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diff --git a/old/67808-0.txt b/old/67808-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index adec150..0000000 --- a/old/67808-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6748 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Winchester Painted by Wilfrid Ball, by -Wilfrid Ball - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Winchester Painted by Wilfrid Ball - -Authors: Wilfrid Ball - Telford Varley - -Release Date: April 10, 2022 [eBook #67808] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - available at The Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WINCHESTER PAINTED BY WILFRID -BALL *** - - - - - - WINCHESTER - - BY THE SAME AUTHOR AND ARTIST AS “WINCHESTER” - - HAMPSHIRE - - CONTAINING - - 75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR - - - SOME PRESS OPINIONS - - “Author and artist have worthily combined their talent on a worthy - piece of England.”--_Daily Graphic._ - - “Rarely, if ever, have author and artist collaborated with such a - happy result.”--_Evening Standard._ - - - A. AND C. BLACK, 4 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. - - - AGENTS - - AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - 64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK - - AUSTRALASIA THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS - 205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE - - CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD. - 27 RICHMOND STREET WEST, TORONTO - - INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. - MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY - 309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA - -[Illustration: TOWER OF THE COLLEGE CHAPEL, WINCHESTER - -The graceful pinnacles of ‘Two Wardens Tower,’ as the tower of College -Chapel is called, forms a picturesque feature in all views of the -southeastern quarter of the city. Originally built by Warden Thurburn in -1488, it was rebuilt in 1863, in memory of two well-known later wardens, -Barter, Warden of Winchester, and Williams, Warden of New. - -The view is taken from near Wharf Bridge.] - - - - - WINCHESTER - - PAINTED BY - WILFRID BALL, R.E. - - DESCRIBED BY - - REV. TELFORD VARLEY, M.A., B.Sc. - - [Illustration: colophon] - - - LONDON - ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK - 1910 - - - - -Preface - - -The following volume treats in somewhat fuller detail the Winchester -sections of the larger work on Hampshire published last year under -similar auspices. Where much of the ground traversed is identical much -has been necessarily repeated, and a considerable portion of what -follows is little more than an amplification of what has been already -dealt with in the earlier volume. - -The present work in no way aims at being a history, though much of it is -cast into a historical mould. Still less is it a guide-book. Its aim has -been selective, and it makes no pretence to completeness. In following -out some of the numerous avenues of Winchester interest, which seem to -open out continually in fresh and unsuspected directions as soon as one -commences to wander through her confines, many have received but a -cursory examination, and many more have been entirely ignored. The -author can only hope his readers will be able to accompany him with -pleasurable interest along those which inclination and circumstance have -led him to explore. - -The authorities consulted have been numerous, and from the following -published sources of information, as well as many others, valuable -information has been obtained:-- - -Bede, _The English Chronicle_, The Winton Domesday, _The Liber de Hyda_, -Rudborne’s _Major Historia Wintoniae_, various of the _Annales -Monastici_, the valuable historical documents published some time back -by the Hampshire Record Society, Milner’s History, Mr. Kirby’s and Mr. -Leach’s volumes on Winchester College, Dean Kitchin’s _Winchester_ in -the Historic Towns Series, and Adams’s _Wykehamica_. The author regrets -that, through a _lapsus calami_, the title of Bramston and Leroy’s -_Historic Winchester_ was misapplied in the Hampshire volume to Dr. -Kitchin’s book. For this error he here apologises. Finally, the author -wishes here to express his thanks to many friends who in various ways -have assisted him in what has been to him a most pleasant task, viz., -that of serving in some degree, though but inadequately, as chronicler -to his adopted city. - - THE AUTHOR. - - WINCHESTER, _June 1910_. - - - - -Contents - - - PAGE - -CHAPTER I - -‘WYNGESTER, THAT JOLY CITÈ’ 1 - - -CHAPTER II - -EARLY DAYS 10 - - -CHAPTER III - -THE ROMAN OCCUPATION 15 - - -CHAPTER IV - -SAXON WINCHESTER 20 - - -CHAPTER V - -THE CAPITAL OF ENGLAND 26 - - -CHAPTER VI - -ALFRED 34 - - -CHAPTER VII - -ALFRED’S DEATH AND SIXTY YEARS AFTER 43 - -CHAPTER VIII - -ÆTHELWOLD, SAINT AND BISHOP 49 - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE CAPITAL OF THE DANISH EMPIRE 59 - - -CHAPTER X - -NORMAN WINCHESTER 73 - - -CHAPTER XI - -LATER NORMAN DAYS 87 - - -CHAPTER XII - -A GREAT BISHOP, HENRY OF BLOIS 100 - - -CHAPTER XIII - -ANGEVIN AND PLANTAGENET 109 - - -CHAPTER XIV - -FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURY WINCHESTER 117 - - -CHAPTER XV - -THE MONASTIC LIFE 130 - -CHAPTER XVI - -THE CATHEDRAL 146 - - -CHAPTER XVII - -THE COLLEGE 158 - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -WOLVESEY--ST. CROSS--THE CASTLE HALL--THE ROUND -TABLE 168 - - -CHAPTER XIX - -WINCHESTER IN LITERATURE 181 - -INDEX 197 - - - - -List of Illustrations - - - FACING PAGE - -1. Tower of the College Chapel, Winchester _Frontispiece_ - -2. St. Catherine’s Hill, Winchester 9 - -3. Shawford Mill 16 - -4. The Weirs, Winchester 25 - -5. Hamble 32 - -6. At Itchen Abbas 41 - -7. High Street, Winchester 48 - -8. St. Peter’s, Cheesehill, Winchester 57 - -9. Church of St. Cross 64 - -10. King’s Gate, Winchester 73 - -11. Martyr Worthy 80 - -12. Watersplash at Itchen Stoke 89 - -13. Easton 96 - -14. The Deanery, Winchester 105 - -15. Cheyney Court and Close Gate, Winchester 112 - -16. Brewhouse, Winchester College 121 - -17. Middle Gate, Winchester College 128 - -18. Cloisters and Fromond’s Chantry, Winchester College 137 - -19. Memorial Gateway, Winchester College 144 - -20. Second Master’s House, Winchester College 153 - -21. Tower of Ambulatory, Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester 160 - -22. Church of St. Lawrence, Winchester 169 - -23. Hursley Vicarage 176 - -24. Winchester from St. Giles’s Hill 184 - - - - -WINCHESTER - - - - -CHAPTER I - -‘WYNGESTER, THAT JOLY CITÈ’ - - Me lyketh ever, the lengerè the bet, - By Wyngester, that Joly citè. - The ton is god and wel y-set, - The folk is comely on to see; - The aier is god both inne and oute, - The citè stent under an hille; - The riverès renneth all aboute, - The ton is ruelèd upon skille. - _Benedicamus Domino, - Alleluia, - Alleluia._ - Fifteenth-century verses, DE WALDEN MSS. - - -The magic of the city--whence comes it? Every people, every age has felt -it, this mysterious sense of personality, this deep, alluring spell -which age after age, nation after nation, has woven round the city of -its dreams. Rome, Naples, Damascus, Mecca, Seville, each of these has -been and still is a name to conjure with, while the long pent-up fervour -of national feeling with which the Hebrew of old time invested the -thought of Salem, the City of Peace, has from its very intensity and -sincerity established it in the eyes of all Christendom as the permanent -type of that New Jerusalem, the Heavenly City, the centre of all divine -influence and of every divine appeal. - -And here in England, dull, matter-of-fact, money-grubbing England, have -we not too, under our leaden skies, cities also not unworthy of a claim -on our regard--cities which possess the same picturesque and appealing -elements which have, in people of warmer and more emotional type, evoked -such feelings of romantic devotion, of national pride, and the rich glow -of enthusiastic attachment? True, such feelings express themselves here -in less exuberant and conscious manner, but they exist, and have existed -all through our history, and the old fifteenth-century singer quoted -above, whose quaintly expressive verses sum up so happily even for us of -modern time the attractions of the delightful old mediaeval city which -is our common theme, was doubtless one who felt this to the full. -‘Wyngester, that Joly citè,’ that is his keynote--a note at once sincere -but restrained. - -He is no pilgrim, rapt in enthusiastic devotion, singing of - - urbs caelestis, urbs beata, - -as he approaches the city of his passionate desire; but a plain, -sober-minded citizen, who sees in the town which shelters him a ‘Joly -citè’ of attractive aspect and pleasantly seated, surrounded by the -mingled delights of hill and stream; and, moreover, one ‘ruelèd upon -skille,’ as becomes the mother of municipalities. - -And to lovers of Winchester--and who that knows it is not of these?--it -must ever be a pleasant task to follow out in detail the themes -suggested by our mediaeval singer--to enjoy one by one those attractive -features which endear it still to us, as it did to him. To clamber up -the breezy heights which gird it round, for the sake of the ‘aier’--that -air which, as the poet Keats himself remarked, is alone worth “Sixpence -a pint”; to trace the windings of the ‘riverès renning all aboute’--both -within its confines and beyond; to linger in its streets and catch the -echoes of its wonderful past, with even more appreciation than our -fifteenth-century poet was capable of feeling. For our singer, sincerely -appreciative as he was, had one sense lacking--the sense of history. The -present only appealed to him; but to us, as we thread its -quaintly-inconvenient, narrow streets, its passages and gateways, it is -something more than merely a ‘Joly citè,’ a city of comfort and good -rule; it is a city of dreams as well, a city haunted with the sense of a -mighty past, a living testimony alike to the permanence of our national -institutions and to the dignity of the associations to which they make -appeal. - -Winchester, then, is a city with an atmosphere--an atmosphere of the -reality and range of historic things, through which the gazing eye can -peer, mile after mile as it were, till it loses itself in a vaguely -distant and indistinct horizon, where the mists of myth and legend blur -the outline and mingle inextricably together fact and fancy, record and -surmise. - -For in Winchester antique tradition and historic association are not a -mere adjunct or picturesque accident: they are the keynote of its very -existence. In Winchester we stand on the threshold of national history; -here we may, as it were, study history _in situ_, as perhaps we can -study it nowhere else in the land--in the soil beneath our feet, in its -stones, its institutions, its quaint survivals of early or mediaeval, -Tudor or Stuart days. - -Where else but in Winchester can we meet with so many picturesque -reminders of an ancient feudal past,--reminders which have survived not -because they are merely picturesque, but simply because here they have -not outlived their usefulness or natural appropriateness? The Cathedral -bedesmen, the brethren of St. Cross, the scholars of ‘Sainte Marie -College,’ the almsmen of Beaufort’s Order of Noble Poverty, the brethren -of Christe’s Hospitall, the masters of the College, and the college -queristers also, the ecclesiastical dignitaries of the diocese with -their quaintly uncomfortable attire,--each and all of these wear their -distinctive garb as a matter of course, just as centuries ago every one -wore the garb distinctive of his rank or occupation. Anywhere else one -of these might excite remark: here they pass unnoticed. They are part of -the place, part of the spirit of the past, which, dead elsewhere, here -survives in vigour and undiminished vitality. - -Here was the cradle of Saxon rule and Saxon civilization; here also the -cradle of national historical record. Here Saxon Alfred ruled and prayed -and wrought; here Danish Cnut took the golden crown from his brow and -laid it in token of humility upon the Holy Altar; here Norman William -wore his crown yearly at Easter-tide; here Curfew first was pealed, and -here ever since it has continued to peal; here Rufus was buried, “many -looking on and few grieving”; here Henry I. ruled and earned the title -of the ‘Lion of Justice’; here Matilda fought with Stephen in the dark -days of civil warfare; here John received the papal absolution, having -sunk the English crown to a lower depth than any other sovereign either -would or could have done; here Henry III. was born, and here he held -wild revel; here later on was founded the great college of William of -Wykeham, whose motto--“Manners makyth man”--has served as an inspiration -for generations of public school boys for over 500 years; here Henry -VIII. welcomed and fêted the puissant Emperor and second Charlemagne, -Charles V.; here his daughter Mary was married to a Spanish prince; here -James I. kept his Court, and here Raleigh received his shameful -condemnation and sentence; here, with alternate fortune, Cavalier and -Roundhead strove together, till Cromwell himself captured its citadel -and razed its fortifications to the ground; here Charles II. repeatedly -kept his Court; here he presented the Corporation with his own portrait, -and it may even be, left the citizens to pay for the gift--for the Merry -Monarch was often forgetful, and always short of money; here was -perpetrated the most infamous, perhaps, of all the crimes of the -terrible Bloody Assize, the judicial murder of Dame Alice Lisle for an -act of natural humanity; here died and here was laid to rest that most -charming and natural of women novelists, the bright and vivacious Jane -Austen. - -Yes, if a poet could do for Winchester what Longfellow did for Bruges, -and could conjure up the scenes of the past and the personages whose -memories still linger here, what a rare series of absorbing pictures, -what a medley of historic personalities, what a wealth of varied types -should we see embodied before our eyes! Rude Belgic tribesmen of -pre-Roman days, Roman legionaries, rough, wild Berserkers and Danish -vikings, Saxon thegns and Norman knights, abbots and priors, merchants -and gildsmen, friars and pilgrims,--these and many more would contend -for our notice, mingled with kings and queens, prelates and chancellors, -bishops and cardinals. If historical memories can sanctify any spot in -the realm, surely Winchester must be sacred soil. - -To separate Winchester from the history which is enshrined within her is -a thing impossible and unthinkable. It is in the light of her historic -past alone that Winchester can be rightly viewed; and attractive and -fair as are her buildings and her natural surroundings, it is only in -their historical setting that they can be adequately appreciated. - -Let us, before we set foot within any of her streets, endeavour to get -some general mental picture of the city in which so many associations -are centred and enshrined; let us take our stand on the bold hill which -dominates the city towards the east, St. Giles’s Hill. Had we mounted up -here on the 1st of September--the feast of St. Egidius--some six or -seven centuries ago, it would have been a busy and motley throng that we -should have had to elbow our way through. Englishmen from every county, -foreigners from every land--Frenchmen, Germans, Poles, and Jews--all -mingled together in hopeless confusion. A city in miniature--street -after street of wooden booths, all enclosed in a wooden wall or -palisade--would meet the eye. And the inhabitants! What varied types -should we see--merchants and chapmen, citizens and countrymen, pedlars -and ballad-mongers, all eager and excited, bargaining, jesting, -quarrelling--a babel of tongues, peoples, and languages; while here and -there a bailiff or officer wearing a bishop’s mitre figured on his -livery passes along and scrutinizes the merchandise. No friendly -reception does he meet with, for this is the Great Fair held in honour -of St. Giles, where merchants from all parts of Europe congregate to buy -the wool for which the south of England is so famous, and during the -sixteen days that the fair lasts no merchant or shopman in Winchester, -or ten miles round, may buy or sell except within the fair itself, and -whoever is a welcome and popular figure, it is not the Lord Bishop of -Winchester nor the bishop’s bailiff, for all merchandise must first pay -toll--and heavy toll--for the bishop’s exclusive benefit, before it may -pass within the barriers, and be exposed for sale. - -But to-day it will be the city, lying at our feet to the westward, -which will interest us, and there will be nothing on the hill to turn -our attention from it as we note its chief points one by one. It is a -beautiful picture of mingled red and grey that lies before us. The -Cathedral--a mass of grey stone--here presents its most interesting -aspect to us: a mass of grey stone set with pinnacles and flying -buttresses and heavy square tower. To its left lies the College, hidden -partly behind the trees of the Close and the Deanery garden, the light, -graceful ‘Two Wardens’ tower of its chapel contrasting strikingly with -the solid tower of the Cathedral--a noticeable and attractive object. -Almost between the two lies a green patch of meadow, with grey walls and -ruins round it. This is Wolvesey, with its memories of Alfred and the -English Chronicle. Beyond Wolvesey and the College we shall see St. -Cross, like the Cathedral in outward form, but a cathedral in miniature. -Close at our feet in the foreground lie the Guildhall, with its clock, -and the statue of the great Alfred, and the line of the High Street can -be clearly followed till it terminates with the West Gate at its far -extremity. On either side of the city are seen the many channels of the -river Itchen--here and there rises the tower or spire of one of the -numerous city churches--and far away on the high ground to the left -appears a clump of trees which, under the name of ‘Oliver’s Battery,’ -recalls the thought of the grim Lord Protector to us. It is a pleasant -and, indeed, poetic picture at any period of the year, and perhaps most -poetic on an afternoon in late autumn, when the - -[Illustration: ST. CATHERINE’S HILL, WINCHESTER - -The fine bold chalk hill which dominates the river valley to the South -of Winchester, has memories of early Celtic days, of Cnut, and of the -_ancien régime_ at Winchester College. Round its summit is the ‘ring’ of -the great refuge camp of præ-Roman days which it is estimated required -some 3000 people to defend it. Cnut made a grant of ‘Hille’ and other -lands to the old minster. On the summit there was once a pilgrimage -chapel dedicated to St. Catherine. St. Catherine’s Hill was formerly the -playing area for College boys on ‘remedies’ or holidays, and the curious -‘mismaze’ cut on its summit is supposed to have been their handiwork.] - -light smoke from the houses and the thin mists from the river have -mingled together to weave a silvery grey network, through which the -details of the city seem, as it were, to filter slowly and dreamily--a -harmony of haze and mist, to which the imagination can most -sympathetically attune itself, a vague dreamland scene which fancy seems -almost naturally to repeople with the shadows of the past. - -CHAPTER II - -EARLY DAYS - -Et penitus toto orbe divisos Britannos. - - -Antiquity and long-continued vitality such as have fallen to -Winchester--for to go back to its early humble beginnings takes us back -very far indeed--lead us naturally to look for causes, and prompt the -questions, Why, in the first instance, did a human community settle here -at all? What through so many alternations of human vicissitude and -political circumstance has operated to maintain these intact? _Tempus -edax rerum_--Time, the devourer of constituted things, is written not so -much on its stones, as in its stones, yet Winchester remains Winchester -still. For, be it noted, there is nothing in the nature of things which -gives to cities and communities any prescriptive claim or assurance of -permanence. We have not, indeed, to travel far from Winchester to find -instructive instances, to the very contrary, among its earliest -neighbours and contemporaries. Silchester, Sarum, Portchester, its early -British contemporaries, which once flourished even as Winchester, have -long since sunk, the last named into inanition, the two former into -dissolution so complete that no trace now remains, save what little the -ploughshare or the antiquary may from time to time unearth; and that -little would probably, but for the worms’ unceasing activity, have long -since perished beyond recall. For with cities, as with the animal world, -the secret of continued vigour is the secret of continued adaptation to -environment; towns and cities, like other organized existences, are just -as old as the arteries which feed them, and as long as function is -efficiently performed, so long will there be health to perform it. - -And yet as years go, Winchester is old,--how old none can say. Ancient -Neolithic interments on St. Giles’s Hill, old Celtic barrows on Morne -(_Magdalen_) Hill behind, carry us back far indeed beyond the days of -permanent settlement, and her continuous existence goes back far beyond -the days of any written historical record, yet all these years she has -retained her identity and her vigour unimpaired. What physical causes -have contributed to this we shall perhaps be better able to appreciate -if we quit St. Giles’s Hill and clamber up to the top of St. Catherine’s -Hill, the bold chalk hill which dominates the view southward from the -city. An interesting hill it is, with modern associations which we will -not stop to consider now, but turn our thoughts to the view before us. -Below us is a flat-bottomed valley, a mile or two across, with the -numerous winding channels of the river intersecting the water meadows at -our feet. To our north lies the city, seen from this point to excellent -advantage, occupying the flat of the valley, and creeping up the hill -slopes on either side, while far away in the distance the chalk upland -seems to roll away, ridge succeeding ridge, till all detail is lost in -distance. - -Two thousand years or more ago, the country which we are now gazing over -would have borne a fundamentally different character, though its -superficial aspect, viewed from this point, might not, apart from signs -of human agency, have been so very dissimilar. For at that time -practically the whole of the south of England, through all the lower -levels, was a wild stretch of brake and forest all but impenetrable, the -haunt of wolf and wild boar, of beaver and badger, alternating at the -lowest points with swamps and morasses, which formed the beds of the -valleys, and either fringed the edges of the streams or mingled -composedly with them. This was the great Weald Forest, of which a few -detached patches still remain--a tangled sea of green, beneath which all -lay submerged save the chalk heights, the North and South Downs, -Salisbury Plain, and the mid Hampshire plateau over which we are now -looking. - -At one spot, and practically one spot only, was this forest barrier -broken, and that was in mid Hampshire, where the great estuary of -Southampton Water and the Vale of Itchen pierced it like a wedge, and -gave fairly free access from the coast to the rich midland counties to -the north. And so up or by this natural highway the stream of -immigration from the south flowed. Celtic peoples from the north of -Europe, Goidels, Brythons, Belgans,--all in turn came this way, and -here it was, where the Vale of Itchen narrowed, that a settled community -began to form--a ganglionic point, as all such communities are, along -the nervous thread of intercourse and communication. - -Down then in the valley at our feet, on the actual ground where our city -now stands, amid the morasses wherein peat abounded, and where even now -it may still be found, was the first settlement or village of -Winchester--a collection of rude hovels, of wattle-work covered with -mud, and stockaded with a stout timber palisading as additional -protection, while the hill-top, where we now stand, was converted into a -fortress or refuge-camp, to all appearance impregnable, so long as heart -and hand still existed to defend it. - -Of the village below all trace has long vanished, but the lines of the -earthwork round the hill remain still broadly scarped out, and seemingly -imperishable. No mean achievement this--this great rampart over 1000 -yards in circuit, and still 25 feet or more in height in places; and -when the feebleness of the resources with which those early Celtic -sappers and miners worked is borne in mind, the unserviceable pick of -deer antler, the absence of means of transport, we wonder more and more -at the magnitude of the achievement which has had such permanent result. - - They dreamt not of a perishable home, who thus could build, - -and to-day, though two, perhaps three, thousand years have passed since -it first gave security to the primitive Winchester settlement below, -the great camp still remains, keeping watch over the modern city like a -sentinel forgotten, but still under orders, whom no change of guard has -relieved. - -One other inheritance, besides these piled-up ramparts, these first -Winchester burghers have left us, and that is a name. Cær Gwent, the -Celtic name, first Romanized into Venta Belgarum, passed in Saxon days -into Vintan-ceastir, or Venta the fortified, and so on by a natural -transition has become the Winchester of to-day. What the name means is a -venerable antiquarian puzzle, on which we prefer to hazard no opinion, -nor indeed does it greatly matter. The name, like the city itself, is -venerable in antiquity, and its origin, like that of the city itself, is -lost in the mists of the past. - -And as we look round about us from this hill-top, and direct our eye up -and down this valley, we begin to realize what it is that has made -Winchester what it has been in the past, and what it is now: not merely -the accident of circumstance, the flotsam and jetsam of human migratory -tribes, floated fortuitously hither on the tidal waters of our southern -estuaries and here casually deposited, but a natural centre in a great -continuous stream of humanity, in which Celt and Belgan, Roman, Saxon, -Dane, and Norman have all pushed forward, each eager to bear his part in -the building of that great national polity, the England of to-day. - -CHAPTER III - -THE ROMAN OCCUPATION - -Foursquare to all the winds. - - -The part played by physical causes, outlined above, is illustrated by -the successive stages in the Roman occupation. The two first invasions -by Julius Caesar were little more than desultory raids; the next, under -Aulus Plautius and Vespasian in A.D. 43, had important and permanent -results. Pevensey (_Anderida_), Portchester (_Portus Magnus_), and -Southampton (_Clausentum_) were all occupied in turn; up the Itchen -valley the invaders came, and its strategic position made them choose -Venta Belgarum as their military base in the south of England. - -History is silent as to the actual occupation of Venta, but Bede and -others mention the occupation of the Isle of Wight, and the silence of -Roman writers on this point merely makes it clear that little resistance -was encountered here. Nor does Roman literature give us any account of -Venta; the only mention of it is in the Antonine Itineraries, the great -road-book of the Roman Empire, dating probably from about 320 A.D.; but -its importance in Roman days is to be inferred from the remains the -Romans have left behind, as well as from Bede and other indirect -evidence. - -No Roman structure, except, perhaps, some part of the ancient wall still -existing, remains above ground now, but the site of the city, as marked -out by the Romans, still remains clearly shown, and the spade and -pick-axe are continually bringing to light evidences of what Winchester -was like in Roman days. - -The Roman city formed a rectangle aligned almost exactly with the four -points of the compass. Intersecting it from north to south was the great -highway leading to Clausentum, and another road, practically -corresponding to the present High Street, crossed this at right angles, -dividing the whole area of the city into four rectangular blocks or -tesserae. All round this area was a wall of stout masonry, with gates at -the four points where the two main highways pierced it; upon the same -lines were reared later the walls of the Norman city, and their general -direction is clearly traceable now. A walk along Westgate Lane, North -walls, Eastgate Street, the Weirs (where portions of the ancient wall -may still be seen), College Street, Canon Street, and St. James’s Lane, -would practically carry us round the circuit of the Roman as it would of -the later mediaeval city. - -The temples of the gods occupied the south-eastern area where the -Cathedral now stands, and a well in the Cathedral crypt is pointed out -to visitors as having - -[Illustration: SHAWFORD MILL - -Shawford Mill, near Shawford. The river channels here are fringed in -summer-time with mimulus, yellow iris, and forget-me-not, and are -delightful to ramble along.] - -been connected with heathen worship in Roman times. Numerous pieces of -tesselated pavement, vases, urns, and votive objects generally, articles -of adornment, for household use and the toilet, are frequently found -even still, mingled with innumerable coins and relics of a military -nature. - -More important still are the Roman roads which led from Winchester, the -routes of which are still unmistakable, and which remain the great -enduring monument both of the Roman occupation and of the Roman -civilizing instinct. Indeed, the chief service the Roman occupation did -for Winchester was to bring it into effective contact with the rest of -the country. The Belgic tribesmen had no common organization or polity; -a number of scattered and incoherent units linked together merely by the -accident of position, and a more or less common racial descent, they -resembled one of the lower animal forms, not possessing a common nerve -centre, but controlled by local ganglia and responding merely to local -stimuli. The Roman genius was to link up the whole land into one united -organism and to supply a nervous and arterial system regulated by -central control. Law and Order were the great lessons it taught the -world, and open and secure lines of communication were the necessary -preliminary of the _Pax Romana_. No succeeding age save our own has so -fully recognized the value of good and effective road communication. Our -modern roads and tracks very often merely follow routes first marked out -by Roman hands, and the common occurrence of the title ‘High Street,’ -generally applied to the leading thoroughfare of town or village, is a -constant reminder to us of the debt we owe to the Romans. - -Radiating from Venta Belgarum were no less than five thoroughfares, of -which four were undoubtedly important arteries. The first led to the -sea, to Clausentum, the port. It followed the line of the existing -Southampton road as far as Otterbourne, and then straight on through -Stoneham (the _ad Lapidem_ of Bede) to Clausentum. This road passed -straight through the city from south to north, and from the northern -gate of the city it branched off into two, one going north-east, along -the existing Basingstoke road to Silchester (_Calleva Attrebatum_), the -other north-west, following the line of the existing Andover road to -Cirencester (_Durocornovium_). Both these roads can be still traced for -a distance of a good many miles from Winchester. The fourth led directly -west to Sarum, and can still be followed as a well-defined track all the -way. The fifth led to Portchester (_Portus Magnus_) over Deacon Hill, -and through Morestead, but with the exception of the first few miles all -trace of it is now lost. - -Details of some of these roads as given in the Antonine Itinerary -already mentioned are quoted below, and the names of the stations and -their distances apart are of more than usual interest, particularly from -the assistance they give us as regards identification of the Roman -sites. - -Londinium (_London_) to Pontes (_Staines_), mille - passuum (_miles_) xxii -Pontes to Calleva Attrebatum (_Silchester_) xxii -Calleva to Venta Belgarum xxii -Venta to Clausentum (_Southampton_) x -Clausentum to Portus Magnus (_Portchester_) x - -The Roman routes are not comfortable to follow now, particularly to the -cyclist; their course is invariably straight, leading direct from point -to point, over hill and valley alike, without regard to gradient or the -lie of the land. The appeal they make to the thoughtful imagination is -distinct and striking. Direct and uncompromising, they follow their -course regardless of obstacles, suggesting irresistibly the genius and -energy of the imperious people who met difficulties only to subdue them. -Primarily imperial in character, if not always military, few things -conduced so much to the settlement and growth in civilization of the -land. Commerce followed in the wake of security, and the arts of war -ministered thus as handmaid to those of peace. - -CHAPTER IV - -SAXON WINCHESTER - -Post tenebras, lux - - -The Roman occupation lasted some 400 years, after which Winchester -history becomes a blank, and it is not the settlement and conquest of -the next occupiers, the Gewissas or West Sexe, but their conversion to -Christianity which begins to dispel the historical just as it did the -spiritual darkness of the period. - -Of these years, could we but trust the romantic pages of Geoffrey of -Monmouth, who has preserved for us the legendary stories of the period -as preserved in the early Welsh tradition which he followed out, we -might have a complete and circumstantial history, telling us of Arthur -and his Knights, of Merlin, and Uther Pendragon, all focussed round our -own Hampshire country, with Winchester and Silchester as the chief -centres of action. - -Thus arose the mediaeval tradition connecting Winchester with Arthur and -the Knights of the Round - -Table--a tradition consolidated by the presence in the great Hall of -Winchester of the curious relic which popular imagination has for -hundreds of years identified with the actual Round Table round which -that famous brotherhood feasted. But of this more anon. And attractive -as are the speculations into which Geoffrey of Monmouth might lead us, -we must put him sternly by till some greater hand has winnowed the -grain--for some grain his record undoubtedly possesses--from the chaff -of credulity, if not of deliberate invention. - -And so for 200 years our Winchester history remains a blank, till the -Saxon invader had in turn made his way hither, by the same natural -channel which Celt and Roman before him had followed, and a kingdom of -Wessex had grown up, rude and barbarous, but firmly planted, with the -Hame-tun (_Southampton_) as its first capital, till, with the growth of -institutions, the natural advantages of Winchester made it in turn the -centre of rule of the West Saxon kingdom. - -How Jute and Angle warred in turn with Saxon and with one another: how -order was gradually evolved, and Christianity planted in Britain by -Augustine and his band of monks, we cannot here pursue in detail. It is -the coming of Christianity to Hampshire that immediately concerns us, -and with this a new chapter of great interest opens in our Winchester -story. - -Augustine had landed in Kent in 597, and it is a noteworthy fact that -while Christianity had spread gradually thence to the East Saxons, to -Northumbria, and to East Anglia, the stream of influence from -Canterbury had, as it were, flowed by and left Wessex, Sussex, and -Mercia entirely untouched, so effectually had the natural barriers of -the forest belt isolated the south-west of England from Kent and even -London; and when at length Christianity was brought to Wessex it was by -a special mission from Italy and not from Canterbury at all that the -message came. Thus the founding of the Church in Wessex was an act -independent entirely of Augustinian influence; not for many years after -did the diocese acknowledge the supremacy of Canterbury, and when Bishop -Henry of Blois in the twelfth century was scheming to convert Winchester -into a separate province, with himself as Archbishop, he had at least a -historical basis on which to rest his claim. Sussex and Mercia were -evangelized later still, and the Isle of Wight last of all. - -There is indeed a local tradition which connects the name of Augustine -with Winchester. In Avington Park, some five miles from the city, a -moribund oak still stands, known as the Gospel Oak, from the tradition -that Augustine himself preached the Gospel under it. But the tradition -is entirely unsupported, and certain it is that, even if it were true, -the preaching had no permanent result. - -The story of the conversion of the Gewissas is told by Bede, and -deserves to be translated in full. - - At that time (_A.D. 634, English Chronicle_), during the reign of - King Kynegils, the race of the West Saxons, anciently termed - Gewissas, received the faith of Christ, which was preached to them - by Birinus, who had come to Britain at the instance of Pope - Honorius. His intention had indeed been to proceed direct into the - heart of the land of the Angles, where as yet no teacher had - penetrated, in order there to sow the seeds of the faith. For which - purpose, and by direction of the Pope himself, he was consecrated - Bishop by Asterius, Bishop of Genoa. But on his arrival in Britain, - and coming in contact first of all with the Gewissas, he found them - everywhere to be in a state of the grossest heathenism, and so he - considered it to be more profitable to preach the Word to them, - rather than to go farther to seek a field to labour in. - -The actual conversion of King Kynegils took place the year after, not at -Winchester, but at Dorchester, near Oxford, on the river Thames. Here -Birinus first placed his bishop’s stool; but Bede’s narrative directly -implies that he visited Winchester and dedicated a Christian church -there, which only a bishop could do; for he goes on to say that - - having erected and dedicated many churches, and having by his pious - ministrations called many unto the Lord, he departed himself to Him - and was buried in that city (_Dorchester_), and many years after, - by the instrumentality of Bishop Hædda (_bishop from 676 to 703 - A.D._), his body was translated thence to the city of Venta and - placed in the church of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, - -which he himself had dedicated. - -We learn from the _English Chronicle_ that this Christian church was -erected not by Kynegils, who died in 643, but by Kenwalh or Kenulphus -his son. Here then we have the beginning in a sense of the Winchester -Cathedral of to-day. True, successive and more glorious buildings have -been erected on the same site, but they have been but the successors in -direct line of that primitive church of St. Peter and St. Paul, rudely -constructed, and possibly roofed with thatch, which Birinus dedicates; -and the bones of its two founders, father and son--for so we are -entitled to regard them--are traditionally preserved in the Cathedral -to-day, in two of the beautiful mortuary chests above the side screens -of the choir. - -What a link with the past do the inscriptions on these chests afford us, -for the facts are perfectly historical whatever the identity of the -bones may be. What imagination is there that cannot be deeply stirred in -the very presence, as it were, of these two West Saxon chiefs Kynegils -and Kenwalh in the very church which Birinus himself first erected, and -which was dedicated to the service of God by Birinus himself? Nor was -this all, for in A.D. 648, side by side with the church, was erected a -monastery, the beginning of that religious house afterwards so famous as -the Priory of St. Swithun. Kynegils endowed it with an important grant -of land--nothing less than all the King’s land for several miles round -Winchester, the first church endowment in Wessex of which we have any -authentic record; an endowment all the more memorable as some portion of -this land, in and around the adjoining present parish of Chilcomb, -remained after some twelve and a half centuries of consecutive church -tenure in possession of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester, the -successors in direct line of the religious community - -[Illustration: THE WEIRS, WINCHESTER - -The delightful balustraded stone bridge at the east end of the city -replaces the very early bridge built by Bishop Swithun in King -Æthelwulf’s days. The river rushes with a glorious swirl from out the -mill just above the bridge, and all along the Weirs, from mill to mill, -is of beautiful clearness and transparency. The walk along ‘the Weirs’ -takes you between the river and the old city wall.] - -of St. Peter and St. Paul, right up indeed to 1899, when it was taken -over by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. - -The development of Winchester during the early Saxon period was steady -and continuous. This was marked in 676 by the transference by Bishop -Hædda of the Bishop’s stool from Dorchester to Winchester, and from this -point onwards Winchester became the centre of the diocese as well as the -capital of rule--a great diocese, spreading far and wide over all the -western country. When Danihel succeeded Hædda--“Danihel the most revered -bishop of the West Saxons,” as his contemporary Bede calls him--the -diocese was divided, and Sherborne became the centre of the western, as -Winchester was of the eastern see. And so Winchester history is brought -down to the days of our first really contemporary historian, the -Venerable Bede. - -The pages of Bede are full of interest, not only for the light they -throw on the early history of Saxon Winchester, but also because -incidentally they establish its identity with the earlier township of -Roman and Belgan days, for, as already noted, he speaks of it as “the -city of Venta, which is called by the Saxon people _Vintan-ceastir_,” -_i.e._ Venta the fortified, implying that the Roman defences round the -city were still in existence, and giving us the first mention in -recorded history of that name of our city, which by a simple and natural -transition has become the name by which we know it still. - -CHAPTER V - -THE CAPITAL OF ENGLAND - - This royal throne of kings ... - Fear’d by their breed and famous by their birth. - - -With the dawn of the ninth century came further development. During the -200 years or so of the so-called Heptarchy, a gradual and continuous -movement of cohesion--social as well as political--had been in progress. -The strength of the Anglo-Saxon was his courage, a determination and -persistence hardly distinguishable from obstinacy; his weakness was his -lack of imagination and his narrow political horizon. He had never -learnt to think nationally, hardly even tribally, far less imperially; -his thoughts centred themselves in the little hamlet or home settlement -where all were kin at least, if not kind. He took - - the rustic murmur of his bourg - For the great wave that echoed round the world. - -And if he thought of his fellow-countrymen at all, apart from family -blood-feuds which called for vengeance, it was probably in the exclusive -spirit of Jacques: - - I do desire we may be better strangers. - -These individualistic ideas were being slowly modified by existing -conditions: families had been grouped into tythings, tythings into -hundreds, hundreds into shires; the communal system of land tenure was -merging into the manorial system, and with the consolidation of -individual kingdoms came a struggle for political supremacy and a -movement towards national cohesion and unity. It was the glory of a -Wessex king, ruling in Winchester, to render this conception an -accomplished fact. - -It was at the Court of the great Charlemagne that Egbert gained his -political training and insight. Forced as a youth to flee from Wessex, -he had been made welcome at the Emperor’s Court, and there in the centre -of great world-movements, in a Court which numbered the most -accomplished scholars of the time, Egbert began to ‘see things.’ When in -802 A.D. he was called to ascend the throne of Wessex, Charlemagne, it -is said, gave him his own sword as a parting gift, but something far -more potent--political insight and training--was his already. - -Egbert set himself not only to consolidate his power in Wessex, but to -weld the separate jangling factions into one under his personal -supremacy. The details of this long struggle are part of English history -and do not concern us here: suffice it that he asserted the supremacy of -Wessex over the whole land, and it is in connection with him that the -term England--Angleland--was first used. In 829 A.D. he held a council -at Winchester and proclaimed himself King of Angleland. - -Winchester thus entered on a new phase, as capital of England and not of -Wessex merely, and its importance rapidly developed. - -It was well for the land that internal union was thus in sight, for with -Egbert’s reign a new danger arose. The migratory racial movements of -which the coming to Britain of Jute, Angle, and Saxon was but a phase, -had never ceased, but the conditions had altered. In earlier unsettled -days new-comers as they crossed the Swan’s Bath had been usually -welcomed as allies, now when the land had become settled, when wealth -had accumulated in town and monastery, the late-comers came in guise of -a foreign foe. Egbert’s reign saw a great revival of the descents of -these Danes or Northmen as they were called. Wherever their ‘aescas’ or -longships appeared panic seized the countryside. Murder, outrage, -conflagration, and ruin were the ordinary incidents of a Viking raid. -Men might well pray as they did, “From the fury of the Northmen, good -Lord, deliver us,” for the invader knew nothing of mercy, and his -enterprise and desperate valour were only equalled by his fiendish -delight in cruelty. Egbert struggled long, and, on the whole, -successfully, against these foes. In 839 he died, after a reign of -thirty-seven years, and his bones are still preserved in a mortuary -chest in the Cathedral of his capital. - -The words on the chest are: - - Hic rex Egbertus pausat - (Here rests King Egbert). - -Surely Winchester, which preserves the bones of him who first strove for -and successfully realized the conception of national unity, should be -the Mecca for all true devotees of Great or Greater Britain. - -Like master, like man, and great kings have always had great subjects. -Such a one was Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, whose influence was all -powerful during the next half century, and was reflected in Egbert’s -still greater grandson, Alfred. Swithun belongs essentially to -Winchester; he laboured incessantly for the kingdom, the diocese, and -the city, and his shrine became for centuries afterwards the glory of -its Cathedral, and the place of pilgrimage for thousands of pious feet. -He built churches; he protected the Cathedral and Monastery by building -a wall round it; he built a bridge across the river, outside the East -Gate of the city, where the present graceful Georgian structure stands. -As some old verses tell us: - - Seynt Swithun his bishopricke to al goodnesse drough, - The towne also of Winchester he amended enough, - For he lette the strong bruge without the towne arere, - And fond thereto lym and ston and the workmen that were there. - -Fate deals unkindly with some, even at times with those who deserve most -at her hands; Swithun is one of these. A man of saintly life and -far-reaching influence, his humility and aversion to display were among -his most striking personal characteristics. With an instinctive and -indeed prophetic dread of superstitious veneration being paid to his -remains after death, he gave orders that his body should be buried, not -within the Cathedral, where kings and saints reposed, but in the open -graveyard outside, among the poor and the unnoticed. But in vain: with -the monastic revival in King Edgar’s reign, one hundred years later, -came the erection of a new and more splendid cathedral. Tales of -miraculous occurrence began to be told of Swithun’s tomb, and nothing -would serve but the translation and enshrinement within the new -Cathedral of the saint, so pre-eminently national, whose bones had such -potent virtue. Accordingly, in solemn state, in the presence of King -Edgar, Archbishop Dunstan, and Bishop Æthelwold, the pious translation -was performed. Thus Swithun, never formally canonized, became by -universal consent dignified by the appellation Saint, and his mortal -remains were for centuries the object of that superstitious worship -which he himself had so earnestly dreaded. Later years obscured his -reputation even more: a tradition grew up that the saint had signified -his displeasure at the translation of his body by sending a violent -deluge of rain, which for forty days rendered his exhumation impossible. -No foundation for this impossible story can be found in any contemporary -account, and several contemporary accounts both minute and -circumstantial still exist; but the tradition has passed into a proverb, -and so the name of Swithun--his virtues, his piety, and his personality -all forgotten--serves often merely to suggest the school-boy jingle: - - St. Swithun’s day, if thou dost rain, - For forty days it will remain; - St. Swithun’s day, if thou be’est fair, - For forty days ’twill rain nae mair. - -For the general public he has ceased to be a historic personality at -all, entitled to veneration and esteem, and has come to be regarded as a -mythical being, malignant and capricious, the patron saint of discomfort -and of stormy skies. - -The century which followed Egbert’s death was one of unremitting -struggle against the Danes--a struggle during which the newly formed -kingdom seemed more than once in imminent danger of being submerged. -Æthelwulf and his sons faced the danger manfully, through which, at -length, Alfred emerged victorious. The history of Winchester is in large -measure merely the history of these movements. - -Æthelwulf, the priest-monarch, the son of Egbert, who succeeded him in -839, will be best remembered in Winchester as the father of Alfred, and -by the charters, particularly two of extreme interest, which he executed -here. The more important of these is still extant, and the original is -preserved in the British Museum. This is often spoken of as the origin -of tithes, but erroneously, as Æthelwulf’s gift was a gift to the Church -not of produce, but of one-tenth of his landed possessions. - -The charter conferring this grant, having been duly executed, was -solemnly laid on the high altar of the Cathedral in the presence of -Swithun and the assembled Witan. The actual original of the second -charter no longer exists, but an ancient copy is preserved among the -treasures of the Cathedral Library. Even as a copy it possesses extreme -interest: it bears the names of King Adulfus (Æthelwulf), Swithun, and -the King’s four sons, Æthelbald, Æthelbert, Æthelred, and Alfred--the -two elder sons being described as ‘Dux’ (Earldorman), and each of the -two younger, mere boys at the time, as ‘Filius Regis,’ son of the King. -Each name is attested, according to Saxon custom, not by a seal, but by -a cross. The date is 854, when Alfred was five years old, and the -document is the earliest tangible link still existing between the city -and the great King. - -Of Æthelwulf’s other acts, his two marriages, his journey to Rome, and -his grant to the Pope of Peter’s Pence, as a ransom to relieve the -sufferings of English pilgrims journeying thither, we cannot speak in -detail. Suffice it that Alfred was taken to Rome by him when quite -young, and was solemnly confirmed by the Pope himself. Æthelwulf died in -857, and was buried in the Cathedral. His bones rest in a mortuary chest -mingled with those of Kynegils. - -Each of his four sons succeeded him, one after other, and during their -reigns the Danish incursions grew in frequency and intensity: 857 saw -them repulsed with heavy slaughter in Southampton Water; in 860 they -came again, forced their way to Winchester itself, burnt and sacked it. -The Cathedral and Monastery appear to have escaped, thanks possibly to -the strong, defending wall which Swithun had erected. - -[Illustration: HAMBLE - -A characteristic seaport village at the mouth of Hamble estuary--the -centre of an important crab and lobster trade. In the mud of the tidal -river lies embedded an ancient Danish “longship,” supposed to have -figured in the Danish descents of Alfred the Great’s time. The _Mercury_ -Training Ship lies moored here; its masts and yards can be seen up the -river. The rich red brick and tile work of Hamble village forms in -summer-time a delightful picture from the water, with the blue of the -river and the yachts in front and the dark trees behind. Warsash lies -just opposite Hamble, and Netley just behind it.] - -Æthelbert succeeded to Æthelbald, Æthelred to Æthelbert, and ever the -struggle increased in intensity. In the last year of Æthelred’s reign he -and Alfred fought no less than nine pitched battles against the Danes. -In the winter of 871 Æthelred died, as it would seem, mortally wounded -in battle, and was buried at Wimborne, and Alfred, the last of the four -brothers, became king. - -CHAPTER VI - -ALFRED - - A prince that draws - By example more than others do by laws. - That is so just, to his great act and thought - To do, not what kings may, but what kings ought. - BEN JONSON, _The Hue and Cry_. - - -Alfred the Great belongs in a peculiar sense to Winchester; here he was -proclaimed king; here he lived, and ruled, and made his laws; here he -gathered round him that assemblage of divines and learned men with whose -co-operation he gave the first great impetus to a national literature; -here he commenced the English Chronicle; here he devised his plans for -constructing a navy to defend the land against foreign foes; here he -founded a monastery, the Newan Mynstre, destined to play a great and -honourable part for some 600 years after him; here his queen founded a -sister institution, the abbey of St. Mary; here he died and was buried, -leaving behind him the savour of a life strenuous, blameless, and -devoted, having shown his world that the fullest development of manly -vigour was compatible both with the saintliness of the devotee and the -culture of the book-lover and the student. - -It was a rude age, the age of Alfred, but nevertheless it was a great -age, for it was, in spite of all its crudeness and brutality, an age in -which ideals were sought after, and indeed worshipped. It was Alfred’s -high distinction that he not only steered the ship of state successfully -through seemingly overwhelming dangers, but that in his own life he -exhibited to the world a realized ideal--an ideal that comparatively few -monarchs have made any attempt to strive after, and which, it is safe to -say, none ever achieved so completely. There have, indeed, been great -empire builders like Charlemagne, great law-givers like our first -Edward, saints with the spiritual elevation of St. Louis, scholars and -patrons of learning like Henry VI., but none have combined these high -qualities with such just balance and self-restraint as Alfred, who may -be truly said to have embodied in his own life the earnest, -long-continued prayer which his own words expressed: - - I have sought to live worthily while I lived, and after my death to - leave to the men that should be after me my remembrance in good - works. - -Alfred was born at Wantage in 849, and there is little to connect his -early life definitely with Winchester. His association in quite early -days with the king’s court, so frequently held in the city, with the -aged Swithun, who rarely left the city, not to mention the charter of -Æthelwulf, above referred to, which bears his name, all render his early -connection with Winchester more than probable. It was an active and -stirring boyhood, including one, if not two, visits to Rome, and a -solemn confirmation at the Pope’s own hands--events which must have -profoundly stirred him, young as he was. The bent of his mind was early -displayed when his mother Osberga (or, it may be, his stepmother, -Judith; Asser says the latter) showed him and his brothers an -illuminated volume--Anglo-Saxon poetry, very possibly the songs of -Caedmon--and promised the book to the one who should first learn to -repeat them. Alfred immediately sought his tutor’s help, and won the -prize, which appealed so much more keenly to him than to his elder -brothers. For all that it was as a warrior, prompt in action, resolute -in difficulty, that he first rose to distinction. At the critical -moment, while his brother, King Æthelred, delayed, he hurled himself on -the Danes, and overthrew them at the fierce battle of Ashdown, in the -Vale of the White Horse. It was but an episode in the continuous -struggle, and the end of the year saw the death of Æthelred, and Alfred -was called upon by the Witan, against his will indeed, at the age of -twenty-two to mount the throne. - -It was a thankless and, as it would seem, hopeless task that the -youthful king had before him. The last thirty years had changed the face -of the land; bit by bit the Danes had made good their footing; province -after province had fallen into their possession. Edmund, the saintly -king of East Anglia, had died a martyr’s death at their hands; Alfred’s -three brothers had mounted the throne one by one, but, bravely as they -had struggled, they had merely been able to retard, not to prevent the -resistless advance. As he looked round on the blackened ruins of the -capital in which he had just been crowned, his heart might well have -sunk within him. Nor was it merely the fate of England which then hung -in the balance; that of northern Christendom equally depended on the -issue of the conflict. It is not generally recognized that during the -early years of Alfred’s reign the heroic determination of the youthful -king, and the loyal devotion of the sorely dismembered little kingdom of -Wessex--for all else in England was lost--were all that stood between -northern Europe and an ever-advancing tide of pitiless and savage -heathenism, which, had it not been stemmed, would have engulfed the -whole northern continent, with little hope of Christian enlightenment -and development, it may have been for centuries. We may well be proud of -the part that Winchester, as the capital of Wessex, played in the course -of civilization during those dark days; and when, as indeed happened 150 -years after, Winchester did see the Danish kingdom realized and herself -the capital of it, it was a Christian and civilizing kingdom, and not -one of violence and unbridled slaughter, over which she was called to -preside. Well was it that Alfred was - - One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward, - Never doubted clouds would break, - Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, - Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, - Sleep to wake. - -It is to Alfred, to the men of Wessex, and in part to Winchester that -the cause of civilization owes the deliverance from this impending -danger. - -For seven years the conflict went on, but it was a conflict almost of -despair, though Alfred met all attacks with unfailing heart and -resourcefulness. At length in 878 all seemed lost. Alfred was surprised -at Chippenham during the Twelfth Night festivities, and forced to take -refuge in the morasses of Somersetshire. The story is too well known to -need retelling here; suffice it that in less than six months Alfred had -reasserted himself, had conquered the Danes, had made peace, and had -divided the realm with them. 878, with the refuge in Athelney and the -peace of Wedmore, was the turning-point in the struggle and in the fate -of the whole nation. - -The second period of the reign, the period of more peaceful -reconstruction and consolidation, for plenty of fighting still remained -to be done, centres largely round Winchester, and it is more -particularly round Wolvesey and the scanty remains of Hyde Abbey that -the memory of Alfred still most closely lingers. Wolvesey was the royal -seat. Here he formed his court; here he inaugurated his reforms; here he -laboured, studied, deliberated. The defence of his kingdom, the repair -of the material ruin caused by foreign invasion, the construction of a -fleet of ships, the promulgation of wise laws, the promotion of -education, the encouragement of literature and travel, the actual -founding of a national English literature and an English historical -record, which no other nation can find a parallel to, the endowment of -religious worship--all these in turn occupied his attention while he -dwelt at Wolvesey. The command of the seas he early recognized to be the -real defence of the land, and as soon as opportunity served he set -himself to build a fleet. The Chronicle tells us that he - - commanded long ships (_aescas_) to be built against them (_the - Danes, that is_) which were full nigh twice as long as the others. - Some had sixty oars, some more; they were both swifter and - steadier, and also higher than the others. They were shaped neither - like the Frisian nor the Danish, but as it seemed to him they could - be most useful. - -The Chronicle gives us also a stirring account of a sea-fight in one of -the Hampshire harbours between Alfred’s vessels and three Danish long -ships. It is a graphic and well-told narrative, too long to be quoted -here. The crews of two of the pirates were captured, and brought to the -king at Winchester. The king, who was then at Wolvesey, commanded them -to be hanged, very likely above those very walls of Wolvesey, grey and -weather-beaten, which we see now, and which in their “herring-bone” -masonry still show the hand of the Saxon builder who erected them. In -the bed of the Hamble River there lies still embedded the keel of a -‘long ship.’ One would dearly like to believe that it was one of those -very pirate vessels which were driven aground, and whose crews were -captured as related above, and the fact is not indeed impossible. Some -planks and portions of this vessel may be seen in the Westgate Museum in -Winchester, and various mementoes, such as the ceremonial casket -presented to Lord Roberts with the freedom of the city on his return -from South Africa, have in recent times been made from it. - -Of Alfred’s life of study and devotion we have a pleasant picture in -Asser’s _Biography_. Asser, afterwards Bishop of Sherborne, was a monk -of St. David’s whom Alfred persuaded to come to Winchester, and to enter -his service as scribe and literary helpmate. Asser tells us that “it was -his usual custom both by night and day, amid his numerous occupations of -mind and body, either himself to read books or to listen while others -read them.” The roll of Alfred’s literary productions is a long -one--_Orosius_, the _Consolations_ of Boethius, the _Pastoral Care_ of -Pope Gregory, and Bede’s _History of the English Church_ were all -rendered into the vernacular. More important still was the English -Chronicle, of which no less an authority than Professor Freeman says, -“It is the book we should learn to reverence next after our Bible.” It -is a treasure-house of contemporary record, systematically kept and -reliable, such as no other nation, save the Hebrews, has ever possessed. -In all probability the - -[Illustration: AT ITCHEN ABBAS - -A village on the Itchen, five miles above Winchester, surrounded -everywhere by picturesque scenery. The ‘Gospel Oak’ in Avington Park, is -some mile or so distant. Kingsley wrote part of his _Water-Babies_ while -staying at the Plough Inn at Itchen Abbas in the course of a fishing -holiday. Big trout may often be seen lying under the bridge here.] - -original was compiled and kept at Wolvesey, and copies were made for use -at various other places, as Canterbury, Hereford, Peterborough. Six -ancient copies are extant, of which four are in the British Museum. One -of the two others is an actual Winchester copy of extreme antiquity, and -is preserved in the Parker Collection of MSS. at Corpus Christi College, -Cambridge. - -Alfred’s last years were devoted to founding religious houses--one at -Shaftesbury, one at Athelney, and one, which concerns us most -immediately, at Winchester, the ‘Newan Mynstre,’ and his queen, -Alswitha, founded a nunnery at Winchester also--‘Nunna Mynstre’ or St. -Mary’s Abbey. - -Alfred matured his plans for the Newan Mynstre in conjunction with -Grimbald of Flanders, whom he invited over to England, and whom he -induced to remain by making him the first abbot. But he only lived to -acquire the site, for which, it is said, he paid the enormous rate of a -mark of gold per foot. The spot selected was north-west of the present -cathedral churchyard, in the angle near St. Laurence’s Church, and the -minster was completed by Edward the Elder, King Alfred’s son, who -succeeded him. The further history of the Newan Mynstre, its removal and -rebuilding as Hyde Abbey, its dissolution and its decay, will be related -in due course. - -Alfred died in 901, and his remains have been thrice interred--first of -all in the ‘Ealden Mynstre,’ the old minster, as the cathedral began -then to be called; then at the completion of the Newan Mynstre they -were translated thither with solemn pomp and reverence; and again at the -reconstruction and removal of the fabric with equal pomp and -circumstance to Hyde Abbey. The abbey is now merely a ruined fragment, -and every trace of the abbey church has disappeared. The citizens of -Winchester, so careful in the main of their treasures of antiquity, have -permitted Alfred’s resting-place to be lost sight of and forgotten -altogether, and modern search has not as yet identified the spot. In -1901, the year of the millenary of his death, an attempt was made to -atone in some measure for this irreparable neglect, and the boldly -conceived statue of Alfred, erected in Winchester Broadway, in front of -the spot which his own queen’s abbey had actually occupied, is a -reminder, not unworthy so far as outward monument and statuary art can -serve, of the hallowed association of Winchester with this, the greatest -of all our English monarchs. True is it that little tangible now -remains, whether of Wolvesey, Newan Mynstre, or Hyde which we can -directly connect with him--but his story, and his work, the inspiration -of his life, and his example are things more real and more tangible in -their way even than brick or stone or carven figure, and Alfred’s memory -can never here be lost, even though his tomb remains lost sight of and -slighted, and ‘no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.’ - -CHAPTER VII - -ALFRED’S DEATH AND SIXTY YEARS AFTER - -Erunt reges nutritii tui, et reginae nutrices tuae. - - -When Alfred died in 901 he had accomplished a great work; a work great -and lasting, as the next sixty years were to show, and during these -years the ascendancy of Wessex and of the line of Egbert was to grow -more and more undisputed, till it culminated in the reign of Edgar the -Magnificent. These days were days of rapid development in Winchester, -and the fortunes of the city at this period were closely linked with -Alswitha, Alfred’s widow, Grimbald, the monk, and the two strong kings -of Alfred’s line, Edward, his son, and Athelstan, his grandson. - -As already related, Alfred had planned the important foundation of the -Newan Mynstre, and had settled the site before his death. Its completion -was the work of the early days of Edward the Elder, who, almost -immediately on ascending the throne, convened a great meeting of the -Witan at Winchester to discuss the matter at the outset. The king’s own -views were limited and parsimonious, and he was anxious to lay the -lands of the Ealden Mynstre under contribution as a means of defraying -the cost, but the venerable Grimbald, now over eighty years of age, was -inflexible. “God will not,” said he, “accept robbery for -burnt-offering,” and he carried his point. The king made a liberal -endowment for the purpose, and the walls of the minster rose apace. At -the same time the abbey of St. Mary, founded by Alswitha, was proceeded -with, and the monastic quarter of the city saw a trinity of fair -monasteries, grouped side by side, rise rapidly into prominence. -Accident served to invest the new abbey with peculiar interest and -sanctity. A Danish descent on Picardy had driven a crowd of refugees to -seek shelter across the sea, and they had crossed over to Hampshire, -bearing with them their greatest treasure--the hallowed bones of their -patron saint, St. Judocus or St. Josse. The king received them -hospitably at Winchester, and the sacred relics were solemnly and -splendidly enshrined within the partially completed church of the New -Minster. Then in 903, in the presence of a great concourse of nobles and -clergy, the dedication of the New Minster was solemnly performed by -Plegmund, Archbishop of Canterbury. Scarcely was this completed ere -another equally striking act was performed, viz. the translation within -the walls of the new church of the remains of the founder, the great -Alfred himself--a solemn and imposing rite, carried out with all the -pomp and dignity of impressive circumstance: - - cum apparatibus regali magnificentia dignis - (with solemn pomp befitting his royal state), - -as the _Liber de Hyda_ informs us. - -Then in rapid succession Grimbald, Alfred’s first nominated abbot, and -Alswitha, his devoted queen and widow, were called to rest, and the -queen’s remains were piously interred side by side with those of her -husband. Thus within three years of Alfred’s death the Newan Mynstre had -risen not merely into being, but had already become invested with -ascendancy and popular prestige as the hallowed repository of the mortal -remains of a wonder-working saint, a venerated abbot, of a saintly king, -and of his royal consort. Some twenty years later, within the same abbey -church--thus already established as a venerated mausoleum--Edward the -Elder himself was also laid, after a strenuous reign, in which he had -consolidated the Anglo-Saxon power and had re-established firmly the -unity of the kingdom. Thus, as year succeeded year, Winchester grew in -extent and importance. The prestige and dignity of its ecclesiastical -foundations established it thus early as the leading centre of pious -pilgrimage in the south of England, and shopmen and merchants followed -eagerly the pilgrim stream. Accordingly Edward the Elder drew up what -may be called the first commercial code of the city--laws regulating the -selling of goods and the making of bargains in open market in the city. -In the same reign associations or confraternities of traders for mutual -support began to be formed--confraternities which, under the name of -‘gilds’ or guilds, were destined to become in time corporate municipal -bodies, with the ‘Hall of the Gild Merchant’ as the centre of civic rule -and influence. A formal mayor and corporation were to come later, but -the elements and something more of civic rule in Winchester can be thus -traced continuously back and recognized for full a thousand years. - -Of Athelstan the warrior we have but little actual Winchester history to -record; he reigned from 925 to 940, and was buried not at Winchester but -at Malmesbury. To atone for this historical paucity we have one glorious -romantic legend--the legend of the fight between Guy of Warwick and -Colbrand, the Danish giant and warrior, a story which has long been a -classic fairy tale. Rudborne, in his _Major Historia Wintoniae_, copying -from the _Liber de Hyda_, solemnly records how Athelstan, invested in -his capital city by Anelafe, King of the Danes, agreed with his besieger -to decide the issue by a combat between champions, and he tells us how a -new Polyphemus, - - monstrum, horrendum, informe, ingens, - -Colbrand, “a giant wondrous of stature, hideous of aspect, and of -unparalleled ferocity,” came forward to champion the Danish cause, and -how the English protagonist, Guy of Warwick, his opposite in every -attribute, “prudent, self-restrained, resolute, manly in mind and -skilled to combat,” - - Against great odds bare up the war - -“in a certain meadow lying northward of the city, now called De Hyde -mead, then called Denemarck,” while Athelstan watched the combat -anxiously from a corner of the city walls. Swords flashed, splinters -flew, long was the conflict doubtful; each antagonist in turn prevailed, -while hearts beat fast and lips grew white with tense compression, till -right prevailed, and the head of the second Goliath was severed from its -trunk by our Saxon David. - -The worthy Knighton, in his _De Eventibus Angliae_, amplifies the story, -and the details fairly scintillate at his imaginative smithy. The fight -occurs in Chiltecumbe or Chilcomb valley; Guy of Warwick takes the -field, mounted on Athelstan’s own steed and girt with arms of wondrous -potency--the sword of Constantine the Great, the spear of Saint Maurice -himself. - -Colbrand, also mounted, bears with him a whole armoury--axe, and club, -and iron hook--while a waggon by his side bears a whole assortment of -miscellaneous ironmongery for him to use at need against his adversary. -It is strength, and stature, and brute force against courage and -address, and for a long time Guy appears to be at the mercy of his -adversary. The latter, however, in dealing a ponderous blow--the _coup -de grâce_ as he imagines--contrives to let his weapon slip, and as he -reaches to recover it, the English champion rushes in and severs his -hand from off his arm. Nevertheless, the issue is for long in doubt, and -it is not till darkness has all but fallen that the giant’s strength -ebbs from weakness and loss of blood, and his nimble adversary shears -off his head with one sweep of his sword. Readers of Kingsley’s -_Hereward the Wake_ will recall in the above act something more than a -reminiscence of the strong conflict between Hereward and Ironhook, the -Cornish giant. The story is indeed a Cornish legend, localised round -Athelstan and the Wessex capital. Gerald of Cornwall, a writer whose -writings exist now only in fragments, related it in his _De Gestis Regum -Westsaxonum_, and it is his account, incorporated in the _Liber de -Hyda_, which is the source of its introduction into our local history. -Yet strange as it may seem, this wildly impossible romance was accepted -for centuries as historical; Danemark mead still exists as a local name, -and an inn known as the Champions only disappeared from the reputed -locale of this wonderful conflict a few years ago. - -And so through legend and historical record alike, our city’s history -moved forward step by step. King after king of Egbert’s line succeeded -to the throne and ruled in Winchester. Edred the Pious succeeded Edmund -the Magnificent and was buried in the Old Minster. Edwy the Inglorious -succeeded Edred, and died and was buried in the New Minster, and thus in -959 the realm passed under the rule of Edgar, his half-brother, Edgar -the Peaceable, whom the monks named also Edgar the Magnificent. With his -reign a fresh chapter of interest and importance opens in our city’s -history. - -[Illustration: HIGH STREET, WINCHESTER - -The ‘Butter Cross,’ as the City Cross is invariably denominated, forms -the most characteristic feature of the delightful old-world High Street. -Close by are the ‘Piazza,’ and a charming old timber-fronted Tudor -house, now a well-known picture shop. Behind the Cross is the opening of -‘Little Minster Passage’ leading to the Cathedral. - -In 1770 it was decided to remove the Butter Cross, and it was actually -sold to a purchaser for this purpose, but the inhabitants rose in -indignation, forcibly removed the scaffolding erected round it, and so -preserved it from destruction.] - -CHAPTER VIII - -ÆTHELWOLD, SAINT AND BISHOP - - O see ye not yon narrow road - So thick beset with thorns and briars? - That is the land of righteousness, - Tho’ after it but few enquires. - THOMAS THE RHYMER. - - -With the death of Edwy in 959 a new chapter of interest opens, a period -of revival, of growth, of development, the golden age of Saxon -Winchester, during which the Saxon city was at its zenith of importance, -the reign of Edgar the Peaceable and Magnificent. - -The monkish chroniclers have for the most part painted Edgar in glossy -colours; they sang his virtues, his magnificence, his piety, his love -for Holy Church. They spoke of him as a second Solomon, and the -comparison was in its way not inapt, for, like Solomon, he enjoyed peace -and loved display; like Solomon, he allowed his private life to drag him -to a low level; and, like Solomon, he left a son behind him, who was to -see his kingdom rent asunder and a better than he bearing sway in it. -But it is neither Edgar, who, with all his faults, ruled wisely, nor his -son, Æthelred, of Evil Counsel, who, with all his vices, did not, who -are the leading figures of interest at this juncture; neither is it the -great Dunstan, of whom we get fleeting glances, Dunstan, the great -archbishop, the master-mind of his time, in whose hands the would-be -masterful and imperious king was indeed but as clay unto the potter, -little though he realized it. It is Æthelwold the bishop, Æthelwold the -saint and revivalist, Æthelwold the builder and lover of learning, who -is the dominating figure, and it is rather by the commencement and -completion of his work than by the accessions or deaths of kings that -the limits of the period are to be assigned. - -For estimating the course of Winchester history at this important and -interesting stage we have fortunately more than an abundance--a wealth -of historical materials. Not only do the _English Chronicle_ and all the -leading monkish chroniclers contain full references, but numerous other -local sources of history, _e.g._ Rudborne, the various Winchester -annalists, and the _Liber de Hyda_, exist, which deal fully with it. -Besides these we have a minutely circumstantial life of Æthelwold -himself, and, perhaps most interesting of all, a remarkable account by -the same author, Wulfstan, precentor of Winchester, describing, in -curiously involved and almost interminable Latin elegiacs, the wonders -of the new Winchester cathedral which Æthelwold built, and the splendour -of various great and striking ceremonies which he saw performed within -it. - -Æthelwold did more than merely leave his mark on Winchester; he -transformed it. He found its ecclesiastical life poor, self-centred, and -stagnant; he