The 'Parentalia' gives no hint even of what his politics were, whether he spoke often or how he voted. And yet it was a stormy time. The Parliament had not sat a month before Monmouth's brief rebellion began, to be bloodily quenched; public feeling was in a state of irritation and suspense, no one feeling sure what King James might not do. He did continue Wren unmolested in the S. Paul's commission, and the progress of the building was steady, though probably its architect thought with no light anxiety that it might be used for services other than those for which it was designed. The same doubt may have clouded his satisfaction in the many churches which were finished in this and the immediately following years. S. Martin's on Ludgate Hill, closely wedged in by the neighbouring houses, with its little tapering spire, of which that of S. James's, Westminster, appears a caricature, should have had its place among the churches of the previous year. It harmonizes beautifully with the great dome of S. Paul's. Sir Christopher bestowed on the inside much of the ornament, the festoons and the carving, which its situation did not allow him to bestow on the outside; in those days it had daily services and may well have stood open, offering 'a shadow from the heat' to the incessant passers-by. S. Alban's, Wood Street, is in the pointed style of architecture in which Wren's genius generally felt fettered, though, as in the case of S. Michael's, Cornhill, he sometimes dealt very successfully with it. [Sidenote: '_AN ALTAR-PIECE._'] S. Mary Magdalene's, Fish Street,[192] is more after Wren's usual manner, with its good proportions, its highly ornamented round-headed windows, its stone balustrade and solid square stone tower, with the little steeple rising from it on seven steps. Within, carving in 'right oak' was bestowed with no sparing hand, especially in the altar-piece. And here one may say that, while defects in church arrangement, such as galleries, pews, and the like, are invariably laid on Sir Christopher and said to be the inevitable concomitants of his style, it should be borne in mind that in many and many an instance the churchwardens during the eighteenth century repewed and 'beautified' the churches which Wren had left as completed; in what style, and on what principle one can readily guess. It should be remembered also that an 'altar-piece,' as the old books call it, was an invariable part of his design. If there was rich carving, if there was black and white marble, he placed it there; the altar was the principal part of the church in his eyes, even though he did not often avail himself of the dignity given by a flight of steps. The close altar rails which are now not admired, were, it must be remembered, ordered by Archbishop Laud to protect the Holy Table from profanation, and were always so placed by Wren.