After two years fruitless labour in endeavouring to fit up some part of the old fabric for divine worship, it was found to be incapable of any substantial repair. It was therefore resolved to raze the foundations of the old building, and to erect on the same spot a new cathedral that should equal, if not exceed the splendor of the old; for this end letters patent were granted to several Lords spiritual and temporal, authorising them to proceed in the work, and appointing Dr. Christopher Wren, Surveyor-general of all his Majesty’s works, to prepare a model. Contributions came in so extremely fast, that in the first ten years above 126,000_l._ was paid into the chamber of London; a new duty for the carrying on of this work was laid on coals, which at a medium produced 5000_l._ _per annum_, and his Majesty generously contributed 1000_l._ a year, towards carrying on the work. Dr. Wren, afterwards Sir Christopher, was now called upon to produce his designs; he had before drawn several, in order to discover what would be most acceptable to the general taste; and finding that persons of all degrees declared for magnificence and grandeur, he formed a very noble one, conformable to the best style of the Greek and Roman architecture, and having caused a large model to be made of it in wood, with all its ornaments, he presented it to his Majesty; but the Bishops not approving of it, as not enough of a cathedral fashion, the Surveyor was ordered to amend it, upon which he produced the scheme of the present structure, which was honoured with his Majesty’s approbation. The first design, however, which was only of the Corinthian order, like St. Peter’s at Rome, the Surveyor set a higher value upon than on any other he ever drew, and as the author of his life observes, would have put it in execution with more cheerfulness, than that which we now see erected. This curious model is still preserved in the cathedral, and may be seen at a small expence. In the year 1675, Dr. Wren began to prosecute the work; the pulling down the old walls, which were eighty feet high, and clearing the rubbish, had cost many of the labourers their lives; and this put him upon contriving to facilitate its execution by art. The first project he tried was with gunpowder; for on their coming to the tower of the steeple, the men absolutely refused to work upon it; for its height struck the most hardy of them with terror. He therefore caused a hole of about four feet wide to be dug in the foundation of the north west pillar, it being supported by four pillars each fourteen feet diameter, and then with tools made on purpose, wrought a hole two feet square into the center of the pillar, in which he placed a little deal box, containing only eighteen pounds of powder. A cane was fixed to the box with a match, and the hole closed up again with as much strength as possible.