left it active, influential, creative; he found the Old -Minster, with its cathedral church, bare, distanced, and neglected, -eclipsed and outshone by Alfred’s later foundation, the Newan Mynstre. -He left it not merely with an acknowledged ascendancy, but a new fabric, -the finest in the land, the pride of the city, and almost one of the -wonders of the age, a centre of pilgrimage of great resort and renown, -with a new shrine containing a new patron saint, the wonder-working -shrine of St. Swithun. He found the domestic buildings small, damp, -unhealthy; he rebuilt them and brought to them a supply of pure water, -irrigating the city and its river valley by streams whose courses still -remain, to all intents and purposes, unchanged. _Nullum tetigit quod non -ornavit_ might well have been the epitaph over his tomb. - -Ecclesiastical life in England had, in fact, never really recovered from -the Danish _débâcle_ of the later ninth century: monasteries had been -burnt, plundered, impoverished: recovery had been but slow and partial: -slackness and sloth were almost universal. It is not known how far in -the earlier English monasteries the Benedictine rule and the common -cœnobitic life had ever been strictly followed, but when Dunstan rose to -influence there were practically no religious houses where monks were to -be found; in their place non-resident canons, or seculars, as they were -called, had become the established order of things, and the various -annalists have painted for us in vivid colours the laxity and debased -standard of the ordinary church life of the day. The canons, or -‘seculars,’ released from the severe toil and discipline of the -Benedictine rule, allowed themselves numerous indulgences, and were in -many cases even married. Loving comfort and ease, they neglected the -church, and the daily services were grudgingly carried out by deputy, by -‘vicars’ paid, and paid poorly at that, to conduct the services while -the absentee canons expended the income of their ‘prebends’ elsewhere at -their ease. Thus Wulfstan tells us-- - - There were then in the Old Minster, wherein is the bishop’s stool, - canons of disreputable manners and morals, so swollen with pride - and insolence that numbers of them would not condescend to - celebrate the masses when their regular turn came, who turned - adrift the wives they had unlawfully married, and took others in - their stead, and who gave themselves up to gluttony and - drunkenness. - -It is always interesting to note the snowball principle of accretion in -the various annalists’ accounts, and the fifteenth-century Winchester -annalist improves upon this picture, depicting them as - -... canons, canonical only in name, who neglected their duties in - the church, and left the pious labours of vigils and the service of - the altar to be performed vicariously, absenting themselves from - the sight of the church, or even, so to speak, from the sight of - God. Bare was the church within and without. The vicars, scarcely - able to keep body and soul together, could not give: the - prebendaries would not. Hardly could you find one who, except on - compulsion, would offer a shabby altar cloth or present a chalice - worth a few shillings. - -Be this as it may--and the monkish chroniclers would not be likely to -spare the seculars--the standard of life was terribly lax, and Dunstan, -originally abbot of Glastonbury, then Bishop of Worcester, and finally -archbishop, set out, with King Edgar’s sanction, on the path of reform, -and Æthelwold assisted heart and soul in the movement. - -In their respective abbeys, Glastonbury and Abingdon, and in these only, -monks had been re-established. Now the movement for the replacing of -seculars by monks became general, and when in 963 he was consecrated -Bishop of Winchester by Dunstan, Æthelwold set himself to revive the -monastic orders in the three Winchester houses and elsewhere in the -land. - -The canons of the Old Minster, however, flatly refused to adopt the -monastic life and discipline, and finally Æthelwold brought monks from -Abingdon to replace them. Wulfstan relates their coming thus:-- - - It happened on a Sabbath in the beginning of Lent, as the monks - from Abingdon were standing at the entrance to the church, that the - canons were finishing mass, chanting together, “Serve the Lord with - fear and rejoice unto Him with reverence. Take up the discipline, - lest ye perish from the right way,” as if they should say, “We will - not serve the Lord, nor keep His discipline; do you do it in your - turn, lest, like us, ye perish from the way which opens the - heavenly realms to those who follow righteousness.” Accepting this - as an omen, one of them exclaimed, “Why do we stand still outside - the church? Let us do as these canons exhort us; let us enter and - follow the paths of righteousness.” - -The canons, however, struggled hard for reinstatement. They appealed to -the king, who inclined to temporize with them, and a great meeting of -the Witan was convened at Winchester, where Dunstan and Æthelwold urged -strongly the monastic view. The king, however, was still undecided when -a voice was heard from the crucifix built against the walls bidding him -not to waver longer. Thus, so the _Liber de Hyda_ informs us, the monks -were confirmed in occupation. - -Next year it was the turn of the canons of the New Minster to follow -suit, for, in the words of Wulfstan, “thereupon the eagle of Christ, -Bishop Æthelwold, spread out his golden wings, and, with King Edgar’s -approval, drove out the canons from the New Minster, and introduced -therein monks who followed the cœnobitic rules of life.” The Nunnery, -St. Mary’s Abbey, was at the same time placed under the strict -Benedictine rule. - -And now events moved fast, and with monks established in the monastery -strange rumours and portents began to prevail. It was noised abroad that -the saintly Swithun, buried humbly in the common graveyard on the north -side of the church, had begun to manifest his virtues by acts of healing -at his tomb. The churchyard became the resort of crowds of pilgrims, -until - -... the holy father, Æthelwold, warned by a divine revelation, - translated the holy Swythun, the special saint of this church at - Wynchester, from his unworthy sepulchre, and piously placed his - holy relics with due honour in a shrine of gold and silver given by - the king, and worked with the utmost richness and craftsman’s - skill. - -The same account tells us that the bones of St. Birinus were similarly -deposited in another shrine, but St. Swithun was the popular saint, and -the miracles wrought at his shrine soon made the Old Minster renowned -throughout the whole land. - -Indeed, as Rudborne, the monk, quaintly and naïvely tells us, “as long -as canons held the Church at Winchester there were no miracles -performed, but no sooner were they ejected and replaced by monks than -miracles were wrought abundantly.” Doubtless Rudborne was right. At all -events crowds of pilgrims thronged to Winchester, and the name of -Swithun, the Saxon saint, became a power in the land. - -But all this time Æthelwold was at work rebuilding the Cathedral, and -the church he reared was the finest in the land--one of the wonders of -the age. - -Wulfstan in his long-winded way describes the building, its aisles, its -towers, its crypt, both mystifying the reader and losing himself over -and over again in the description, as he relates how the newcomer passes -bewildered from one wonder to another, till he knows neither how to -advance nor to get back again. - - Nesciat unde meat, quove pedem referat. - -The gilded weather-cock on the top of one of the towers in particular -fired his imagination. Glorious and superb, it grasped the ball of -empire with its splendid talons, and from its lofty standard dominated -the whole populace of the city:-- - - Imperii sceptrum pedibus tenet ille superbis, - Stat super et cunctum Wintoniae populum. - -The mighty organ placed in the church by Æthelwold’s successor he also -enlarges upon. This mighty instrument had twenty-six bellows--twelve -above, fourteen below--worked laboriously by seventy full-grown men, who -sweated at their task, while two organists hammered vigorously upon the -manuals, flooding the whole city with the volume of the sound. - -Wulfstan not only gives us these details of the building, but he -describes the various splendid ceremonies which he himself witnessed -within it--the translation of St. Swithun’s bones in the presence of -King Edgar; the dedication in 980, when King Æthelred and nine bishops -were present, including the “white-haired and angelic Dunstan”:-- - - Canitie nivens Dunstan et angelicus. - -Then of the feast which followed, telling us how a tenth bishop--one -Poca--who arrived too late for the labours of the ceremony, atoned for -it amply by the depth of his potations. - - Nulla laboris agens, pocula multa bibens. - - -[Illustration: ST. PETER’S, CHEESEHILL, WINCHESTER - -One of the oldest of Winchester Parish Churches, of Norman date. -Cheesehill--a corruption of Chesil--a word still surviving in Chesil -Beach, near Portland--denotes the dry or gravelly strand along the bank -of the Itchen, and has no connection with cheese. Cheesehill Street, -though somewhat ‘slummy,’ is very picturesque and contains many -interesting old houses.] - -Later on there was a second dedication. Altogether it was a period of -splendid and impressive ceremonial. - -Æthelwold’s monks displayed their zeal in another channel. In both -monasteries scriptoria were established, and Winchester became the -centre of an unrivalled school of MS. illumination. The MS. treasures of -Æthelwold’s monks may still be seen in the British Museum, in Winchester -Cathedral Library, at the Bodleian, and at Rouen. Loveliest of all is -the priceless ‘Benedictional of St. Æthelwold,’ the glory of the -Chatsworth collection, a MS. of rare beauty and interest, for it -preserves for us the figure and features of St. Æthelwold himself as -well as some of the architectural details of the new cathedral he had -erected. How the ‘Benedictional’ came into the possession of the -Cavendish family is unknown. Is it too much to hope that later on the -day may come when such a treasure may be restored to its natural -home--the Cathedral Library at Winchester? - -Æthelwold’s last work for Winchester we have already mentioned--the -rebuilding of the monastery. He transformed the channels of Itchen, and -brought its purifying waters through the city and the monastery by fresh -courses. - -Quoting again from Wulfstan:-- - - Hucque - Dulcia piscosae flumina traxit aquae - Successusque laci penetrant secreta domorum - Mundantes locum murmure coenobium, - - Here great Æthelwold led sweet fishful courses of water. - And murmurs of mingling streams pervade the recesses monastic. - -Such, then, was Æthelwold. In 984 he died, and was buried in the crypt -of the cathedral he had erected. The place of his sepulture is now -unknown. There are few among the makers of Winchester greater than he. - -We have dealt with this era of constructive effort as if the full design -was brought to completion in Æthelwold’s lifetime. Such was not indeed -the case, and it was left to Ælfeah, his successor in the episcopate, to -actually finish the building schemes inaugurated by his predecessor. But -it was Æthelwold, not Ælfeah, whose creation it really was, and Ælfeah -(_St. Alphege_) will always be remembered more feelingly as the -Archbishop of Canterbury, martyred by the Danes, rather than as the -completer of Æthelwold’s great master-work in Winchester. - -CHAPTER IX - -THE CAPITAL OF THE DANISH EMPIRE - -Saxon and Norman and Dane are we. - - -Æthelwold’s work was still in full progress when King Edgar died in 975. -Young as he was--he was only some thirty-two years old when he died--he -had reigned for some sixteen years, and his reign had had notable -results. It had been a reign of uninterrupted peace; indeed it was the -only peaceful reign, save Edward the Confessor’s, of any Saxon king in -England, and a reign, moreover, of good government and wise laws. And -though the memories of Edgar’s domestic life, his intrigues, and his -tragic murder of his false friend, Earl Æthelwold, belong rather to -Wherwell and Andover than to Winchester, we have many personal touches -reminding us of his close connection with Winchester history. We see him -holding his court continually at Wolvesey. Tradition even derives the -name of Wolvesey from the wolf’s head tribute which he caused to be paid -to him there, and which brought about the practical extermination of -wolves in the land; but be that as it may, at Wolvesey Edgar royally -kept his state, presiding over many a great meeting of the Witan, and -promulgating his laws with the imperious formula, “I and the -Archbishop”--an involuntary acknowledgment of what was, after all, the -great power behind the throne, the influence of Dunstan. We see him -attending the imposing ecclesiastic ceremonies of his reign, such as the -enshrinement of the bones of Swithun, and we read of the wise laws and -reforms he inaugurated. He standardized the coinage and the weights and -measures of the realm. “Let one weight and one measure be used in all -England, after the standard of London and of Winchester.” “Let there be -one standard of coinage throughout the king’s realm”--regulations which -serve to show the development of commerce and prosperity in the kingdom. -Another was a curious law passed to check the excessive drinking habits -to which in particular his Danish subjects were addicted. Pegs were -placed at certain intervals in the drinking cups, and no one was -suffered to “drink below his peg.” Yet notable as King Edgar was as a -king, his personal claim entitles him to little respect. Allowing fully -for the lowly standard of his age, his life was sensual, loose, and so -smirched with squalid self-indulgence that even his monkish admirers, -who had every reason to laud him highly, were forced to mingle censure -with the lavish encomiums they heaped upon him, and it was a bitter -legacy which his loose domestic life left behind him for the nation to -inherit. The national record, the _English Chronicle_, accords him an -appreciative but discriminating epitaph, praising his good rule and -reciting his virtues indeed, but concluding in words which we can all at -least re-echo:-- - - May God grant him - that his good deeds - be more prevailing - than his misdeeds - for his soul’s protection - on the longsome journey. - -And now followed years of tragedy and strife. Edgar’s elder son, Edward, -was very soon murdered by his stepmother, Ælfrida, and the throne passed -into the hands of Edgar’s second son, Æthelred the Redeless, or Æthelred -of Evil Counsel, the feeblest, most inept, most hopeless of all our -monarchs, whether Saxon or English. His reign was to witness the -recrudescence of Viking inroad and savage assault, and when, after -bleeding the resources of the realm to death in a vain and hopeless -effort to buy off the invaders, his foolish brain conceived the -wickedness of murdering all the Danes in England--a fatuous and -desperate act of villainy, hatched at Winchester and consummated on St. -Brice’s Day 1002--the tragedy of misery was exchanged for the ruin of -despair, and the terrible vengeance the Danes exacted was only ended by -the conquest of the realm and the passing of it into Danish hands, and -so Winchester became the capital of a greater empire than ever before or -since--the capital of the great Scandinavian empire of Cnut. - -Most striking of all the figures of this period, more interesting far -than the ignoble king, was Æthelred’s queen, Emma, daughter of Richard, -Duke of Normandy, the beautiful, fascinating, and designing woman whom -for her beauty the Saxons called Ælfgyfu Emma--Emma, the gift of the -elves--whom Æthelred married at Winchester in 1002. A rare personality -this Ælfgyfu Emma, but not a pleasing one. “I governed men by change, -and so I swayed all moods,” she might have said of herself. The wife of -two successive kings, and the mother of two more, she was to be for -fifty years, and during five successive reigns, the central influence in -Winchester history; for Æthelred on the day he married her presented -Winchester and Exeter to her as her ‘morning gift,’ or wedding present, -and when he died, Cnut the Dane, Æthelred’s successor, wedded her in -turn. Of the details of her career we have yet to speak more fully, and -after Cnut’s death she ‘sat’ or kept her court at Winchester for many -years as the ‘Old Lady,’ the beautiful Saxon phrase for Queen Dowager. -Her memory lingers now most closely around the charming old Tudor -building, Godbegot House, fronting Winchester High Street, which -occupies the site and still re-echoes the name of a little manor which -once belonged to her--the little manor of Godbiete. Queen Emma granted -it to the prior and convent of St. Swithun, “Toll free and Tax free for -ever,” and toll free and tax free it remained for years and years, -wherein none had right of access, and even the king’s warrant lost its -authority. And so for some hundreds of years the liberty of Godbiete -remained a source of division and evil influence, a sanctuary or -‘Alsatia’ right in the heart of the city, where those obnoxious to the -law might shelter and defy its terrors. For “no mynyster of ye Kinge -nether of none other lords of franchese shall do any execucon wythyn the -bounds of ye seid maner, but all only of ye mynystoris of ye seid Prior -and convent”--a rarely suggestive illustration of mediaeval life and -method. Destined ever to bring trouble with her in her lifetime, her -very legacy seemed to bear with it the same evil fruit of civil -disturbance to the city and much bickering of rival authorities for -centuries after her death. - -Of Winchester in Cnut’s reign we have frequent mention in the chronicles -of the time. The story of Cnut rebuking his courtiers on the seashore at -Southampton we need not repeat, except as regards its sequel. “After -which,” to quote Rudborne’s account, “Cnut never wore his crown, but -placing it on the head of the image above the high altar of the -cathedral (_at Winchester_), afforded a striking example of humility to -the kings who should come after him.” - -Nor was humility the only virtue Cnut displayed. His munificence to the -Church was striking and ample, and one chronicler after another the -gifts made by Cnut and Emma jointly to the religious houses both at -Winchester and in the district round. “This same Cnut,” we read, -“embellished the Old Minster with such magnificence that the gold and -silver and the splendour of the precious stones dazzled the eyes of the -beholders.” Two of Cnut’s gifts were indeed to become memorable in after -years. One was the great altar cross of solid gold which he and Queen -Emma presented jointly to the New Minster, a presentation quaintly -portrayed in the _Liber Vitae_ of Hyde, a register and martyrology -illuminated at Winchester during this reign. For years it remained the -glory of the houses till it was destroyed at the burning of Hyde Abbey, -and even then its history was not ended, for Bishop Henry of Blois, -having stolen the precious metal mingled with the ashes from the -conflagration, was forced by the monks of Hyde to make restitution. The -other historic gift was that made to the Old Minster, of “three hides of -land called Hille,” usually identified as St. Catherine’s Hill, whereon, -in centuries to come, generation after generation of Wykeham’s scholars -were to make regular pilgrimage for purposes of play on ‘remedies’ or -days of relaxation. The land is still Church property, and is held now -by the ecclesiastical commissioners. - -Cnut is a great figure both in Winchester and in English history. -Foreigner though he was, he ruled not as an alien conqueror, but as an -English monarch, and Englishmen are proud to claim him as one of the -greatest among our national rulers. He died in 1035, and his body was -brought to Winchester for interment in the Old Minster, and in the -Cathedral his bones are still preserved in one of the mortuary chests -already referred to, along with those of Emma his - -[Illustration: CHURCH OF ST. CROSS - -St. Cross Hospital founded by Bishop Henry of Blois in 1136, and placed -by him subsequently under the protection of the Knights of St. John of -Jerusalem, from which circumstance the Brethren wear the characteristic -_croix pattée_ or eight-pointed cross of the Order. - -[Illustration] - -Cardinal Beaufort built ‘Beaufort’s Tower’ and most of the present -domestic buildings, and founded the Order of Noble Poverty. - -The hospitality to travellers for which the Knights Hospitallers were -noted is still practised in the form of the ‘Wayfarer’s Dole’ of bread -and ale, dispensed at the hospital gates to those applying for it, very -much as in mediaeval days.] - -queen, and--strange companionship--William Rufus also. - -With Cnut’s death came faction and strife. Cnut’s two sons, Harold and -his half-brother Harthacnut, Æfgyfu Emma and Earl Godwine, had all -intrigued desperately for power. The various accounts differ, but -Harthacnut, who, as son of Emma and Cnut, had a strong following in the -country, was abroad at the time, and in his absence Harold secured the -throne. Emma had played her cards well, perhaps too well, for she had -managed to secure possession of Cnut’s treasure and to assert her -influence as ‘lady paramount’ over Wessex, for we read - -... it was resolved that Æfgyfu, Harthacnut’s mother, should dwell - at Winchester with the king, her son’s hûscarls, and hold all - Wessex under his authority. - -But this was not to last. Harold asserted himself and raided his -‘mother,’--she was his stepmother, of course,--while - -... Ælfgyfu Emma, the lady, sat then there within, and Harold ... - sent thither, and caused to be taken from her all the best - treasures which she could not hold which King Cnut had possessed; - and yet she sat there therein the while she might. - -Nor was this all. Harold’s violence became impossible to make head -against, and the poor queen was driven into exile - -... without any mercy against the stormy winter, and she came to - Bruges beyond sea, and Count Baldwine there well received her ... - the while she had need. - -And so, for some three years, both Emma and Harthacnut were fugitives at -Baldwin’s court, till on the death of the violent and worthless Harold, -some three years after, they returned. Harthacnut, equally inglorious, -reigned some two years only, and actually died during his own marriage -feast as he stood up to wassail his bride. His body was brought to -Winchester for interment in the Old Minster, as a modern inscription in -the Cathedral serves to remind us; while his mother enriched the New -Minster with a gruesome relic--the head of the blessed Saint Valentine -the Martyr--to pay for masses for his soul. Then in 1043 came Edward the -Confessor, son of Emma and Æthelred the Redeless, who was “hallowed king -at Winchester on the first Easter day”; and the realm had peace at -least, if not rest, for over twenty years. - -Since her return to England, Emma, ‘the lady,’ had not been idle, for at -the accession of the new king she was not only re-established in all her -old supremacy, but had recovered much of the wealth which Harold had -wrested from her, and the remaining seven years of her life witnessed a -continual struggle for ascendancy between her and Edward her son. Edward -had no sooner been crowned than he set himself to seize her -treasure--doubtless it was national rather than personal property--but -Emma, skilled to fish in troubled water, had landed both loaves as well -as fishes in her net, and this time Godwine the earl, unfortunately for -her, cast his weight into the opposing scale; accordingly, six months -after Edward’s coronation, we read-- - - The King was so advised that he and Earl Leofric, and Earl Godwine, - and Earl Siward, with their attendants, rode from Gloucester to - Winchester unawares upon the Lady (_Emma_), and they bereaved her - of all the treasures which she owned, which were not to be told ... - and after that they let her reside therein-- - -a passage notable in its way, for it brings before us, in close -juxtaposition, practically all the great characters of the Confessor’s -reign--Ælfgyfu Emma, and the king her son, and the three great earls, -with their attendants--Godwine, the great Earl of Wessex, accompanied -possibly by his sons Harold and Tostig: Leofric, Earl of Mercia, the -‘grim earl’ of Tennyson’s poem, husband of the famous Godiva: and -Siward, Earl of Northumbria, the old Siward of Shakespeare’s -_Macbeth_--and suggests a striking subject for pictorial representation, -which as yet, unfortunately, no artist’s brush has attempted. It was -doubtless in the national interest that the three rival earls were led -to combine to support the king against his mother, but we cannot but -regret that the circumstance which united this notable and noble trio -together in the support of the king--probably the only occasion in his -reign when the king ever commanded their united support--should not have -been one more heroic than that of forcing a defenceless if grasping old -woman to render up the keys of her treasure-chest. - -We have one more picture of the ‘Old Lady’--the legend of Queen Emma and -the ploughshares, a legend peculiarly characteristic of mediaeval -sentiment, which is quaintly narrated in full and charming detail by -more than one chronicler. Her enemies had slanderously connected her -name with that of Alwine, Bishop of Winchester, and she had appealed to -the ordeal by fire to clear her reputation. - -Coming from Wherwell Abbey, where she had been forced to retire for -refuge, she had passed the night in prayer and fasting, and in the -morning, in the presence of the king and a great concourse of people, -she had been led forward by two bishops, to pass barefooted over nine -red-hot ploughshares laid in order in the nave of the Old Minster -church. Yet such was the potency of the protection she derived from her -blameless conduct and unsullied conscience, that she was not only -unharmed but had actually passed over the ploughshares before she became -conscious that she had even reached them, whereupon the king, -overwhelmed with contrition and remorse, implored her forgiveness, in -the words of the repentant prodigal: “Mother, I have sinned against -Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son”; -while in token of his sincerity he presented his own body before the -queen and the bishops for punishment. The bishops touched him each with -a rod, after which the pious king received three strokes from the hand -of his weeping mother. - -The Winchester chronicler, conscious of a ‘divided duty,’ has managed -very dexterously to extricate the king from severe censure, while -honourably loyal to the lady paramount of his city. In 1052 Emma died, -and was buried by her second husband’s side in the Old Minster. Her -bones still rest, as already mentioned, mingled with his, in one of the -Cathedral mortuary chests. - -After Emma’s death Edward the Confessor was frequently at Winchester; he -revived the practice of the earlier Saxon kings, and “wore his crown at -Winchester at Easter time”--in other words, held his Easter Court there. -Into the details of his reign we need not enter. Most striking, perhaps, -from the point of view of our Winchester annals, is the amazing -accumulation of extravagant legend, beneath which the history of this -reign is buried and obscured. One such legend we have just related; -another one is that of the mysterious death of Earl Godwine. The -_Chronicle_ records the circumstance briefly and naturally. “On the -second Easter day he was sitting with the king at refection (_doubtless -at Wolvesey_) when he suddenly sank down by the footstool, deprived of -speech and of all power.... He continued so, speechless and powerless, -until the Thursday, and then resigned his life, and he lies within the -Old Minster.” A plain story, plainly told--an old man, a sudden stroke -of paralysis, and death in its natural course. But not so in the hands -of the fifteenth-century annalist; the story had grown, by the snowball -principle, by then: Godwine was no friend of the monks, and Edward was a -Saint--the Confessor. Godwine in this account, while feasting at the -royal table, is under grievous suspicion of compassing the death of the -king’s brother, Alfred the - -Ætheling. A cupbearer, in handing the cup to the king, slips with one -foot on the floor, but dexterously recovers his balance with the other -foot. “Thus,” remarked Godwine, “brother brings aid to brother.” The -king retorts fiercely, “But for the wiles of Earl Godwine, my brother -would have been able to bear aid to me.” The earl earnestly protesting, -and in token of his innocence, lifts a piece of bread, praying that it -may choke him if he is in any way complicated in the crime of murder. -The pious king solemnly blesses the bread, which proves a fatal -mouthful, for “Satan entered into him when he had received the sop,” and -the earl falls speechless before the incensed king, who spurns the body -with his foot, while his sons Harold and Tostig remove it, and later on -bury it surreptitiously in the Cathedral. So was history written ‘once -upon a time.’ Whereabouts in the Cathedral the great earl was buried is -unknown. - -One more legend--for legend, unfortunately, we must so deem it--the -legend of Abbot Alwyn and the monks of Newan Mynstre, and we must -conclude. Edward’s reign is marked by the struggle between Saxon and -Norman interest for supremacy in England, and to the Confessor Norman -art, Norman culture, Norman thought were dear. Doubtless his instinct -was so far right, but, unaccompanied as it was by any national sentiment -or attachment, this predilection must be accounted in him a weakness, -and not a virtue, and opposition to the king’s policy took on a national -and therefore patriotic colour. This was reflected in the - -Winchester religious houses, and the Newan Mynstre, staunch in its -attachment to the Saxon cause, became the rallying point for Saxon -patriotism, while the Old Minster had leanings towards the Norman cause. -Thus it came about that when, on the Confessor’s death, Harold marched -to Senlac to repel the Norman invader, Abbot Alwyn and twelve monks of -Newan Mynstre donned coats of mail, shouldered each a battleaxe, and -fought sternly and heroically in defence of the cause. - -There, in the thickest of the fight, they plied their axes bravely, and -when all was over their bodies were found, lying dead round the dead -king’s banner, and it was seen from their habit that they were monks of -the New Minster at Winchester. The Norman Conqueror, on being informed -of the discovery, remarked with grim irony that “the Abbot was worth a -barony, and each of the monks a manor,” and mulcted the New Minster -accordingly. The story, which is to be found in Dugdale’s _Monasticon_, -is picturesque and appealing--unfortunately there is no confirmation of -it. It is not given in the _Chronicle_, nor in any local sources such as -the Hyde Abbey records (where assuredly it would have been preserved), -in Rudborne, or the _Annales de Wintonia_. Rudborne gives, indeed, a -long list of lands which the Conqueror deprived the New Minster of, but -that in itself would be no confirmation of the story, for in the same -passage he states that William also seized lands belonging to the Old -Minster. William, it is true, kept the Abbacy of the New Minster vacant -for some two years, but that again was but an act of minor tyranny, too -familiar to call for much remark. The story, indeed, appears to be quite -discredited by the entries in _Domesday Book_, which seem to afford no -evidence of spoliation, but rather to prove that the New Minster lands -were added to by William, while the Old Minster certainly suffered at -his hands; and we fear that the story of the abbot and the twelve monks -of New Minster must, like so many others, be offered up reluctantly as -one more sacrifice on the altar of historical accuracy. The subject may -be pursued in the _Victoria History of Hampshire_, where it is fully -discussed. - -With Harold’s death on Senlac field Winchester opens on a new phase. -Saxon history in Winchester is glorious and fascinating, but of Saxon -buildings in Winchester few visible traces remain. Norman Winchester is -with us still, and under the Normans Winchester was to expand and attain -greater outward beauty and glory than perhaps a thousand years of -undiluted Saxon rule would ever have conferred upon her. - -[Illustration: KING’S GATE, WINCHESTER - -The smallest of the five original gates of Winchester, of which it and -Westgate alone are standing now. Abutting on the great gate of St. -Swithun’s Priory--now the Close Gate--it was burnt down during the -Barons’ War, and when rebuilt a small church was built above it for the -use of the lay servitors of the Priory. This church is now the Parish -Church of St. Swithun’s, Winchester. An absurd local tradition connects -the name with the number of sovereigns of the realm who have passed -beneath it.] - -CHAPTER X - -NORMAN WINCHESTER - -Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis. - - -It is safe to say that no other event so thoroughly affected the -fortunes of Winchester as the Norman Conquest. Not only was the city -completely transformed in outward form, but its relationship to the -country at large was to undergo profound modification, and a train of -political circumstance opened up the effect of which was ultimately to -deprive her of the leading national position she had hitherto occupied, -and to relegate her to second if not lower rank in the national polity. - -The decline of Winchester was, however, as yet still far distant, and -the immediate result of Norman rule was to bring Winchester into even -greater prominence than in the closing years of Saxon rule. - -We have spoken of Winchester as the capital of Saxon England, and so it -had been, but not in the exclusive sense in which the word is employed -nowadays. In fact, in the modern sense, viz. that of a permanent seat -and headquarters of government, no capital existed then at all. The -details of government were far less complex, government as an art far -less specialized and far less an exact science, and its whole character -took on a far more personal and direct complexion than at present, so -that while Winchester and London might both correctly enough be termed -capitals in the sense that the permanent symbols of rule, the official -records, and so forth, were kept in them, it was in reality the king’s -headquarters, wherever he might happen to be, that formed the effective -capital. But though Winchester was being, and had been for many years -past, hard pressed by London, she still retained the Royal Treasury, and -the state records were still kept there, and she could therefore still -claim something more than a nominal pre-eminence, even though the growth -and commercial development of London were rapidly diminishing her -relative influence. - -The position of London William had recognized by being crowned there, -before the ceremony had been carried out at Winchester or elsewhere; but -other circumstances--political motives, reasons of personal convenience, -and indeed of personal preference--drew him largely to Winchester. -Indeed, when in England he ‘wore his crown,’ _i.e._ held his ceremonial -court, three times a year--at London at Pentecost, at Gloucester at -Christmas, and at Easter, the leading festival of the year, at -Winchester. - -And both policy and convenience were largely involved in William’s -action. Communication was slow and difficult, the country sparsely -habited, and government then, even more than nowadays, rested on -prestige--the appeal to imagination. - -William had posed as the lawful heir to the Saxon throne; he appealed, -whenever he could advantageously do so, for sanction for his acts to the -laws of Cnut or Edward the Confessor, and he was far too prescient a -ruler to underestimate the effect produced on his Saxon subjects, by his -sitting on the throne of his predecessors and ruling his Saxon subjects -in their historic centre of rule, quite apart from the subtle appeal his -so doing made to his own personal vanity. Moreover, apart from all -personal considerations, the position of Winchester marked it out as a -natural capital--for England was after all but a part of his realm, and -the English Channel was the bridge between it and the Norman provinces, -with the estuaries of Southampton and of the Seine as the ends of the -bridge. Indeed, as long as the link with Normandy remained firm, -Winchester could hold its head up high. When Normandy fell away, -Winchester declined also. - -But beyond these reasons of state, Winchester appealed personally to the -Conqueror’s passion for the chase. The great forests all round it--for -it was still but a clearing, as it were, in the great primeval -forest--afforded him facilities for hunting at his convenience, such as -few other spots could offer. Here then he erected a royal residence, -some scanty traces of which may still be seen; here, very shortly -after, the inevitable sign of Norman domination, a great, impregnable, -and awe-inspiring fortress was to be seen rapidly rising on the high -ground in the south-western angle of the city area, and here too--and, -we are glad to say, almost equally inevitably--Norman culture and Norman -devotion expended themselves in raising a stately and glorious temple -for the worship of God, worthy alike in the dignity of its conception, -the beauty of its execution, and the scale of grandeur on which it was -carried out. Added to, modified, reconstructed or transformed, as -various of its parts have subsequently been, it is in essential features -the Norman Cathedral, which is standing still, and which is the glory of -Southern England to-day. - -Foremost among the questions of the time was that of ecclesiastical -policy. William proceeded with caution. The position of Stigand, -Archbishop of Canterbury, had long been canonically irregular, for he -held Winchester as well as Canterbury, and he was guilty of other -irregularities also, and so at first William assumed a non-committal -attitude towards him. He refused to permit him to officiate at his -coronation, but treated him with respect and courtesy, until a -convenient opportunity arose to depose him, when he had him brought to -trial and deprived. The remaining years of his life Stigand spent as a -kind of state prisoner in Winchester. - -Many tales are told of his hoarded wealth and his penurious habits; a -part of it, a great crucifix of massive gold and silver, he bestowed -upon the Cathedral. He was buried within its walls, and a figure of him -has been of recent times placed in one of the niches on the great Altar -Screen. - -Stigand’s deposition made room for two notable appointments. Lanfranc, -perhaps the keenest intellect of the day, certainly the foremost among -ecclesiastical statesmen, was made archbishop. William Walkelyn, a -relative, there is some reason to believe, of the Conqueror, became the -first Norman bishop of Winchester. - -Walkelyn enjoyed a high reputation alike for learning and for personal -piety. The monkish author of the _Annales de Wintonia_ describes him as -a man “of perfect piety and sanctity of life, endowed with wondrous -sagacity and withal of such abstinence that he eschewed both meat and -fish and rarely tasted wine or mead, and then only with extreme -moderation.” - -To such a man, imbued with the culture as well as the genius of Norman -civilization, the Saxon Cathedral of Æthelwold--albeit barely one -hundred years before it had seemed so sublime to the restricted and -untutored imagination of precentor Wulfstan--appeared meagre and quite -insufficient. He set to work to rebuild the Cathedral, and this fact -alone must serve to make his name ever memorable among the ’ makers of -Winchester.’ - -Walkelyn’s building far exceeded in proportions the Saxon one it -replaced. It is a moot point how far the sites of the two buildings were -identical, and a passage in the _Annales de Wintonia_ seems to show -they certainly were not entirely so, though in any case they could not -have differed much; but in historic continuity, in the dust of the early -kings it preserved, in the shrines of the saints which it displayed to -the devout, it was still the historic cathedral of the Saxon capital, -transformed and glorified indeed on a scale of noble vastness and -dignity hitherto unattempted in England. - -Foremost among cathedral traditions is the story of the building of the -roof, recorded in the same _Annales de Wintonia_ to which reference has -been several times already made, and in them alone. Walkelyn had -strained his resources to the full, and still needed timber for the -roof. He applied accordingly to the Conqueror for a grant of timber, and -received permission to take from one of his woods--Hempage Wood, near -Avington, five miles from Winchester--as much timber as he could fell -and cart away within three days. “Make hay while the king smiles,” was -the bishop’s maxim. He collected a whole army of wood-cutters, carters, -teams of horses, and in three days removed every timber tree in the -wood, leaving one oak only, the so-called Gospel Oak under which -tradition reported Augustine to have preached. Unwarranted as the -tradition appears to have been, it served to protect the tree, which -still stands, though to all appearance dead, an interesting reminder of -Walkelyn and his cathedral. When William discovered what a sweep the -bishop had made of his “most delectable wood,” he was furious, and was -only with difficulty appeased. “Certainly as I was too liberal in my -grant, so you were too exacting in the advantage you took of it,” he -said, when at length he readmitted the bishop to his presence and his -favour. - -The story acquires additional interest from the subsequent history of -these huge and venerable timbers. For some 800 years they have continued -to support the mighty roof, though quite recently some of them have had -to be replaced, owing to the destructiveness of a grub--the grub of the -_Sirex gigas_--which had in places eaten them through and through. A -portion of one of these beams with a specimen of the destructive _sirex_ -can be seen in the city museum, and curios made of this so-called -‘cathedral oak’--though much of it by the way is chestnut--are being -sold now for the benefit of the Cathedral Preservation Fund: thus is -exemplified Earl Godwine’s remark, “Brother brings aid to brother.” - -Two other items relative to Walkelyn are of interest. Curiously -enough--and it speaks eloquently for his detachment of mind and freedom -from professional narrowness--he wanted at first to revoke Æthelwold’s -policy and put back secular canons for monks. The monks were aghast, -and, more important still, Lanfranc was hostile, and accordingly after a -struggle the bishop gave way and abandoned the project. The other item -is the connection between Walkelyn and the great Fair of St. Giles, to -which reference has been already made. Walkelyn persuaded William’s son, -William Rufus, to grant him the right to a three days’ - -Fair, on the hill eastward of the city, and to apply the tolls so -obtained to the erection of the Cathedral. To the development and -further history of the Fair we shall return in a later chapter. - -The residence or ‘Palace’ of the Conqueror stood in the very centre of -the city, near where the Butter Cross stands now, and abutting upon the -Newan Mynstre. Indeed, to obtain room for it the monks were despoiled of -part of their site. Interesting remains of it exist in the thick walls -and the cavernous cellars of the ancient houses which now occupy the -spot--the latter vividly suggestive of dungeons and of the Isaac of York -episode in Scott’s _Ivanhoe_. Close at hand were the Royal Treasury and -the Mint, and almost within hail were the quarters of the king’s -executioners, whom he kept always ready ‘laid on,’ as it were--a -gruesome reminder of the darker tones in which life in Norman times was -painted. - -The rule of the Norman Conqueror was one which profoundly impressed the -imagination both of his contemporary subjects and of succeeding -generations. No historical events have been more picturesquely told or -more repeatedly dwelt upon than the stories of Curfew Bell, of Domesday -Book, of the Feudal System, and of the New Forest--all these centre in -some form or other either round Winchester or the immediate locality. -The history of William’s reign, as presented in our history books to -children at least, might indeed be almost entirely constructed out of -Winchester and its memorials. The curfew ordinance, - -[Illustration: MARTYR WORTHY - -One of the old-world villages, some few miles above Winchester, lying in -a reach of the river Itchen of unusual beauty and charm.] - -the order to extinguish fires and put out lights--probably as much a -wise precaution to diminish risk of fire in crowded towns built mainly -of wood as directly political in purpose,--was first promulgated here. -Here first of all curfew was rung, as it has rung nightly ever since. -Formerly it rang from the little church of St. Peter in the Shambles, -behind Godbiete; now it rings from the old Guild Hall--the Hall, in -earlier days, of the Guild Merchant of Winchester. - -Another event which affected the popular imagination even more -profoundly was the great survey of the kingdom, the results of which -were embodied in the Domesday Book, so called because, as Rudborne says, -“it spareth no one, just like the great Day of Doom.” The compilation of -it was regarded as a great act of oppression. “Inquisition was even made -as to how many animals sufficed for the tillage of one hide of land.” In -reality it was an act of statesmanlike administration, the object of -which was to collect accurate information for the purpose of assessing -‘geld,’ or dues for military service. Exact assessment for taxes is -evidently not a modern terror merely, nor is the modern income tax-payer -the only one who has objected to inquisitorial modes of assessment. - -Winchester and London were omitted from Domesday Book altogether--an -omission which was repaired, as far as Winchester is concerned, in Henry -I.’s reign, when the Winchester Domesday Book, as it was called, was -compiled. Needless to say, Domesday Book was merely the popular name -for it; its real name was the _Rotulus Wintoniensis_, or Book of -Winchester, sometimes termed _Rotulus Regis_ or King’s Book. Domesday -Book was kept at Winchester, and a copy of it at Westminster. The -original is now in the Rolls Office. - -It is certainly noteworthy that Winchester should have given birth to -the two most valuable records of national history which this country has -ever possessed, two records which no other nation can find any parallel -to, viz. the English Chronicle and the Domesday Book. The value of the -latter is that it gives us in absolutely unquestionable form the raw -material of history, unwarped by personal bias, uncoloured by tradition. -By means of it we can put to exact test many of the time-honoured -statements, accepted for generation after generation without question or -demur, and in that fierce crucible many and many a legendary tradition -treasured hitherto as current historical coin, has been melted down and -revealed as a spurious token merely. Such a one we probably have in the -story already related of Abbot Alwyn and the monks of Newan Mynstre; the -story of the afforestation of the New Forest is another. But the New -Forest, though local, is rather beyond our scope: the reader is referred -to the fuller volume on Hampshire for a discussion of this topic: and, -indeed, the story of Norman Winchester is full enough as it is--replete -with many a thrilling scene, many a notable historical figure. William -himself, strong, stern, far-seeing and determined, a leader among men, -towering head and shoulders above his contemporaries, capable of -cruelty, hard and grasping, indeed, as were all who strove to rule in -those stern days, but never small or moved by petty spite. “He nothing -common did or mean,” might almost be said of him. And side by side with -him, Lanfranc the Italian, smooth, supple, astute--like William, a -master mind, a great man, but with the greatness of the ecclesiastical -statesman rather than of the saint or even the scholar; and in sharp -contrast Walkelyn the Norman, the high-minded, the conscientious, the -ascetic--a scholar and a devotee rather than a statesman; and after -these a host of minor personalities, striking and interesting enough, -too, in their way. Foremost among these stands Waltheof, Earl of -Huntingdon, son of the great Siward, Earl of Northumbria. A picturesque -and pathetic figure he is, with certain virtues and high qualities all -unfitted for his time. - -Poor Waltheof--like Saul of old, his outward man striking and tall and -goodly to look upon,--was the idol of William’s Saxon subjects. But the -fair exterior covered after all but a weak and irresolute soul, no match -for the master mind of William, who read him through and through as a -reader reads his book. Yet though in his weakness William despised him, -in his popularity William feared him, and when denounced by his -treacherous Norman wife for the merely colourable part he had played in -the Bridal of Norwich-- - - That bride-ale - That was many men’s bale-- - -William, deaf to all entreaty, kept him a close prisoner, and finally, -at the Pentecostal Gemôt held at Winchester, had sentence of death -pronounced upon him. Swiftly and secretly the order was carried out, and -on May 31, St. Petronilla’s day, at early dawn, while the men of -Winchester were in their beds, Waltheof was led out to execution on St. -Giles’s Hill. He came arrayed in full dress as an earl, wearing his -badges of rank, and on reaching the place of execution knelt down to -pray. He continued sometime in prayer while the executioner, fearing -interruption, grew restive and impatient. “Wait yet a little moment,” -pleaded the victim; “let me, at least, say the Lord’s Prayer for me and -for thee,” and the Earl’s voice was heard uttering the petitions one by -one, till at the words, “Lead us not into temptation,” the axe -descended. But, as the severed head fell from the body, the lips were -seen still to be moving, and the words, “But deliver us from evil,” were -distinctly heard. Such is the moving account we have of Waltheof’s -death. The last chapter of the story belongs rather to Crowland than to -Winchester. Buried in the first instance obscurely at Winchester, his -body was later on permitted to be reinterred at Crowland, and, on -raising it, the head was found to be miraculously reunited to the trunk, -a thin red line alone revealing the death he had died. Kingsley has told -it in masterly style in _Hereward the Wake_ and the episode of his false -wife Judith’s visit to her husband’s tomb forms a thrilling incident -most picturesquely told. - -Of Hereward himself Winchester history is silent, but Kingsley, in -another striking passage, brings him too upon our local stage, when he -rides to Winchester to make submission to the king. With his companions -he rides along the Roman road which leads still from Silchester, till, -from the top of the downs, they catch sight of the city lying beneath -them. - - Within the city rose the ancient Minster Church, built by - Ethelwold--ancient even then--where slept the ancient kings, - Kennulf, Egbert, and Ethelwulf, the Saxons; and by them the Danes, - Canute the Great and Hardicanute his son, and Norman Emma, his - wife, and Ethelred’s before him; and the great Earl Godwin, who - seemed to Hereward to have died not twenty but two hundred years - ago; and it may be an old Saxon hall upon the little isle, whither - Edgar had bidden bring the heads of all the wolves in Wessex, where - afterwards the bishops built Wolvesey Palace. But nearer to them, - on the downs which sloped up to the west, stood an uglier thing, - which they saw with curses deep and loud--the keep of the new - Norman castle by the west gate. - -We will not stop to discuss this striking passage; and though Hereward -be but a figure imported into our local history, the castle which he saw -was, both then and for many years to come, the most noticeable and -striking feature in Winchester, as also the leading outward symbol of -the Norman presence and power. For centuries it was to hold its place -supreme, to see one sovereign after other add and re-add to its palace, -to stand siege and battery, to be the residence of kings and queens, to -witness the birth of more than one heir to the throne, to gather within -its walls councils and parliaments. For 600 years it was to endure till -Cromwell laid siege to it, and then razed it to the ground, all save the -great Hall, built in Plantagenet days, by Henry III. which still remains -glorious in its associations as in the beauty of its proportions. Yes, -Hereward and his companions might utter curses loud and deep, for the -rebirth of the nation, which the Norman period heralded, was not -accomplished without much labour and travail, both of body and of -spirit; but could he have looked forward, as we can look back, upon all -that Norman rule has been the stepping-stone to, both in Winchester and -elsewhere, he would have found, like the unwilling prophet of old, a -blessing on his lips and not a curse, and we too shall be ready to offer -up our Te Deum in a spirit of thankfulness, earnest and sincere, though -the appropriate accompaniment to it be rather a subdued strain, and in a -minor key, than an unbroken outburst of triumphal joy. - -CHAPTER XI - -LATER NORMAN DAYS - - They shot him dead on the Nine-stone Brig - Beside the Headless Cross, - And they left him lying in his blood - Upon the moor and moss. - BARTHRAM’S _Dirge_. - - -When William the Conqueror died, the link with Normandy was temporarily -severed, and during the reign of Rufus of evil memory Winchester -declined in political importance; nor, apart from one or two episodes, -are the Winchester memories of the reign of a striking character. It -witnessed, indeed, the practical completion of Walkelyn’s life-work--the -great cathedral--as well as the institution of St. Giles’s Fair, as -already mentioned, but these belong in essence, though not in time, -rather to the epoch of the Conqueror than to that of his violent-minded -successor. - -Most characteristic of all events of the reign was the long-drawn-out -struggle between Rufus and Archbishop Anselm--“the fierce young bull and -the old sheep,” as Anselm himself had in dismal prognostication dubbed -them. On Lanfranc’s death in 1089 William kept the see vacant for -several years, as was his practice in matters of church preferment, in -the meantime shamelessly appropriating the temporalities of the see; and -when as a result of a dangerous illness he at last agreed to appoint a -successor, it was only with extreme reluctance and forebodings of ill -that Anselm was at last prevailed on to accept the king’s nomination. -Anselm’s fears were fully justified, and a state of hopeless strife soon -existed between the two. To all Anselm’s demands, particularly his -demand to go to Rome for investiture, the king returned an inflexible -refusal, until a crisis was reached at a great council held in -Winchester, memorable as the last personal meeting between the king and -the archbishop. Every form of pressure was brought to bear on Anselm; he -refused, as a matter of conscience, to give way, and finally announced -his intention of going to Rome without the king’s sanction, as he could -not go with it. - -The king raged and stormed in vain, till Anselm, as he turned to leave -the royal presence, begged permission to give him his blessing. “I -refuse not thy blessing,” said the king, somewhat subdued; he inclined -his head, and Anselm signed the sign of the cross over him. They never -met again. - -The last scene of all in the reign is, however, Winchester’s most -dramatic, as well as tragic, recollection. On the afternoon of Lammas -Day (August 1), 1100, news came to Winchester that the Red King, who had -been hunting that day in the New Forest, had - -[Illustration: WATERSPLASH AT ITCHEN STOKE - -Perhaps the prettiest reach of the river Itchen--and that is saying a -good deal--lying between Itchen Stoke and Ovington. The road between -them crosses the main stream in a delightful ‘watersplash.’] - -there met a violent death. Prince Henry, his younger brother, with his -followers had spurred into the city bringing the tidings, had seized the -Royal Treasure, and had summoned the Witan to pronounce him king. -Meanwhile the Red King’s body, alone and untended, lay weltering in -blood on the spot where he had fallen, till a charcoal-burner, Purkess -by name, travelling along had found it and placed it in his cart, that -the poor remains might at least have decent sepulture in the cathedral -of the diocese. As the news spread in the city an eager throng gathered -and watched the road to await the sorry funeral cortège, as it made its -mournful way, probably along the road from Compton through the south -gate, and so into the old monastery. The interment took place the very -next day, right under the tower--“on the Thursday he was slain, and on -the morning after buried”; and when a few years later the Norman tower -fell upon the tomb, men said it was the Red King’s crimes and not -structural weakness that had occasioned the fall. His bones were -transferred later on to one of the mortuary chests on the side screens -of the choir, but popular tradition still points to a tomb beneath the -tower as the tomb where he was originally buried, and speaks of it as -Rufus’s Tomb. - -And now, with Henry on the throne, Winchester resumed its former -political importance. Henry reunited the Norman provinces to England, -and the old activity of intercourse across the seas was resumed. But -more than that, Henry identified himself with the city more closely -than any king has ever done before or since. His romantic marriage with -the Saxon princess Eadgyth, of Romsey Abbey, grand-daughter of Edmund -Ironside, made him popular, and after his marriage he and his queen--the -good queen Molde the people called her--made Winchester Castle their -residence, and here their son William, the ill-fated hero of the _White -Ship_ tragedy, was born. - -With its old political position restored, and the king reigning and -residing here in person, Winchester rose to the zenith of its importance -in Norman days. - -A number of events of interest are identified with this reign. First and -foremost, the birth of Hyde Abbey. Newan Mynstre, the pious offspring of -Alfred and Edward the Elder, had since the translation of Swithun’s -bones, during Æthelwold’s régime, steadily declined in importance, and -its activity had been much hampered. The proximity to the older and more -extensive foundation, which eclipsed and overshadowed it in importance, -was one cause; another was the cramped nature of the site upon which the -New Minster had been erected. - -Always small and confined, so close were their respective churches that -chanting in one disturbed the devotions in the other. The erection of -William the Conqueror’s palace had made matters still worse, and the -monks had had to forego a portion of their already over-congested area. -Under these circumstances William Giffard, who had succeeded Walkelyn as -Bishop of Winchester, obtained from Henry permission to move the -monastery to the village of Hyde in the northern suburbs of the city, -and here near Danemark Mead, where Guy of Warwick was said to have -vanquished Colbrand the Dane, the new structure was commenced. The -immediate result was highly satisfactory. - -The monks of St. Swithun’s, who also had suffered from the over-close -proximity and congestion, as well as from the rivalry of its over-close -neighbour, heartily co-operated and granted the site for the new abbey. -Old rivalries were allayed, and for a time a spirit of cordiality -prevailed, while as a means of raising funds to assist both houses the -king’s grant of a three days’ fair was added to, and an extension given -for five additional days, making eight altogether. - -In 1110 all was ready, and the monks of Newan Mynstre proceeded in -solemn procession to take possession of their new home, bearing with -them their sacred relics--the great cross of gold given by Cnut and -Emma, and the remains of their illustrious dead, Alfred and Alswitha and -their son Edward, for reinterment in the glorious new Abbey Church. -Newan Mynstre had so far lasted for some 200 years; now it entered on a -new and amplified existence--an existence destined to endure for over -400 years, during which, as Hyde Abbey, it was to maintain a proud and -exalted position among the monasteries of the land, till Henry VIII.’s -commissioners dissolved and swept it away, leaving what is now a scanty -ruin merely--a gateway and little else--to speak of the former glories -of the once famous foundation of Alfred the Great. - -Of interest and importance only second to that of the erection of Hyde -Abbey was the appointment of the bishop, Henry of Blois, who succeeded -to the see on the death of William Giffard in 1129--a man of high birth -and extreme eminence, who was to play a leading part both in the -national fortunes and in the fortunes of the city for over forty years. -His career we shall deal with more fully in the next chapter. - -As to the condition of Winchester in Henry’s reign we have fortunately -sources of exact and unusually ample information. From the Domesday -Survey of William the Conqueror, Winchester and London had been entirely -omitted. Henry gave orders for a Winchester Domesday, as it is sometimes -termed, to be compiled--a survey limited, it is true, to the king’s -lands, that is, the lands in Winchester paying land-tax and brug-tax -(the latter a tax of uncertain nature, perhaps dues on brewing). This -was supplemented by a second survey made some years after by order of -Bishop Henry of Blois; and the results of the two surveys are of -peculiar importance and interest, for though the church properties are -left entirely unnoticed, we glean from it knowledge, not only of the -streets and properties, but also of the occupations and handicrafts, _et -hoc genus omne_, of Norman Winchester. - -The mode of taking the census was peculiar. Eighty-six of the leading -burghers were empanelled and sworn to hold a grand inquest, and to -return a faithful verdict. From their labours we gather not only that -the Norman city, in its general ground plan, its walls, gates, and the -dispositions of its streets, reproduced very closely many of the -features of the original city erected by the Romans, but that that -general character has remained practically undisturbed to the present -day. The main artery and commercial thoroughfare was then, as now, the -High Street, referred to only indirectly in the census as _Vicus -Magnus_. Nearly all the other streets crossed it at right angles and -were named after the different trades followed in them; and we gather -that in Winchester, as in all other mediaeval towns, each trade had its -own special street or quarter, and their general disposition was -somewhat according to the scheme annexed. - -Some few of these names linger still, though practically all the special -industries have long since disappeared. Minster Street has survived and -for obvious reasons, Sildwortenestret and Bucchestrete have survived to -modern times in Silver Hill and Busket Lane respectively, while Gere -Street or Gar Street, curiously enough, survives, though all but -unrecognisably, in Trafalgar Street. The list of the trades alone is -lengthy and varied, and in itself a telling testimony to the prosperity -of the city at the time. The occupations of cloth-weaving, -tailoring, tanning, remind us of the great industry of the -district--sheep-rearing--the wool and other products of which formed the -staple attraction for continental merchants to throng to the city - -[Illustration: - - Westgate. -The Castle. --||-- Snidelingestret (_or Tailors’ - || Street_), _now Westgate Lane_. - || -Gerestret (_or Gar Street, --||-- Bredenestret (_now Staple Gardens_). - now Trafalgar Street_). || _Here later on the - || Wool Staple was placed._ - || -Goldestret (_or Gold Street, --||-- Scowertenestret (_Shoe-waremen’s - now Southgate Street_). || Street or Cobblers’ - || Street_), _now Jewry Street. - || The Jewish Ghetto was here--hence - || its present name._ - || -Calpestret (_or St. Thomas’s --||-- Alwarenestret (_All-wares-men’s - Street_). || Street or Drapers’ Street_), - || (_now disappeared_). - || -Menstrestret (_now Little --||-- Flesmangerestret (_Flesh-mongers’ - Minster Street_). || Street or Butchers’ - || Shambles_), _now St. Peter’s - || Street_. - || -The Monastic Quarter. --||-- Sildwortenestret (_or Shieldware-men’s - || Street_), _now Upper - || Brook Street. The name survives - || in Silver Hill._ - || - ||-- Wenegerestret (_or Wongar - || Street_), _now Middle Brooks_. - || - ||-- Tannerestrete (_or Tanners’ -_On this side also was_ || Street_), _now Lower Brook - Colobrochestret (_or Colebrook || Street_. - Street_). _Close by was the || -[1]Hantachenesle, the quarters ||-- Bucchestrete (_near Eastgate_). - of one of the ‘Gilds.’_ || - Eastgate. -] - -during the fairs of St. Giles. The shieldmakers reflect its military -importance, and the goldsmiths the rank and material wealth of those for -whom it catered. - -Naturally enough, many other interesting details are to be gathered -incidentally, _e.g._ the names of the inhabitants, among which many -names still familiar as distinctively Winchester names are to be found, -and their various ranks and occupations. We read, for instance, of a -market near the three minsters, of which the present Market Street is a -survival; of ‘estals,’ or stalls, in the High Street, a reference with a -curious modern echo, inasmuch as the stalls in the High Street and -Broadway have been quite recently the source of much local heart-burning -and contention; of ‘escheopes,’ or shops, which had belonged to the -Confessor’s queen, Edith; of reeves (_prepositi_), and of a ‘stret -bidel’ (or _street beadle_). One curious entry relative to Eastgate -speaks of certain steps which gave access to the church above the gate -(_qdā gradˢ ad ascendendā ad ecclam sup portā_), showing that King’s -Gate was not alone among the city gates in having a little church above -it. - -Another important feature we gain information on is the position of the -Gilds. These trade organisations had now become important and fully -organised; they served for the protection of their members, they made -regulations for the conduct of the several trades, and their -headquarters were used as clubs or places for general meeting and -discussion--the latter including almost as a _sine qua non_ -ale-drinking, and that not always in moderation. The Survey contains -references to three halls or ‘gild’ headquarters--_Lachenictahalla_ (or -_chenictes’ hall_) near Westgate, the _Chenichetehalla_ near Eastgate -(on the site of the present St. John’s Rooms), and the _Hantachenesle in -Colebrook Street_. What the very obscure term _Hantachenesle_, applied -to the last named, means is a problem on which so far no satisfactory -light has been thrown. Nor is it clear who the ‘cnechts’ or ‘chenictes’ -were--whether, as is generally assumed, they were ‘knights,’ _i.e._ -young men of rank, or ‘cnechts,’ _i.e._ sons of burghers not yet -admitted to the ‘Freedom.’ We read that at the Chenichetehalla, the -‘chenictes’ drank their gild (_chenictehalla ubi chenictes potabant -Gildam suam_), and at the Hantachenesle the ‘approved’ or freemen drank -theirs (_Hantachenesle ... ubi pbi homiēs Went potabant Gildā suā_). -That this beer-drinking was often inordinate we gather from various -contemporary references, such as Anselm’s rebuke of a certain monk who -was given to frequenting the gilds and drinking deeply: _in multis -inordinate se agit et maxime in bibendo ut in gildis cum ebriosis -bibat_. There is also a reference to a ‘_Gihald_’ or -‘_Gihalla_’--possibly a ‘Gild’ Hall,--and the Pipe Rolls of this reign -mention a Tailors’ Gild, and a _Chepemanesela_, or _Chapman’s Hall_. The -whole subject of these gilds, as well as of their halls, is one of great -obscurity, and the references in the Winton Surveys, full of interest as -they are, serve rather to whet our curiosity than to actually solve any -problems they suggest. - -[Illustration: EASTON - -A typical Itchen valley village, one of the most picturesque in the -county, with an old Norman church, quaint thatched cottages, and clipped -yews.] - -But whatever their exact function and organisation at the time, from -them the important Merchant Gild grew, and its hall in High Street (on -the site occupied now by the old Guildhall) was the centre for many -years of corporate and civic rule, till the erection some forty years -ago of the present and more pretentious Guildhall in the Broadway. - -The whole circumstances of this so-called Winton Domesday are of unusual -interest. The original MSS. exist, bound in an ancient leather binding, -considered to be the work of contemporary Winchester craftsmen. These -are now the property of the Society of Antiquaries. - -Significant among other features of the mediaeval city was the Jewish -quarter, or Ghetto, a survival of which we have in the present Jewry -Street, at that time Scowertene Street. Abutting on this, in the rear of -what are now the extensive premises of the George Hotel, dwelt the -Jewish community, with a synagogue of its own, for the Jews were not -merely tolerated here, but actually welcomed. The extensive commercial -relations now rapidly developing between Winchester and the Continent -were doubtless responsible for this, and the Jew in his ancient -prescriptive capacity of banker was found to be an effective ally in -building up the commercial importance of the rapidly developing city. -References to the Jews at Winchester are fairly frequent all through the -next two centuries, the period of Winchester’s commercial prosperity. In -Richard I.’s reign Richard of Devizes tells us of a Lombard Jew lending -money to the Priory of St. Swithun, and lamenting the leniency shown to -them by Winchester; while later on in the thirteenth century we read of -a Jew--“Benedict, a son of Abraham”--being actually granted the full -freedom of the city. These facts reveal to us the scope and the -importance held by the Winchester of mediaeval times as an emporium and -centre of commerce of more than local repute. But we are anticipating, -and we must now return. - -The remaining distinctive feature of the city to be noted was the -monastic quarter, which occupied practically the whole area between High -Street, Calpe Street, and the outer city wall. Foremost in importance -was the great Convent of St. Swithun’s--its great cathedral church -forming its effective boundary to the north, its great gate opening into -Swithun Street close to the little postern gate or King’s Gate, and with -the south-eastern edge of the city wall as its southern limit. Behind -it, eastward, was the bishop’s residence--Wolvesey, the ancient court of -the Saxon kings--and flanking High Street at the eastern end was Nunna -Mynstre, or St. Mary’s Abbey, part of the revenues of which were derived -from the tolls or octroi duties levied on commodities entering the East -Gate. - -Such then, in bare outline, was the Winchester of Henry’s reign--not -without its miseries, its injustices, it is true, but, as the times -went, busy, prosperous, and developing. But this state of things was not -to endure for long. Henry’s heir, William, had perished in the _White -Ship_; and though he had done all he could to avert it, the land was to -be shortly handed over to a disputed succession and the horrors of civil -war when he died. Winchester has good reason to cherish the memory of -Henry I. and to recall his reign with satisfaction. He died in 1135, and -was buried in Reading Abbey, which he had himself founded. - -CHAPTER XII - -A GREAT BISHOP, HENRY OF BLOIS - - Let us now praise famous men.... - It was he that took thought for his people that they should not fall - And fortified the city against besieging. - _Ecclesiasticus._ - - -Great as has been the part played by kings in the history of our city, -that played by bishops has been even greater still, and few among the -makers of Winchester hold a more prominent or more honourable place than -the great bishop who had succeeded to the see a few years before Henry -I.’s death, Henry of Blois, brother of Stephen of Blois, now king of -England, whose fortunes were to be closely linked during the two -following reigns with those of our city. - -A scheming statesman and an ardent churchman, he was to play a leading -part in national affairs in the troublous times that were to follow--to -direct his see for over forty years, and to leave indelible marks of his -occupancy in the see and the city alike, of which St. Cross Hospital, -Wolvesey ruins, the Cathedral font and portions of its fabric are but -some of the most notable and most enduring. - -And the times were troublous indeed. The _White Ship_ tragedy had bereft -not only the king of his heir, but the nation of a male claimant to the -throne in the direct line, and all Henry’s influence was insufficient to -secure the crown for his daughter Matilda, the widowed Empress of -Germany. The feeling of the time was adverse to having a female as -sovereign; and Stephen of Blois, Henry’s nephew, actively championed by -Bishop Henry, and strongly supported by the barons, bore down all active -opposition. - -But king though he was, Stephen’s personal position was very different -from that of his Norman predecessors. Brave and frank, but personally -easy-going, dependent, moreover, on the goodwill of the powerful -interests which had placed him on the throne, his authority was weak and -his hold on his subjects ineffective. Barons and bishops strengthened -themselves against him, and an era of castle-building commenced, which -was to usher in a period of more terrible oppression than the country -has ever witnessed before or since, for, secure in their strongholds, -the Norman barons fastened themselves on the defenceless countryfolk -like vultures on their prey, and there was none to make them relax their -hold. As the _Chronicle_ says: - - They filled the land with castles and they cruelly oppressed the - wretched folk with castle works. When the castles were made they - filled them with devils and evil men. When took they the men who - they thought any goods to have both by night and by day, churls and - women, they cast them in prison for their gold and silver, and they - tortured them with pains untellable--for never were any martyrs so - tortured as they were. They hanged them up by the feet and smoked - them with foul smoke--they hanged them by the thumbs or by the head - and hanged fires upon their feet.... Many thousands they killed - with hunger.... Then was corn dear and flesh, cheese and butter, - for none there was in the land.... And they said openly that Christ - slept and his saints. - -Such was the anarchy, such the ruin, which weak rule had brought upon -the realm. - -Prominent among the castle-builders--though not among the -oppressors--were certain of the bishops, and none more so than Bishop -Henry. The bishop’s residence at Wolvesey, the ancient seat of Alfred -and the Saxon kings, he converted into a strong Norman fortress, the -ruins of which still stand, while at Merdon (near Hursley, some five -miles from the city), at Bishop’s Waltham, and at Farnham, he reared -fortresses also. Thus Winchester became remarkable in one respect--it -had two fortress castles instead of one, a privilege it was later on to -pay dearly for. - -But Bishop Henry had other schemes too. Of royal birth, reared in the -atmosphere of church ascendancy in the great and ambitious house of -Cluny, and naturally masterful in temperament, he was aiming at higher -rank and wider influence. Bishop of Winchester though he was, and Abbot -of Glastonbury--for by special papal sanction he had been allowed to -hold this valuable and influential office alike with his -bishopric--there was still the archbishopric before him, and when in -1136 this fell vacant he seemed by every natural claim to be marked out -for it; but Stephen had begun to feel his brother’s yoke growing heavy -on him, and after some long delay Bishop Henry was passed by and -Theobald, Abbot of Bec, appointed. Henry was deeply mortified; and -though the Pope soon after appointed him as Papal Legate over Archbishop -Theobald’s head, his wounded pride never forgot the affront it had -received. - -Disappointed of his hopes of Canterbury he worked hard to persuade the -Pope to divide England into three provinces instead of two, with -Winchester diocese as the third archbishopric; and though not actually -successful in this, the Pope is said to have encouraged him in his -project. - -While matters were thus strained between the bishop and the king, -Stephen, who had witnessed with alarm the growth of the castle-building -and the power of the barons, determined to enforce his authority upon -them. He called on several of the bishops to surrender their castles, -and, being met by refusal, treated the Bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury -with such cruelty and personal indignity that the latter died from the -hardships inflicted on him. This act of unparalleled folly--for the -person of a bishop was regarded as sacred--not only estranged public -sympathy, but fanned to active flame the smouldering resentment of -Bishop Henry. As Papal Legate he summoned Stephen to answer for his -conduct before him at a council held at Winchester, and here the king -was not only condemned, but even obliged to do penance. Stephen’s -position was gravely compromised, and Matilda’s supporters, who had -long bided their time, broke into active opposition. Robert, Earl of -Gloucester, her half-brother, took up arms in her behalf; Matilda landed -at Arundel; and Stephen in fighting at Lincoln was taken prisoner. - -Such an event seemed a token from heaven. Bishop Henry openly espoused -Matilda’s cause; he proclaimed her at Winchester as “Lady of the -English.” The city opened its gates to her, and she marched in in -triumphal procession with all her forces and took possession of the -Castle, while the occasion was celebrated by a solemn service of -rejoicing in the Cathedral. - -But this state of things was not to last. Arrogant and impracticable, -she quickly alienated her own supporters, and finding the bishop by no -means subservient, as she had expected, she summoned him to yield up his -Castle of Wolvesey to her, to which summons he is said to