The site of Chelsea Hospital had been given by the King to the Royal Society soon after its foundation, but it was an inconvenient possession, and the Society sold it back to the King for the foundation of a Royal Hospital for disabled soldiers. Sir Stephen Fox, a retired army contractor, supplemented the King’s benefactions, and on May 25, 1682, the inevitable Evelyn went with Fox and Wren to Lambeth to secure the Archbishop of Canterbury’s approval to the plot and design or, as we should say, plan and elevations. Ten weeks later Evelyn was at Chelsea with Fox to see the foundations started. Wren was a good deal more than architect to the Hospital. It was during his Presidency of the Royal Society that the land was re-conveyed to the King: he carried the business through with characteristic despatch, and the statutes governing the charity were of his drafting. The buildings were completed in 1692, and no better praise of them than Carlyle’s can be invented. Wren shows himself in one of his characteristic moods as a sane economist where the purpose of the building makes economy an æsthetic as well as a practical virtue. The Hospital is a liberal education in the handling of London brickwork. When Sir John Soane, in the days of Nash stucco, had to add an Infirmary building, he was careful to design in brick and content to despise the abuse it evoked at that time. At Hampton Court Wren had a very different problem: he was housing not pensioners but a King and Queen. His original scheme had a quality of immensity. Our Dutch monarch who had so successfully countered the statesmanship of Louis XIV. doubtless wanted to follow, at some distance, his building exploits at Versailles and elsewhere. Queen Mary had a great liking for the situation of Hampton Court. Wren was bidden to prepare a scheme for a complete rebuilding and did so. Part of the old fabric was taken down and Wren’s two great suites of apartments for King and Queen rose in its place. The work went forward vigorously from 1689 to 1694, and then the Queen’s death caused the completion of the plan to be abandoned. The execution of the partial scheme drifted on until 1700. There was a chance then of the King proceeding to the finishing of the complete plan, but William’s death finally killed it. To these accidents of mortality we owe it that part of Wolsey’s palace has remained. If Wren had had his way, not a brick of the Tudors would have survived. The architect was happy in only one of his royal clients. Mary was amiable and reasonable, but William’s temper and his habit of interference tried Wren very high. The King, however, was fair enough to say that the insufficient headroom of the cloisters must be ascribed to his express orders which overbore Wren’s wishes.