n his
majesty returned. The great looking-glass and toilet of beaten massive
gold were given by the Queen Mother. The Queen brought over with her from
Portugal such Indian cabinets as had never before been seen here."

Evelyn wrote of course before Wren made his Renaissance additions to the
Palace.

After the great fire which occurred in 1666, and destroyed some 13,000
houses and no less than 80 churches, Sir Christopher Wren was given an
opportunity, unprecedented in history, of displaying his power of design
and reconstruction. Writing of this great architect, Macaulay says, "The
austere beauty of the Athenian portico, the gloomy sublimity of the Gothic
arcade, he was, like most of his contemporaries, incapable of emulating,
and perhaps incapable of appreciating; but no man born on our side of the
Alps has imitated with so much success the magnificence of the palace
churches of Italy. Even the superb Louis XIV. has left to posterity no
work which can bear a comparison with St. Paul's."

[Illustration:

Sedes, ecce tibi? quae tot produxit alumnos
Quot gremio nutrit Granta, quot. Isis habet.

_From the Original by Sir Peter Lely, presented to Dr. Busby by King
Charles_ "Sedes Busbiana" From a Print in the possession of J. C. THYNNE,
Esq. Period: Charles II.]

Wren's great masterpiece was commenced in 1675, and completed in 1710,
and its building therefore covers a period of 35 years, carrying us
through the reigns of James II., William III. and Mary, and well on to the
end of Anne's. The admirable work which he did during this time, and which
has effected so much for the adornment of our Metropolis, had a marked
influence on the ornamental woodwork of the second half of the seventeenth
century: in the additions which he made to Hampton Court Palace, in Bow
Church, in the hospitals of Greenwich and of Chelsea, there is a
sumptuousness of ornament in stone and marble, which shew the influence
exercised on his mind by the desire to rival the grandeur of Louis XIV.;
the Fountain Court at Hampton being in direct imitation of the Palace of
Versailles. The carved woodwork of the choir of St. Paul's, with fluted
columns supporting a carved frieze; the richly carved panels, and the
beautiful figure work on both organ lofts, afford evidence that the oak
enrichments followed the marble and stone ornament. The swags of fruit and
flowers, the cherubs' heads with folded wings, and other details in Wren's
work, closel