Chapter 2

This was more than the heads of the Church could stand, especially as the original charge was an unjust one; so at the ensuing meeting of Convocation, Courtenay, then Bishop of London, declared boldly that unless their favourite bishop was reinstated in office, no money would be forthcoming from the clergy. In less than a month the pressing need of funds caused the King to send a messenger to Waverley and beg Wykeham to return to his house at Southwark. This was the first step, which, however, did not mean an immediate return to the temporalities, as these had been settled on the youthful heir apparent, Richard; but the people took up Wykeham's cause, and on June 18, 1377, in the presence of the little Richard, his uncle, and the King's council, Wykeham promised to fit out three galleys for sea, in return for the temporalities of Winchester. Two days later Edward III died, forsaken by his mistress, Alice Perrers, and estranged from the one man who had served him so long and so faithfully.

The architectural genius of Wykeham as exhibited at St. Mary's College and the cathedral at Winchester, and at New College, Oxford, originally founded as "St. Maries' College of Winchester at Oxenford", marks a very decided epoch in the development of English architecture. His works, in an architectural style found nowhere but in England, are the outcome of a mind free from triviality, and full of common sense. His buildings are admirably suited to their purpose, and at first sight they appear to be so simple in design that it has been suggested that Wykeham cared more for the constructive than the artistic side of building. It is true that he considered sound construction and good proportions of greater importance than a profusion of detail, yet such ornament as is found in his work is highly effective and most carefully studied. To this bishop-architect we undoubtedly owe much of the dignity and simplicity which mark the Early Perpendicular buildings, qualities which make the style such a contrast to the exuberance of that which immediately preceded it, or the over-elaboration of the Tudor buildings that followed it.

With few exceptions, practically the whole of Wykeham's work, both here and at Oxford, remains much as he left it; so that, good bishop, wise administrator, generous founder, and pioneer educationist though he was, it is mainly as a munificent builder and architectural genius that his fame has lived in the past, and will continue to live in the future.

Here for the moment we must leave the great prelate of Winchester and begin our perambulation of the city that received him as a youth, welcomed him as a bishop, mourned him when dead, and that still bears on the long nave of its cathedral, and on its famous college, the impress of his manly, robust, and essentially English mind.

By way of a footpath leading from the London and South-Western Railway station, the upper part of the famous High Street can be reached, although the thoroughfare now possesses but few features of interest until we arrive at the old West Gate, a reminder, if such were needed, that Winchester was a heavily fortified and strongly walled city. On the right is Castle Hill, the site of the ancient castle wherein Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, was imprisoned and Matilda besieged, and from whose courtyard William Rufus set out on the hunting expedition to the New Forest which was attended by such fatal consequences. All that now remains of this stronghold is the fine old hall built by Henry III.

For some time this apartment was used as the County Hall, and here Judge Jeffreys opened his Bloody Assize before proceeding to Dorchester, Exeter, and Taunton. Alice Lisle was the widow of John Lisle, who had been Master of St. Cross Hospital, and member for Winchester in the Long Parliament. Although the men of Hampshire had taken no part in Monmouth's Rebellion, many of the fugitives had fled thither, and two of them, John Hickes, a Non-conformist divine, and Richard Nelthorpe, a lawyer, found refuge in the house of Alice Lisle, where they were eventually discovered. At her trial, Alice Lisle stated briefly that, although she knew Hickes to be in trouble, she was quite ignorant of the fact that he had participated in the rebellion. When the jury said they doubted if the charge had been made out, Jeffreys was furious, and after another long consultation they returned a verdict of "Guilty". The next morning the judge pronounced sentence, and ordered the prisoner to be _burned alive_ that same afternoon. When remonstrances had poured in from all quarters, Jeffreys consented to the execution being postponed for five days; and the sentence was eventually commuted from burning to hanging. So the first victim of Monmouth's ill-fated rebellion was hanged on a scaffold in the market-place of Winchester.

A striking object hanging at one end of the hall is the top of the reputed Round Table of King Arthur, painted in radiating white and green sections, with a portrait of the famous king inset, crowned and robed, and the Tudor rose in the centre, while around the circumference are the names of the knights in old black-letter characters. Doubtful though it is that the table is the actual one that figures in the Arthurian legends, yet it is certainly of great antiquity, and has been frequently referred to by more than one writer of mediaeval days. It has been conjectured that it may be nothing more than the wheel of fortune which Henry III commanded to be made for the castle. In later years another palace was started here by Charles II, the only portion that was completed being now used as barracks.

Beyond the West Gate is an obelisk, set up in commemoration of a visitation of the Plague in 1669, when the country people brought their produce and left it outside the gate to be taken in by the city dwellers, who deposited the money for the goods in bowls of vinegar, whence it was abstracted by pincers, to avoid infection. The stone on which the exchanges were made is incorporated in the base of the obelisk.

