ON A GRANDER SCALE. The Outstanding Career of Sir Christopher Wren.

Lisa Jardine , HarperCollins, London, 2002. Hardback. 600 pages, £25.00.
ISBN 0-00-710775-7.

If you wish to announce a new era by erecting a vast dome over London, be sure its interior is filled with divine praise, not ephemeral junk. Lord Falconer and his crew should have focused on the achievement of Sir Christopher Wren, scientific genius and monarchist.

Aware to a limited extent of the limitless expanse of that genius I came to this book with some excitement. I was reminded that there was more to Wren than architecture – an activity he was wont to describe as ‘rubbish’ - feeling his best gifts lay in anatomy, mathematics, optics, astronomy and physics. A central figure among the gifted coterie who would emerge in 1661 as the Royal Society, Wren was a deeply practical man, valuing highly the individual craft skills which gave reality to the dreams of the geometrical theorist (‘Architecture aims at Eternity’, he wrote). Perhaps it was this marriage that attracted him to Freemasonry. Ms. Jardine quotes from John Aubrey’s addenda to a 1685 ms. of his Natural History of Wiltshire:

‘This day (May 18th. Being Munday 1691 after Rogation Sunday) is a great Convention at St Paul’s Church of the Fraternity of the Adopted Masons where Sr. Christopher Wren is to be adopted as a Brother. ’ Ms. Jardine reinforces the association, referring to Wren’s letter to David Gregory (July 1700) wherein Royal Society member John Wallis appears as ‘my Brother’.

However, Wren’s Freemasonry is disowned by the author in her Preface as ‘curious beliefs of Wren’s to which we no longer usually consider it appropriate to give attention’. Presumably it is the same ‘we’ who would support her baseless description of Elias Ashmole as a ‘shady’ character addicted to the greasy pole of self-advancement.

Partisan prejudices aside, at 600 pages the book is double its proper length. While well illustrated, it requires extensive re-editing; the chronology jumps about unpardonably leading to persistent repetition and attention strain. ‘Currently Chair of Judges for the 2002 Booker Prize’, Lisa Jardine has little flair for historical narrative, fails to bring the man Wren to life and displays a weak feeling for the period. Valid for reference purposes, ‘Tis pity it’s a Bore.

Reviewer : Tobias Churton