This transaction belongs to the autumn of 1717. In the April of the ensuing year, George I., who cared nothing about art or architecture, and who only wished to gratify his German favourites, was easily prevailed upon to dismiss Sir Christopher Wren from that post of Surveyor-General which he had held for forty-eight years, and to bestow it upon William Benson, a favourite's favourite, as ignorant and incapable as he was grasping and unscrupulous. There was probably but little outcry, for, as Steele[241] had truly said, 'Nestor,' under which name he described Wren, 'was not only in his profession the greatest man of that age, but had given more proofs of it than any man ever did; yet for want of that natural freedom and audacity which is necessary in commerce with men, his personal modesty overthrew all his public actions.' The person least disposed to make a complaint was Wren himself. Finding his patent superseded, he quietly retired to his house at Hampton Court, saying, 'Nunc me jubet Fortuna expeditius philosophari.[242] One other comment he made, as a note to the date (April 26, 1718) of this dismissal: '[Greek: Hoti anestê Basileus hetepos hos ouk êdei ton Iôsêph: kai ouden toutôn tô Galliôni emelen.][Maltese Cross]'[243] It is some satisfaction to know that Benson so disgraced himself as in five years' time to be dismissed, and narrowly escaped a prosecution by the House of Lords. Pope held him up to deserved scorn in the 'Dunciad,' where he also says: While Wren with sorrow to the grave descends, but this, one is glad to think, tells rather what might have been Sir Christopher's state of mind than what it really was. Wren had had the interest of watching his eldest son's career in Parliament as member for that borough of Windsor which he had himself represented. This son's wife had died, and in 1715 he married again. His second wife was Constance, daughter of Sir Thomas Middleton, and widow of Sir Roger Burgoyne; by this marriage he had another son, named Stephen. On this occasion Sir Christopher bought the estate of Wroxhall Abbey[244] in Warwickshire, which had belonged to the Burgoynes and was heavily encumbered. Sir Christopher is said to have stayed at the Abbey occasionally, and to have designed the kitchen garden wall which is built in semicircles. It was probably when he thus became a Warwickshire Squire that he gave the designs for S. Mary's Church at Warwick, designs entirely different from those adopted in the present building, which is said to have been designed and built by one Francis Smith, a mason in the town. [_LONGITUDE AT SEA._]