The "Monument," the Roman Doric column which commemorates the great fire, was built by Wren, between 1671 and 1678. He had at first intended that it should be left hollow from top to bottom to serve as a vertical telescope tube for astronomical purposes, but its height proved insufficient for this. There was great debate about the ornament for the summit. Wren wished it to be a large statue as "carrying much dignity with it, and being more valuable in the eyes of foreigners and strangers," but this project was abandoned on account of the expense, and the present ornament, a flaming vase of gilt bronze, substituted. "The great inequality of Wren's achievement," writes Fergusson, "is nowhere more marked than in a comparison of this Monument, which is one of the most successful Classical columns that have been erected in Europe, with Temple Bar, which is perhaps the most unsuccessful attempt ever made to reproduce a Classical triumphal archway." In 1677 he commenced the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. The work, which was not finished till 1692, is one of the handsomest buildings in England, remarkable externally for breadth and correctness of style, and internally as a model of excellent arrangement. In design it is not unlike the much admired Library of Ste. Genéviève in Paris. To Greenwich Hospital he contributed gratuitously the design for two noble blocks of buildings completely in harmony with the earlier portion by Inigo Jones. [Illustration: STEEPLE, ST. STEPHEN'S WALBROOK LONDON] He was long engaged on extensive works on Hampton Court Palace, where, at the desire of Queen Mary, the old buildings were in part pulled down and two sets of royal apartments built. The queen, though she amused herself with planning the gardens and making suggestions, had yet the wisdom to defer to Wren's better taste and knowledge. Her husband, with characteristic obstinacy, insisted on his own ideas, thereby dwarfing the cloisters and marring much of the architecture. It is, however, fair to say that King William always owned that the defects were his, the merits, Wren's; and these merits are very great, for in spite of defects of detail, the general design is one remarkable for dignity and breadth of conception. [Illustration: PLATE LXXXIX TEMPLE BAR: LONDON] Having been appointed by the Stuarts to the office of surveyor-general, Wren retained the royal favor unclouded through the reigns of William and Mary, and Queen Anne; but on the accession of the Hanoverian family in 1714, the jealousies which his high position had created were able to prevail against him. At first he was subjected to repeated annoyances, but, after having endured these for four years, during which time he was able to complete the fabric of St. Paul's, he was finally superseded in 1718. Wren after this retired from practical business (he was eighty-six years old), retaining only the supervision of Westminster Abbey, which he held until his death.