"Sir Christopher Wren" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... a globe inscribed terella. In the Galileo Museum in Florence there is a terrella twenty-seven inches in diameter, of loadstone from Elba, constructed for Cosmo de' Medici. A smaller one contrived by Sir Christopher Wren was long preserved in the museum of the Royal Society (Grew's "Rarities belonging to the Royal Society," p. 364). Evelyn was shown "a pretty terrella described with all ye circles and skewing all y magnetic deviations" (Diary, ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... attention. Affirm that you see a man standing upon one leg, on the pinnacle of Saint Paul's[336]—or that the ghost of Inigo Jones had appeared to you, to give you the extraordinary information that Sir Christopher Wren had stolen the whole of the plan of that cathedral from a design of his own—and do you not think that you would have spectators and auditors ...
— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin
... western side of the Court has some prominence, and was probably intended from the first as the approach to a bridge. Towards the end of the seventeenth century Sir Christopher Wren was consulted on the subject, and a letter from him to the then Master, Dr. Gower, has been preserved. Sir Christopher's proposal was a curious one: he suggested that the course of the river Cam should be diverted ...
— St. John's College, Cambridge • Robert Forsyth Scott
... the Pantheon. Of all the domes in the world the most interesting historically was St. Peter's, the work of several architects. It was the inspiration of the dome of St. Paul's in London, built by the English architect, Sir Christopher Wren. Architecturally the most interesting of the domes was Brunelleschi's, built for the Florence Cathedral in the fifteenth century, known throughout the world by the Italian name ...
— The City of Domes • John D. Barry
... London are proud of what was done by Sir Christopher Wren, they lament perhaps still more what he was not permitted to do. They are now attempting to execute some of his plans. Miss Lucy Phillimore, his ...
— Captains of Industry - or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making Money • James Parton
... two centuries had passed from the creation of Magdalen Tower that the central gateway into Christ Church was surmounted by the well-known Tom Tower, erected by Sir Christopher Wren to hold "Great Tom", a mighty bell which once belonged to Osney Abbey. This was the first of the domes to rear its head. But it was not long left solitary. Seventy years afterwards the great dome of the Radcliffe Camera rose up in the ...
— Oxford • Frederick Douglas How
... manner of a stable. . . . This method of dividing the longitudinal space by projections at right angles to it, if not very frequently used, has long been known. A great example of it is to be found at Trinity College, Cambridge, and is the work of Sir Christopher Wren. He has kept these cases down to a very moderate height; for he doubtless took into account that great heights require long ladders, and that the fetching and use of these greatly add to the time consumed in ...
— The Private Library - What We Do Know, What We Don't Know, What We Ought to Know - About Our Books • Arthur L. Humphreys
... is Marlborough House, the residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales. The house was built in 1709 at the public expense, as a national compliment to the Duke of Marlborough. Sir Christopher Wren was the architect. After the death of the third Duke it was sublet to Leopold, subsequently King of the Belgians. Queen Adelaide lived in it after the death of King William IV. The building was afterwards used as a gallery for the pictures known as the Vernon Collection. But in 1850 it ...
— The Strand District - The Fascination of London • Sir Walter Besant
... infinity of stairs, and entered the crypt, as it is called, under the church. There were many grand tombs there. Nelson's occupies the centre, and is a fine work. But what impressed me most was the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren himself; a simple tablet marks his tomb, with this inscription, which is ...
— Travellers' Tales • Eliza Lee Follen
... in 1833, Roman remains of the reigns of Augustus, Nero, Vespasian, and Constantine. In High Street, leading from the Cathedral to the Cross, is the Guildhall, erected from a design by a pupil of the great Sir Christopher Wren, and considered to be one of the most handsome brick-fronted structures in the kingdom. It is decorated with statues of Charles I., Charles II., Queen Anne, and with emblematic figures of Justice, Peace, Labour, &c.; whilst over the doorway is the city coat of arms, with the ...
