Drawings By Sir Christopher Wren.*

upon this cupola for the outward ornament , a lantern ¦ with a spiring top to rise pi'oportionubly , but not to that unnecessary height of the former spire . " This proposal does not seem to have been approved of by "Wren's employers , at the period preceding the Fire . What has been quoted , however , will serve to show how

he arrived at oue of the designs ivhich we aro about to mention , and how different the present dome is from . designs whieh preceded it . No . 10 , in the volume of drawings , is an "leno-,-graphical Plan ofthe church . " It resembles the present plan ; but the western portico is decastyle , has internal

• columns like those of the Pantheon , and projects three columns from the face of the wall ; whilst the north and south entrances have recessed porticos . In the " Orthography of the ivest end , with a doom & spire , " there is ¦ onl y one order of columns—to a portico resembling that by Inigo Jones ; and there is a lofty spire on a dome :

there are also sections of this ; ancl another drawing shows the same idea—the spire much resembling that of Sfc . Pride ' s Church . Amongst the other draivings is a plan ( 16 ) slightly different from the approved plan ; a sketch iu pencil ( IS ) for a screen and organ ; some sketches of the interior ; and what are called in the MS .

catalogue , designs "for the centering of tlie present cupola , " but are ordinary plans of the octagon and cupola . No . 21 is called " Sir Christopher Wren ' s favourite design for St . Paul ' s , 1673 , " on ivhat authority it does not appear . It " resembles the model , " as Mr .

Elmes says , "but it is a perfect square , with quartcr-• circle angles . " In four or live draivings following No . 21 , the dome is represented as in the model . In another design , which we should hardly think belongs to St . Paul ' s , there is a termination somewhat similar to that of the tower of St . George ' s , Bloomsbury . In some of the other drawingsthe variations from the present

, design are chiefly in point of detail , as by the arrangement ofthe northern entrance ivith steps as those ofthe south , the omission of rusticated work , or ( if the MS . catalogue have not misled us ) the insertion of lucarne ¦ windows in the dome . Tbe drawings of other churchesor designsrelate to

, , Bow Church , St . Bride ' s , Sfc . Anthob ' n ' s ; Sfc . Clement ' s , Easteheap ; Ohristehurch , Newgate-street ; St . Clement ' s Danes- St . Benuet Finch ; St . James ' s , Piccadilly ; and to the fittings of chapels , probably those of All ' Souls ' , Oxford ; and Emanuel College , Cambridge . Some of the drawings are signed or marked " Cbr . Wren , " or

" C . Wren . " Tlie designs for tho Monument , with flames represented on the shaft , somewhat after the manner of tlie Eoman rostral columns , will be known to most architects . There is also a section of a design for a theatre , but the authorship is doubtful . Nos . 91 to 93 are drawings preceded by an estimate

, which has been published , of the design for the mausoleum already spoken of ; and Nos . 94 , 95 , are the two designs for a statue . The whole appear to have been originally stitched together as a book , and on the coveris written : —

"MAUSOLEUM DIVJ CAROLI KJSGII MAIITYIUS . Excogitatum anno Salutis 1678 , do Mandate Scrinissimi Eegis Caroli Sccvmdi , Coiisentanco cum Votivis Inferioris Domus Parliament ! sulfragis ; at ( ehen conditionem temporum I ) nondum cxtriictum . "

The estimat 3 is precise and minute , but it is now well known . Mr . Elmes , in the " General Chronicle , " says of the ori g inal : —¦ "It is not inserted in the fair copies of the rest , as by bis desire , but is a rough private copy , much scratched , inter-

Drawings By Sir Christopher Wren.*

lined , and doubled ; and is a veiy interesting document , in bis own hand-writing , as it developes his mind , divested of the formality of a document for public inspection . " The mausoleum was to have been erected ( according to a further endorsement in Wren ' s hand ) , " at the east end of Sfc . George ' s Chapel , on the place where stands the little chapel ( commonly called the Tomb House ) in

, the middle of which was begun b y Cardinal Wolsey n , most magnificent tomb of copper-gilt , for Kin g Henry the Eight , but never -finished . " The design resembles thafc of the Padcliffe Library so much as to lead to the impression that Gibbs must have taken his idea from it . One of the designs for the monument within the

Mausoleum is tinted as if for gilt copper , and the other with Indian ink . In one , Charles is represented in armour , borne upon a shield carried by figures , as of Hercules and Minerva , which stand upon a base , or block of stone , under which last are crushed four figures representing furies , and Murder , and Hypocrisy . It ivas subsequent

to the proceedings for the Mausoleum , that Wren superintended the re-erection of Le Sceur ' s statue , at Charingcross , of which he designed the pedestal , carved by Gibbons . There are also in the same volume , plans for extensive stabling and barracks . One ( 101 ) , a plan " of barracks in Hyde-park , for 1 , 000 horse , " shows what might be called the pavilion princi ple applied to stabling . The third volume contains plans of apartments in St . James ' s Palace ; of the Earl of Oxford's house , St .

James ' s , and the Duchess of Buckinghams ; of the old record-rooms at "Westminster , and others , including sketches and plans ofthe House of Lords and buildings at Westminster , which are probably Haivksmoor ' s * . Amongst many draivings which there are of tlie Westminster School , there is a sketch of a new dormitory , like the building existingwhich is marked" Examined Jul

, , y II . , 1718-19 , C . W . " There are also drawings showing the relative situations of Old St . Paul ' s , with Jones ' s portico , and the present church , which latter is shorter , inclines more to the south-west , and has the intersection of the cross more to the east . There aredoubtlessamongst the treasures of the

, , Bodleian , and besides All Souls ' , in libraries of the colleges , whether * afc Oxford or Cambridge , great stores of material for the history of architecture , that have never been fairly examined . "We are not referring only to what may be found in Oxford , at Worcester College , relating to Inigo Jones ; and in the Eadcliffe Library , to

Gibbs . Whether in the old loft at Merton , with its picturesque Elizabethan furniture , or in the later built and fitted library of Queen ' s , to which additions have been made under tbe direction of Mr . Cockerell , it is impossible for one having any mind for study and research , to help sighing that in place of months , onlyhours can be spent over what must be in each case so rich a mine , in the midst of associations the most conducive to study .

Imri'RRATUiiE or THK KED SKA . —Dr . Buisfc lias communicated to tbe Geographical Society of Bombay some careful observations on the temperature of the Ked Sea , without doubt tbe warmest body of water of its size on tbe earth . AVe are told that exactly in its centre lies a watery region of terrible beat . Tbe scat of high temperature is situated hi a tract rich in volcanic indications , ancl between 11 dog . and 21 dog . north latitude . Even in tbe winter months the water is seldom less than SO ( leg ., readies 81 cleg , in

Starch anil April , awl in May sometimes attains to , 90 clog . September , however , is the season ol * greatest warmth , tbe temperature of both air and water raising in that month above blood beat . Afc this time , a person leaning over the bulwarks of a vessel whose deck lias been lately cooled by a shower of rain , experiences a feeling like that of holding the head above a kittle of boiling water . In November , 1 S 30 , the temperature of the atmosphere being 82 deg ., that of the water between 17 deg . and 23 deg . north latitude on one occasion reached 10 G deg .