He died in 1723, and is buried under the choir of St Paul's; on a tablet over the inner north doorway is the well-known epitaph—Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.
For further information the reader should consult the Parentalia, published by Wren's grandson in 1750, an account of the Wren family and especially of Sir Christopher and his works; also the two biographies of Wren by Elmes and Miss Phillimore; Milman, Annals of St Paul's (1868); and Longman, Three Cathedrals dedicated to St Paul in London (1873), pp. 77 seq. See also Clayton, Churches of Sir C. Wren (1848-1849); Taylor, Towers and Steeples of Wren (London, 1881); Niven, City Churches (London, 1887), illustrated with fine etchings; A. H. Mackmurdo, Wren's City Churches (1883); A. Stratton, The Life, Work and Influence of Sir Christopher Wren (1897); Lena Milman, Sir Christopher Wren (1908). In the library of All Souls at Oxford are preserved a large number of drawings by Wren, including the designs for almost all his chief works, and a fine series showing his various schemes for St Paul's Cathedral. (J. H. M.)
WREN (O. Eng. wrǽnna, Mid. Eng. wrenne; Icel. rindill), the popular name of the birds of the Passerine family Troglodytidae, of which the best known example is Troglodytes parvulus, the little brown bird—with its short tail, cocked on high—inquisitive and familiar, that braves the winter of the British Islands, and even that of the European continent. Great interest is taken in this bird throughout all European countries, and, though in Britain comparatively few vernacular names have been applied to it, two of them—“jenny” or “kitty-wren”—are terms of endearment. M. Rolland records no fewer than 139 local names for it in France; and Italy, Germany and other lands are only less prolific. Many of these carry on the old belief that the wren was the king of birds, a belief connected with the fable that once the fowls of the air resolved to choose for their leader that one of them that should mount highest. This the eagle seemed to do, and all were ready to accept his rule, when a loud burst of song were heard, and perched upon him was seen the wren, which unseen had been borne aloft by the giant. The curious association of this bird with the Feast of Three Kings, on which day in S. Wales, or, in Ireland and in the S. of France, on or about Christmas Day, men and boys used to “hunt the wren,” addressing it in a song as “the king of birds,” is remarkable.
The better known forms in the United States are the house-wren, common in the eastern states; the winter-wren, remarkable for its resonant and brilliant song; the Carolina-wren, also a fine singer, and the marsh-wren, besides the cactus wrens and the cañon-wrens of the western states.
Wrens have the bill slender and somewhat arched: their food consists of insects, larvae and spiders, but they will also take any small creatures, such as worms and snails, and occasionally eat seeds. The note is shrill. The nest is usually a domed structure of ferns, grass, moss and leaves, lined with hair or feathers, and from three to nine eggs are produced, in most of the species white.
The headquarters of the wrens are in tropical America, but they reach Greenland in the N. and the Falkland Islands in the S. Some genera are confined to the hills of tropical Asia, but Troglodytes, the best known, ranges over N. and S. America, Asia and Europe.
The Troglodytidae by no means contains all the birds to which the name “wren” is applied. Several of the Sylviinae (cf. Warbler) bear it, especially the beautiful little golden-crested wren (cf. Kinglet) and the group commonly known in Britain as “willow-wrens”—forming the genus Phylloscopus. Three of these are habitual summer-visitants. The largest, usually called the wood-wren, P. sibilatrix, is more abundant in the N. than in the S. of England, and chiefly frequents woods of oak or beech. It has a loud and peculiar song, like the word twēē, sounded very long, and repeated at first slowly, but more afterwards more quickly, while at uncertain intervals comes another note, which has been syllabled as chea, uttered about three times in succession. The willow-wren proper, P. trochilus, is in many parts of Great Britain the commonest summer-bird, and is the most generally dispersed. The third species, P. collybita or minor (frequently but most wrongly called Sylvia rufa or P. rufus), commonly known as the chiffchaff, from the peculiarity of its constantly repeated two-noted cry, is very numerous in the S. and W. of England, but seems to be scarcer N. These three species make their nest upon or very close to the ground, and the building is always domed. Hence they are commonly called “oven-birds,” and occasionally, from the grass used in their structure, “hay-jacks,” a name common to the white-throat (q.v.) and its allies. (A. N.)
