“As the whole church above the vaulting is covered with a substantial oaken roof, and lead, the most durable covering in our climate, so he covered and hid out of sight the brick cone, with another cupola of timber and lead; and between this and the cone, are easy stairs that ascend to the lanthorn. Here the spectator may have a view of such amazing contrivances as are indeed astonishing. He forbore to make little luthern windows in the leaden cupola, as are done out of St. Peter’s, because he had otherwise provided for light enough to the stairs from the lanthorn above, and round the pedestal of the same, which are now seen below; so that he only ribbed the outward cupola, which he thought less Gothic than to stick it full of such little lights in three stories one above another, as is the cupola of St. Peter’s, which could not without difficulty be mended, and, if neglected, would soon damage the timbers.” As Sir Christopher was sensible, that paintings, tho’ ever so excellent, are liable to decay, he intended to have beautified the inside of the cupola with mosaic work, which strikes the eye of the beholder with amazing lustre, and without the least decay of colours, is as durable as the building itself; but in this he was unhappily over-ruled, tho’ he had undertaken to procure four of the most eminent artists in that profession from Italy; this part is however richly decorated and painted by Sir James Thornhill, who has represented the principal passages of St. Paul’s life in eight compartments, viz. his conversion; his punishing Elymas, the sorcerer, with blindness; his preaching at Athens; his curing the poor cripple at Lystra, and the reverence paid him there by the priests of Jupiter as a God; his conversion of the jailer; his preaching at Ephesus, and the burning of the magic books in consequence of the miracles he wrought there; his trial before Agrippa; his shipwreck on the island of Melita, or Malta, with the miracle of the viper. These paintings are all seen to advantage by means of a circular opening, through which the light is transmitted with admirable effect from the lanthorn above. The highest or last stone on the top of the lanthorn, was laid by Mr. Christopher Wren, the son of this great architect, in the year 1710; and thus was this noble fabric, lofty enough to be discerned at sea eastward, and at Windsor to the west, begun and compleated in the space of thirty-five years, by one architect, the great Sir Christopher Wren; one principal mason, Mr. Strong; and under one Bishop of London, Dr. Henry Compton: whereas St. Peter’s at Rome, the only structure that can come in competition with it, continued an hundred and fifty five years in building, under twelve successive architects; assisted by the police and interests of the Roman see; attended by the best artists of the world in sculpture, statuary, painting and mosaic work; and facilitated by the ready acquisition of marble from the neighbouring quarries of Tivoli.