The West Gate is the only one that remains of the principal entrances to the city, as King's Gate, with the little church of St. Swithun perched on top, was of secondary importance. This West Gate escaped the fate that has overtaken so many of our old city gates owing to its having been used for some time as a smoking room for the adjacent hotel. This apartment above the crown of the gateway arch is, like that over the West Gate of Canterbury, used for the purposes of a museum, wherein are deposited such interesting relics as the Winchester bushel, cloth measures, and ancient instruments of punishment. At one time the room was used as a prison, and the walls are covered with names or marks made by those who were incarcerated here.

The gate is of fourteenth-century date, the two panels with armorial bearings seen on the western side of the archway being later insertions. Through the gateway a delightful view is obtained of the picturesque High Street, with many a high-pitched gable rising above the masses of irregular architecture; while an ancient clock on a wooden bracket juts out from the old Queen Anne Guildhall, which has a statue of Her Majesty over the entrance, the Curfew Tower rising on one side of the building. A new Guildhall of greater architectural pretensions has been erected in the Broadway, the original one being now used as a shop.

From the West Gate the High Street slopes down to the Itchen. On the right stands the old Butter Cross, in rather a cramped position. Two reasons have been given for its name: one, that during Lent, those wishing to eat butter could do so by consuming it by the cross; the other, and more probable, explanation is that here came farmers wishing to dispose of their butter, which they exposed for sale on the steps of the cross. The structure is of fifteenth-century date, but has been much restored, the only original figure on it being that of St. Amphibalus. Just beside the cross is the interesting little opening that leads into the Close, and in which is the entrance to St. Lawrence Church, of which nothing is visible from this point but the doorway, and the tower rising above the surrounding houses. This church has been said to be the Mother Church of the diocese of Winchester, an idea that may have owed its origin to the fact that before proceeding to the Cathedral to be enthroned the bishops designate enter this ancient church to robe and "ring themselves in". Only the other day, May 6, 1911, Dr. Talbot followed this old custom, and the people listened eagerly for the number of rings, as these are supposed to denote the number of years the bishop will be at the head of the diocese. It may be of interest to chronicle that Dr. Talbot rang nine times.

Near the church at one time was an open space called the Square, where were situated the Pillory and Whipping Post. The palace of William I is said to have occupied this site, and St. Lawrence's Church may possibly have been the private chapel of the royal residence. A fragment of Norman masonry gives a certain amount of probability to the supposition, while at the beginning of last century some workmen excavating in Market Street came across the foundations of an ancient tower, of great thickness and strength. The present arched and narrow entrance from High Street leads to the fine avenue of limes that forms the principal approach to the west front of the Cathedral, begun by Edington _circa_ 1360, the severe simplicity of which has been much criticized, Ruskin assailing it furiously in the _Stones of Venice_. On the apex of the gable is a canopied niche containing a statue of Wykeham.

The present edifice is thought to stand approximately on the site of the earlier Saxon church restored by Ethelwold in 980, in which Queen Emma underwent the "fiery ordeal" by walking blindfold and barefooted over nine red-hot plough-shares, thus proving her innocence of the charges brought against her, and furnishing her accusers with an example of what female chastity is able to accomplish. The main portion of the structure as seen to-day was begun by Bishop Walkelin about 1079, and completed some fourteen years later. It is the longest of English churches, measuring externally 566 feet, and internally 562-1/2 feet, being a few feet longer than St. Alban's, which has the same plan; although we must remember that when the nave of Winchester terminated at the west in two large towers the whole mass was 40 feet longer than at present.

The vista of the whole block of masonry, with its stumpy tower and heavily buttressed walls, conveys the idea of immense strength rather than of gracefulness; while its situation at the bottom of a hill, and near the bank of the river, is one of great charm.

It is when the nave is entered that the full beauty and vast proportions of the Norman church are revealed, for this is in essence a Norman building encased with Perpendicular details and additions. As Wykeham's alterations were merely added to the original piers, the stateliness of the whole remains. Full credit, of course, must be given to Wykeham for the wonderful skill he showed in this work of transformation, and in removing the heavy triforium, although the grandeur of the nave as a whole is due to the combined work of Walkelin and Wykeham. This alteration of styles in the nave was begun by Edington, continued by Wykeham, and completed by his successors in the see--Cardinal Beaufort and Bishop Waynflete--who built the stone vaulting of the roof. The tower at the intersection of the transepts is the second of its kind, the first, built by Walkelin, having fallen in 1107, owing, says tradition, to the wicked Red King having been buried beneath it. Of its rebuilding there are no records.

