been then granted, it is certain that he would have adhered
to it, for it was always a great favourite. In designing it he took
two facts into consideration: (1) that the outdoor sermons, formerly
preached at the Cross, were for the future to be preached inside, and
that a large auditorium would be required for this purpose (2) that
religious processions inside were now discouraged, and that a nave and
aisles were in consequence a useless waste of space and means.[63]
Forgetting these two important items, a vast amount of adverse
criticism has been bestowed upon Wren's favourite. Its main drawback
was the absence of a proper Sacrarium; and yet so obvious were its
advantages, that when a cathedral was lately proposed for Liverpool,
no less an authority on architecture than the late Canon Venables
advocated its adoption.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE MODEL.
_A sketch by the Rev J.L. Petit._]

The clergy and others wanted something with more resemblance to the
old cathedrals; and first of all the surveyor tried to humour them by
adding another secondary dome to the west. He next set to work making
a great number of sketches, merely, as his grandson says, for
"Discource sake"; and one of these was so much approved of that a
model was again made. But the demand for a building with choir, nave,
and aisles complete continued, and required to be satisfied; and at
length one design met with the approval of the king; and on the 14th
of May, 1675, Charles issued his warrant to the commissioners
accordingly, stating that he approved of this particular design
because it was "very artificial, proper, and useful," and could be
built by parts, and that his commissioners were to begin at once with
"the East-end or Quire."

Wren had already become disgusted with the impediments and delays
caused by incompetent judges, and had determined to discontinue making
his drawings and plans public.[64]

We shall never know all that took place during the building so as to
be able to account for the deviations from this design. The king gave
the surveyor permission to make alterations "rather ornamental than
essential," and left the whole to his management, so that the royal
commission was chiefly employed as treasurers. But even this scarcely
explains the great alterations made. The drum and dome of the design,
of comparatively modest dimensions, are crowned with a minaret-like
spire. The west front has but one order of columns, and th