have -enigmatically replied, “I will prepare myself,” and this he did. He -repaired and strengthened his Castle and threw his influence again into -the scale of Stephen. Thus civil war broke out once more, and for six -years the country was torn again by every kind of evil and oppression. -In these troubles Winchester, placed, as it were, between anvil and -hammer, with the empress-queen in the Castle and the bishop at Wolvesey, -suffered terribly. Raid and counter-raid, siege and counter-siege -succeeded one another, till almost the whole city--houses, churches, -monasteries alike--were consumed in the flames. Alswitha’s foundation, -Nunna Mynstre, or St. Mary’s Abbey, parish - -[Illustration: THE DEANERY, WINCHESTER - -One of the few remaining links with the conventual buildings of St. -Swithun’s Priory, which among the Benedictines were always placed on the -south side of the minster. Formerly it was the quarters of the Prior of -St. Swithun’s. Philip of Spain was lodged here when he came to -Winchester to marry Queen Mary of England.] - -churches, domestic buildings, all alike perished. Far and wide the -flames spread--even the new building of Hyde Abbey, only erected some -thirty-one years, was involved in the general conflagration. The -Cathedral and St. Swithun’s Priory alone escaped, and that, it is said, -because Robert of Gloucester generously forbore reprisals. - -But the empress’s cause was a declining one, and though David, king of -Scotland, and Robert of Gloucester stoutly attacked Wolvesey, it held -out till relieved by Queen Matilda in person, and it was now the -empress’s turn to suffer siege in the Castle. Various accounts are given -of what occurred; in one it is stated[2] that, being straitened for -provisions, she escaped by feigning herself dead, and was carried out in -a coffin. Be this as it may, her forces were routed--she fled, and both -Robert of Gloucester and King David were taken prisoners. Finally, the -war exhausted itself. The land was ruined, impoverished--nothing seemed -left to strive for. Peace was made on terms of compromise, and King -Stephen, restored to the throne, entered Winchester with the empress’s -son, Prince Henry, who was acknowledged as his heir. Stephen died soon -after, and Henry II. became king. - -And now matters went badly for Bishop Henry. Henry the king was -determined to bring the castle-builders to book, and Henry the bishop -was a foremost offender, and in addition he had to defend himself from -charges brought against him by the monks of Hyde. - -In marked contrast with his behaviour elsewhere, Bishop Henry had acted -oppressively against them, and when their abbey was destroyed he had -even forced from them the ashes to which it had been reduced. No slight -treasure the latter, for did they not contain the molten remains of -cross and shrine and chalice, the cross of Cnut and Emma, their great -prize and possession, and many another treasure, which though now but -molten metal, still reckoned a value in thousands of pounds? Fortune was -against the bishop, and he found it convenient to retire abroad, to -Cluny and elsewhere, for a time, while the new king established his -authority, made order in the distracted kingdom, and razed the offending -fortresses to the ground. Thus while the bishop’s palace at Wolvesey -still remained, the Norman keep was dismantled and rendered harmless, -and some of these ruins we can see there to-day. - -The succeeding years were to present Bishop Henry in a less ambitious -and altogether more attractive light. He had played for his great -stake--played and lost: his legatine commission had expired, his -archiepiscopal dream had rudely disappeared. His political power -shattered, and his personal influence largely compromised, he was glad -to make peace with the king and full restitution to the monks of Hyde, -and he returned to his see to spend the last portion of his life--some -fifteen or sixteen years--in acts of quiet episcopal rule and active -beneficence. During his stay on the Continent he had amassed many -treasures of art, and these he brought back with him--very probably the -wonderful and curious black stone font, one of a rare series of seven -English fonts, four of which are in our own county and diocese, was -placed by him in the Cathedral at this time. But a far nobler and more -noticeable monument he was already rearing for himself in the outskirts -of the city. Some mile down the valley, in the little village then known -as Sperkforde, he had, in the early days of Stephen’s reign, commenced -to build a hospital or almshouse--the Hospital of St. Cross--and to this -he now devoted himself. - -Filled as the land then was with misery and ruin, relief of the hungry -and distressed was a peculiarly pressing need, and the bishop’s aim was -to relieve distress. Following the hospitable example of the great -Clugniac house in which he had been reared, the gates of St. Cross were -to be ever open, ready to give kindly welcome to all who should enter -there in want. Thirteen aged brethren were to be maintained in ease and -comfort. One hundred of the poor of Winchester were to be regularly fed -there in the “Hundred Mennes Hall,” and seven poor Grammar School boys -of Winchester--for Winchester had its Grammar School then, earlier even -than the College of Wykeham--were likewise to be fed and provided for -daily. In 1157 Bishop Henry committed the guardianship of his hospital -to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, the Knights Hospitallers as -they were called, whose special care was to aid wandering men, -particularly the poor pilgrims visiting the Holy Sepulchre. And so the -brethren of St. Cross wear the black gown and the eight-pointed silver -cross of the Knights of St. John to this day. - -St. Cross is Bishop Henry’s great memorial. He lived to see it firmly -established, but otherwise in his later years he took but little part in -public affairs. One of his last acts was to receive his cousin, the -repentant King Henry, after the murder of à Becket, when he bade him -welcome him with affectionate admonition and gave him his blessing. He -died in 1171 and was buried in the Cathedral; the tomb popularly -designated William Rufus’s Tomb has been thought to be his. Great and -high-minded as a churchman, he had lived through the period of personal -striving--“the fever, and the watching, and the pain” of -self-advancement and of worldly ambition. His selfish schemes had died -and nobler ones had succeeded, which revealed the man at his greatest -and his best. Truly it might be said of him-- - - That men may rise on stepping-stones - Of their dead selves to higher things. - -And St. Cross, at whose gates the needy wayfarer still receives -hospitable welcome as he did in Bishop Henry’s day, flourishes still, -exercising a far wider measure of beneficence and power for good than -its founder, in all probability, anticipated or even dreamed. - -CHAPTER XIII - -ANGEVIN AND PLANTAGENET - - Ay, that approves thee, tyrant, what thou art, - No father, king, or shepherd of thy realm; - But one that tears her entrails with thy hands, - And like a thirsty tiger suck’st her blood. - _Edward III._ - - -We need not stay to discuss in much detail the course of events during -the reigns which followed. It was but a blackened and ruined Winchester -which emerged from the disasters of the civil war. With two monasteries, -some twenty churches, and most of the domestic dwellings consumed, it -took her all her energies to reconstruct the desolate fabric; nor did -she ever completely recover the blow. Hyde Abbey was at once -recommenced, and gradually, but only very gradually, resumed its former -importance. St. Mary’s Abbey, too, was rebuilt, and Winchester, as the -natural centre of the wool trade, was able steadily to recover her -commercial activity, and managed to retain her importance as a centre of -traffic and intercourse some two hundred years or more longer, but -politically her supremacy had departed for ever, and London henceforth -was more and more to hold unchallenged sway. - -Henry II.’s visits in Winchester were not frequent, and in addition were -but casual. It was here, while recovering from illness, that he matured -his great scheme for the administration of justice, the division of the -country into circuits with itinerating judges of assize, to hold assizes -or sittings for the due dispensation of the king’s justice, from which -circumstance Hampshire has always occupied a foremost position in the -assize list, but Winchester was in no sense his capital. - -Richard I. paid the city the compliment of coming here after his release -from captivity to be crowned in the Cathedral, and though at the royal -banquet following thereon the citizens of Winchester strove with those -of London for the honour of serving the king with wine--a privilege -involving the reversion of the golden goblet in which the wine was to be -served--their claims were overruled and London bore off the prize. - -More important were the building projects of the Bishop of Winchester, -Bishop Godfrey de Lucy, who had succeeded to the see the year before -Richard came to the throne. The pilgrim stream which flowed through -Winchester had swollen to such proportions as to embarrass the monks of -St. Swithun’s. Bishop Godfrey formed a confraternity to raise funds and -carry out an extension eastward of the fabric, to make it possible for -the pilgrims to visit the shrine of the saint without invading the body -of the church, an extension which, owing to the limited area of firm -ground on which the Cathedral stood, had to be made on an artificial -foundation, in peaty and waterlogged soil, and to this fact must be in -part attributed the insecurity of the fabric, which has necessitated the -enormous and heroic labour of repair now actively in progress. Of this, -however, more anon. - -But Bishop Godfrey de Lucy had wider aims also. As bishop and receiver -of the dues from St. Giles’s Fair, the commercial prosperity of the city -was of great moment to him, and he improved and developed the Itchen -navigation by means of a canal--or “barge river,” as it is termed--and -constructed a huge reservoir at Alresford, much of which remains still -as Alresford Pond, to retain the water necessary to keep the channel -full. The trade of Winchester was evidently still a highly valuable -asset. - -Of King John’s reign we have memories in keeping with the general course -of his doings. He was frequently here, hunting regularly in the forests -all round the city, and here his son and successor, Henry of Winchester, -afterwards Henry III., was born. It was at Winchester that John received -Simon Langton and the other bishops exiled during the interdict, and in -the chapter-house of the Cathedral that he received the papal absolution -for his offences against Holy Church. But the peace thus dishonourably -ushered in was of short duration, and a year or so later Winchester was -in foreign hands, being held by Louis, Dauphin of France, whom the -barons had invited over to expel John from the throne. - -But when John died, as he did shortly afterwards, the barons withdrew -their support from the Dauphin, and John’s son Henry, then a lad of nine -years old only, ascended the throne--Henry III., Henry of Winchester. - -We cannot give in full the story of Henry, interesting and important as -it is, and intimately associated as much of it was with our city; for -Henry was here continually, he made it his chief residence, and in the -years that followed Winchester had often reason to pay dear for his -attachment to his parent city. Wild disorder, riot and revel, profuse -expenditure and pinch of consequent poverty, anarchy and siege and civil -warfare in her streets, all followed in turn, till order was at last -evolved, and dignified and noble parliaments assembled in her Castle -Hall, the symbol of the reign of law that was to follow, and the earnest -of that rule by representative assembly which has made our nation--and -almost Winchester herself--the mother of parliaments, honoured through -the length and breadth of the world. - -Chequered as the reign was to be, the early years were quiet and -prosperous, till Henry’s evil genius, Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of -Winchester, gained ascendancy over the king. The king’s marriage to a -French princess, Eleanor of Provence, followed, and the king, under the -influence of a foreign wife, and a prelate and justiciar of alien -sympathies, entered on a - -[Illustration: CHEYNEY COURT AND CLOSE GATE, WINCHESTER - - The outermost ‘court,’ if such a term may be used, of the Cathedral - Close, from which the great Close Gate gives access to Swithun’s - Street and King’s Gate. The Close Gate is guarded by a porter, as - in mediaeval days, who locks and unlocks it regularly by night and - day. Near Cheyney Court stands part of the old ‘Guesten Hall,’ - where poor pilgrims to the Shrine of St. Swithun used to be lodged. - Weird tales of ghostly visitors haunting the Close are told by - persons still living. The name Cheyney appears to be derived from - the French _chêne_, an oak. -] - -reckless course of extravagance and anti-national policy which estranged -all his subjects’ sympathies. To all posts of honour and preferment, -whether civil or ecclesiastical, foreign claimants were preferred, and -the land groaned under the tyranny of alien domination, while its -resources were being drained away from it to provide revenues for -foreign beneficiaries abroad. Protest after protest, discontent, active -opposition, ridicule, and remonstrance were all in vain. The king was -once significantly asked by the witty Roger Bacon what dangers by sea a -skilful pilot would most avoid, and on evading the question was told -‘Petrae et rupes’ (_stones and rocks_), a faintly-veiled allusion to the -chief influence for evil in the state. But all was in vain, and at last -armed opposition could no longer be prevented, and the barons under -Simon de Montfort broke out into open revolt. - -In the Barons’ War which followed, Hampshire and Winchester were -intimately involved. It has been the fate of Winchester, almost from -early Saxon days, to have within more than one rallying point for -popular sympathy, and so to suffer peculiarly at all crises of national -division; and so it was now. - -Few in the land had suffered more acutely from the king’s policy of -preferring aliens than the monks of St. Swithun, and when the Barons’ -War broke out the monks of the convent sided strongly with De Montfort. -The citizens, however, held loyally to the king, and thus it came about -that when in May 1264, a few days before the battle of Lewes, De -Montfort marched against the city, the citizens rose against the -convent, fearing lest the monks, who controlled part of the walls and -the King’s Gate, should welcome the invaders and admit them to the city. -A violent attack was made on them, the Close Gate was burnt down, and -the invading citizens burst their way in and slew several of the monks. -The fire spread to the King’s Gate and burnt it down; and when later on -the gate was rebuilt, the monks of St. Swithun built above it a little -church for the use of the lay servitors of the convent, and so the -little church--now the parish church of St. Swithun’s, Winchester--came -into existence, perched in mid air above the little postern gate. Nor -was this all, for the year after, when Simon de Montfort the younger -appeared again in arms before the city walls, the monks actually -admitted him, and a wild night followed in Winchester; his troops -revenged themselves on the defenceless citizens for their opposition by -burning and plundering a portion of the city, and putting many of them -to the sword. But the ascendancy of the barons was but brief, for in the -same year, 1265, Prince Edward defeated and slew De Montfort at the -battle of Evesham, rescued his father, and restored him to the throne. - -A memorable year was this both for England and for Winchester, for Henry -summoned to Winchester his first representative Parliament, notable -because for the first time representatives of the cities and boroughs -appeared there with knights of the shires, along with the barons and -prelates, and the abbots and priors of the leading monasteries. The -Prior of St. Swithun’s and the Abbot of Hyde were both present at that -remarkable assembly. In 1268 a second Parliament assembled at -Winchester, and four years later the king died, and Edward I. became -king. - -Henry III.’s reign was indeed a notable one for the city, and one -notable addition he made to it remains still as one of its foremost -architectural and historical treasures. This is the great and noble hall -which he added to the castle, and which retains still, with some -alteration, much of its original character. Many a notable scene has -this noble hall witnessed, both during Henry’s reign and since, the -early Parliaments of 1265 and 1268 pre-eminent among them. One such -dramatic scene was the one related in full by Matthew of Paris, as -occurring in 1249, when the king unmasked and brought to justice a -confederacy of robbers who had conspired to waylay the highways and rob -the passers-by. None were safe from them: even the king’s own -consignments of wine, coming to Winchester, were stopped and plundered. -Matters were in this state of insecurity when the king, coming to -Winchester, was approached by some Brabantine merchants, who complained -that they had been stopped on the highroad near Winchester and robbed of -200 marks. The king’s anger boiled over, and in hot indignation he -ordered the castle gates to be shut, and a jury empanelled then and -there to find and disclose the offenders. The twelve citizens thus -appointed pleaded inability to throw light on the matter, but the king, -not to be thwarted, shouted, “Carry away those artful traitors; bind -them, and cast them into the dungeons below, and let me have twelve -other men, good and true, who will tell us the truth.” - -The second jury, with the fear of death thus before them, promptly -displayed quicker powers of perception, and laid before the king the -detects of a widespread conspiracy, in which many leading men of the -city and neighbourhood, as well as of the king’s household, whose pay -was probably long in arrear, were implicated. And so justice was done, -and for a while travelling abroad was safer. - -Thus, now through good report, now through evil, the fortunes of our -city waxed and waned, but, in a sense, her day was over. Mediaeval -Winchester more and more grew to assume the character of a purely -provincial city; one with importance, indeed, with prestige and dignity, -but from which, like the so-called ‘buried cities’ of the Zuyder Zee, -the wide shores whereon the tides of major national circumstance ebbed -and flowed, continually receded more and more, while her citizens found -themselves less and less ‘going down in ships’ to the broad sea of -national life, and ‘occupying their business’ in those ‘great waters.’ - -CHAPTER XIV - -FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURY WINCHESTER - - What do you lack, what do you buy, mistress? a fine hobby horse to - make your son a tilter? a drum to make him a soldier? a fiddle to - make him a reveller? what is’t you lack? - - BEN JONSON. - - - - -It is pleasant to turn away from the direct stream of the national -flood, and to explore some of the by-streams, the more local whirls and -eddies in the life of our city, and this theme is naturally suggested by -the thought of Winchester in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, -when imperial politics had largely ceased to affect her, and the wider -growth of interests and domestic features had given her life within a -greater diversity, and rendered possible a minuter degree of -specialization. - -Interest in the main centres round her civic rule, the pilgrim stream, -the great annual Fair of St. Giles, and the domestic architecture, while -supreme over all these was the dominating interest and control exercised -by the ecclesiastical powers within her--the sway of the crozier and the -tonsure, the cloister and the cowl. We shall deal in this chapter with -the city at large, leaving to the chapter following the more purely -monastic aspects. - -The city as a city had been growing--as always was the case with -mediaeval towns closely walled in--continually more and more congested. -The southeastern quarter occupied by the Convent of St. Swithun’s, with -its Cathedral and great churchyard, the adjoining Abbey of St. Mary, and -the bishop’s residence at Wolvesey, was a lung open indeed and well -ventilated, but elsewhere the hemmed in area was a maze of narrow and -crowded thoroughfares, with houses, whose curiously timbered, but -inconveniently picturesque fronts, almost jostled one another across the -narrow passage-ways between,--houses, of the type still to be seen in -the so-called ‘Old Rectory’ in Cheesehill Street, in the pseudo-antique -houses in ‘the Brooks,’ in Mr. Mayne’s Tudor House near the Butter -Cross, and the present Godbegot House almost opposite, of later date -though most of these be--as if the chief office of neighbourly regard of -a mediaeval dwelling to those round her was not merely to - - Not beteem the winds of Heaven, - Visit _their_ face too roughly, - -but also to religiously exclude that indiscreet and unwelcome intruder, -the all-prying and inquisitive sun, while through many of the low-lying -streets ran broad and open ditches, not always, alas! the _dulcia et -piscosae flumina aquae_, the sweet refreshing streams which Precentor -Wulfstan had once commemorated,--streams whose channels flow now in -well-regulated courses, some open, some underground, but which then -made their way, often through filth and accumulated garbage, in far less -well-ordered circulation through the city. - -Though the city, judged by contemporary standards, might be a ‘joly -cité,’ of which - - The aere was god both inne and oute, - -it must have fallen far short of almost every modern standard of health -and convenience, and its narrow, confined, and ill-cleansed courts were -the lurking-places of contagion and of never wholly absent plague. - -The civic management was a strange, incongruous muddle of overlapping -and conflicting authorities, each jealous of its own influence and -envious of its neighbour’s. The authority of the gilds had now become -crystallized into a corporation of more or less definite form, the Mayor -and Bailiffs, who exercised the controlling influence over the major -part of the city. When exactly a ‘Mayor’ first came into existence is -unknown. The civic records go back, indeed, to a certain Florence de -Lunn in 1184, though he can hardly be accepted as a ‘mayor’ in the -technical sense, but the Mayor only exercised authority over the -population within the walls, and ‘the Liberties,’ as they were called, -were excluded from his jurisdiction. Of these there were two, the -Liberty of the Soke, the region, that is, beyond the walls to the east -and north, over which the Bishop had supreme jurisdiction, and which he -entrusted to the care of a special officer, the Bailiff of the Soke, -and the Liberty of Godbiete, the little manor within the city granted -by Queen Emma to the Convent of St. Swithun, from the church tower of -which curfew rang, and within whose ‘liberties,’ as already stated, no -officer bearing warrant, whether of king, mayor, or bishop, might enter. -This tripartite division of authority, in which the civic, episcopal, -and monastic powers were mutually confronted, formed a cunningly devised -preserve, in which the dexterous fisher in the troubled waters of the -day might ply his angle with rarely successful result. - -The dominating commercial interest was the Wool Trade. England was -famous for wool, and to this trade Winchester, as a natural centre with -Southampton as her port, owed her prosperity. - -North of the High Street, not far from the Westgate, stood the great -Hall where the wool was brought and sampled, and here the great Tron or -weighing machine was kept on which the wool was weighed. In Edward -III.’s time the Winchester wool trade was at its height. His wars with -France, really undertaken to enable him to control the Channel, and so -to keep the trade with Flanders in his own hands, had prospered, and -when he introduced his famous wool-stapling measure, by which ‘staples’ -or exclusive wool markets were set up in ten towns in England, of which -Winchester was one, the commercial prosperity of the city increased by -leaps and bounds. But, alas! Edward’s policy was only too successful. -The Flanders trade was considered more important than local English - -[Illustration: BREWHOUSE, WINCHESTER COLLEGE - -College Brewhouse, adjoining College Street, is one of the oldest -portions of the College buildings. Over the archway one of the turrets -of Outer Gateway is to be seen.] - -interests, and when, some years after, he appointed Calais as the staple -town, and removed the staple from Winchester, the days of the commercial -prosperity of our city were numbered. - -But while the wool trade lasted,--and it only died out as such trades do -by degrees,--Winchester with all its limitations must have been a rarely -interesting and attractive place in which to “catch the manners fleeting -as they rise.” It is much to be regretted that the Winchester of this -period had no shrewd and genial humorist, no Chaucer or Jonson, to -mingle with the crowd, and to preserve for us, whether by pen or pencil, -the humours of the day,--the varied types, lay and cleric, monk, friar, -pilgrim, merchant, or franklin, who might have been found periodically -gathered either at the Wool Market or the Hall of the Gild merchant, or -at ‘the George,’--for there was a ‘George’ at Winchester then, even as -now,--in as full and diverting variety as ever foregathered at the -Tabard itself; but interesting as those intrinsically were, their -interest was as nothing beside the two great dominating attractions -which periodically gathered all sorts and conditions of men for -temporary hospitality within her walls, the pilgrimages, and the great -Fair of St. Giles. And if it was the Wool Trade which made the Fair, -equally it was the Fair which gave the city its notoriety and its -commercial importance. And the Fair while it lasted dominated -everything--not only was all ordinary business suspended, but even the -jurisdiction of the ordinary civic authorities was equally subject to -its influence, and the already complex problem of civic rule was -rendered topsy-turvy by a temporary transfer of authority within the -city area from the Mayor to the Bailiff of the Soke,--a glorious -opportunity for paying off old scores, which many a modern local -administrator might well envy him. - -The early history of the Fair we have already touched on. A fair had -been held on St. Giles’s Hill since very early days, and with the -strange incongruity of association characteristic of early times, fairs -were for a long time regularly held in churchyards. But the Fair of St. -Giles had long since outgrown the limits of the little churchyard of St. -Giles, on the hill which bears his name, and successive charters of -William II. and later sovereigns had made the rights and profits of the -Fair the perquisite and privilege of the Bishop of Winchester, who had -the power of exclusive trading within the area of the Fair during its -duration. Originally granted for three days, Henry I. had extended the -period to eight, Stephen to fourteen, and Henry II. to sixteen, and this -period was confirmed in the last charter granted for the Fair, viz., -that given by Edward III. in 1349, in which all the privileges of the -Fair were rehearsed and solemnly confirmed. The procedure connected with -the Fair was minute and formal. On the 31st of August, the Eve of St. -Giles, the Bishop took possession, as it were, by setting up his court -in the _Pavilionis Aula_, or Hall of the Pavilion, on the top of the -hill. The court being formally constituted, Justiciaries or Bailiffs of -the Fair were appointed, who at once proceeded either to Southgate or -Kingsgate, where the Mayor, Bailiffs, and citizens of Winchester were -required to meet them, and dutifully to deliver up the keys of the gate, -and from thence to accompany them in turns to the Westgate, the Wool -Staple, and the other gates in succession, and to deliver up the keys of -each, while the Fair was solemnly proclaimed and the transfer of -authority effected. The proclamation made forbade the buying and -selling, while the Fair lasted, of articles of general merchandise, -other than food, anywhere in Winchester or within seven leagues’ radius -(10½ _miles_), except within the limits of the Fair itself. - -This done, the humiliation of the Mayor and Bailiffs was completed by -their being required to humbly attend the usurping authorities to the -Bishop’s Pavilion, thenceforward to submit to their jurisdiction, with -what grace they might, till the Fair was over. Nor was it only at -Winchester that the Fair was proclaimed--Southampton, though actually -beyond the seven leagues’ radius, was included in the prohibited area, -and here and at all important points on the boundary of the Fair zone, -the same proclamation was made and formal possession taken. Nor was it -only smuggling that the Fair officials had to guard against. Outlaws of -the Robin Hood type--of whom the notorious Adam of Gurdon, Bailiff of -Alton, and Lord of the Manor of Selborne, was perhaps the most -famous--were accustomed to lay in wait and levy blackmail on merchants -and travellers who had business at the Fair, and at all particularly -dangerous spots, such as the Pass of Alton, as it was called, the spot -on the road from London to Alton where the thick woodland made highway -robbery a comparatively easy matter, sergeants, armed and mounted, were -stationed to keep the Pass. - -The Fair itself was a veritable town of booths or stalls within a wooden -palisade, each quarter or ‘street’ within it taking its name from the -merchandise displayed or the nationality of the traders who occupied it. -Then there were the Spicery--the general grocery, or trade in sugar, -spices, and preserved fruits, in which the monks of St. Swithun traded -largely--the Pottery--the Stannary (or Falconry)--the ‘stret’ of the -Flemings, of the Genoese, of the Cornishmen; and the prices paid were -high, for a high ‘tariff wall’ surrounded the Fair. On a burden borne by -one man was levied a penny, on a cask of wine or cyder fourpence, for a -falcon twopence, for an ape or bear--animals much affected as butts and -playthings by the great, and even by the monks--fourpence. Multiplying -these by twelve, as is customarily done, to reduce them to modern -values, we realise how heavy these tolls were. Nor were luxuries and -alcoholic drinks the only article taxed. The raw material paid toll too: -every bale of wool fourpence, of which twopence went to the Bishop, and -twopence, to conciliate popular support evidently, to the check -weighman. Plantagenet times were not a Cobdenite millennium; and, -probably, could a ballot have been taken at the time, while the monks -and the Bishop’s ‘menie’ would undoubtedly have voted for Tariff - -Reform, very few Winchester citizens--though the Fair was profitable -enough to them in reality--would have polled with them. - -Within the Fair itself, the _mise en scène_ and the humours of the crowd -would have presented a subject fully worthy of Ben Jonson himself, and -it is safe to say that no human concourse, not even Bartholomew Fair in -its most palmy days, could have taxed his genius more than St. Giles’s -Fair during the Edwardian régime would have done. Motley, indeed, was -the crowd gathered here--Jews and Normans, Poles and Italians, strolling -minstrels, quacks and jugglers, ballad-mongers and fortune-tellers, -thieves and swaggerers, Corporal Nyms and Ancient Pistols, rogues and -sharpers of every kind, cheating, swearing, dancing, quarrelling, -drinking,--hawk-eyed chapmen and hard-visaged countrymen, each alike -bent on cheapening the other’s demands, huckstering, gesticulating, and -chaffering in strange dialects and all but unknown tongues--while here -and there vigilant assizemen, wearing the Bishop’s livery, passed -eager-eyed amidst them, keenly scenting out deficient weight or cozening -ell-wand, for in spite of severe penalties imposed on all detected in -such practices, the Fair was pre-eminently a place where - - nobody’s virtue was over nice, - -and all the ‘tricks of the trade’ flourished in a congenial soil. Thus -Harvey, prentice to Symme atte Stile, who tells us in Langland’s “Piers -Ploughman,” how - - at Wye and Wynchestre I went to the faire, - -lifts up some part of the veil for us, telling us that - - wikkedlych to weye (_wickedly to weigh_) - -was his first lesson. - -We have already spoken of the Bishop’s Court or _Pavilionis Aula_. Here -the Bailiffs and Justiciaries of the Fair met, not merely to make -regulations, but to dispense justice, for the _Pavilionis Aula_ was also -a court of summary jurisdiction, a ‘piepowder court,’ _cour des pieds -poudreux_ or dusty-foot justice, that is, where the wily Autolycus, or -Artful Dodger of the day, or other picker up of unconsidered trifles, -was awarded short shrift and well-earned punishment either in stocks or -pillory, or in the Bishop’s dungeon under Wolvesey Palace. - -Such then for some three hundred years was the great Fair of the -Festival of St. Egidius. For many years it survived, even though trade -in Winchester was falling off and doomed, but it could not survive -indefinitely. In Henry VI.’s time a distinct falling off was apparent; -since then it has dwindled gradually bit by bit, till now the only -tangible memorial remaining is the name of the Bishop’s court, the -_Pavilionis Aula_, the ghostly footfall of which seems still to be -re-echoed in the name “Palm Hall,” a well-known residence standing on -the brow of the hill where ‘all the fun of the Fair’ sparkled and -bubbled so many hundreds of years before. - -Side by side with the Fair was the Pilgrim stream, which too reached its -height about this period. We have seen how early in Edward the Elder’s -reign the shrine of St. Josse in Newan Mynstre attracted pilgrims to -Winchester and gave it a reputation--a reputation which the enshrinement -in Edgar’s reign of Swithun’s bones enormously added to. Tales of -miracle were circulated, widespread and equally widely credited, -cripples were healed, the lame walked, and St. Swithun’s became the most -popular pilgrimage centre in all Southern England. From Henry II.’s -reign, though the shrine of Becket rose into importance, St. Swithun’s -did not abate in popularity, and the stream of pious, dust-laden feet -still flowed just the same to and from it, save that many going on -pilgrimage would visit the shrines of both St. Thomas and St. Swithun on -their way. Rich and poor, a-foot or in the saddle, they streamed into -Winchester as soon as the pilgrim season--the early spring, that -is,--arrived. As Chaucer tells us: - - Whan that Aprille with his showrès swoote - The drought of Marche hath percèd to the roote, - - * * * * * - - Thanne longen folk to gon on pilgrimages. - -The wealthier lodged in hostelries and inns, the poorer found shelter -and hospitality within the walls of convent or nunnery. From south and -west they came--over the Roman road from Sarum and along the Itchen -valley from Southampton, turning aside to visit St. Cross and receive -the wayfarer’s dole of bread and beer, till they reached the gates of -St. Swithun’s or of Hyde. St. Swithun’s was the chief place of resort. - -Here within the Pilgrim’s or Guesten Hall, the greater part of which -still stands, a rough but welcome bed awaited them, while at the buttery -a plentiful meal of broken victuals and beer was to be had for the -asking. Then next morning after mass they would be admitted to the -shrine, to say their prayers, make their humble offering, and depart. - -An unwholesome and unsavoury enough crowd, doubtless, in the -main--travel-stained, footsore, and unwashed, disease accompanied them, -frequently enough, from centre to centre, just as plague follows -nowadays the eastern lines of pilgrimage in India and Arabia--and not -even all their piety and devotion could sufficiently endear them to the -monks of St. Swithun as to make them personally acceptable, and secure -unrestricted welcome for them within their church and monastery. - -Accordingly, though allowed to enter the Cathedral freely, their liberty -within it was circumscribed. Admitted to the north transept by a special -door--the Pilgrim’s door, now walled up--they could make their way into -Godfrey de Lucy’s retro-choir, the great extension east of the high -altar, where the shrine of the saint was placed. So much and no more of -the Cathedral was open to them, for at the head of the presbytery steps, -leading down to the south transept and nave, massive iron-work gates -barred the way; the gates are to be seen still, though long since -removed to near the western entrance of the Cathedral. And so their -devotions ended, they would journey on--on - -[Illustration: MIDDLE GATE, WINCHESTER COLLEGE - - Middle Gate gives access to Middle or Chamber Court--so called from - ‘Election Chamber,’ the large room over the gateway where - ‘elections’ to college were formerly held. The three statues over - the gateway represent the Virgin, the Archangel Gabriel, and the - Founder. The quaint old custom of college boys crossing the Quad - bareheaded, in honour of the Virgin, is followed at Winchester - College still. -] - -to the great Abbey of Hyde, then on to Headbourne Worthy church, to -visit the Saxon rood at its western end, then on by Alton and Farnham, -probably to rest for the night in the great Cistercian Abbey of Waverley -hard by, and so on by Guildford and St. Martha’s to Canterbury--a -well-defined route clearly marked even now for much of its length, and -still known as the Pilgrim’s way. So great a vogue did the pilgrimage -craving become that at length it had to be controlled and forbidden by -law. Yet the pilgrimage had its uses--the open-air journey, severe -though its hardships were to the ill-found and poorly shod, served, -doubtless, as a magnificent tonic, both mental as well as bodily, and -must have done much to correct the terrible insularity of ideas which a -population otherwise chained to the soil must otherwise have engendered. -Nor, in all probability, was the belief in the efficacy of pilgrimages -in the cure of diseases, particularly mental ones, without at least some -substantial basis of truth. - -As in the case of Henry of Hoheneck, so also, _mutatis mutandis_, might -many a pilgrim to Winchester have had it said of him: - - And he was healed in his despair - By the touch of _St. Swithun’s_ bones, - Though I think the long ride in the open air, - That pilgrimage over stocks and stones, - In the miracle must come in for its share. - -A miracle none the less pronounced because the air of Hampshire Downs -had been a potent but unrealized contributory factor in the result. - -CHAPTER XV - -THE MONASTIC LIFE - - Grosse Städte, reiche Klöster - Schaffen, dass mein Land den euren - Wohl nicht steht an Schätzen nach. - KERNER, _Der reichste Fürst_. - - -But active as were the currents that circulated in and round the gilds, -the wool markets, the annual fair, and the pilgrimage resorts, the -dominating stream was that which flowed through the monastic channel, -and over mediaeval Winchester the influence of the monastery in one form -or other, whether of priory, abbey, or nunnery, or whether of the -mendicant orders, or nursing sisterhoods, now for a considerable time -firmly established in the city, was supreme. - -The Priory was a secluded area, the privacy of which was jealously -guarded. The Cathedral itself, from the eastern angle of the north -transept to the southern corner of the west front, formed the effective -boundary on the city side, with the great churchyard lying between it -and the city proper. The remainder was supplied by the high close-wall -running all round it, much as the greater part of it does now, flanked -to the east by the boundary of the Bishop’s residence at Wolvesey, and -forming, with the latter, part of the external defences of the city, so -that between them the monks and the Bishop relieved the citizens of -something like a quarter of the burden--a heavy one at that time--of -keeping the walls in repair and defending them if attacked. - -The main entrance was then, as now, the great close-gate, opening into -Swithun’s Street near Kingsgate,--the point of attack in the troubles of -1264--and besides this a small postern or opening gave access from -‘Paradise’--as the area east of the northern transept was and still is -called--to Colebrook Street and Paternoster Row. From the churchyard to -the domestic quarter no direct means of access existed; the ‘Slype’ or -passage through the great south-western buttress was not yet made, and -to pass from the west part into the cloister it was necessary to pass -through the Cathedral itself. - -The domestic buildings--as was always the case with the Benedictines, -and St. Swithun’s was a Benedictine house--were grouped on the south. -The cloister garth was a square enclosure, south of the nave, roofed -overhead and flagged below, but otherwise open to the air, with the open -lavatory or general washing-place in the centre. This was the monks’ -usual place of resort, except when the services in church or special -duties called them elsewhere. Here, half in the open air, they read, -they studied, laboured at the occupations of the scriptorium, the -illuminated missal or book of the ‘Hours.’ Here was their library, and -here the _magister ordinis_ held his school for novices, a school where -the instruction, however, was not, as is commonly supposed, the -humanities or even divinity, but the rule of the order of St. Benedict, -to be, to the monk, from the moment he had taken the vows, more than -his conscience. Here in the cloister, too, the monks enjoyed such -minor relaxations as fell to their lot. Here they took their -‘meridian’ or mid-day siesta; and here, for all the world like great -schoolboys--whenever, that is, the prying eyes of Sacrist or Precentor -were not upon them--they even indulged at times in harmless but -unauthorized gossip and “snatched a fearful joy.” - -Grouped round the cloister garth--their site now occupied by canons’ -houses--were the domestic buildings proper: the kitchen to the west, the -refectory on the south. On the east--its Norman arches still in part -standing--was the Chapter House, where the Prior held a chapter daily -for the regulation of the internal routine, and for the admonition or -correction of offenders against the discipline. South of this, where now -the Deanery stands, were the Prior’s quarters. Farther to the east were -the sleeping quarters, the ‘dortour’ or common dormitory, the sick house -or infirmary, and so forth; while standing by itself at some little -distance in the outer court--Mirabel Close as it was called--was the -Pilgrims’ hall, where the poorer pilgrims were lodged, and now almost -the only part of the domestic buildings of the monastery still -standing. - -At the period we are speaking of monastic life had assumed a character -entirely different from what it had borne in Saxon and Norman days. -Poverty, obedience, chastity, and toil had been not only the motto, but -actually the practice, of the earlier monk. He had not only prayed and -wept, and denied himself ease and creature comforts--his life had been -one unceasing round of severe bodily labour. His own efforts had -sufficed for his daily wants, and in ministering to them, he had taught -the savage people round him the arts of agriculture, he had reclaimed -the waste lands, and had literally made the wilderness to blossom like -the rose. But this active, simple phase had passed away. Monasteries -like St. Swithun’s or Hyde now performed important ceremonial and social -duties of an official character. The Prior of St. Swithun’s kept lordly -state; the Abbot of Hyde wore a mitre. These monasteries controlled -extensive interests, swayed large estates, held much church patronage, -and extended generous hospitality to high and low alike. The simple -organisation of earlier times now no longer sufficed, and a considerable -retinue of lay brothers was considered necessary for the domestic -service of the monastery, while the more purely spiritual duties alone -were performed by the monks themselves. The monk was thus left free to -pray and study, to perform his regular offices, and keep his ‘hours’ -strictly, and only the more responsible of the domestic duties or those -of supervising the several departments of activity were assigned to -those who had taken the vow. The lay brethren or retainers performed -the menial duties, and were so completely separate from the brethren in -orders that they were even excluded from their churches. Thus the little -parish church of St. Swithun perched above Kingsgate was set apart for -the lay servants of the Priory, and the parish church of St. -Bartholomew, Hyde, in like manner for those of Hyde Abbey. Probably few -at that day could have foreseen that the churches built for the lay -retainers would prove more enduring than the great monasteries -themselves. Thus, spiritually speaking, the monasteries were, if not -actually dead, at least moribund. Shut in from the world outside they -affected less and less the stream of general spiritual life, and gradual -atrophy of spiritual powers followed inevitably on the failure to -exercise them. - -Yet it would be a profound mistake to infer--as one easily might, -particularly if one were guided by popular pictorial representations of -it--that the life of the fourteenth century monk was one of ease and -enjoyment. In reality it was one of severe discipline and -self-repression. The eight daily services of the hours beginning at -midnight with nocturnes, and ending at evening with compline, with the -enforced vigils and broken periods of sleep they entailed, were but a -part of the regular daily obligation. In addition there were masses to -be said, study and reading in the cloister, the labours of teaching and -of the scriptorium. It is a somewhat cheap sneer to set down the monk as -merely indolent or self-indulgent, but his life certainly tended as a -rule more to deaden than to exalt, and the monk entered the cloister -only too often to discover nothing but a limited outlook and a dreary -round of humdrum trivialities, instead of the religious peace and the -beatific vision he had expected. - -The brethren who controlled the various departments of monastic economy -were termed _Obedientiarii_, or brethren yielding obedience to the -Prior, and responsible to him for performance of their respective -duties. The Prior was over all, and next to him was the Sub-prior. The -church was looked after by the Sacrist and the Precentor. These -regulated the services, while the latter in addition was responsible for -the discipline. He was the general policeman, a kind of peripatetic -conscience, imposing silence in the cloister, and checking illicit -conversation, and particularly on the alert during nocturnal service, -lest the burden of drowsiness should prove too heavy for any of the -worshippers. Armed with a lantern he stole from brother to brother, and -if any was found nodding he placed the lantern at the offender’s feet, -who, thus detected and openly shamed, was required to take up, as it -were, the ‘fiery cross,’ and bear it on until he should find another -guilty like himself, in which case he might pass the unwelcome task on -to his companion in disgrace--a kind of monastic game of touch, not -without its humorous side. The manager of the estates was the Receiver -or Treasurer, the chief domestic official the Hordarian or Steward, -others were the _Custos operum_ or Keeper of the Fabric, the Cellarer, -the - -Almoner, the Master of the Novices, or _Magister ordinis_, the Gardener, -and so on. - -A somewhat full collection of Obedientiary Rolls, or official accounts -of St. Swithun’s Priory, still exists, and much valuable and interesting -information has been rendered accessible to the general public by Dean -Kitchen, who has edited them, and from these we can learn full details -of the daily life, dietary, and operations of the monks of St. Swithun. -They had two main meals a day, with certain other opportunities for -minor refreshment. Bread, cheese, meat, fish, and eggs appear to have -been freely provided, though it must be remembered that there were -always guests as well as the monks to be catered for. On fast days -‘drylinge,’ or salt fish, and mustard figured largely, the mustard -serving as a corrective to the unpalatable fare, and doubtless, too, a -useful tonic to bodies which had to endure so many hours in a stone -church or in an open cloister entirely unprovided with artificial means -of warming. Beer was the general, and wine a rarer beverage. Relishes -and extra dishes were granted from time to time, as, for instance, on -festival occasions, or as a reward for special duties. To guard against -chills furs were largely worn, and were indeed a heavy item of -expenditure. Spices were largely used as comforts in the same way as the -mustard already referred to, and to keep the monks in health the -gardener was required to supply each monk with a regulation number of -apples daily from Advent to Lent, doubtless, again, a wise provision at -a period when vegetables were - -[Illustration: CLOISTERS AND FROMOND’S CHANTRY, WINCHESTER COLLEGE - - “But let my due feet never fail - To walk the studious cloister’s pale.” - -Cloisters, with Fromond’s Chantry in the centre (for College has two -chapels), forms one of the most poetic spots of Winchester College. - -In earlier days school was held in Cloisters during the summer months. -In Cloisters the College dead lie buried. Many former scholars have cut -or carved their names on the stone-work of Cloisters, among them the -famous Ken, afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells, who wrote his _Manual -of Prayers_ for the use of Winchester College Boys. - -His morning hymn - - “Awake, my soul, and with the sun,” - -and evening hymn - - “Glory to Thee, my God, this night,” - -first appeared in this _Manual_. The inscription in Cloisters is “Thos. -Ken, 1665.”] - -nowhere readily obtainable as at present. As an additional corrective, -blood-letting, five times a year, was an habitual practice, and as this -involved three days in hospital, _i.e._ practically three days’ holiday, -it was rather looked forward to than otherwise. ‘Shaving day’ was an -important event. On Maunday Thursday the monks washed each other’s feet, -and once a year they had a bath. The straw for the pallets, on which -they slept in the ‘dortour,’ was changed once a year. - -The meals were taken in silence in the refectory, while, to transpose -the poet’s words, - - The Reader droned from the Pulpit, - Like the murmur of many bees, - The legends of good _St. Swithun_ - And _St. Benet’s_ homilies. - -Straw litter covered the floor, which was changed seven times a year--a -higher standard of cleanliness and luxury than prevailed generally, -seeing that Erasmus, 200 years later, could still complain of the filthy -rush-covered floors of English houses, where bones, scraps, and ale from -the table accumulated, with even less desirable kinds of dirt, and -which, when it was replaced, was removed so perfunctorily that the lower -layers remained undisturbed, it might be for years. - -The Obedientiary Rolls, moreover, supply us with an interesting insight -into the commodities in general use, and also into their prices. -Reducing to modern values we find an egg and a herring practically cost -then, as now, a penny apiece. Sugar existed in various forms--Sugar -Scaffatyn, Sugar of Cyprus, Sugar Roset, and sweetmeats or comfits of -various kinds, varying from one to several shillings a pound. Rice was -largely consumed, and cost threepence a pound. ‘Coryns,’ _i.e._ _grapes -of Corinth_, in other words currants, about two shillings a pound. -Enormous quantities of groceries, ‘spiceries’ as they were termed, -figured in the accounts, but, doubtless, largely because St. Swithun had -his stall at St. Giles’s Fair, and dealt extensively in ‘spices.’ - -It was at Fair time that the monks had their chief holiday, and made -their chief purchases. It was at the Fair that they purchased also the -furs they wore so largely. On the top of the hill the Prior had his -special pavilion, and kept practically open house--and doubtless the -monks keenly appreciated the rare opportunity the Fair afforded for a -little excursion beyond the walls. For though the Prior mingled freely -with the outer world, as a great political person-age was summoned -regularly to Parliament, and so forth, the monk in general but rarely -left the convent gate, and saw little beyond ‘the studious cloister’s -pale.’ - -We have fewer details of the Abbey of Hyde, just as we have fewer -remains of its fabric. Such part as remains, apart from some unimportant -ruins, is generally supposed to have formed part of the Tithe barn. -Opposite the gateway of this--which is really an interesting piece of -architectural work, unfortunately very meagre in extent,--is the Church -of St. Bartholomew, Hyde, where, as already stated, the lay servants of -the abbey worshipped. The squared and worked stones which are to be -seen freely in the houses all round the neighbourhood are, otherwise, -practically all that still remains of the great abbey. - -Of its internal life we know also but little; the _Liber de Hyda_ -preserves most of its history, but we have no obedientiary rolls to -chronicle its small beer. During much of its later history it had a hard -struggle for existence. The Black Death all but brought ruin to it, -though later on William of Wykeham did much to restore its prosperity. -Its best-known abbot was Walter Fyfhyde, abbot from 1318 to 1361. - -Of St. Mary’s Abbey we have fewer details still. It enjoyed a -considerable revenue from the tolls, or ‘octroi,’ on merchandise which -entered the city at the East Gate. - -Far different from the life of monk or nun was that of the friar. In the -fourteenth century he was firmly established as a Winchester -institution. He was the active missioner, the revivalist, the preacher. -He moved in the world, not in the cloister. He taught, he preached, he -visited the slums; he was the Church-army worker or the Salvationist of -his time, and if he wrought too much on the superstitious fears of his -hearers, even if the relics which he permitted them to kiss were usually -nothing but ‘pigges bones,’ like those of Chaucer’s ‘gentle pardonere,’ -as often as not he would have been prepared to defend the fraud as a -pious deception which did no harm to his listeners, while as a class the -friars of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were undoubtedly the -salt of the earth. - -All the four orders of friars were represented in Winchester--Black -Friars or Dominicans, Grey Friars or Franciscans, White Friars or -Carmelites, and Austin Friars. Their quarters were generally in the -slums. The name ‘Grey Friars’ still lingers in ‘The Brooks,’ and ‘The -Friary’ in Southgate Road preserves the memory of the Austin Friars, -though the latter, strictly speaking, were rather canons than friars -proper. Between the several types of ecclesiastics deadly jealousy -existed, and if monk and friar agreed at all, it was probably in a -common hostility to the ordinary parochial incumbent or parish priest. - -Besides these, many smaller religious or semi-religious houses of -various types existed. Adjoining Wykeham’s College was the ‘Sustern -Spital,’ a community of nursing sisters, fronting on to College Street; -the little college of St. Elizabeth of Hungary stood near the boundary -wall of ‘Mead’; and besides these were a number of others, of which -Magdalene College was perhaps the chief. Mediaeval Winchester could -certainly display ‘Pious Founders’ with any city of its day. - -The monasteries continued to flourish in greater or less prosperity till -the middle of Henry VIII.’s reign. But though the cloister monk himself -might come but little in contact with the outer world, the aspects in -which the monastery as a whole did so were numerous and important. Not -only in its immediate vicinity did it serve as educator, general -almoner, and physician, relieving want and sheltering distress, but far -away also from its walls its word was law, its control all-sufficient. -As landed proprietors on a widely extended scale the monasteries wielded -enormous territorial influence. At their grange farms, such as the farm -of the Augustinians at Silkstede, they maintained large bodies of farm -hands, they reared sheep, they drove to market, they bought and sold. -Nor was this all; all was fish that came into their net, and Church -patronage not the least important or acceptable, so that more and more -the duty of providing for the spiritual needs of neighbouring or -outlying parishes fell to their share, along with the tithes or dues -paid to support it, and in such cases tithe was no longer paid to the -incumbent direct but to the monastery, who appointed a ‘vicar’ or deputy -to carry out the spiritual duties,--a system satisfactory enough, -perhaps, if faithfully followed out, but leading to every form of evil -and neglect when laxity supervened, and selfishness replaced zeal; and -so the system of ‘vicars’ as incumbents was inaugurated, while the -frequent iteration and survival up and down the country side of such -monastic addenda to the names of Hampshire towns and villages, as Itchen -Abbas, Abbot’s Ann, Monk’s Sherborne, Prior’s Barton, to quote but one -or two, is an eloquent testimony to the firm grasp which the monk had -secured of the spiritual patrimony of the Church, and to this more than -anything else is to be attributed the present poverty of the Church, and -the lay patronage existing in so many rural English parishes to-day. - -The closing scene in the monastic story was not, however, to be reached -for some century or so longer. In Henry VIII.’s time, however, -monasteries had drifted so hopelessly from the general stream of -national life, that it was evident their existence could not be -indefinitely prolonged on existing lines, and Wolsey, with an insight -and high zeal for reform which is rarely done sufficient justice to, -conceived the plan of closing them and diverting the funds thus set free -to other religious and kindred purposes, the endowment of schools, -colleges, etc. Henry VIII. availed himself of Wolsey’s suggestion, and -Thomas Cromwell, the supple and unscrupulous instrument of an equally -unscrupulous master, carried it out,--not, however, with any view of a -right-minded diversion of funds set aside for religious purposes, but -with the intention, barely veiled, of selfish misappropriation, and the -satisfaction of personal greed, and in the general scramble for plunder, -not only did the monastic property, as such, get swallowed up, but the -parochial endowments--where vicars were in being, at least--were -swallowed up also. - -The actual closing was carried out by two commissions. In 1536 some of -the smaller Winchester houses were suppressed, including the Sustern -Spital and the various friaries. Then in 1537 a second commission was -appointed, and the larger houses began to fall. At Hyde, Abbot Salcot -proved ‘conformable’ and surrendered the abbey, and in 1538 Cromwell’s -commissioners, with the notorious Thomas Wriothesley, afterwards Earl -of Southampton, acting the part of ‘leading villain’ of the piece, -visited it to carry out the work of demolishment. In a letter to -Cromwell they thus describe their work at Hyde:-- - - About three o’clock (_A.M._) we made an end of the shrine here at - Wynchester.... We think the silver thereof will amount to near two - thousand marks. Going to our beds-ward, we viewed the altar, which - we purpose to bring with us. Such a piece of work it is that we - think we shall not rid it, doing our best, before Monday next or - Tuesday morning, which done we intend, both at Hyde and at St. - Mary’s, to sweep away all the rotten bones that be called relics, - which we may not omit lest it be thought that we came more for the - treasure than for avoiding the abominations of idolatry. - -The words are significant, and the hour 3 A.M. tells its own tale. The -abbot and other inmates received pensions, very modest ones, and the -manors fell into various lay hands. Wriothesley secured the lion’s -share. The abbey buildings were sold for the material they were built -of, and so rapidly did most of it disappear, that Leland in 1539 says in -his well-known _Itinerary_: “In this suburb stood the great abbey of -Hyde, and hath yet a parish church.” Camden, writing shortly after, -speaks of the “bare site, deformed with heaps of ruins, daily dug up to -burn into lime.” In 1788 what still remained of the ruins was nearly all -rooted up to make a County Bridewell. No thought of Alfred, or the other -mighty and illustrious dead buried within the precincts, seems to have -stayed the Vandal hands; numerous relics, patens, chalices, rings were -found. A slab of stone bearing Alfred’s name was taken away, and is -still preserved at Corby, in Cumberland. It was not part of Alfred’s -tomb, as it bears the date 891. So far all attempts to locate the -position of Alfred’s tomb have been unsuccessful. Like Moses of old, “no -man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.” - -The suppression of St. Swithun’s had results less drastic. Hyde Abbey -was simply swallowed up in the catastrophe. St. Swithun’s was -transformed into the capitular body of the Cathedral, the Prior, -Sub-prior, and monks disappeared, and in their places succeeded the -Dean, the Chapter, and Canons of Winchester. - -The new establishment thus formed was at first composed of the Dean, -twelve prebendaries, and six minor canons. The Prior, William Kingsmill, -proved ‘very conformable,’ and became the first Dean of the new -collegiate body. The commissioners, here as at Hyde, stripped the -Cathedral of its ornaments. The silver shrine of St. Swithun -disappeared, and various other shrines, and the glorious treasures of -gold and silver, and precious stones, the gifts of Cnut, Bishop Stigand, -and many another pious donor, which had graced the high altar, were all -swept away by the greedy hands of the spoilers. - -The domestic buildings have almost all now disappeared. The -chapter-house was pulled down in 1570 by Bishop Horne, largely for the -sake of the leaden roof; and the cloisters later on suffered a similar -fate. Part of one of the convent kitchens remains in one of - -[Illustration: MEMORIAL GATEWAY, WINCHESTER COLLEGE - - The Memorial Gateway, opening on to Kingsgate Street, was erected - recently in memory of Wykehamists who fell in the South African - War. -] - -the houses at the west side of the cloister garth, and some portions of -the domestic buildings still remain in the Deanery, but practically all -connected with the domestic life of the monastery has now disappeared. -In 1632 Bishop Curle opened a passage, now called ‘The Slype,’ by -cutting through the great buttress on the south side, and so converted -the cloister garth into a thoroughfare. Two curious Latin anagrams cut -on the west front of the Cathedral and on the wall adjoining commemorate -this. But the Priory, thus transformed, gained rather than lost in -usefulness. Much of the property was indeed seized by the king, but the -Dean and Chapter have remained otherwise in full possession of the -powers and privileges granted to them, while the fuller and less -restricted range of activity has rendered the Cathedral the centre of -ecclesiastical life and of extended usefulness, far exceeding what the -Priory in its later days ever succeeded or perhaps ever aimed at -securing. - -The suppression of St. Swithun’s was the first in point of time; later -on, in 1538, Hyde was dissolved; in 1539, St. Mary’s Abbey--Nunna -Mynstre--founded by Alswitha, Queen of Alfred the Great, suffered a like -doom. St. Elizabeth’s College lasted a few years longer, and was finally -sold to Winchester College in 1547, and the buildings pulled down. The -college luckily survived the visitation, so, also, equally fortunately, -did St. Cross and St. John’s Hospital, and these remain in continued and -more extended usefulness till the present day. - -CHAPTER XVI - -THE CATHEDRAL - - Sermons in Stones. - - -To deal adequately with Winchester Cathedral would be almost to write -the history of England, a task manifestly impossible within the limits -of such a work as this. For the Cathedral is not merely a building, but -a veritable history in stone, and that not a history--as historic -buildings very often are--of a community which has raised but a small -eddy in the waters of national life, but of one which has profoundly -affected the fortunes of the nation during almost every period of its -existence. It is safe to say that scarcely a single storm of national -strife has burst upon the land without leaving in some way an impress -upon these grey stone walls, and during a period of many centuries there -was scarcely one single actor of eminence in the national drama who did -not leave, in some form or other, a record imperishably graven here -behind him. Not only have these stones witnessed the coronations of -kings--the baptisms, marriages, and burials of princes--the consecration -of bishops, and many another ceremony of high national significance, -but they enshrine within their circuit the sacred dust of generations of -the great departed, subject and king, soldier and priest, statesman and -prelate; they are a great national Valhalla with which no other in the -land save Westminster Abbey can claim to compare. As the preceding pages -have shown, a Christian cathedral has existed continuously on the -present site since the days of Kynegils and Kenwalh, in the 7th century. -Bishop Swithun and Bishop Æthelwold successively added to or rebuilt -large portions of the fabric, but the only Saxon work now remaining is -in the crypt and foundations. The pillars and arches are splendidly -massive and curiously fashioned, and show that Æthelwold’s work was -solidly constructed. The Cathedral, as we see it to-day, is the Norman -and Angevin Cathedral--the cathedral of Walkelyn and of Godfrey de Lucy, -transformed in later Plantagenet days by Edyngton, Wykeham, and -Beaufort, and adorned by Silkstede, Fox, and many others. Walkelyn’s -Cathedral was a typical Norman building, and the disposition of its -parts reflected a symbolism as well as a harmony. The central truths of -Christian doctrine, those of the Trinity and of the redemption, were -beautifully symbolised in the three-fold repetition of nave, triforium, -and clerestory in the elevation, and of nave, choir, and transepts -disposed in the form of a cross in the ground plan. The arches and -pillars are characteristic examples of the Norman style--semicircular -arches springing from heavy, cushion-shaped capitals surmounting the -strong circular pillars. The general effect of the interior, though -heavy, was one of impressiveness and dignity, as can be well seen from -the transepts, which remain for all practical purposes unaltered from -their original form, or better still from the interior of Chichester -Cathedral of to-day. It reflected alike calmness, dignity, and -strength--the dignity of a strength conscious of a burden indeed, but -self-reliant and adequate to the task. It is no light burden that those -giant pillars are bearing, nor do they support it joyously or even with -ease: each one is rather an Atlas, bearing his load strongly and -uncomplainingly, but needing to put forth all his powers in the effort. - -Godfrey de Lucy, Bishop in Richard I.’s time, extended the church -eastwards by adding the retro-choir with its beautiful Early English -arcading, graceful columns, and lancet windows,--an extension which, -owing to the insufficient foundation on which he built, is in large -measure responsible for the insecure condition of the fabric to-day. -This we will revert to later on in the chapter. Godfrey de Lucy’s object -was to afford space for the ever-increasing numbers of pilgrims who -crowded to Winchester to see the shrine of St. Swithun, but who in other -respects were unwelcome guests. His extension eastward afforded every -facility to admit the pilgrims in to view the shrine, without giving -them access to the choir, nave, or domestic parts of the Priory. In -Edward III.’s reign came the transformation of the nave and aisles--a -daring work commenced by Bishop Edyngton, and completed by William of -Wykeham, almost equal in magnitude to the reconstruction of the fabric -itself. Edyngton’s work may be seen in the aisle windows at the extreme -west of the building; Wykeham’s, which is lighter and more graceful, -fills the rest of the nave. The general result has been to impart to the -interior gracefulness and lightness. The columns on either side of the -choir steps, which were left partly unaltered, show us in some measure -how the change was effected, partly by pulling down and rebuilding, -partly by cutting away from the face of the columns. The triforium was -removed bodily, and the triple row of Norman arches thrown together into -a single range of light, lofty, and graceful Perpendicular-Gothic -arches, surmounted by smaller Perpendicular windows serving as -clerestory. Triforium proper no longer exists, but its place is taken by -a continuous narrow balcony running along both sides of the nave. The -impressiveness and beauty of the effect thus produced it is impossible -to describe. As you enter at the west end the majesty of the whole at -once silences and uplifts you--a forest almost of lofty shafts and -pillars rising unbroken and towering overhead, where they branch out and -interlace in the beautiful intricacy of the fan-tracery of the roof. - -It is not without appropriateness that Wykeham and Edyngton both lie -buried here in the beautiful chantry chapels which they respectively -erected between the pillars on the south side of the nave. - -The work of transformation from Norman to Perpendicular was continued -through the choir and presbytery aisles by Beaufort and others, and -later bishops extended the building eastward beyond the limits of -Godfrey de Lucy’s work. The three chapels at the east end, Orleton’s -Chapel, commonly spoken of as the Chapel of the Guardian Angels, -Langton’s Chapel, and the Lady Chapel, contain much interesting and -varied work. - -In one sense the retro-choir is, architecturally speaking, the most -interesting part of the Cathedral. It presents wonderful variety, and -contains specimens of practically every stage of architectural -development since de Lucy’s day. But it must be confessed that the -general effect is rather a confused medley of seemingly haphazard or -tentative reconstructions, and the piecemeal character of the separate -parts deprives it to a large extent of the dignity and completeness of a -harmonious whole. Nowhere is this exemplified better than in the three -east windows of the south transept--all altered from the original Norman -windows, and each entirely different in character from its neighbours. -Yet this very want of harmony is strangely eloquent. Winchester -Cathedral, and its east end more particularly, is not an architect’s -cathedral, so to speak--one complete harmonious design like Salisbury; -rather is it a document in stone--a deed to which many participants have -affixed their sign-manual, each in his characteristic writing, and -bearing the direct impress of his personality. - -Yet fascinating as its architectural features are, they are dwarfed and -unimportant beside the wealth of historical association that lies locked -up within these walls as in a treasure-chest. - -Of the many great and solemn ceremonials which these walls have -witnessed--such indeed, to mention one or two only, as the second -coronation of Richard Cœur-de-Lion, the baptism of Henry VII.’s son, -Arthur of Winchester, Prince of Wales, the marriage of Henry IV. with -his second wife Joan of Navarre, and that of Mary Tudor, Queen of -England, to Philip of Spain--we will not now speak in detail. Rather -will we concentrate our attention on the historic and architectural -monuments which meet our eye almost wherever we turn, and among this -wealth of historical and architectural treasures three may be singled -out for special notice--the chantry chapels, the reredos, and the -mortuary chests. The chantry chapels are gems of beauty and of interest, -enshrining the mortal remains as well as the memories of six notable -men,--Edyngton, Wykeham, Beaufort, Waynflete, Fox, and Gardiner. -Wykeham’s chantry is almost daringly constructed out of and between two -of the great pillars of the nave. The memories of the three chantry -monks who served it in Wykeham’s lifetime are preserved by three -charming miniature figures placed in effigy at Wykeham’s feet. The -chantries of Beaufort, Waynflete, Fox, and Gardiner are east of the -choir. Beaufort’s chantry, less beautiful perhaps architecturally, is -wonderfully suggestive. How eloquently the recumbent effigy seems to -recall the strong features of the man who desired power so earnestly, -and could dare greatly in the effort to possess it--those rigid hands -now clasped meekly in prayer betoken a humility and repose which their -owner when in life probably never enjoyed, nor it may be even desired. -Waynflete, again, had a notable career. Headmaster of Winchester, he was -chosen by Henry VI. as first headmaster of his new foundation of Eton, -and shortly after from headmaster became Provost, from which position he -rose to become Bishop of Winchester. Waynflete founded Magdalen College, -Oxford; and Magdalen College has but recently been discharging a pious -duty by undertaking the work needed for the preservation of her -founder’s chantry. With Waynflete, Wykeham, and Foxe (founder of -Corpus), all buried in these chantries, Winchester might almost claim to -have founded Oxford herself. Architecturally each chantry marks a step -forward in the development of style, and registers the successive stages -in the rise, culmination, decline, and death of Perpendicular Gothic. - -Of the great altar-screen we have already spoken. Here we have -Perpendicular Gothic at its very best, rich in effort, yet in perfect -taste, without the least suggestion of the florid or the bizarre--the -detail so varied, the execution so delicate. The statuary is modern, but -is beautifully executed and in perfect keeping--a somewhat unusual -excellence--with the original work. It would be hard to meet with so -illustrative and remarkable a series of Christian saints and examples as -are here shown in effigy grouped - -[Illustration: SECOND MASTER’S HOUSE, WINCHESTER COLLEGE - - Wykeham’s ‘children,’ the seventy scholars that is, are still - lodged in College, as they have been from the first, under the - charge of the second master, whose house lies between Outer Gateway - and Chamber Court, over which latter some of the windows look out. -] - -round the Saviour’s figure--the four archangels, the Virgin and St. -John, St. Paul and St. Peter, doctors like Jerome, teachers like -Ambrose, Christian missionaries like Birinus, bishops like Swithun, -Æthelwold, Wykeham, and Wolsey. Among sovereigns we have Egbert, Alfred, -Cnut, and Queen Victoria. Among the others of note are Earl Godwine, -Izaak Walton, Ken and Keble. Many of these lie actually buried within -the Cathedral walls, and nearly all left their mark inseparably and -honourably stamped, alike on the national, as on the city history. - -Of all the historical memorials, however, none is capable of so -profoundly stirring the imagination or arresting the attention as the -six beautiful mortuary chests placed above the side screens of the -choir. Think what associations the inscriptions on these recall. Early -Wessex chieftains, as Kynegils and Kenwalh: kings of Wessex, when Wessex -was supreme over all England, as Egbert and Æthelwulf: the union of -Saxon and Dane, as personified by Cnut and Queen Emma; the Norman tyrant -as represented by Rufus. Not even in Westminster Abbey itself can names -such as these be read. And close at hand are other significant names -too: Harthacnut: Richard, son of the Conqueror, fated, like his brother -Rufus, to meet a violent death in the New Forest, but otherwise unknown -to history: Duke Beorn, murdered at sea by Sweyn, son of Earl Godwine. -These and other striking names can be found graven on the stone-work -which carries the mortuary chests above. - -Of former bishops of Winchester the majority are buried here. Some of -these--and among them some of the most famous--have no visible sign to -mark their tomb; these include such names as Birinus, Swithun, -Æthelwold, Walkelyn, Henry of Blois. There are many others too over whom -we should like to linger: Peter de Rupibus, for instance, the evil -genius of Henry III.’s reign, and Ethelmar or Aymer, the absentee -bishop, who died in Paris, but desired his heart to be placed in a -casket for interment in the Cathedral, though when alive his affections -seem to have been centred anywhere but here. His monument is more -picturesque than his life was edifying. He is represented in effigy in -the attitude of prayer, and holding his heart between his folded hands. -In striking contrast to these are monuments to Bishops Morley, Hoadley, -Samuel Wilberforce, and Harold Brown. - -Over the remaining monuments, and there are many of very great interest, -we cannot linger. Flaxman is represented by a bas-relief of Dr. Warton, -famous in his day as headmaster of the College, seated in his -magisterial chair, with a group of college boys ‘up to books.’ The -details of schoolboy attire are curious and interesting. Appealing to a -wider circle are two flat slabs of stone, one in Prior Silkstede’s -Chapel, one in the north aisle. The former bears the name Izaak Walton, -the latter Jane Austen. Truly Winchester Cathedral is a city of the -mighty dead. - -In addition to the monuments there are many other features of great -attractiveness. Prior Silkstede’s carved wooden pulpit, the quaint old -font curiously carved in black stone, said to have been brought to -Winchester by Henry of Blois, and the _miserere_ seats in the choir -stalls are among these. The Cathedral library, too, is of rare interest. -The wonderful Illuminated Vulgate, with its almost romantic history, and -numerous early Saxon charters are preserved here, along with Cathedral -and city records of great historical value. - -The exterior of the Cathedral presents less interest. It is grand and -striking, but hardly beautiful. The West front is flat and featureless, -the long straight roof of the nave is monotonous. The east end, with its -varied work and the huge Norman transepts, is by far the finest portion. -Taken as a whole the general effect is extremely dignified and -impressive, and the surroundings are entirely in keeping. - -As you pass down the beautiful lime avenue, or cross the grass to the -west and north, the quiet dignity and repose impress you with an -influence deeper than mere beauty, and the Cathedral Close, with its -Jacobean and Georgian houses, is equally serene, dignified, and -attractive. The Deanery is interesting, particularly the Early English -work in the portico, and the beautiful green sward in Mirabel Close, -with the Pilgrims’ Hall to the east, and Cheyne Court with its -open-timbered and gabled houses, all both alike quiet, stately, and -harmonious. A rare place this Close, with associations too of its own. -Even nowadays it possesses its ghost--a female figure robed and veiled -like a nun--which persons still living will describe to you, for they -have seen it themselves, they declare, and heard its ghostly footfall -echoing as it has paced before them on the flags. Nor is the word -‘Close’ a word only. Still every night the gate is religiously locked at -the stroke of ten, after which none may enter or depart save by favour -of the Close porter, the lineal successor of the ‘proud portér’ so -prominent in Early English ballad poetry. - -Before leaving the Cathedral we must say a few words about the -operations for the repair of the fabric to which reference has already -been made. - -The insecurity of a large part of the fabric is due mainly to the -foundation on which Godfrey de Lucy built when he extended the Cathedral -towards the east. To do this he had to build out over an area of peaty -and water-logged land, wherein to reach a solid foundation it was -necessary to go down through successive layers of marl and gravel and -peat, to a considerable depth, varying from 16 to 24 feet. As this -involved working under water, and as the task of dealing with water -under foundations was beyond the skill of builders of the time, de Lucy -made an artificial foundation of beech logs, or beech trunks rather, -laid horizontally one over the other and kept in place with piles, with -the result that a progressive subsidence has occurred, mainly, but not -entirely, at the east end, causing walls to bulge and crack, and -fissures to appear, until the present degree of insecurity has been -reached. Thus it has been not a question of restoration, but of -preservation, and the work has been taken in hand not a moment too -soon. - -The present operations have consisted, in the main, of systematic -underpinning of the walls and buttresses, and as much of the work has -had to be carried out under 10 feet or so of water, a diver has been -employed to lay down concrete in section after section at the base of -the new foundations, the water being afterwards temporarily drawn off by -the help of powerful pumps, to enable the work of underpinning to go on. -The employment of divers to lay foundations for a building 800 years old -would appear a fantastic absurdity, transcending the wildest stretch of -imaginative invention. Winchester Cathedral has actually realised it. - -Unfortunately, the securing of the southern aisle of the nave may demand -an addition,--not merely underpinning, but the construction of -buttresses. But these, although novel, will be no more foreign to the -general design than were the corresponding buttresses which Wykeham -added to the north aisle; and these, with the further addition of the -great tie-rods inserted at various spots in the transepts and -retro-choir, will, it is hoped, give the Cathedral a stability which -will ensure its preservation for centuries more. The operations, so -novel in character, so daring in conception, so extensive in scale, are -yet unfinished, and while some £90,000 has been already expended on the -work, something like another £12,000 is still needed for its -completion. - -CHAPTER XVII - -THE COLLEGE - - Schoolmasters in any schoole - Writing with pen and ink. - CHILDE MAURICE. - - -“Manners makyth man”--‘manners’ in the old and wide sense of the word, -the equivalent of the Latin ‘mores,’ or of the word ‘conversation’ in -St. Paul’s epistles, _i.e._ moral worth and character as contrasted with -wealth, or the symbols of rank and power. This is the motto inseparably -connected with Wykeham’s foundations at Winchester and Oxford alike, and -who shall say how potent this motto has been in inspiring and moulding -the character of English manhood and English public schools during the -five centuries and more since their great founder was laid to rest? - -Winchester College is no common place. If Winchester Cathedral, which -enshrines the bones of Egbert, should be the Mecca of all pious lovers -of the Empire, Winchester College should be the Mecca for all English -public school men. Not that Wykeham was the first to found an English -public school, whatever exactly the term ‘public school’ may mean. -Schools had existed in the land for six or seven hundred years before -Wykeham’s day. There were schools in Winchester itself, as, for -instance, the ancient Winchester Grammar School, seven of the poor -scholars of which received a meal daily in the Hundred Mennes Hall at -St. Cross. Wykeham did not invent schools as public schools, but what he -did was to give to public schools the special impetus and character -which they have borne ever since, and in this sense he is rightly named -and revered as the ‘Father of English public schools.’ - -Earlier schools had almost invariably been linked to collegiate -churches--the communities of secular canons--and had occupied always a -subordinate position. Wykeham gave an independent position to his -school, strengthening it indeed by making it part of a collegiate body, -and linking it with the University, through the sister foundation of New -College--St. Marie College of Wynchester in Oxford, to give it its full -name--which Wykeham had completed in 1386. - -Before the college could be commenced many preliminaries were -necessary,--bulls from the Pope, and other official sanctions, lawsuits -and agreements with all kinds of bodies which had an interest in the -site; but Wykeham began to organise his school before the permanent -buildings were ready, and for some years his scholars were lodged in -temporary quarters somewhere by St. Giles’s Hill. The site chosen for -the buildings was just outside the city walls to the south, and when at -last all was ready, on March 20, 1394, the opening ceremony was -solemnized. The aged bishop received the Warden and seventy scholars in -the presence chamber of his Episcopal palace of Wolvesey, and the whole -body left Wolvesey in solemn procession, and entered and took possession -of their new abode. - -Wykeham’s immediate purpose in founding a school appears to have been to -help to provide a body of educated clergy. Successive visitations of the -‘Black Death’ had depleted the land of clergy, just as it had of -labourers, and there was pressing need for a supply of educated men to -recruit their ranks. It was to be part of the object of the college to -provide such recruits. - -The scheme of the college and the statutes of the founders were -carefully thought out and elaborated. The college was part of a wide -educational scheme: a school and something more--a society, with roots -in Oxford as well as in Winchester. The society was to comprise a -school, a chantry, and a body of Fellows. The school was to consist of -seventy scholars, a number chosen very possibly in symbolical allusion -to the seventy ordained to teach and preach throughout the land of -Galilee, just as Dean Colet afterwards chose ‘a hundred and fifty and -three’ as the number of his scholars in the school he founded--St. -Paul’s School, London. Over these were a master or _Magister -informator_, and an usher or _hostiarius_: the chantry was equipped with -three chaplains, three chapel clerks, and - -[Illustration: TOWER OF AMBULATORY, HOSPITAL OF ST. CROSS, WINCHESTER - - A picturesque red-brick corner of the domestic buildings of St. - Cross Hospital, close to the magnificent grey-stone tower and - archway known as Beaufort’s Tower. -] - -sixteen choristers: the number of Fellows or Socii was ten. The supreme -head over this varied community was the Warden. - -This society, complete in itself and so far independent, was linked with -another--the sister foundation of New College, Oxford--in such a way as -to gain stability and dignity without subordination. Winchester was to -be independent of New, but the influence of New was to be a potent -factor in determining the policy of Winchester. The Warden of Winchester -was to be appointed by New College, and New College was also to have -extensive powers of visitation. - -In Wykeham’s day any separation of the religious element from other -aspects of education would have been deemed impossible, and everything -was cast in a religious and even semi-monastic mould. Nevertheless the -organisations for the school and chantry were kept quite distinct, and -while divine service was celebrated practically continuously by the -chantry staff, the scholars were required to attend chapel services only -on Sundays, saints’ days, or other festivals. The Warden and Fellows -alike were to be in priests’ orders. The Fellows had duties to perform -connected with the chantry, but none connected with the school, except -that the Warden and Fellows were to elect the headmaster. The headmaster -was not necessarily to be in holy orders; he was to teach the scholars, -and to maintain discipline, and was to be assisted by the usher or -_hostiarius_. The ‘seventy’ were to be _pauperes et indigentes_, _i.e._ -poor and in need of assistance, apt to study, and well versed in the -rudiments of Latin grammar, reading, and plain-song. They were to be -elected by a body of six, known afterwards as ‘the Chamber,’ from the -room overlooking Middle or Chamber Court, ‘Election Chamber,’ where -elections took place. The ‘Chamber’ was to consist of the Warden and two -Fellows from New (known as the senior and junior ‘posers’ respectively), -with the Warden, Subwarden, and Headmaster of Winchester. In election -preference was to be given to founder’s kin, and then to others in due -degrees of priority of claim. They were to remain until the age of -eighteen years, unless on the roll for New College; but founder’s kin -could remain till the age of twenty-five years. - -The scholars were to be lodged, boarded, clothed, and taught entirely -free of expense: they were not to keep dogs, ferrets, or hawks: to carry -arms or frequent taverns: to empty water, etc., on the heads of their -companions from windows in the court--regulations which throw a curious -light on the manners of the time. The scholars were to be lodged and fed -under the charge of the _hostiarius_ or usher--an arrangement which -obtains even now, as the ‘seventy’ still reside in chambers in college, -under the charge of the second master. - -We must not suppose that Wykeham’s scholars were to be boys either -destitute or in actual want. The term _pauperes et indigentes_ was -probably a formal expression, designed to exclude the actually wealthy -rather than anything else, like the term _in need of financial -assistance_ inserted in modern scholarship regulations. - -In addition to the above, the statutes contemplated the admission of a -limited number of outsiders, known as _commensales_ or commoners, and -later on town boys or _oppidani_ were admitted as day boys. The -conditions under which the commoners resided varied greatly from time to -time. In 1727 Dr. Burton, then headmaster, made extensive additions to -the College buildings, practically converting his own house into a -boarding-house for them, and this building became known as ‘Old -Commoners.’ In 1838 Commoners was rebuilt, under the name of New -Commoners, but the result was not very satisfactory, and in 1860 the -present plan of boarding in tutors’ houses was commenced, when the Rev. -H. J. Wickham opened the first ‘House.’ In 1869, during Dr. Moberly’s -tenure as headmaster, the system was extended. ‘Commoners’ was done away -with, the commoners themselves lodged in tutors’ houses, and the -building in part transformed into ‘Moberly Library’--so termed in memory -of Dr. Moberly. - -The College buildings and grounds are a charm and a delight. From the -outer front in College Street, little indeed can be seen. The -headmaster’s house, built on the site of the old Sustern Spital, is a -flat-fronted modern building faced with squared flints, and the old -Brewery presents little but a blank wall of ancient masonry. The one -external feature of interest is the delightful ‘Old Gateway’ surmounted -by a statue of the Virgin. - -Passing under Old Gateway with College Brew House on the right, and then -under Middle Gate into Chamber Court, one is transported back -immediately into mediaevalism. There over Middle Gate is the figure of -‘Sainte Marie,’ and scholars, juniors, at least, if not always seniors, -as they cross the quad, doff their hats still in reverence to the Virgin -as they have done from the beginning. Immediately opposite you are -Chapel and Hall. Chapel, with Fromond’s chantry used by Lower-school -‘Men,’--for Winchester is remarkable among schools as having two -chapels--and the beautiful cloisters behind it, those cloisters which -the Founder himself seems almost to pervade and to spiritualize with his -presence, is a place to wander in and dream dreams of the past. Hall, -approached, as befits its dignity, up a grand old stairway, is -splendidly impressive, with its magnificent open timber roof and carved -wainscot, and the Founder’s portrait--a picture of real grace and -beauty--dominating the high table or dais at the other end. In the lobby -adjoining the kitchen they will show you the ‘Trusty Servant,’ the -quaint old painting emblematic of loyal and devoted service. The riddle -is explained in a copy of verses attached, and the absence of any -reference to expectation of reward on behalf of the ‘Trusty Sweater’ is -at least as suggestive as his loyalty and humble demeanour. - -Most appealing, perhaps, after Hall, possibly more even than Cloisters, -is ‘Seventh Chamber,’ Wykeham’s original schoolroom, or part of it at -least, now used as a common study for senior College men, and a -veritable museum of interesting reminders of old Wykehamical life -mingled confusedly with aggressively incongruous and more modern -‘intrusive deposits,’--here perhaps a framed ‘Vanity Fair’ cartoon of -the headmaster; there possibly a couple of Teddy Bears serving as -mascots--for in college life the points of contrast between ancient and -modern are curious and startling, while not the least alluring of its -characteristic features is the rich flavour and vigour of college -nomenclature. ‘Moab,’ the boys’ washing-place in earlier and less -luxurious days--“Moab is my wash-pot”--is a delicious example of this. -College phraseology is a subject almost worthy of separate treatment by -itself. - -‘Seventh Chamber Passage,’ itself originally part of Seventh Chamber, -leads you to ‘School,’ the seventeenth-century schoolroom built by -Warden Nicholas. Here you may see the ‘thrones’ or official seats in -earlier days of headmaster and usher, and the world-famous Winchester -emblem on the walls-- - - Aut disce - Aut discede - Manet tertia sors--caedi. - -which may be freely rendered-- - - Learn, or depart, or stay and be beaten; - -though it is more than doubtful whether, in the experience of earlier -Wykehamists at least, the first and the last-mentioned fates were at all -often found to be mutually exclusive. - -Beyond is ‘Meads,’ where ‘Domum’ is yearly held, and beyond, again, ‘New -Meads,’ with its magnificent sward, its lofty trees, and its memories of -‘Eton Match’; and right away again, across the river, ‘Hills’ lies in -full view--St. Catherine’s Hill, where Winchester boys in earlier days -repaired for recreation on ‘remedies’ or holidays, the joys of which may -be followed out in full in Bompas’s delightful life of Frank Buckland. - -“Manners makyth man”--one is tempted to wonder if more may not here be -meant than meets the ear, and whether ‘manners,’ in its Latin equivalent -_mores_ at least, does not wrap up a punning allusion, after the method -so dear to that age, to Warden Morys, to whose hands, on the erection of -the building, Wykeham first committed the future of his great college. -But be that as it may, the emblem seems to sum up the spirit of the -college with literal fidelity. Passing through its chambers, its chapel, -its courts, its cloisters, one is sadly tempted to linger to recall the -memory of this great headmaster, or recount the quaint stories told of -this famous warden or that, and the names of Ken, Arnold, Goddard, -Gabell, Huntingford, Barter, rise almost instinctively to one’s lips. We -shall find their memories all piously preserved and commemorated whether -in portrait, tablet, or building, as for instance the Memorial Gateway -erected as a memorial of the old Wykehamists who fell in the South -African War; but here we may not stop, and those who wish to do so can -follow out their story in Leach’s _Winchester College_ or Adams’s -delightful _Wykehamica_. But more striking than the past, the noble -traditions nobly preserved is the vitality in the present. ‘Sainte Marie -College’ has always known how to adapt herself successfully, as age -succeeded age, to the requirements of the day, and has paid the truest -respect to the Founder’s wishes in never allowing herself to grow old. -There is no frost, mingled with the kindliness of age, in Winchester -College. - -CHAPTER XVIII - -WOLVESEY--ST. CROSS--THE CASTLE HALL--THE ROUND TABLE - - And for great Arthur’s seat ould Winchester preferres, - Whose ould Round Table yet she vaunteth to be hers. - DRAYTON’S _Polyolbion_. - - -From College one turns naturally to Wolvesey--Wolvesey with its -wonderful grey stone walls, its memories of Saxon and Norman, -Plantagenet and Stuart times. Here Alfred kept his Court, with all the -learned men of his time around him; here the _English Chronicle_ was -first compiled; and here, above that very Wolvesey wall, it may be, the -Danish pirates captured in the Solent were hanged--as has been already -related--in retributive justice. But the big blocks of ruin in Wolvesey -Mead are of later date; they recall to us the career of that notable -figure among the Bishops of Winchester, Henry of Blois, King Stephen’s -brother, bishop from 1129 to 1171--the masterful man, devoted churchman, -and scheming politician, whose story has been somewhat fully related in -Chapter VIII. To strengthen himself he fortified - -[Illustration: CHURCH OF ST. LAWRENCE, WINCHESTER - - A small but extremely interesting parish church in ‘The Square,’ of - which practically all the exterior, save the Western Doorway and - the Tower, is hidden from sight by the houses and shops hemming it - in on all sides. Every Bishop of Winchester on being installed - proceeds in solemn procession from the Cathedral to St. Lawrence - Church to ring the bell--a picturesque survival of feudal days. - ‘The Square’ marks the site of a palace built for his own - occupation by William the Conqueror. -] - -his dwelling at Wolvesey with an ‘adulterine’ castle--for he built here -without royal warrant, as he built his castles elsewhere at Bishop’s -Waltham and at Hursley,--and he sided alternately with Stephen and -Empress Matilda in the civil war, as circumstances dictated. And so it -befell that Winchester itself became divided into rival camps; Matilda’s -forces held the Royal Castle and the Bishop held Wolvesey, and, here -within his defences, now in ruins, the Bishop stood the siege valiantly. -Ultimately peace was made, and Winchester saw Prince Henry make joyful -entry into her ruined streets and ratify the compact. His later years -were passed in works of peace and beneficence, and for these he will -always be most gratefully remembered. - -He built the Hospital of St. Cross, a permanent refuge for thirteen poor -brethren, and a house of daily entertainment for the poor and needy -outside its walls. He placed his foundation of St. Cross under the -protection of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, an Order specially -devoted to guarding the welfare of pilgrims and wayfarers. And so the -Brethren of St. Cross still wear to-day the eight-pointed cross of the -Order and the black gown which distinguished the Knights Hospitallers, -and the wayfarer’s dole of bread and beer may still be asked for and -obtained at its hospitable gates. Advancement, personal power, and -political ascendancy, all these Bishop Henry desired for himself, strove -for, won and lost in turn. St. Cross retains its vitality still,--such -is the perennial virtue of unselfish kindliness and beneficence. - -Though its fortifications were dismantled, Wolvesey remained the -residence of the Bishops of Winchester for many centuries after Henry de -Blois. Here, on March 28, 1394, in the presence chamber of Wolvesey, -William of Wykeham received the warden, John Morys, and the seventy -scholars of his _Newe College of St. Marie_, and gave them his blessing -as they set out in solemn procession to enter into occupation of their -newly erected premises. In the Civil War, after Cromwell’s capture of -the city, the old Bishop’s Castle was finally dismantled. - -Present-day Wolvesey Palace stands on your left as you enter from -College Street with the Norman ruins and the old Tilt yard in front of -it and on your right. Bishop Morley, the friend of Ken and Izaak Walton, -erected it. But Wolvesey and Farnham together proved too heavy an -episcopal burden, and later bishops have preferred to reside at Farnham. -So Wolvesey ceased to be the Bishop of Winchester’s official residence, -and the greater part of Morley’s building was pulled down by Bishop -North at the end of the eighteenth century. The growing need for the -division of the diocese makes it quite possible, however, that the -Bishops of Winchester may again be residing in Wolvesey Palace, as their -predecessors did for so many hundreds of years. - -Wykeham’s College, ‘the Newe Saint Marie College of Wynchester,’ is but -a stone’s-throw from Wolvesey. The story of the College has been fully -dealt with in a former chapter, and so, now, as we pass along College - -Street from Wolvesey, our thoughts may well turn to a house on the left -adjoining College, with memories of a different kind, those of Jane -Austen. A tablet over the door recalls the fact of Jane Austen’s death -within its walls in 1817. She had removed here from her home at Chawton, -near Alton, in hope of recovery under the medical treatment which -Winchester could afford her. But the hope was vain. She lies buried in -the north aisle of the Cathedral nave. We know her now as among the -rarest and most charming of women novelists. Of her we shall speak again -in the chapter on ‘Winchester in Literature.’ - -Some half mile or so south of College, beyond New Meads and the meadows -by the river--those meadows from which the tower and pinnacles of -College Chapel form so poetic a picture as they mingle with the trees -around, and the Cathedral behind--lies St. Cross, a foundation which has -undergone many vicissitudes and been at various times “much abused” -(_see pp._ 188, 189), but which has happily now for many years past been -rescued from the spoiler and restored to the full exercise of generous -beneficence. Of its foundation by Henry of Blois we have already spoken, -but in its associations another historic name figures, of equal -prominence with Bishop Henry’s--that of Beaufort, Bishop and Cardinal in -Henry VI.’s reign. Beaufort was a second founder, and the domestic -buildings and the fine gateway are his work. Along with the Brethren -with black gown and silver cross will be seen some wearing a mulberry -gown, with the Beaufort Rose as emblem; these are Brethren of the order -Beaufort founded--the Order of Noble Poverty. St. Cross is not a place -to describe at all in words; its traditions, its characteristic customs, -its general atmosphere belong to it and to it alone; to appreciate it it -must be felt. Peaceful and dignified, with the clear transparent waters -of Itchen flowing quietly by at its feet, there is no place in -Winchester, or indeed anywhere else, where the sense of hallowed charm, -of serenity, of contentment, and of rest seems quite so natural and so -pervading as here. - -Wherever else we turn in Winchester we find some treasure or other over -which to linger. On the high ground forming the south-west angle of the -city there is the County Hall, last surviving relic of the great royal -castle, which William of Normandy first erected and which his successors -added to. For some six hundred years that great keep, with its heavy -battlements and frowning bastions, scowled down upon the city and -overawed its burghers. Yet, grim and all but impregnable as those ‘rude -ribs’ might seem to be, more than one assailant found means to penetrate -within. Here, in 1140, Matilda the Empress, besieged by Stephen’s Queen, -was forced by hunger to abandon resistance, and to seek safety by -stealth and stratagem in a hasty and disastrous flight--her power of -effective resistance broken finally and for ever. Here, in 1645, flushed -with victory from Naseby field, came Cromwell, and, after nine days of -hot cannonade, compelled the surrender of the citadel--a surrender which -he followed up by ordering the castle to be ‘slighted,’ _i.e._ razed to -the ground. - -The present Castle Hall was erected by a Winchester monarch--Henry III., -Henry of Winchester. Here again the sense of the historic past swells -and surges round you. It is almost a revelation in history to walk round -it and follow out in detail the memories of those whose history is -personally connected with it, their names and arms all emblazoned in the -stained glass which fills the lights on either side. Local feeling has -been just recently somewhat deeply stirred by the removal within the -Hall of Gilbert’s well-known bronze statue of Queen Victoria, formerly -placed in the Abbey grounds--a removal which has evoked a very -unfortunate controversy, and as to the wisdom of which considerable -cleavage of opinion exists. But whatever view be taken of this, as to -the impressiveness of the great Hall, within and without, or the story -it has to tell, no two opinions can be held. The grand interior with its -splendid columns speaks of great assemblies within its walls; of -Parliaments such as the one held here as early as 1265, within a year of -the death of the great De Montfort, the ‘inventor,’ so to speak, of the -representative assembly; of State ceremonial displays such as when Henry -V. received the French ambassadors here, a few days only before the -Agincourt expedition sailed--as when Henry VII. celebrated the birth of -his first-born, Arthur of Winchester, Prince of Wales, and as when Henry -VIII. received and fêted the great Emperor Charles V., the - -Charlemagne of his day; of State Trials such as that which unjustly -condemned Sir Walter Raleigh; of the Bloody Assize and the horror of the -judicial murder of Dame Alicia Lisle; while the most characteristic -touch perhaps of all is given by the quaint relic hanging on the western -wall, the so-called King Arthur’s Round Table. A curious relic indeed -this latter, and an ancient one, possibly 700 years old. We shall hardly -accept it, as Henry VIII. and his royal Spanish guest did, as the actual -table at which King Arthur and his knights used to seat themselves, even -though we may read their names--Sir Launcelot, Sir Galahallt, Sir -Bedivere, Sir Kay--inscribed upon its margin. Rather does it recall to -us those quaintly attractive, uncritical mediaeval days, when historical -perspective was unknown, that glorious age when “Once upon a time” -almost satisfied the yearnings of the historical instinct. Yet one may -question whether we are really better off, because for us King Arthur’s -Round Table has no existence and Arthur himself is lost in the strange -background of - - Moving faces and of waving hands, - -that weird labyrinth where history and legend, myth and romance, are so -strangely and inextricably interwoven; and one turns away baffled and -reluctant from many and many an old-world story, and many and many an -old-world relic such as this, with the sense of something like a lost -inheritance. - - So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. - -There is, however, little real excuse for these unavailing regrets in -Winchester, for she above all places has store of real history--and such -history, too--enough and to spare. - -Here, for instance, in the West Gate adjoining the Castle Hall, and in -the Obelisk just beyond the circuit of the old walls, this vividness of -history meets us again. Formerly the West Gate was a blockhouse as much -as a gate. You can still see where the portcullis worked up and down, -and look down from the battlements of the roof through the machicolated -openings which enabled defenders to meet assailants with molten lead and -kindred compliments. Later on it was a prison. On the walls of the -splendid old chamber above the gateway we can see elaborate designs -carved out by one poor prisoner after another, to while away the tedium -and to help him to forget the miseries of his imprisonment. Now the West -Gate is a museum with a collection of rare local interest: early weights -and measures of the days when Winchester could still impose its -standards upon others, weapons and armour, the gibbet of the -executioner, and the axe of the headsman. But strong for defence as the -West Gate and city wall were, the Obelisk beyond recalls to us one foe -whom no bar could exclude, no bolt restrain; for though in 1666 -Winchester was straitly shut up like Jericho of old, and none went out -and none came in, that grim and relentless assailant, the Plague, passed -all barriers unchallenged, and Winchester became as a city of the dead. -Then--for none dared approach--the country people held their market -without and chaffered for their wares at safe distance with the men upon -the wall, and the Obelisk, erected in 1759, serves to commemorate the -spot where marketing was done for Winchester citizens under such tragic -conditions. Happily, plague has disappeared from our midst for some 250 -years. In mediaeval days, right on indeed from 1348, the year of the -Black Death, plague was all too common a visitant. The sister societies -of Natives and Aliens still survive in Winchester, to carry on the work -of relieving widows and orphans, first begun when plague laid its hand -so heavily on the city in the ‘Annus Mirabilis’ and left so many widows -and orphans to relieve. - -Full of interest as the West Gate is, it leaves a sense of regret behind -when we remember that it is the only one remaining of the four principal -gateways which the city once possessed. The artificial and curiously -warped ideas of taste and sentiment which characterised the mid-Georgian -period were responsible for a wholesale destruction of Old Winchester -architectural treasures. Three historic gateways, the ruins of Hyde -Abbey, the tomb of Alfred the Great, Bishop Morley’s Palace of Wolvesey, -all these and others suffered destruction, partial or complete. The City -Cross itself was condemned to removal, but popular indignation, ever -ready to express itself in Winchester as vigorously, even in modern -days, as it was in earlier days of Saxon and Dane, when popular clamour -round the hustings was the due and only expression of law, - -[Illustration: HURSLEY VICARAGE - - Hursley, five miles from Winchester, is the centre of ‘Kebleland.’ - Here John Keble was parish priest for thirty-one years. Hursley - Church was practically rebuilt from the profits of the _Christian - Year_, and Keble and his wife lie buried in Hursley churchyard - close to the porch on the southern side. - - The village has memories of Richard Cromwell, and there is a fine - historical monument to the Cromwell family in the tower of Hursley - Church. -] - -could not be restrained, and the City Cross was left undisturbed. Nor -did the West Gate escape except by accident. The great room over the -gateway was at that time held as an annexe to a public-house adjoining, -and so the West Gate was spared merely in order that Winchester citizens -might the better enjoy their ‘cakes and ale.’ History teaches us to be -grateful at times to strange benefactors. To many, with the present -trend of social and political thought, the sentiment _Das Gasthaus als -Freund_ will come almost as a shock, yet here in Winchester we are -confronted by the curious paradox, that while water has sapped the -stability of the Cathedral, that of the West Gate has been secured by -beer. - -Municipal life in Winchester forms another chapter full of interest. Of -her early ‘gilds,’ dating back perhaps to days before Alfred, of the -Chepemanesela, the Chenicteshalla, the Hantachenesla, and other vaguely -indicated centres of civic organisation, where, in Henry I.’s time, the -citizens in their various grades assembled to ‘drink their gild,’ we -have already spoken. Her roll of mayors claims to begin with Florence de -Lunn in 1184. Whatever antiquity the Mayoralty can justly claim--for -Florence de Lunn can hardly be treated quite seriously--her corporate -history is full and varied. - -The new Guildhall in the Broadway, some thirty years old only, which has -replaced the old Guildhall in the High Street, possesses an interesting -collection of civic portraits, along with corporation plate, municipal -archives, and much wealth of historic raw material. - -The finest of these pictures, King Charles II.’s portrait, painted by -Lely, and presented by the Merry Monarch himself to the city, -represents, perhaps, the only return with which the loyalty of the -citizens towards the house of Stuart was rewarded. They lent King -Charles I. £1000, they melted their private plate, valued at £300, and -their city plate, valued at £58 more, to help to fill his empty coffers -when the Civil War was raging. Old Bishop Morley, whose memories centre -closest round present-day Wolvesey and Farnham, and Bishop Hoadly of the -Queen Anne period, are among the more interesting of the personalities -whose effigies are here displayed. - -Many, indeed, are the interesting memories which Winchester preserves of -the Merry Monarch and his Court; of Nell Gwynn and of the valiant stand -made against her by Prebendary Ken; of Sir Christopher Wren and the -palace he commenced to build for his royal master on the site of the -castle razed by Cromwell--a great and ambitious project never completed, -but which, under the name of the King’s House, served for many years as -the military headquarters of the city till a great fire swept it away in -1894, to make room for the present barracks, erected, soon afterwards, -on very nearly the same site. - -Another interesting Guildhall portrait is that of Edward Cole, Mayor in -1597, a patriotic citizen who himself subscribed £50--a large sum for -one man in those days--towards the Queen’s war fund in days of the -Armada, and a ‘gubernator’ some years later of Christes Hospitall, -Winchester, founded, by Peter - -Symonds, in 1607 alike for the maintenance of the aged and the education -of the young--a foundation possessing a delightful old Jacobean -building, just beyond the Close wall, out of which has grown, almost -within the last decade, on a wide and open site on the outskirts of the -city, a rapidly developing school of modern type, where the ‘children’ -of Peter Symonds, in largely increased numbers, receive a far wider -education than was possible when he first called them into existence. - -His will is a curious and characteristic document. It occupied an -enormous number of folios. Blue Coat schoolboys, practically until the -removal of the school to Horsham, showed respect to his memory by some -sixty of their number attending a special Good Friday Service at the -church of All Hallows, Lombard Street, at which sixpences and raisins -were distributed, in accordance with his will; and his Winchester -scholars and Brethren keep his memory by an annual procession to service -at the Cathedral on St. Peter’s Day, with a special sermon and quaint -ceremonial observance. - -Such are some of the matters of interest, small and great, which meet -you wherever you turn in Winchester--everywhere there is some _genius -loci_, some cricket installed, and chirping on the hearth. Here it is a -quaint tavern-sign such as you can read on the outskirts. As you leave -the city you read the legend “Last Out,” as you approach from without -you read “First In.” Or it is a name of some street--Jewry Street, for -instance, recalling the times when, as already narrated, the Jews -formed a powerful element in the commercial prosperity of the city, and -had a Ghetto here--or Staple Garden, reminiscent of the great Wool Hall, -where the ‘Tron’ or weighing-machine of the Wool Staple was kept, when -Winchester was the mart where the wool trade of the south of England -centred. And here and there are darker and more sombre recollections, -such as the tablet outside the City Museum serves to remind us of the -moving tragedy of the execution of Dame Alicia Lisle in September 1685, -on a spot in the open roadway, in front of what then was the Market -House. Then, too, there are glorious old houses, Tudor and mediaeval, -like God Begot House and the so-called Cheesehill Old Rectory, and the -delightful houses erected by Sir Christopher Wren himself--those -inhabited now by Dr. England and Captain Crawford in Southgate Street -for instance, and the house in St. Peter’s Street erected for the -Duchess of Portsmouth, of unpleasant memory. These are merely random -examples of the kind of interest which Winchester presents to those who -wander through her streets with eyes to see and ears to hear. For the -casual visitor Winchester has much to offer; for the student of history -she has more; but her wealth of treasure can only be apprehended -adequately by those who are privileged to dwell within her charmed -circle, for her harvest of attraction is too wide to be garnered save by -those who bring extended opportunity as well as love and reverence to -the task. - -CHAPTER XIX - -WINCHESTER IN LITERATURE - - And as imagination bodies forth - The forms of things unknown, the poet’s eye - Clothes them with shapes, and gives to airy nothing - A local habitation and a name. - - -It is always a pleasing occupation to follow out the associations of -human fancy which often invest persons and places with an interest, and -indeed a romantic charm, to which the cold-eyed historian or dryasdust -critic is entirely unresponsive, and if Winchester as it first appeared -to us, as we looked down from the brow of St. Giles’s Hill, seemed to -throb with the life and interest of a departed age, and of historical -personages long since passed away, so too we shall find that it -possesses associations of the purely literary type, not indeed fit to -challenge comparison with the glorious pageantry of its historic past -which we have attempted, all too inadequately, to present upon our -stage, but not unworthy to be chronicled and to be included in her -volume of romance and recollection. Her points of contact with -literature have been many, and yet it would be wrong to describe her as -a literary city. No poet of note, no