Two days before Evelyn had visited after dinner “that miracle of a youth.” There is no need to fill out the Wadham catalogue of inventions: we can accept Evelyn’s valuation, and he never changed his mind. But the list from which I have quoted does not complete the story of Wren’s early essays in the scientific field, essays, be it noted, which are overwhelmingly practical. Wren was a devotee not of pure but of applied science. It is probably at Wadham that Wren concerned himself with what he calls Cheirologia. In the heirloom _Parentalia_ is a sheet with pictures of two hands, and on the next page, another hand and various notes showing the working of the deaf and dumb language invented by Sir Christopher. Though more complicated than the system now in use, it is another evidence of the agility of Wren’s mind, and of his unwearying interest in varying problems. But his time was not wholly spent in the laboratory. A curious incident at Oxford in 1650 gave occasion for Wren’s poetic gift. A girl condemned for murdering her illegitimate infant was hanged, but revived later under the care of Dr. Petty and Thomas Willis. It is an extraordinary story told with a wealth of unpleasant detail in a pamphlet called _News from the Dead_. Following the narrative are some dozens of “Ingenious poems on the subject by the Prime Wits” of the University, including one by Wren. It is in a pompous vein, and cites Orpheus, Eurydice, the Fates, and Æsculapius in the fashion of the time. Morgan reprinted the pamphlet and poems in _Phœnix Britannicus_, where they may be found by the curious. Wren’s effusion is only worth mention as showing him in the full current of Oxford life: it is likely enough that he had some slight part with Petty and Willis in the long business of resuscitating the young woman. His fellowship at All Souls did not divorce him from Wadham. In October, 1663, he was paying rent for the chamber over Wadham Gateway which had once been part of the Warden’s lodging. That he long held in affection the scene of his early scientific labours is shown by his having designed and presented to the College a clock, the face of which appears on the outside of the chapel. The works were only recently replaced, but the old mechanism is preserved in the chapel. In the upper corners of the face are two armorial devices, one of which appears to be the charges from Wren’s coat-of-arms. There is also amongst the college silver a fine sugar castor with an inscription which states that it was given by Wren in 1653. As, however, the maker’s mark dates the piece as being actually of 1720, it is likely that, as often happened, the old inscription on the 1653 piece was transferred to what in 1720 seemed a more modish design. At Oxford he must have stayed off and on, after his marriage in 1669, because he retained the Savilian Professorship of Astronomy until April, 1673, when he finally settled in London. CHAPTER III FAMILY LIFE