So many detailed architectural histories of the building have appeared that its principal features must be familiar to every lover of our national architecture. There are, however, one or two features about this cathedral that should be noted. Apart from its great length, which is greater than any church in the world, with the exception of St. Peter's at Rome, it is remarkable for its parclose screens, with the mortuary chests upon them; and for the beauty and number of its chantries, in which it is richer than any other English cathedral. They are said to have been saved from destruction during the Civil War by the Parliamentary colonel, Fiennes, an old Wykehamist; and certain historians describe the dramatic incident of the colonel standing with drawn sword to protect the chantry of the founder of his Alma Mater from the iconoclastic tendencies of his troopers. The chantries number seven, and were built as chapels by bishops for their last resting-places. Within these chantries are the tombs of Edington, Wykeham, Waynflete, Beaufort, Gardiner, Langton, and Fox, all of whom were bishops of the diocese. Fox's chantry was carefully restored by Corpus Christi College, Oxford; and that of Waynflete by Magdalen College, as a mark of reverence and esteem for the memory of their respective founders.

The first to be seen on entering the nave from the west is that of Wykeham, whose faith in the solidity of Norman building was so great that he did not hesitate to cut away more than a third of the two nave pillars between which it is placed. Within the chapel, said to have been built on the site of an altar to the Virgin, is the effigy of the bishop-builder, with flesh and robes coloured "proper", as the heralds say; and at his feet are the figures of his three favourite monks, to whom he left an endowment for the celebration of three masses daily in his chantry, while each was to receive one penny a day from the prior. The effigy lies on an altar tomb, in episcopal attire, the head-pillow supported by two angels. Five bays farther on is Edington's chantry, but without effigy, as also are those of Fox and Langton. Of the seven chantries those of Fox and Beaufort are usually considered the most beautiful.

The proud Cardinal Beaufort, founder of the "Almshouse of Noble Poverty" at St. Cross, is represented by Shakespeare as dying in despair:

"Lord Cardinal, if thou think'st on Heaven's bliss Hold up thy hand: make signal of thy hope. He dies, and makes no sign!"

Dean Kitchin writes: "One cannot look at his effigy, as it lies in his stately chantry, without noting the powerful and selfish characteristics of his face, and especially the nose, large, curved, and money-loving. The sums Beaufort had at his disposal were so large that he was the Rothschild of his day. More than once he lent his royal masters enough money to carry them through their expeditions."

The mortuary chests are certainly among the most interesting things possessed by any English cathedral. They are supposed to contain the bones of Kings Eadulph, Kinegils, Kenulf, Egbert, Canute, Rufus, Edmund, Edred, Queen Emma, and Bishops Wina and Alwyn. They no doubt got much mixed up when removed from the crypt by Henry de Blois, and again when the chests were broken open by the Parliamentarians, so that a detailed identification has been made impossible. It is now generally acknowledged that the bones of Rufus are in one of these chests, and that the so-called Rufus tomb in the retro-choir is the burial place of some great ecclesiastic. Such at any rate is the opinion of Dean Kitchin, who has done so much to elucidate the past history of the city and its Cathedral.

When one of these boxes was taken recently out of its enclosing chest and examined, it was found to have a roof something like a low gable, which was decorated with painting about a century later than the time of de Blois. On the outside appeared the words in Latin: "Here are together the bones of King Kinegils and of Ethelwolf". Four of the Italian chests that held the inner boxes were the gift of Bishop Fox. The other chests have revealed five complete sets of human bones, and among the remains in another were the bones of a female, possibly those of Queen Emma.

The visitor will not fail to have pointed out to him by the well-informed vergers the innumerable features of interest, such as the Lady Chapel, the retro-choir, the Holy Hole where the relics were kept, the black oak stalls of the choir, the fine pulpit given by Prior Silkstede, and the magnificent screen begun by Beaufort and completed by Fox. The monuments, apart from those contained in the chantries, are many, and include one surmounted by a beautifully wrought cross-legged effigy, which has not yet been identified. There are memorials or tombs of James I and Charles I, by le Suer, who wrought the statue of the latter at Charing Cross; Dr. Warton, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and headmaster of Winchester; Jane Austen; and William Unwin, the intimate friend of Cowper. A flat stone, with an inscription by his brother-in-law, Ken, marks the resting-place of Izaak Walton, "whose book", a modern writer tells us, "makes the reader forget for the time the cruelty of his sport".

The curiously carved font, whereon are depicted symbolical figures and incidents from the legendary life of St. Nicholas of Myra, bears much similarity to three others found in Hampshire--at St. Michaels', Southampton; East Meon; and St. Mary Bourne. They are all of the same era, and possibly the work of the same hand, being among the most interesting of our Norman fonts. The material of which they are made has never been settled, some authorities defining it as Tournai marble, others as basalt, and yet others as nothing more than slate.

The roll of bishops is a remarkable one, and the see has had eleven who were also Lord Chancellors, the last being Wolsey in 1529.