WRESTLING (O. Eng. wrœ́stlian), a sport in which two persons strive to throw each other to the ground. It is one of the most primitive and universal of sports. Upon the walls of the temple tombs of Beni Hasan, near the Nile, are sculptured many hundred scenes from wrestling matches, depicting practically all the holds and falls known at the present day, thus proving that wrestling was a highly developed sport at least 3000 years before the Christian era. As the description of the bout between Odysseus and Ajax in the 23rd book of the Iliad, and the evolutions of the classic Greek wrestlers, tally with the sculptures of Beni Hasan and Nineveh, the sport may have been introduced into Greece from Egypt or Asia. In Homer's celebrated description of the match between Ajax and Odysseus the two champions wore only a girdle, which was, however, not used in the classic Greek games. Neither Homer nor Eustathius, who also minutely depicted the battle between Ajax and Odysseus, mentions the use of oil, which, however, was invariable at the Olympic games, where wrestling was introduced during the 18th Olympiad. The Greek wrestlers were, after the application of the oil, rubbed with fine sand, to afford a better hold.
Wrestling was a very important branch of athletics in the Greek games, since it formed the chief event of the pentathlon, or quintuple games (see Games, Classical). All holds were allowed, even strangling, butting and kicking. Crushing the fingers was used especially in the pancration, a combination of wrestling and boxing. Wrestlers were taught to be graceful in all their movements, in accordance with the Greek ideas of aesthetics. There were two varieties of Greek wrestling, the πάλη ὄρθη, or upright wrestling, which was that generally practised, and the ἁλίνδησις (κύλισις, lucta volutatoria) or squirming contest after the contestants had fallen, which continued until one acknowledged defeat. It was this variety that was employed in the pancration. The upright wrestling was very similar to the modern catch-as-catch-can style. In this three falls out of five decided a match. A variation of this style was that in which one of the contestants stood within a small ring and resisted the efforts of his adversary to pull him out of it. Other local varieties existed in the different provinces. The most celebrated wrestler of ancient times was Milo of Crotona (c. 520 B.C.), who scored thirty-two victories in the different national games, six of them at Olympia. Greek aihletic sports were introduced into Rome in the last quarter of the 2nd century B.C., but it never attained to the popularity that it enjoyed in Greece.
Among the Teutonic peoples wrestling, at least as a method of fighting, was of course always known; how popular it had become as a sport during the middle ages is proved by the voluminous literature which appeared on the subject after the invention of printing, the most celebrated work being the Ringer-Kunst of Fabian von Auerswald (1539). Albrecht Dürer made 119 drawings illustrating the different holds and falls in vogue in the 15th and 16th centuries. These singularly resembled those used in the Greek games, even to certain brutal tricks, which, however, were considered by the German masters as not geselliglich (friendly) and were not commonly used. Wrestling was adopted by the German Turnvereine as one of their exercises, but with the elimination of tripping and all holds below the hips. At present the most popular style in Europe is the so-called Graeco-Roman.
In Switzerland and some of the Tirolese valleys a kind of wrestling flourishes under the name of Schwingen (swinging). The wrestlers wear schwinghosen or wrestling-breeches, with stout belts, on which the holds are taken. The first man down loses the bout. In Styria, wrestlers stand firmly on both feet with right hands clasped. When the word is given each tries to push or pull the other from his stance, the slightest movement of a foot sufficing to lose.
The popularity of wrestling has survived in many Asiatic countries, particularly in Japan, where the first match recorded took place in 23 B.C., the victor being Sukune, who has ever since been regarded as the tutelary deity of wrestlers. In the 8th century the emperor Shōmu made wrestling one of the features of the annual harvest “Festival of the Five Grains,”
