SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN.

THE family of the Wrens, according to tradition of Danish origin, had been long and honourably distinguished in England, before it produced this great architect. "The ancestors of our family," says Wren, dean of Windsor, "over the paternal coat of arms, had for the crest a WREN, proper, holding in his foot a trefoil, with this motto. Turbinibus superest, cœlo duce præscius.' This emblem, together with the motto and coat, stood in the south window of that lodging which stands at the northwest corner of the inner cloyster of Windsor College, in the year 1643, having stood there from April, 1527, when Geoffry Wren died, after he had been canon of the said chapel twelve years, founder of the seventh stall: privy councillor to the two kings Henry the Seventh and Eighth." "Another of the same family, having gained," as my authority says, "much honour and estate," by his valour against the Scots, wrote under his coat of arms, "Ducente deo fortuna secuta est." The dean himself, a man of learning and peace, took the words "Si recte intus ne labora ;" and the last and most illustrious of all their line chose with mathematical tact, "Numero, pondere, et mensura."

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At their earliest appearance we find the Wrens seated at Binchester, on the banks of the Were, and afterwards at Billy-hall, and Sherborne-house, all in the county of Durham; but the branch from which our artist sprung had settled in Warwickshire before the end of the fifteenth century. His grandfather was a younger son of the Warwickshire house, Francis Wren, citizen and mercer of London in the time of James I. This mercer's two sons distinguished themselves very considerably during the stormy days of the civil war, and the commonwealth. The elder, Matthew, Lord Bishop of Ely, incurring the hatred of the triumphant parliament, suffered imprisonment during a period of twenty years, perhaps with more obstinacy than right courage; the younger, Christopher, chaplain in ordinary to Charles the First, dean of Windsor, registrar of the Order of the Garter, and Rector of Knoyle, in Wiltshire, married Mary Coxe, heiress of Fonthill; and she bore to him the illustrious architect of whose life and works I am now to write.

I cannot reconcile the conflicting_statements I find as to the date of his birth. It appears to have taken place in October, either of 1631 or 1632; and we have it recorded by all his biographers that

In the chancel of the church of Withibrook," says Dugdale, "in the county of Warwick, lieth a fair marble, with plates of brass upon it, representing a gentleman of this family and his wife, with this inscription: Of your charity, pray for the souls of Christopher Wren, gentleman, and Christian his wife the which Christopher deceside the 25th day of November, 1543; on whose souls, and all christian souls, Jesus have mercy--Amen.'

he was a small and a weakly child, who required much maternal care to rear him. "His first education in classic learning," says his son, “was by reason of his tender health, committed to the care of a domestic tutor, the Rev. William Shepherd, M.A; but, for some short time before his admission in the university, he was placed under Dr. Busby, in Westminster School. In the principles of mathematics, upon the early appearance of an uncommon genius, he was initiated by Dr. William Holder, sometime sub-dean of the royal chapel-a great virtuoso and a person of many accomplishments." His mind rose early into maturity and strength. He loved classic lore; but mathematics and astronomy were from the first his favourite pursuits. At the age of thirteen he invented an astronomical instrument, which he dedicated to his father in Latin rhyme, also a pneumatic engine, and a peculiar instrument," says the author of Parentalia,“ of use in Gnomonics, which he explained in a treatise, entitled, Scistericon Catholicum: the use, and purpose, and end of which, was the solution of this problem, viz.-On a known plane, in a known elevation, to describe such lines with the expedite turning of rundles to certain divisions, as by shadow of the style may show the equal hours of the day." He likewise invented a planting instrument, which, being drawn, says his own description, over a land ready plowed and harrowed, shall plant corn equally, without want and without waste. I know not how much, or if any thing of this last invention exists, at present, in our turnip drill. In such pursuits as these, it is not unlikely that he

was aided by the counsels of his father-a very learned and ingenious man—a skilful mathematician, and an architect, with talent sufficient to attract the notice of Charles the First-no mean judge in all matters of taste and elegance.

In his fourteenth year Christopher was admitted as a gentleman commoner, at Wadham College, Oxford. These were tender years for acquiring any sort of notice in a learned university; and still more so for gaining the friendship of such men as John Wilkins, warden of Wadham, and Seth Ward, Savilian professor of astronomy, two of the most distinguished mathematicians of their day; yet nothing is more certain than that he obtained both. His talents, if their fame had not gone before him, were soon discovered at Oxford; the fame of his father and uncle, no doubt, had a favourable influence in introducing him to notice; but the rest he had to do for himself, and he was not long about it. He loved what was fashionable in those days-to write Latin descriptions of his studies and designs, in verse as well as prose. I am not qualified to judge of the talent or the skill displayed in such compositions-which, probably, at the best, exhibited a barren elegance. Of his English exercises the merit could not have been any thing very extraordinary, if we are to judge from the epistle which he addressed, when at Oxford, to Charles, Elector Palatine. Wren, having met the Prince at his father's deanery-house, was again introduced to him by Dr. Wilkins at the university; and, never seemingly over-diffident about his own merit, the youth took the opportunity of presenting some of his inventions to the Palsgrave, who was

a lover of mathematics, and an encourager of useful experiments. These were followed by this piece of puerile pedantry, in which Elmes, his biographer, discovers "all the freshness of youthful enthusiasm:"

"Most illustrious Prince,-When of old a votivetable was hung up to some deity or hero, a few small characters, modestly obscuring themselves in some shady corner of the piece, were never prohibited from revealing the poor artist, and rendering him somewhat a sharer in the devotionindeed, I was almost prompted to such a presumption out of my own zeal to a prince so much mercurialium custos virorum, but the learned votary who consecrates these tables to your highness civilly obstetricated my affection to your highness, by adding his commands to me to tender this oblation; and had not my too indulgent patron, by undeservedly thinking them not unfit for his own presenting, though exceeding beneath your highness's acceptance, robbed me of my humility, and taken away the extreme low thoughts I should otherwise have had of them, I must needs have called the first device but a rustic thing concerning agriculture only, and, therefore, an illiberal art, tending only to the saving of corn, improper in that glorious prodigal soil of yours, where every shower of hail must necessarily press from the hills even torrents of wine. The other conceipt I must needs have deplored as a tardy invention, impertinently now coming into the world after the divine German art of printing. Of the third paper I cannot say any thing too little; 'tis extenuation enough to say that they are two mites