the service, which began
at one, lasted some three hours. On four other occasions Anne repeated
these visits--thrice for victories, and once for the union of England
and Scotland.[67]

Although the commissioners decided that the dome was to be covered
with copper, lead was used instead, and the work steadily progressed
until two years after the last royal visit, when the fabric was
completed. Wren was now seventy-eight years of age, and his son
Christopher represented him when, in company with the master-mason,
Edward Strong, and other free and accepted masons, the last stone was
laid on the summit of the lantern, a great crowd looking on from
below. Stephen was able to reflect with satisfaction that the
cathedral had been begun and finished by his grandfather, and
practically during the time of one bishop, for Henchman had died a few
months after the laying of the first stone; and he contrasted this
with St. Peter's at Rome, where, with an unlimited supply of marble
and other costly building materials ready at hand, one hundred and
fifty-three years had been required under nineteen popes from Julius
II. to Innocent X., and under twelve architects from Bramante to
Berninus. Stephen forgot, however, that St. Peter's is more than twice
the size of St. Paul's, and that only the bare fabric of the latter
was ready, and that it still wanted its mosaics and other adornments.

Under Wren as Surveyor-General we have already mentioned the
master-mason Edward Strong and his son Edward. John Oliver was
Assistant-Surveyor and Purveyor, with a salary of L100; Lawrence
Spencer was Clerk of the Works and Pay-master at a like salary; Thomas
Russell was Clerk of the Cheque at a salary of L50, and called over
the roll of workmen at six in the morning, one in the afternoon, and
six in the evening.[68] It has to be added that Wren and the royal
commissioners did not agree; and that about the time of the
consecration of the choir, an Act was passed with a clause suspending
"_a moiety of the Surveyor's Salary until the said Church should be
finished, thereby the better to encourage him to finish the same with
the utmost Diligence and Expedition_." His salary of L200 was thus
reduced temporarily to L100, and the arrears, in accordance with the
terms of this Act, were not made good until the completion. And worse
than this was the charge brought against him that he deliberately
delayed the building so that his pittance of two hundred a year