Once a year it was his habit to be driven to London, and to sit for a while under the dome of his own Cathedral. On one of these journeys he caught a cold, and soon afterwards, on February 25, 1723, his servant, thinking Sir Christopher slept longer after dinner than was his wont, came into the room and found his master dead in his chair, with an expression of perfect peace on the calm features. They buried him near his daughter in the south-east crypt of S. Paul's, by one of the windows, under a plain marble slab with this inscription: 'Here lieth Sir Christopher Wren, the builder of this Cathedral Church of S. Paul, &c., who died in the year of our Lord MDCCXXIII., and of his age XCI.' The spite of those who had hampered his genius in life showed itself again after his death. The famous inscription, written by his son:--'Subtus conditur hujus Ecclesiae et Urbis Conditor Christophorus Wren, qui vixit annos ultra nonaginta, non sibi, sed bono publico. Lector, si Monumentum requiris circumspice.'[247]--was placed in the crypt, and in the Cathedral itself there was nothing to preserve the memory of its architect. This has in later years been remedied and the inscription is now in gold letters over the door of the north transept. Some of Sir Christopher's plans have, as has been shown, been executed; and further, the Cathedral has been set in green turf, and all around it is cared for instead of neglected, the once empty campanile is filled by twelve bells, whose music floats down over the roar of London, as if out of the sky itself, and the Dome is filled by vast congregations in the way which Sir Christopher almost foresaw. In the Cathedral his memory is cherished; but in the city of London, which he rebuilt from its ashes, no statue has been erected to him, no great street has been honoured by taking as its own the name of Christopher Wren, though a name On fame's eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled. FOOTNOTES: [234] This lease was renewed to his eldest son in 1737 for 28-1/2 years, running on from 1758. [235] Now in the possession of Mrs. Pigott. [236] _Annals of S. Paul's_, p. 432. [237] It must be to this that Wren refers in his letter to his son, p. 282. [238] _Documents illustrating, &c._, p. 62. [239] The Dean and Chapter of S. Paul's removed the fence in 1874, and substituted the present open, low one, thus removing a blemish from the exterior of the Cathedral. [240] The Royal Society occupied this house, till 1847, when it was pulled down to make room for the new Record Office.--_Hist. R. S._, p. 399. Weld. [241] _The Tatler_, No. 52, 1709. Both the paper and its note contain eloquent tributes to Wren. It is remarkable that Steele wrote this at the very time Wren's salary was first 'suspended.' [242] 'Now Fortune commands me to apply myself more closely to Philosophy.'