highest perfection. Appendant to one is an antique vase, with a bas-relief of the purest taste, and worthy the Grecian age of cameos.

In architecture, though the taste was bad, and corrupted by imitations of the French, yet, as the age produced St. Paul's, it may be said to have flourished in this reign. An age--nay, whole centuries often obtain a name for one capital work.

Sir Christopher Wren is placed here, as his career was opened under Charles: the length of his life ornamented the reign of several princes, and disgraced the last of them*.

A variety of knowledge proclaims the universality, a multiplicity of works the fertility, and St. Paul's church the greatness, of sir Christopher's genius: the noblest temple, the largest palace, and the most sumptuous hospital, in such a kingdom as Britain †, are all works of the same hand. He restored London, and recorded its fall. He was born at London 1632, and educated at Oxford. His mathematical abilities unfolded themselves so early, that at twenty he was elected professor of astronomy at Gresham-college, and eight years after at Oxford. His discoveries in philosophy and mechanics contributed to the reputation of the new established Royal Society; and his skill in architecture had raised his own name so high, that in the first year of the Restoration he was appointed coadjutor to sir John Denham, whom he succeeded. Three years before, he visited France, but unfortunately went no further. The great number of drawings he made there, from their buildings, had but too vi

* At the age of eighty-six he was removed from being surveyor-ge neral of the works by George the First.

† St. Paul's, Hampton-court, and Greenwich.

He built above fifty parish churches, and designed the Monument.

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sible an influence on his own-but it was so far lucky for sir Christopher that Lewis the Fourteenth had erected palaces, and no churches. St. Paul's escaped, but Hampton-court was sacrificed to false taste. He died at ninetyone, having lived to see the completion of St. Paul's-a fabric, and an event, which one cannot wonder left such an impression of content on his mind, that, being carried to see it once a year, it seemed to recall a memory which was almost deadened to every other use. He was buried under his own fabric, with four words that comprehend his merit and his fame :

"Si quæras monumentum, circumspice!"

Oxford, in the time of the civil war, seems to have been the only place in the kingdom where musical sounds were allowed to be heard: for that city during a considerable time being the royal residence, not only the household musicians, but many performers who had been driven from the cathedrals of the capital, as well as those of other parts of the kingdom, flocked thither as to a place of safety and subsistence. However, after Charles I. was obliged to quit this post, and had been totally defeated at Naseby, they were necessarily dispersed, and those who were unable to find an asylum in the house of some secret friend to royalty and to their art, were obliged to betake themselves to new employments.

Ten years of gloomy silence elapsed before a string was suffered to vibrate, or a pipe to breathe aloud, in the kingdom, as we hear of no music-meetings, clubs, or concerts, till 1656; when, by the industry of Antony Wood, whose passion for the art inclined him to regard every thing connected with it as worthy of a memorial, we have an accurate account of the state of practical music in this university and age.

The

The obligations of English historians and biographers to this diligent antiquary are such, that he merits an honourable niche in every literary fabrication to which he has contributed materials.

Antony Wood, whose whole life was spent in the service of the dead, and whose labours, since his decease, have so much facilitated the inquiries of the living, was born at Oxford 1632. In his life, written by himself with the simplicity of ancient times, he tells us, "that in 1651 he began to indulge his natural and insatiable genius to music. He exercised his hand on the violin; and having a good ear to take any tune at first hearing, he could quickly draw it out from the violin, but not with the same strings that others used. He wanted understanding, friends, and money, to pick him out a good master, otherwise he might have equalled a capital one on that instrument, and, in singing, vied with any person then in the university." However, he procured a master, Charles Griffiths, one of the musicians belonging to Oxford, whom he then thought to be a most excellent artist, though, when he was himself improved, he found that he was not so:-but he obtained at last a proficiency in music, and frequented weekly meetings of musicians, the merits of whom he details very elaborately. In another place he says "that heraldry, music, and painting, did so crowd upon him, that he could not avoid them; and by music, and rare books in the library, his life was a perfect Elysium, having, besides, a generosity of mind, and a batred of all that was servile, sneaking, or advantageous for lucre sake."

If this minute biographer is sometimes wanting in taste and selection, to give his records due importance, it must be ascribed to his constant habit of making memorandums of every person, transaction, and circumstance, within his knowledge, in the uncouth language of his early youth. This dialect alone renders his writings frequently ridiculous, though they contain such

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information as cannot be obtained any-where else. The few opportunities he had of knowing the gradual changes in our colloquial language by conversing with men of the world, and being debarred the perusal of elegant books by his favourite course of reading, degrade him to a level with writers infinitely his inferiors both in use and entertainment. Wood was perhaps too much an enthusiast in music to speak of its effects with critical and philosophical precision: however, without his assistance, the state of the art, as well as the anecdotes of the professors, would have been difficult to find.

The nation, tired of the seriousness approaching to gloom, which marked the republic with Cromwell at its head, manifested their joy at the restoration of monarchy by every possible demonstration-the viol and the song again were heard in their streets, and the scared musicians again appeared in their cathedrals. But many who had been degraded, and involved in the calamities of the civil war and the subversion of the established church, died during the conflict. Of the gentlemen of Charles I's chapel, none appear to have claimed their former station but Dr. Wilson, Christopher Gibbons, and Henry Lawes.

During the usurpation of Cromwell, it was deemed essential to true religion that no organs should be suffered to remain in churches, that cathedral service should be totally abolished, and all whose functions had been to assist in such profane vanities should betake themselves to some employment less offensive to the Lord. In consequence of these tenets, the churches had been stripped of their organs, libraries and repositories ransacked for musical service-books of every kind, which being all considered alike superstitious and ungodly, were committed to the flames, and the utmost efforts used

There are many persons who still think it did not evince a bad taste in music to wish the abolition of the cathedral service.

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for a total extirpation and indeed with such success, that when the heads of the church set about re-establishing cathedral music, it was equally difficult to find instruments, books, performers, and singers, able to complete the duty. Organ-builders, organists, and choirmen, having been driven to seek new means of subsistence, the former became common carpenters and joiners, and those of the latter who did not enter the king's army privately taught the lute, virginal, or such miserable psalmody as was publicly allowed. A sufficient number of workmen for the immediate supply of organs not being found in our own country, it was judged expedient to invite foreign builders of known abilities to settle amongst us; and the premiums offered on this occasion brought over the two celebrated workmen Smith and Harris. Bernard Schmidt, as the Germans write his name, was accompanied by his two nephews as assistants. To distinguish him from these, as well as to express the reverence due to his abilities, which placed him at the head of his profession, he was called Father Smith.

An organ is so operose, complicated, and comprehensive a piece of mechanism, that to render it complete in tone, touch, variety, and power (exclusive of the external appearance), is, perhaps, one of the greatest efforts of human ingenuity. Smith was so careful in the choice of his wood as never to use any that had the least knot or flaw in it, and so tender of his reputation. as never to waste his time in attempting to mend a bad pipe: if it had any radical defect, he threw it away and made another. This accounts for the equality and sweetness of his stops, as well as the soundness of his pipes to this day. Smith had not been many months here before Harris arrived from France, with his son Renatus Harris, who on the death of his father became a very formidable rival to Smith. The contention between these eminent artists, at the time of erecting the admirable organ which now stands in the Temple church, was carried on with