builders in Soe Hoe “(surely a pleasanter spelling than Soho)” were building small and mean habitations, “receptacles for the poorer sort and the offensive trades” and rendering the government of these parts more unmanageable. His Majesty’s Sergeant Plumber was much upset about the manifest decay of the waters in the expenseful drains and conduits of Whitehall Palace which resulted from these nefarious proceedings in Soe Hoe, and Wren supported him with a petition. Soe Hoe had gone too far. His Majesty in person, His Majesty’s royal brother and Prince Rupert, and the Archbishop of Canterbury and others in full council, looked into the matter, met more than once about it. Wren was ordered to see that obedience be given to His Majesty’s proclamation: failing which, he was to imprison the workmen for contempt. Lord Rochester asks him to examine the bills for repairing the Royal stables, and Wren goes through them and finds “the particular prices very reasonable, one thing with another.” But sometimes Wren must have been bored. Finding lodgings for Mr. Ronchi at St. James’s was hardly a task for the creator of St. Paul’s, but he found them. In 1679 he was in professional touch with the troubles that followed the finding of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey dead in a ditch. Papists’ plots were in the air. The Spanish Ambassador became highly unpopular, and the Lords’ Committee appointed to look into “the late horrid conspiracy” ordered Sir Christopher Wren and Edward Warcup, Esq., to put padlocks on all such doors as open out of Mr. Weld’s house into the Ambassador’s house. So “we repaired to Wild-house and having viewed the dores ... we affixed padlocks ...” and much more to the same effect, “all which we humbly submit.” I am glad to add that His Excellency showed great civility to Wren in the character of locksmith. In all these proceedings, as Elmes justly remarks, “the honour, integrity and public spirit of Wren appear transcendent.” I must add a word about Wren as a draughtsman. The drawings which can with certainty be attributed to his own hand show him to have been a competent but not a good performer. A man so immersed in multifarious work had no time for the niceties of the drawing-board, and it is probable that his details were drawn roughly in the shops of his contractors or “on the job,” as the work progressed. The idea was complete in his own mind, and with workmen used to his words and wishes verbal instructions on his frequent visits would forward the work without the elaborated drawings and details of a modern contract. Differences were adjusted by the simple methods of trade measurement in use. But that he attached great importance to drawing as an element in a liberal education is shown by a reference in Christ’s Hospital Committee Book, and it is delightful to find here once more the association of Wren and Pepys.