SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN (1631-1723), architect, born at East Knoyle, in Wiltshire; educated at Westminster School and Wadham College, Oxford, and became Fellow of All Souls; was early distinguished in mathematics and for mechanical ingenuity, and soon became notable for his skill in architecture, and received a commission to restore St. Paul's, London, but on its destruction in 1666 he was appointed to design and erect an entirely new structure; for this he had prepared himself by study abroad, and he proceeded to construct a new St. Paul's after the model of St. Peter's at Rome, a work which, as it occupied him from 1675 to 1710, took him 35 years to finish; he died at the age of 90, sitting in his chair after dinner, and was buried in the cathedral which he had erected, with this inscription, "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice" (If you inquire after his monument, look around); Wren was a man of science as well as an artist; he was at one time Savilian professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and one of the founders of the Royal Society.