great writer, has, in recent days -at all events, claimed her as parent; her acquaintance has been rather -with literary persons than with literature itself, for though she has -attracted many to make her in some form or other their theme, but little -of real weight in any but ancient literature has first seen the light -beneath her auspices. For all this she has, in literature as in life, -her story to tell, and that an ancient one. - -The first literary associations of Winchester are, as is but natural, -historical ones, and the first mention of her in literature is found in -Bede, who records for us, among other scanty details, her name, ‘Venta, -quae a gente Saxonum Ventanceastir appellatur’; she next appears in a -full flood of glory, the seat of the learned and literary court of -Alfred, from which he gave the world the treasures of his literary -efforts--the _Consolations_ of Boëthius, Gregory’s _Pastoral Care_, -Orosius, and Bede’s _Ecclesiastical History_, all rendered into the -vernacular, and more important far than all of these, the great -thesaurus of early national history, the _English Chronicle_, the -history of which we have already related, and from which we have quoted -so constantly in our earlier chapters, to be followed by the equally -momentous Domesday Book--curious as it may seem to include this among -literary productions. Following from this we have a wide and almost -bewildering series of chroniclers, historians, and annalists, some of -whom, like William of Malmesbury, Henry Knighton, and Matthew Paris, -record details of her career incidentally as general items in the -history of the land, while others, like Precentor Wulfstan and the -annalists of Ealden Mynstre and Newan Mynstre, laboured at Winchester in -their respective scriptoria, producing not merely wonderful works like -the _Benedictional_ of St. Æthelwold and the _Golden Book_ of Edgar, but -local histories in goodly store, the Hyde _Liber Vitae_ and _Liber de -Hyda_, and the later monkish annals of Plantagenet days--Rudborne’s -_Major Historia Wintoniae_, the anonymously written _Annales de -Wintonia_, and others. Prominent among these various chroniclers was -Geoffrey of Monmouth, who, romancist and fabricator as he was, has yet -rendered valuable service by preserving the British legends as they -survived among the Brythonic folk, and has given us--and let us be duly -grateful--the Arthurian legend in all its suggestive elusiveness and -mystery, centring round Winchester and Silchester, with Arthur the -Christian King, Merlin the Mage, Dubric the High Saint, and many -another--a legend which passed through many languages and many lands, -gathering store of added marvels on the way, the customary guerdon of -such literary wanderings, to reappear in strange unwonted guises, as in -Layamond’s _Brut_ and the _Morte d’Arthur_ of Malorie. And the legendary -lore of Winchester is far from being her least attractive literary -asset: we have dealt with this subject fairly fully already--some may -perhaps deem too fully,--yet is not legend but the _alter ego_ of -history, and are not myth and legend, sober fact and imaginative -creation, after all merely the multicoloured strata in the complete -rainbow of presentment of vital truth, passing and repassing each into -other by nice gradation and imperceptible advance? But all these are but -prehistoric as it were, when English as a language was not, and monastic -Latin and Anglo-Saxon the muddy media of literary communication. - -The Winchester stream in English literature begins to flow at first with -feeble current--a distich or so of uncouth verse, or a casual reference, -as in _Piers Plowman_, Leland, Camden, or elsewhere. Drayton, in his -_Polyolbion_, has some twenty lines or so on the Itchen, referring to -the Round Table of Arthur at Winchester, and the towns on her course, -speaking of - -... that wondrous Pond whence she derives her head, - And places by the way, by which shee’s honoured, - (Old Winchester, that stands neere in her middle way, - And Hampton, at her fall, into the Solent Sea), - -and Ken and Walton, in later Stuart days, come upon the scene. Ken is a -real Winchester possession--educated at Winchester College, and later -on, Prebendary of the Cathedral, he wrote his well-known and still -widely-used _Manual of Prayer_ for the use of the scholars of Winchester -College, and his _Morning and Evening Hymns_ breathe the same spirit of -the inner religious life afterwards so beautifully reflected in Keble’s -_Christian Year_. His preferment to the see of Bath and - -[Illustration: WINCHESTER FROM ST. GILES’S HILL - -From St. Giles’s Hill, where in mediaeval days the world-famous Fair of -St. Egidius or St. Giles was held, an unequalled view of Winchester city -can be obtained. The Cathedral, Wolvesey, the College, the Guildhall, -the High Street, the Alfred Statue, the Old Guildhall, the Westgate, can -all be seen. The dark clump of trees on the sky-line is the so-called -Oliver’s Battery.] - -Wells arose too out of his sturdy refusal to countenance the Merry -Monarch’s irregular life, for he refused to let Mistress Eleanor Gwynne -have the use of his house to lodge in, a refusal which angered the king -at the time, but conciliated his respect, for on the bishopric falling -vacant he declared that none should have it but the “good little man who -refused his lodging to poor Nelly.” Izaak Walton, Ken’s relative, made -Winchester his residence during the closing years of his long life--a -man of culture and some literary pretension, apart altogether from his -immortal _Compleat Angler_, for his lives of Donne and Herbert attained -to some celebrity; tradition connects a certain summer-house by the -stream in the Deanery garden with him and his fishing, and in several -places in his _Compleat Angler_ he makes allusion to our Winchester -streams, showing that he had ofttimes baited his angle by one or other -of its waters. Peace to his soul--he rests in the Cathedral, in -Silkstede’s Chapel, and the verses over his tomb, though devoid of all -literary merit, are said to have been written by Ken his kinsman. - -Our next possession is a greater name--and that, moreover, a Hampshire, -though not in any real sense a Winchester one--the Hampshire novelist, -the most charming and natural of women writers, Jane Austen. Here in the -early days of 1817, when a deadly and insidious malady had attacked her, -she came with her sister Cassandra to lodge in a house in College -Street, occupied then by a Mrs. David, in the vain hope that Winchester -medical skill might restore her strength. - -The following letter from her pen,[3] written at this period, reveals -the characteristic _espièglerie_ of the writer, which not even advancing -weakness could disarm or subdue. - - MRS. DAVID’S, COLLEGE STREET, WINTON, - _Tuesday, May 27th_. - - There is no better way, my dearest E., of thanking you for your - affectionate concern for me during my illness than by telling you - myself, as soon as possible, that I continue to get better. I will - not boast of my handwriting--neither that nor my face have yet - recovered their proper beauty; but in other respects I gain - strength very fast; am now out of bed from 9 in the morning to 10 - at night; upon the sofa, it is true, but I eat my meals with Aunt - Cassandra in a rational way, and can employ myself, and walk from - one room to another. Mr. Lyford says he will cure me, and if he - fails I shall draw up a memorial and lay it before the Dean and - Chapter, and have no doubt of redress from that pious, learned, and - disinterested body. Our lodgings are very comfortable. We have a - neat little drawing-room with a bow window, overlooking Dr. - Gabell’s garden.... On Thursday, which is a confirmation and a - holiday, we are to get Charles [_a relative--then a boy at the - College_] out to breakfast. We have had but one visit from him, - poor fellow, as he is in sick-room, but he hopes to be out - to-night.... God bless you, my dear E. If ever you are ill, may you - be as tenderly nursed as I have been. May the same blessed - alleviations of anxious, sympathising friends be yours; and may you - possess, as I dare say you will, the greatest blessing of all, in - the consciousness of not being unworthy of their love. _I_ could - not feel this.--Your very affectionate aunt, - - J. A. - - - -Poor Jane Austen, the rally was but a momentary one, and an untimely -death cut short her career just as she was developing to her best work. -She is buried in the Cathedral, where, curiously, the flat stone slab -over her body speaks eloquently of her benevolence of heart, sweetness -of temper, and Christian patience and hope, but not one word of her -literary skill or claims as an authoress--the only reference to these is -in the indirect phrase “the extraordinary endowments of her mind.” So -little was her right place in literature then realized, that some among -her friends saw her appearance as a novelist rather with concern than -with approval, and her literary ventures were even referred to -apologetically. Posterity has amply atoned for this neglect: the -Cathedral possesses two memorials of her--a brass and a stained-glass -window; and she has long since been admitted to the high measure of -appreciation to which her naturalness and sincerity justly entitle her. -The Dr. Gabell referred to in the letter was, of course, the well-known -Dr. Gabell, headmaster of the College, mentioned in the previous -chapter, a characteristic figure famous in his day, a picture of whom, -had she been spared, she might perhaps have left us, limned in her own -nervous and inimitable manner; but, alas! it was not to be. Fortunately -the house she occupied is known, and a commemorative tablet, placed over -the door, records appropriately her sojourn there and her untimely -death. - -Following close upon Jane Austen came another, with a name ever to be -honoured in song--a summer migrant merely, it is true, or rather an -autumn one,--whose light was destined to be shortly afterwards suddenly -extinguished also. John Keats, the poet, who came here in August 1819 -from Shanklin, where “Keats’s Green” preserves his memory, for a visit -of some two months’ duration--“the last good days of his life.” Several -considerations dictated his visit to Winchester, among others, the -desire to have access to a good library, a desire destined, quite -unaccountably, to disappointment. His letters written from Winchester -are full and charming literary productions: he describes the -‘maiden-ladylike gentility’ of her streets; the door-steps always ‘fresh -from the flannel’--the knockers with a staid, serious, and almost awful -quietness about them; the High Street as quiet as a lamb, the -door-knockers ‘dieted to three raps per diem’;--in such happy, delicate -phrases he hits off the Winchester of the day. Of the place itself he -gives us interesting touches: the air on one of its downs is ‘worth -sixpence a pint’; the beautiful streams full of trout delight him; the -Cathedral, fourteen centuries old, enchants his imagination; while the -foundation of St. Cross he finds to be greatly abused. - -Where he lodged we know not, dearly as we should like to--we can only -form such conclusions as the following clues[4] point to: - - I take a walk every day for an hour before dinner, and this is - generally my walk. I go out the back gate across one street into - the Cathedral yard, which is always interesting; there I pass under - the trees along a paved path, pass the beautiful front of the - Cathedral, turn to the left under a stone doorway--then I am on the - other side of the building, which leaving behind me, I pass on - through two College-like squares, seemingly built for the - dwelling-place of Deacons and Prebendaries, furnished with grass - and shaded with trees; then I pass through one of the old city - gates and then you are in one College Street, through which I pass, - and at the end thereof crossing some meadows, and at last a country - alley of gardens, I arrive at the foundation of St. Cross, which is - a very interesting old place, both for its Gothic tower and Alms - square and also for the appropriation of its rich rents to a - relation of the Bishop of Winchester. Then I pass over St. Cross - meadows till you come to the most beautifully clear river. Now this - is only one mile of my walk.[5] - -Another clue, which locates the house very close to the High Street, if -not in it, is given by the following: - - We heard distinctly a noise patting down the High Street as of a - walking cane of the good old Dowager breed, and a little minute - after we heard a less voice observe, “What a noise the ferril - made--it must be loose.”[6] - -Winchester streets are less staid and genteel now, and the High Street -would hardly echo responsive to such repressed sounds to-day. - -Two months only the visit lasted, months of tense compression and rich -utterance of song. _Hyperion_ (which he never finished), _Lamia_, _The -Eve of St. Agnes_, _La Belle Dame sans Merci_--all these in one form or -other came under his pen for completion or revision, while his _Ode to -Autumn_, the most perfect of all his odes, was wholly a Winchester -production inspired by his circumstances and surroundings. The German -poet might almost have had Keats prophetically before him when he sang: - - Singst du nicht dein ganzes Leben, - Sing doch in der Jugend Drang! - Nur im Blüthenmond erheben - Nachtigallen ihren Sang. - - E’en though after years be silent, - Sing while youthful passions throng, - Only in the fervid spring-time - Nightingales pour forth their song. - -But no after years, alas! were to succeed, and Keats’s fervid -‘Blüthenmond’ was all his allotted span. Winchester is happy in the -memory of his eventful connection with her, brief in time though it was. - -Our next name is Thackeray, who seems to have loved to locate his scenes -in our city and neighbourhood, though in general his references have too -little local colour to permit of identification--assuming, that is, that -any such local image was really intended. - -_Vanity Fair_ and _Esmond_ are full of local allusions; Sir Pitt -Crawley, for instance, would appear to derive his names from Pitt and -Crawley, two villages close to Winchester; and in _Esmond_, Hampshire -allusions, tantalisingly veiled, it is true, seem to meet and to baffle -you everywhere. It seems impossible to avoid identifying Castlewood, -with its ruined house battered down by Cromwell, and the Bell Inn with -Basing House and Basingstoke; and while Alton, Alresford, and Crawley -are all mentioned, it is round Winchester that interest centres and -perplexes most. Where else in literature is a scene so inimitably -conjured up and told so charmingly and with such restraint, where else -is the real Thackeray so fully revealed, as when Esmond rides on from -Walcote to the ‘George’ at Winchester on the fateful 29th December, and - - walked straight to the Cathedral. The organ was playing, the - winter’s day was already growing grey, as he passed under the - street arch into the Cathedral yard and made his way into the - ancient solemn edifice. - -Wonderful is the chapter that follows--when Esmond and his ‘mistress,’ -reconciled once more, first become mutually conscious of their love, and -the words of the anthem, “He that goeth forth and weepeth shall -doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him,” -find their joyous refrain in the loving words they exchange. - -But where is Walcote? Conjecture would almost naturally settle on -Lainston House, some three miles away, the memories of which, in the -person of the notorious Duchess of Kingston, doubtless suggested the -character of Beatrix the incomparable, the breaker of hearts, the wilful -and selfish beauty, did not distance put this out of question. Prior’s -Barton House, at St. Cross, would fit us better. But the problem is a -baffling one, if indeed it has any solution at all. - -Of a different kind are the memories which linger round the immediate -neighbourhood--the villages of Twyford, Otterbourne, Hursley. At Twyford -the poet Pope was sent to school, and in a house close by the great Dr. -Benjamin Franklin composed his autobiography; Otterbourne was the -birthplace and lifelong home of Charlotte Yonge, the high-minded and -accomplished, whose books will always be a standard for what is highest -and most womanly in fiction--who loved to weave the details of local -association with the stories she told so skilfully and well; and on a -higher level still we have at Hursley the memories of Keble and the -_Christian Year_,--not that Keble wrote the _Christian Year_ at Hursley, -though his connection with the place as curate commenced before it was -completed, but his life-work was in reality here. Hursley Church, -practically rebuilt by him from the profits of the sale of his -_Christian Year_, is his truest memorial, and the beautiful church and -peaceful churchyard, where he sleeps his last earthly sleep, will be -ever a spot of hallowed association and pilgrimage. Winchester may be -proud of its hymn-writers: Ken and Keble were two, and a third less well -known, but certainly deserving to be honoured, was William Whiting, -master of the College Choir School some two generations or so back, -whose beautiful hymn, “Eternal Father, strong to save,” will ever hold a -high place in the affections of church-going people. - -Following on these memories we have a host of references in modern -fiction which centre more or less definitely round the neighbourhood. -Trollope’s _Barchester_ has been conjecturally identified with -Winchester, and there is a wonderfully minute and circumstantial -correspondence in _The Warden_ between the details of _Hiram’s Hospital_ -and St. Cross. Miss Braddon takes us to Winchester indeed, but gives us -little, if any, actual picture of the city. The immortal Sherlock Holmes -honoured it also with a visit in the _Adventure of the Copper Beeches_, -keeping an appointment at the ‘Black Swan,’ “an inn of repute in the -High Street,” and the Cathedral and Close seem to be suggested in the -_Silence of Dean Maitland_. Allusions direct, and what seem allusions -barely veiled, are frequent, but none can vie in tragic interest and -solemn faithfulness with the last awful scene in Hardy’s _Tess of the -D’Urbervilles_--when Angel Clare and Liza, her husband and sister, are -awaiting the moment of poor Tess’s execution:-- - - When they had reached the top of the West Hill the clocks in the - town struck eight. Each gave a start at the notes, and walking - onwards yet a few steps they reached the first milestone ... and - waited in paralysed suspense beside the stone. - - The prospect from the summit was almost unlimited. In the valley - beneath, the city they had just left, its more prominent buildings - showing as in an isometric drawing--among them the broad Cathedral - tower, with its Norman windows and immense length of aisle and - nave; the spires of St. Thomas’s; the pinnacled tower of the - College; and more to the right the tower and gables of the ancient - hospice, where to this day the pilgrim may receive his dole of - bread and ale.... - - Against these far stretches of country rose, in front of the other - city edifices, a large red brick building with level grey roof, and - rows of short barred windows speaking captivity, the whole - contrasting greatly by its formalism with the quaint irregularities - of the Gothic erections.... From the middle of the building an ugly - flat-topped octagonal tower ascended against the east horizon, and - viewed from this spot, on its shady side and against the light, - seemed the one blot on the city’s beauty. Yet it was with this blot - and not with the beauty that the two gazers were concerned. Upon - the cornice of the tower a tall staff was fixed. Their eyes were - riveted on it. A few minutes after the hour had struck, something - moved slowly up the staff and extended itself upon the breeze. It - was a black flag.[7] - -Poor Tess! was it necessary for the author to mete out measure thus -cruelly upon the children of his imagination--was it kind to Winchester -to burden her memories with one so appallingly harrowing, so much in -contrast with her quiet peace? - -And yet, after all, is it anything more than retributive justice? Have -not her citizens--those of a generation or so back, at least--been -responsible for permitting the one really commanding elevation and -landmark she possesses to be marred and dishonoured by this same ‘blot,’ -these obtrusive prison-walls, capped by this self-same ‘ugly flat-topped -octagonal tower’? Is not rather the creator of _Tess_ displaying a fine -and just critical perception in thus exacting from them the full -literary penalty for so unpardonable an outrage on the outward -attractiveness of their own fair city? - -Such are some of the phantoms which pursue or elude us as we pass to -and fro through the circle of Winchester and its surroundings--yet are -they actual phantoms? Have not these seemingly impalpable nothings as -complete an identity as the memories and records of the actual -happenings of the past? The writer well recollects, after hunting -through Salisbury and exploring its treasures of architecture and -interest, the delight with which he came upon the old Cathedral organ, -now for some years past removed from the Cathedral to one of the city -churches, and recognized in it a real bond of relationship--not because -it was originally the gift of George III., though that indeed was the -case, but because it was the organ on which Dickens’s Tom Pinch had -played when the Cathedral service was over, and his friend the -organist’s assistant had permitted him to touch the keys. Not a great -circumstance, nor a great character--far from it,--but sufficient to -supply the one touch of human sympathy by which soul recognizes soul, -and which binds all--past and present, student and subject, reader and -author--alike in one. And even as these phantoms, whether of history or -legend, of actual existence or fancy, have been conjured up before us -for some brief spell, let us, now our task has drawn to a close, bid -them adieu with what kindliness of recollection we may: - - Come like shadows, so depart. - - - - -Index - -_The titles in black type refer to illustrations._ - - -Adam of Gurdon, 123 - -Ælfeah, 58 - -Æthelbert, 32 - -Æthelred the Redeless, 61, 85 - -Æthelwold, Bishop, 20, 30, 49, 54, 58, 78, 85, 147, 153, 154 - -Æthelwulf, 30, 32, 85, 153 - -Alfred, King, 5, 32, 34, 91, 143, 152, 153 - -Alfred, a refugee, 38 - -Alfred, statue of, 42 - -Alresford, 111, 184 - -Alswitha, 41, 91, 145 - -Alton, Pass of, 123 - -Alwarenestret, 94 - -Alwine, 71 - -Anderida, 15 - -Anselm, Archbishop, 87, 96 - -Antonine, Itineraries, 15 - -Arthur, King, 15, 168, 183 - -Arthur, Prince, 151, 173 - -Arthur, Round Table, 21, 168, 174, 184 - -Asser, Bishop, 36, 40 - -Assize, Bloody, 7, 175 - -Athelstan, King, 43 - -Augustine, 21 - -Aulus Plautius, 15 - -Austen, Jane, 7, 154, 171, 185 - -Avington Park, 22 - - -Barons’ war, 113 - -Beaufort, Cardinal, 147, 151, 171 - -Bede (Venerable), 22 - -Benedictines, 131 - -Birinus, 23, 24, 153, 154 - -Bishop’s Waltham, 162, 169 - -Black Death, 139, 160 - -Bredenestret, 94 - -Broadway, 177 - -Browne, Harold, Bishop, 154 - -Bucchestret, 93, 94 - -Burton, Dr., 163 - -Buttercross, 80, 118, 177 - - -Cædmon, 36 - -Cær Gwent, 14 - -Calais, 121 - -Calpestret, 94 - -Camden, 143 - -Castle, Norman, at Winchester, 86, 94, 172 - -Castle, Brabantine merchants in Winchester, 115 - -Cathedral, 8, 29 - -Cathedral of Æthelwold, 56, 77 - -Cathedral, bedesmen, 4 - -Cathedral, pilgrims at, 128 - -Cathedral, preservation of, 77, 155 - -Cathedral, transformation by Wykeham, 149 - -Cathedral (Winchester), 23, 146 - -Celts, 12 - -Charlemagne, 27 - -Charles II., 6, 178 - -Charles V. (Emperor), 6, 174 - -Chenictes, 96 - -Chenichetehalla, 96, 177 - -Chepemanesela, 96, 177 - -Cheyney Court, 155 - -Cheyney Court and Close Gate, 112 - -Chilcombe, 47 - -Christes Hospitall, 5, 179 - -_Christian Year_ (Keble), 192 - -Christianity in Hampshire, 21 - -Clausentum (Southampton), 15, 18 - -Close, the, 125 - -Cnut, 5, 65, 85, 91, 144, 153 - -Colbrand, 44, 91 - -Cole, Edward, Mayor, 178 - -Colet, Dean, 160 - -College, Brew House, 164 - -College, Winchester, 145, 158 - -Commoners, 163 - -County Hall, 172 - -Cromwell, Oliver, 172 - -Cromwell, Thomas, 142 - -Curfew, 80 - -Curle, Bishop, 145 - - -Danemark Mead, 47, 91 - -Danes, 28, 36, 60, 85, 153 - -Danihel (Bishop), 25 - -David, King of Scotland, 105 - -Dean and Chapter of Winchester, 144 - -Deanery, 145, 155 - -Deanery, The, 105 - -De Montfort, Simon, 113, 173 - -Domesday Book, 72, 80, 92, 182 - -Domesday (Winchester), 92 - -Domum, 166 - -Dorchester, 23 - -Drayton’s _Polyolbion_, 184 - -Dunstan (Archbishop), 30, 50, 56 - - -Ealden Mynstre, 41, 44, 51, 183 - -East Gate, 94, 95 - -Easton, 96 - -Edgar, 30, 48, 49, 59, 85 - -Edmund, King, 48 - -Edred, King, 48 - -Edward the Confessor, 66 - -Edward III., King, 120 - -Edward, Prince, 114 - -Edward the Elder, King, 43, 91 - -Edwy, King, 49 - -Edyngton, Bishop, 147, 151 - -Egbert, 27, 85, 153 - -Election chamber, 162 - -Emma (Ælfgyfu), Queen, 62, 65, 85, 91, 153 - -_English Chronicle_, 22, 34, 39, 40, 50, 61, 69, 82, 101, 168, 182 - -Escheopes, 95 - -Esmond, 190 - -Estals, 95 - -Ethelmar, Bishop, 154 - -Eton College, 152 - -Evesham, battle, 114 - - -Feudal system, 80 - -Flesmangere Stret, 94 - -Font (cathedral), 100 - -Fox, Bishop, 147, 151 - -Franklin, Benjamin, 192 - -Friars in Winchester, 139 - -Fromond’s Chantry, 167 - -Fyfhyde, Walter, Abbot, 139 - - -Gabell, Dr., 166, 187 - -Gardiner, Bishop, 151 - -Geoffrey of Monmouth, 20, 183 - -George, 121, 191 - -George Hotel, 97 - -Gere (Gar) Stret, 93 - -Gewissas, 20, 22 - -Ghetto, 97, 180 - -Gild merchant, 46, 80, 121 - -Gilds, 95, 177 - -Godbegot House, 62 - -Godbiete, 62, 80, 120 - -Godfrey de Lucy, Bishop, 111, 147 - -Godwine, Earl, 65, 66, 85 - -Godwine, Earl, death of, 69, 153 - -Golde Stret, 94 - -Gospel Oak, 22 - -Grimbald, Abbot, 41 - -Guild Hall, 97 - -Guy of Warwick, 46, 91 - - -Hædda, Bishop, 23 - -Hamble, 32 - -Hamble River, 40 - -Hampshire, Christianity in, 21 - -_Hampshire, Victoria History of_, 72 - -Hantachenesle, 94, 96, 177 - -Hardy, Thomas, 193 - -Harold, King, 65 - -Harold II., King, 71 - -Harthacnut, 65, 85, 153 - -Hempage Wood, 77 - -Henry I., 6, 80, 88, 98 - -Henry II., King, 105, 110 - -Henry III., King, 6, 111, 154, 173 - -Henry IV., King, 151 - -Henry V., 173 - -Henry VIII., 6, 91, 140, 173 - -Henry of Blois (Bishop), 22, 64, 92, 100, 154, 168, 171 - -Henry of Blois, Papal Legate, 102 - -Heptarchy, 26 - -_Hereward the Wake_, 48, 85 - -High Street, 48 - -Hoadley (Bishop), 154, 178 - -Horne (Bishop), 144 - -Hours, services of, 133 - -Hursley, 192 - -Hursley Vicarage, 176 - -_Hyda, Liber de_, 45, 50, 54, 183 - -Hyde, Abbey, 41, 90, 105, 115, 127, 133, 145 - -Hyde Abbey, dissolved, 143 - -Hyde, _Liber Vitæ_ of, 64, 183 - - -Itchen Abbas, 41 - -Itchen Stoke, Watersplash at, 89 - - -James I., 6 - -Jewry Street, 97 - -Jews, 97 - -Joan of Navarre, 151 - -John, King, 6, 111 - -Julius Cæsar, 15 - -Judith, Countess, 83 - -Judith, Queen, 36 - - -Keats, John, 3, 188 - -Keble, John, 153, 192 - -Ken (Bishop), 153, 166, 170, 178, 188 - -Kenulphus (Kenwalh), 23, 85, 147, 153 - -King’s Gate, 95, 98, 114, 123, 130 - -King’s Gate, 73 - -Kingsmill, William (Prior), 144 - -Kitchin, Dean, 136 - -Knighton, Henry, 47, 105, 183 - -Knights of St. John (Hospitallers), 107, 169 - -Kynegils, 22, 24, 32, 147, 153 - - -Lachenictahalla, 96 - -Lainston House, 191 - -Langton’s Chapel, 150 - -Lanfranc, Archbishop, 77, 88 - -Leach’s _Winchester College_, 167 - -Leland, 143 - -Lely, 178 - -Leofric, Earl, 66 - -Liberty of Godbiete, 62 - -Liberty of the Soke, 119 - -Lisle, Dame Alice, 7, 174 - -London, 74 - - -Magdalen College, Oxford, 152 - -Magdalen Hill, 10 - -Manners makyth man, 6, 158, 166 - -Martyr Worthy, 80 - -Mary, Queen, 151 - -Mary, Queen, 5 - -Mathew of Paris, 115, 183 - -Matilda, Empress, 5, 102, 169, 172 - -Mayor, 119 - -Meads, 140, 166 - -Menstre Stret, 94 - -Middle gate, College, 164 - -Mirabel Close, 132, 155 - -Moab, 165 - -Moberley (Doctor), 163 - -Monastic life, 130 - -Morley (Bishop), 154, 170, 178 - -Mortuary chests, 24, 28, 32, 64, 153 - -Morys, John, 166, 170 - - -Naseby, 172 - -Natives and Aliens, 176 - -Nell Gwynne, 178, 185 - -New College, Oxford, 159 - -New Forest, 80, 88 - -Newan Mynstre, 34, 41, 43, 51, 69, 71, 90 - -Norman Conquest, 73 - -Novices, Master of, 135 - -Nunna Mynstre (St. Mary’s Abbey), 41, 54, 98, 104, 109, 118, 145, 183 - - -Obedientiarii, 133 - -Obelisk, 175 - -Old Minster, 63, 64, 66, 69 - -Oliver’s Battery, 8 - -Order of Noble Poverty, 172 - -Osberga, 36 - -Otterbourne, 192 - -Oxford, 152 - - -Palm Hall, 126 - -Parliament at Winchester, 114 - -Pass of Alton, 123 - -_Pavilionis Aula_, 122, 126 - -Peter de Rupibus (Bishop), 112, 154 - -Peter Symonds, 179 - -Pevensey, 15 - -Philip of Spain, 151 - -Piepowder Court, 126 - -Piers Plowman, 125 - -Pilgrims, 126 - -Pilgrims’ Hall, 128, 155 - -Pilgrims’ Way, 129 - -Plague in Winchester, 175 - -Plantagenets, 109 - -Plegmund, 43 - -_Polyolbion_, Drayton’s, 184 - -Portchester, 10 - -_Portus Magnus_ (Portchester), 15, 18 - - -Raleigh, 6, 174 - -Richard of Devizes, 97 - -Richard I., King, 97, 110, 151 - -Robert, Earl of Gloucester, 104 - -Roger Bacon, 113 - -Rome, Alfred at, 32 - -Roman roads, 17, 19 - -Roman occupation, 15 - -Roman walls, 16 - -Round table, 21, 168, 174, 184 - -Rudborne (_Major Historia_), 46, 55, 63, 71, 80, 183 - -Rufus, 5, 65, 79, 87, 88, 108, 153 - - -St. Æthelwold (_Benedictional_ of), 57, 183 - -St. Alphege, 58 - -St. Bartholomew, Hyde, church of, 138 - -St. Brice’s Day, 61 - -St. Catherine’s Hill, 9 - -St. Catherine’s Hill, 10, 64, 166 - -St. Cross, 64 - -St. Cross, 5, 100, 107, 108, 127, 145, 169, 171 - -St. Cross, Tower of Ambulatory, 160 - -St. Elizabeth’s College, 140, 145 - -St. Giles’s Fair, 79, 95, 117, 121 - -St. Giles’s Hill, 7, 10, 159, 180 - -St. John’s Hospital, 145 - -St. Josse, 44, 127 - -St. Lawrence, 169 - -St. Mary’s Abbey (Nunna Mynstre), 41, 54, 109, 118 - -St. Peter’s, Cheesehill, 57 - -St. Swithun’s Church, 114 - -St. Swithun’s Monastery, 24, 32, 51, 91, 98, 110, 113, 115, 118, 130, 133, 144 - -Sarum, 10 - -Saxon Winchester, 20 - -Scowertenestret, 94, 97 - -Seculars, 52 - -Senlac, 72 - -Seventh Chamber, 164 - -Shawford Mill, 16 - -Sherlock Holmes, 193 - -Silchester, 10, 18, 20 - -Sildwortenstret, 93, 94 - -Silence of Dean Maitland, 193 - -Siward (Earl), 66 - -Slype, the, 145 - -Snidelingestret, 94 - -Soke, Liberty of, 119 - -Southampton, 15 - -Southgate, 123 - -Staple towns, 120 - -Stephen, 6, 100 - -Stigand (Bishop), 76, 144 - -Stret bidel, 95 - -Sustern Spital, 140, 163 - -Swithun, Bishop, 29, 32, 54, 127, 147, 153, 154 - - -Tannerestret, 94 - -_Tess of the D’Urbervilles_, 193 - -Thackeray, 190 - -Trollope, Anthony, 192 - -Tron, 120, 180 - -Trusty servant, 164 - -Twyford, 192 - - -Venta, 25 - -Venta Belgarum, 14, 15 - -Vespasian, 15 - -Victoria, Queen, 153, 173 - -Vikings, 28 - -Vintan-ceastir, 25, 182 - - -Walcote, 191 - -Walkelyn (Bishop), 77, 147, 154 - -Waltheof (Earl), 83 - -Walton, Izaak, 153, 154, 170, 184 - -Wantage, 35 - -Warton, Doctor, 154 - -Wayneflete (Bishop), 151 - -Weald Forest, 12 - -Weirs, The, 25 - -Wenegerestret, 94 - -Wessex (capital of), 20, 153 - -Westgate, 94, 123, 175, 177 - -Westminster Abbey, 147 - -White Ship, 90, 98, 101 - -Whiting, William, 192 - -Wilberforce, Samuel (Bishop), 154 - -William of Malmesbury, 183 - -William I., 5, 71, 74, 87, 172 - -William II. (Rufus), 5, 65, 79, 87, 88, 108 - -William of Wykeham, 6, 107, 139, 147, 148, 151, 158 - -Winchester Domesday, 92 - -Winchester, Alfred’s death and after, 43 - Arthurian legend, 20 - Bishop Æthelwold, 49 - Capital of Danish Empire, 59 - Capital of England, 26 - Cathedral, 23, 29, 100, 146, 186, 189 - Civil War in, 104 - Conversion of Kynegils, 23 - Dean and Chapter, 144 - Early days, 10 - Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, 117 - In Literature, 171 - Later Norman, 87 - Massacre at, 61 - Monastic life, 130 - Norman, 73 - -Winchester, Norman castle, 86 - Plague in, 175 - Roman city, 16 - Roman occupation, 15 - Saxon, 20 - That Joly Citè, 1 - Westgate, 40 - Winton Survey, 92 - Wolvesey, 168 - -Winchester from St. Giles’s Hill, 184 - -Winchester College Brewhouse, 121 - Cloisters and Fromond’s Chantry, 137 - Memorial Gateway, 144 - Middle Gate, 128 - Second Master’s House, 153 - Tower of the Chapel, _Frontispiece_ - -_Wintonia, Annales de_, 77, 183 - -Wolsey, 142, 153, 168 - -Wolvesey, 8, 39, 59, 85, 98, 100, 102, 104, 118, 126, 170 - -Wool trade, 120, 180 - -Wren, Sir Christopher, 178, 180 - -Wrothesley, Thomas, 142 - -Wulfstan (Precentor), 53, 55, 77, 118 - -Wye, Faire, 125 - -Wykehamica, Adams’s, 167 - - -Yonge, Charlotte, 192 - - -THE END - - -_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_. - -BY THE SAME AUTHOR AND ARTIST AS _WINCHESTER_. - -HAMPSHIRE - -PAINTED BY WILFRID BALL, R.E. - -DESCRIBED BY REV. TELFORD VARLEY, M.A., B.SC. - -CONTAINING 75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR - -_Square Demy 8vo._ _Cloth._ _Gilt Top._ - -PRICE =20/-= NET. (_By Post, price 20s. 6d._) - - -SOME PRESS OPINIONS - -“Mr. Ball’s pictures are delightfully fresh, and recall many pleasant -scenes to the reader who knows the county.”--_Manchester Guardian._ - -“_Hampshire_ is essentially a book to keep on a handy shelf in the -bookcase, where it can be easily taken down and read with never-failing -delight and pleasure.”--_Queen._ - -“The Rev. Telford Varley describes vividly and with great charm the many -beauties of this county, while Mr. Wilfrid Ball’s pictures are -exquisitely beautiful.”--_The Tatler._ - -“Mr. Varley’s _Hampshire_ is a delightful book, entertaining, -instructive, and reliable; and withal it is delightfully and copiously -illustrated.”--_Bournemouth Visitors’ Directory._ - - -OTHER COUNTIES IN THE SAME SERIES - -_Square Demy 8vo._ _Cloth._ _Gilt Top._ - - -ESSEX - -Painted by L. BURLEIGH BRUHL, R.B.A. -Described by A. R. HOPE MONCRIEFF. - -Containing 75 Full-page Illustrations in Colour and a Sketch-Map. - -PRICE =20/-= NET - -(_By Post, price 20/6_) - -“Nothing more delightful could be imagined in the way of illustrated -topographical literature than Essex.”--_Illustrated London News._ - -“Altogether it is an admirable book.”--_Globe._ - - -KENT - -Painted by W. BISCOMBE GARDNER. -Described by W. TEIGNMOUTH SHORE. - -Containing 73 Full-page Illustrations in Colour and a Sketch-Map. - -PRICE =20/-= NET - -(_By Post, price 20/6_) - -“The acme of the reproductive art is reached in the colour facsimiles of -the artist’s sketches of the famous cathedrals and castles, the antique -houses and quaint villages, the parks, rivers, and coasts of the Garden -of England.... The letterpress, too, has a distinctive charm. The -author’s style is clear and limpid, and he handles his facts with so -much of the master craftsman that his story never ceases to pulse with -human interest.”--_Chatham Observer._ - - -MIDDLESEX - -Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. -Described by A. R. HOPE MONCRIEFF. - -Containing 20 Full-page Illustrations in Colour and a Sketch-Map. - -PRICE =7/6= NET - -(_By Post, price 7/11_) - -“An admirable book, brightly written and finely -illustrated.”--_Standard._ - -“Mr. Fulleylove’s score of pictures are beautiful, and, combined with -Mr. Moncrieff’s descriptions, should make many readers of this volume -determine to see for themselves the neglected beauties of the nearest of -the Home Counties.”--_Daily Telegraph._ - - -PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK. SOHO SQUARE. LONDON. W. - -SURREY - -Painted by SUTTON PALMER. -Described by A. R. HOPE MONCRIEFF. - -Containing 75 Full-page Illustrations in Colour and a Sketch-Map. - -PRICE =20/-= NET - -(_By Post, price 20/6_) - -“Of Mr. Palmer’s pictures it would seem difficult to speak in praise too -high; he has chosen his views so admirably and rendered them so -beautifully that we find ourselves wishing there were even more of -them.... These pictures, too, are reproduced in colours so daintily and -so well that we cannot recall a ‘colour-book’ which has given us greater -satisfaction.”--_Daily Telegraph._ - - -SUSSEX - -Painted by WILFRID BALL, R.E. - -Containing 75 Full-page Illustrations in Colour and a Sketch-Map. - -PRICE =20/-= NET - -(_By Post, price 20/6_) - -“As a literary and artistic work the book is delightful.”--_Liverpool -Courier._ - -“The whole charm of the county comes into view in Mr. Wilfrid Ball’s -artistic pictures, and in the text of the book which they -adorn.”--_Standard._ - -“The text, by an anonymous writer, is worthy of the pictures, and both -are first-rate.”--_Daily News._ - - -WARWICKSHIRE - -Painted by FRED WHITEHEAD, R.B.A. -Described by CLIVE HOLLAND. - -Containing 75 Full-page Illustrations in Colour. - -PRICE =20/-= NET - -(_By Post, price 20/6_) - -“Shakespeare’s county has never, to our mind, been more worthily -presented, and the book is one which it is a pleasure to -possess.”--_Guardian._ - -“It remains to commend Mr. Whitehead’s water-colours. They are as clever -as they are effective. The pictures range over a great variety of -subjects; they give us a little of everything that is most exquisitely -characteristic of Warwickshire. There is not one that does not take the -eye with pleasure.”--_Daily Chronicle._ - - -WESSEX - -Painted by WALTER TYNDALE. -Described by CLIVE HOLLAND. - -Containing 75 Full-page Illustrations in Colour and a Sketch-Map. - -PRICE =20/-= NET - -(_By Post, price 20/6_) - -“The author and painter have given a delightful translation, so to -speak, of Thomas Hardy’s imaginative dealings with places and people. -Church and castle, sea and river, town and village, peaceful farms and -wild moorland, are all identified and described, both by words and -pictures, with unfailing charm.”--_Evening Standard._ - - -WORCESTERSHIRE - -Painted by THOMAS TYNDALE[. -Described by A. G. BRADLEY. - -Containing 24 Full-page Illustrations in Colour and a Sketch-Map. - -PRICE =7/6= NET - -(_By Post, price 7/11_) - -“The illustrations are beautifully done, and the text accurate and very -readable.”--_Oxford Magazine._ - -“Mr. Tyndale’s two dozen beautiful sketches will be found delightful to -those who know Worcestershire, while they ought to tempt those who do -not, to visit it on the earliest opportunity.”--_Daily Telegraph._ - - -YORKSHIRE - -Painted and Described by GORDON HOME. - -Containing 70 Full-Page Illustrations in Colour and a Sketch-Map. - -PRICE =20/-= NET - -(_By Post, price 20/6_) - -“A volume of great and varied interest. Famous houses and ruins, great -churches, moorland and sea-coast--the many things that put Yorkshire so -high among English shires--are to be found here. It is a most attractive -volume.”--_Spectator._ - - -PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK · SOHO SQUARE · LONDON · W. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Or _Hantachevesle_ (the spelling is obscure). - -[2] Knighton’s _De eventibus Angliae_. - -[3] _Memoir of Jane Austen_, by Austen Leigh, pp. 163 and 164, inserted -here by kind permission of Messrs. Macmillan and Co. - -[4] This and the following extracts are inserted here by kind -permission of Messrs. Macmillan and Co. - -[5] Letter to George and Georgina Keats, September 21. From _Letters of -John Keats_: Sidney Colvin: p. 310. - -[6] _Letter to G. and G. Keats_, September 20. - -[7] Inserted by kind permission of Messrs. 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