As we have seen, Winchester continued in favour with the reigning houses long after it had ceased to be a royal residence. Here Henry I was married to the Saxon Matilda, and here in the closing years of his life the aged Wykeham married Henry IV and Joan of Navarre; and here, too, came Philip of Spain and Henry VIII's sad daughter, Mary of England, to be wedded before the high altar, the chair on which the royal bride sat being still shown to visitors.

For the architectural student the plan of the cathedral is not the least interesting feature of the building, for although it has an ambulatory which is semicircular internally, the plan is in other respects rather exceptional. It is what architects call a periapsidal plan, meaning that its eastern termination contains a processional aisle or ambulatory, designed mainly for the purpose of allowing a procession to pass round the high altar without entering the presbytery. In the crypt of Winchester Cathedral the plan of the early Norman church may be seen _sui generis_. A rather exceptional feature is that the eastern ambulatory is semicircular within but rectangular without, although the long chapel that projects from this ambulatory has an apsidal, not a rectangular, termination.

To the receptive mind all our ancient cathedrals, and a few of our modern ones, possess a subtle atmosphere of their own, indescribable but plainly felt, both within and without their walls. In such an atmosphere we lose sight of the Winchester of to-day. It becomes ancient, ecclesiastical, historical, learned, and romantic. Here we return in imagination to the scenes of the Middle Ages, when love was attested by chivalrous deeds of arms done in honour of bright eyes, and poetry sounded its lyre in praise of him who had been most devoted to his Church, most faithful to his mistress, and most loyal to his king. As a whole, this Cathedral of Winchester is a vast building, simple almost to a fault, yet one that possesses a solemn repose unspeakably restful to mind and spirit--a sense of undisturbed harmony and refined yet massive simplicity. Towards eventide the shadows of the turrets and pinnacles creep, day by day, over the surrounding bands of greensward, their cool greys advancing inch by inch until they reach the spacious pavements, whereon they cast the symbols of our Christian faith in ruddy trefoil-headed slants of glory.

Whatever else is omitted from the history of the Cathedral, mention must be made of the valiant efforts that have been and are still being made to preserve the stability of the structure. A few years ago the east end showed signs of subsidence, and ominous cracks appeared in the north transept, a part of the old Norman church. An examination of the fabric proved that herculean tasks were essential to save this portion of the edifice. It was agreed that only by extensive underpinning could the work be accomplished. It has been very costly, and funds are most urgently needed to complete the preservation, not only of the eastern end, but of the whole Cathedral. The cradle of woodwork erected to give temporary support to the eastern superstructure cost over a thousand pounds to fix, and up to date many thousands of pounds have been spent on the work. It was not until these temporary supports had been fixed and excavations begun that the magnitude of the task was fully revealed. The Cathedral was found to have been built on an old "water-bed" having a foundation of peat, the distance between the ground level and the firm gravel beneath the peat being 27 feet. The only hope of saving the east end was to remove the peat and fill in the spaces with concrete and cement. With the removal of the peat, however, there was so great an influx of water that pumping was of no avail. Two of the best divers in the kingdom were then procured, and by working on their backs and sides in 15 feet of muddy water they succeeded in laying the concrete bed. Owing to the same cause, the remainder of the structure will, sooner or later, have to be treated in the same way, and the thorough restoration of the west front cannot be long postponed. The difficulty of the work is realized when we consider that it takes a whole month to underpin 4 feet of foundation. Owing to the cramped space and the darkness three weeks are spent in excavation; after which the divers require a week to place the concrete and cement in position. That so national a heritage will be saved, for the delight of our own and the instruction of future generations, must be the wish of all true lovers of the great building achievements of the past.

The cathedral precincts are in excellent keeping with the repose and beauty of the building to which they form the court, and are full of historical memories. The palace of the Conqueror reached from Great Minster Street to Market Street, from High Street to the Square; and eastwards rose the "New Minster", and the Nuns' Abbey of St. Mary.

To-day the greater part of the Close, with the Deanery and the various canonical residences, lies on the south side. Only a few slight fragments remain of the cloisters, the destruction of which could not have been considered possible by Wykeham. They were taken down by Bishop Horne in the reign of Elizabeth. The short row of Norman arches seen from the Close belonged to the old Chapter House, which is said to have been pulled down for the sake of its lead. The Deanery was the ancient house of the Priors, of which it contains many interesting memorials. Here are the Great Hall, now subdivided, and the Hospitium, used as stables. The Deanery entrance has three pointed arches, beneath which, as we have stated, the poor pilgrims and other wayfarers received food and alms. On his numerous visits to Winchester, Charles II used to lodge at the Deanery, until Prebendary Ken (afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells) refused to allow Nell Gwynne to enter the house, with the result that she had to content herself with an inferior residence outside the precincts.