of Knowledge, Inigo Jones started up, a Prodigy of Art, and vied even with his Master Palladio himself. From so glorious an Out-set, there was not any Excellency that we might not have hoped to obtain; Britain had a reasonable Prospect to rival Italy, and foil every Nation in Europe beside. But in the midst of these sanguine Expectations, the fatal Civil War commenced, and all the Arts and Sciences were immediately laid aside."
Before turning his attention to architecture Wren had been a distinguished scholar at Oxford, where he was appointed Professor of Astronomy in the year 1657. It was not until mature manhood that he began the practice of architecture, and thus, like so many others who have achieved distinction in this art, he never had a special and systematic preliminary training for it. His father, Dr. Christopher Wren, Dean of Windsor, is said to have been skilled in all branches of mathematics and in architecture,[1] and this, together with his own native aptitudes, appears to have made it easy for him, by observation and practice, to acquire the necessary preparation for such work as he was to do. His opportunities for study of the architectural monuments of the Continent were small. He never visited Italy, but he spent some months in Paris, and while there wrote, in a letter to a friend, as follows: "I have busied myself surveying the most esteem'd Fabricks of Paris, and the Country round; the Louvre for a while was my daily Object, where no less than a thousand Hands are constantly employ'd in the Works; some in laying mighty foundations, some in raising the stories, columns, entablements, &c., with vast stones, by great and useful Engines; others in Carving, Inlaying of Marbles, Plastering, Painting, Gilding, &c., which altogether make a school of Architecture, the best probably, at this Day in Europe." The Italian architect Bernini was working on the Louvre at the time, and in the same letter Wren writes: "Mons. Abbe Charles introduc'd me to the acquaintance of Bernini, who shew'd me his Designs of the Louvre, and of the King's Statue. … Bernini's Design of the Louvre I would have given my skin for, but the reserv'd Italian gave me but a few Minutes View; it was five little Designs on paper, for which he hath receiv'd as many thousand Pistoles; I had only
- ↑ Parentalia, p. 142.
