e towers are
insignificant to a degree. These are amongst the features which were
altered, and they were "essential" as distinct from "ornamental." We
know that Wren developed as his experience was enlarged; and we know
also that certain alterations were made contrary to his wish. Beyond
this we are lost in conjecture at the poverty of his design. Perhaps,
despising the taste of the commissioners, he never seriously intended
to adhere to it, anticipating he would be his own master.

[Illustration: THE "WARRANT" DESIGN.
_From a drawing in All Souls' College, Oxford. Reproduced from
Blomfield's "Renaissance Architecture."_]

Quickly following on the royal warrant, the first stone was laid June
21, 1675, at the south east corner of the choir.[65] By 1685 the walls
of the choir were finished, with the north and south porticoes, and
the dome piers raised to a like height. When fixing the centre of his
dome, Wren directed a labourer to place a stone as a mark. The man
took a broken fragment of an old gravestone on which was inscribed the
word _Resurgam_; and by many this was naturally taken as a favourable
augury. In 1686 the old west end, hitherto left undisturbed in its
ruins, was cleared away, and two years later the choir was ready for
its roof; but shortly after, a fire at the west of the north choir
aisle, in a room allotted to the organ-builder, caused a slight delay.
Not until 1697 was the choir ready for divine service.

After long years of war, during which the country had suffered from
the heavy burden of taxation, and her commerce had been impaired, the
treaty of Ryswick was at length signed, sealed, and ratified; and
Louis XIV. acknowledged William and Mary as the lawful sovereigns of
these isles. The king returned from the Continent in November, 1697,
and was received with the greatest enthusiasm. Stock almost rose, and
gold almost fell, to par; and every prospect of a returning prosperity
put the public, whatever their politics, in a good humour. A council
at which William presided, resolved that the second day of December
should be kept as a day of Thanksgiving; and the Chapter decided that
the day of Thanksgiving should be the day for the consecration of the
choir. William wished to attend himself; but it was represented that
if he went in procession from Whitehall, the whole population would
turn out, and the parish churches be empty; and he had to rest content
with a service in his palace. At St