— Handbook to the Severn Valley Railway - Illustrative and Descriptive of Places along the Line from - Worcester to Shrewsbury • J. Randall
... of James II. was not favourable to the order of masons; nor did it begin again to revive for many years. King William III. was initiated privately in 1695, and approved the choice of Sir Christopher Wren as grand master; but shortly after, and during the whole reign of Queen Anne, the society decreased gradually, for the grand master's age prevented his attending regularly, and the annual ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 17, - Issue 491, May 28, 1831 • Various
... a stately and magnificent city rose phoenix-like from ruins of the old; so that there was naught to remind the inhabitants of their great calamity save the Monument. This, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and built at a cost of fourteen thousand five hundred pounds, was erected near where the fire broke out, the better to perpetuate a memory of this catastrophe in the minds of future generations, which purpose it fulfils ...
— Royalty Restored - or, London under Charles II. • J. Fitzgerald Molloy
... taken with Wyatt in 1554, slept in the recesses of the crypt of the Chapel, long known as Queen Elizabeth's Armoury. In 1663, and later years down to 1709, structural repairs were carried out under the superintendence of Sir Christopher Wren, who replaced the Norman window openings with others of a classical character. Remains of four old windows are visible on the river side. A few years ago some disfiguring annexes and sheds were removed, as well as ...
— Authorised Guide to the Tower of London • W. J. Loftie
... contempt—'congestions of heavy, dark, melancholy and monkish piles, without any proportion, use, or beauty,'[845] deplorable instances of pains and cost lavishly expended, and resulting only in distraction and confusion. Sir Christopher Wren said of the great cathedrals of the Middle Ages, that they were 'vast and gigantic buildings indeed, but not worthy the name of architecture.'[846] Even at such times there were some who were proof against the caprice of fashionable taste, and ...
— The English Church in the Eighteenth Century • Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton
... write to the Viscountess Castlewood, my lord's mother, and beg her to remove the young nobleman from a college where he declined to learn, and where he only did harm by his riotous example. Indeed, I believe he nearly set fire to Nevil's Court, that beautiful new quadrangle of our college, which Sir Christopher Wren had lately built. He knocked down a proctor's man that wanted to arrest him in a midnight prank; he gave a dinner party on the Prince of Wales's birthday, which was within a fortnight of his own, and the twenty young gentlemen then present sallied out after their wine, having ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray
... Bishop Ward, after a great thunderstorm in 1668, when fears were entertained for the safety of the spire, called in Sir Christopher Wren, who, after examining the tower, expressed his belief "that a spire was not contemplated by its builders;" that "out of fear to overburden the four piers of the tower, its inside was carried for 40 feet above the nave with a slender ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Salisbury - A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the See of Sarum • Gleeson White
... Theatre', will be spoken of first, although it is the last in date of construction. It is a memorial at once of the munificence of one of the greatest among Oxford's many episcopal benefactors, and also of the architectural skill of her most eminent architect, Sir Christopher Wren. Down to the time of the Civil War, the ceremony of the 'Act' (cf. p. 27 seq.) at which degrees were conferred, had taken place in St. Mary's; but the influence of the Puritans was beginning to affect all parties, and was causing the growth of a ...
— The Oxford Degree Ceremony • Joseph Wells
... of thought and starting into life and action. Spent an hour looking over the books of prints in the library—Fanny particularly pleased with a Houbracken: Harriet with Daniel's Indian Antiquities: my father with Sir Christopher Wren's and Inigo Jones's designs. After dinner Richard Ruxton came in, and said my aunt and uncle had thoughts of coming up to see the balloon. In the evening at Astley's. The second day to see the elephant: how I pitied this noble ...
— The Life And Letters Of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 1 • Maria Edgeworth
... White-aproned porters, with numbered pewter badge on lapel, stand on either side, ready—for a consideration—to direct our transatlantic ignorance into veritable "paths of pleasantness and peace." Access to the Middle Temple from Fleet Street is had by way of another gate-house, built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1684, soon after the Great Fire. It is in the style of Inigo Jones, of reddish brick, with stone pointing. There are several other entrances,—many of them known only to the initiated,—through intricate courts and passages debouching on Fleet Street and the ...
— Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Old Series, Vol. 36—New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885 • Various |
