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212 THE CHURSHES When a modern architect would design, say, a portico in a Grecian style, he is disappointed to find that the most servile imitation of the Parthenon or a temple at Pzestum will not produce the desired effect if it is applied to a building of double the size. Hence many of the failures among our public buildings. St. Stephen s, Walbrook, ought to be looked upon as a national monument. It has fallen into bad hands and has been more ruthlessly pulled about than any other of Wren’s churches, except, of course, those which have been utterly destroyed. Prior to experience, it might be thought that no modern architect would dare to lay hands on Wren’s masterpiece, as many of the best architectural critics consider St. Stephen’s; yet within the past few years everything short of actually pulling it down has been tried in this church to obliterate the marks of Wren’s hand, and to rasp down all the features he had thought out so carefully into a dull
