Image: Crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral with tomb of Christopher Wren

Description: Near the eastern end of the South Aisle of the Crypt, under a very simple tomb, lie the mortal remains of the great Architect of the Cathedral. On a black marble slab, part of which is seen in the picture, are the following words:—Here lieth Sir Christopher Wren, Kt., the builder of this Cathedral Church of S. Paul, &c., who dyed in the year of our Lord MDCCXXIII, and of his age XCI. A singularly modest epitaph for so great a man, and that, too, at a period when fulsome phrases abounded. A little westward of the tomb, on a tablet affixed to the wall, are the memorable words, admirable in their brevity and point:—Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice. The tomb itself, including the black marble slab, is only sixteen-and-a-half inches in height. Closely adjoining the tomb, on its northern side, are buried two eminent presidents of the Royal Academy, Sir Frederick Leighton and Sir John Millais; at the extreme distance are seen, on the left side the bust of Sir John Alexander Macdonald, late Premier of the Dominion of Canada; and on the right side, that of Sir Henry Smith Park, Minister Plenipotentiary in Japan and China. Nearer to the spectator, on the right, is the memorial to Archdeacon Claughton, Bishop of Colombo, whilst on the left, is dimly seen a monumental brass, commemorating the Special Correspondents who fell in the Campaign in the Soudan; opposite to which, on the right, is the bust of the painter, James Barry.
Title: Crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral with tomb of Christopher Wren
Credit: The Project Gutenberg EBook of Views of St. Paul's Cathedral, London
Author: W. J. Sparrow-Simpson
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No