were the result of deep reflection, a fine taste, and a noble imagination. He strove to exhibit the perfections of nature, and to impart an air of grandeur to all his productions. He commenced art where Art itself began. Nature was, from first to last, his chief study, the safe school in which he learned his art, and the exhaustless fountain from which he drew the inspiration that carried him onward to lasting fame as a truly English and really great sculptor. He thought that an artist should daily ponder what to avoid, as well as what to imitate; and unlike his predecessors, who were perpetually striving to rival the productions of by-gone ages, he wisely aspired rather to guide the future than follow the past. He had imbibed in youth a fondness for landscape scenery, which he could represent with success; and he made many interesting drawings when traveling to view the marbles and pictures in Italy. He was plain and unpretending in manner; and, as became so great a man, above all little affectations in society, which, however, he liked and relished. Under his own roof he was distinguished by hospitality and kindliness of spirit; and his house was frequently the resort of men who had won renown in art, science, or literature. SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. The architectural skill and superiority of this illustrious man were most conspicuously displayed in the age which his rich genius adorned. A multitude of buildings bore honorable testimony to the fertility of his brain, and the success of his undertakings, at a time when a terrible devastation had rendered such services as he rendered to his country peculiarly necessary; and later generations have confessed with high pride and admiration, that the inscription, “_Si quæris monumentum circumspice_,” has lost none of its point. The pious architect of so many churches was closely connected by birth with the ecclesiastical establishment, whose edifices he did so much to improve and beautify. The family to which he belonged was of Danish extraction, but had been settled on English ground long ere it produced the most famous representative of the name. From a branch planted in Warwickshire came Sir Christopher’s grandfather, who traded and flourished as a mercer in the city of London, and left two sons. The elder obtained the bishopric of Ely, suffered and survived persecution, and went down to the grave in peace, after many trials and vicissitudes. The ambition of the other was seemingly less lofty in degree, and his existence less checkered. However, he became a royal chaplain, dean of Windsor, and rector of Knoyle, in Wiltshire, and had the good fortune to marry one of those young ladies known and sighed for as heiresses. In due time, on the 20th of October, 1632, Christopher Wren was born at East Knoyle.