| By Author | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Title | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Language |
|
Download this book: [ ASCII | HTML | PDF ] Look for this book on Amazon Tweet |
Title: Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester - A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See
Author: Sergeant, Philip Walsingham, 1872-1952
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester - A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See" ***
This book is indexed by ISYS Web Indexing system to allow the reader find any word or number within the document.
CHURCH OF WINCHESTER***
which includes the many original illustrations.
Transcriber's note:
1. Words and phrases which were italicized in the original
have been surrounded by underscores ('_') in this version.
Words or phrases which were in bold face have been
surrounded by pound signs ('#').
2. Inconsistencies in hyphenation or the spelling of proper
names and dialect or obsolete word spellings have been
left as they were in the original.
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF WINCHESTER
A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the
Episcopal See
by
PHILIP W. SERGEANT
Late Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford
[Illustration: WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL FROM NORTH-WEST END OF CLOSE.
_S.B. Bolas & Co., Photo._]
[Illustration]
With Fifty Illustrations
London George Bell & Sons 1899
First Published, Jan. 1898
Second Edition, Revised 1899
W. H. White and Co. Limited
Riverside Press, Edinburgh
GENERAL PREFACE
This series of monographs has been planned to supply visitors to the
great English Cathedrals with accurate and well illustrated guide-books
at a popular price. The aim of each writer has been to produce a work
compiled with sufficient knowledge and scholarship to be of value to the
student of Archæology and History, and yet not too technical in
language for the use of an ordinary visitor or tourist.
To specify all the authorities which have been made use of in each case
would be difficult and tedious in this place. But amongst the general
sources of information which have been almost invariably found useful
are:--(1) the great county histories, the value of which, especially in
questions of genealogy and local records, is generally recognised; (2)
the numerous papers by experts which appear from time to time in the
Transactions of the Antiquarian and Archæological Societies; (3) the
important documents made accessible in the series issued by the Master
of the Rolls; (4) the well-known works of Britton and Willis on the
English Cathedrals; and (5) the very excellent series of Handbooks to
the Cathedrals originated by the late Mr John Murray; to which the
reader may in most cases be referred for fuller detail, especially in
reference to the histories of the respective sees.
GLEESON WHITE,
E.F. STRANGE,
_Editors of the Series._
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
It would be useless to attempt to record all the sources of information
to which it has been necessary to have recourse in preparing this short
account of Winchester Cathedral and its history; but I should like to
acknowledge the main portion of the debt. "The Proceedings of the
Archæological Institute of Great Britain in 1845" must, of course, take
the first place, for to Willis's paper every one must go who wishes to
know the cathedral well. Britton's "Cathedrals," Browne Willis's "Survey
of the Cathedrals," and Woodward's "History of Hampshire," with the more
recent Diocesan History of Winchester by Canon Benham, and the
"Winchester Cathedral Records" of various dates, have been of great
service. An article in the _Builder_ of October 1, 1892, and one on St
Cross in _Architecture_ for November 1896, must also be mentioned. Above
all, I am glad to be able to express my gratitude to one of the editors
of this series, Mr Gleeson White, without whose assistance this account
would never have been commenced. The engraving of the iron grill-work is
reproduced from Mr Starkie Gardiner's "Iron-work," Vol. I., by
permission of the Science and Art Department, South Kensington.
PHILIP WALSINGHAM SERGEANT.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.--History of the Cathedral 3
CHAPTER II.--The Cathedral Building and Close 16
The Exterior 19
The West Front 20
The North and South Sides 26
The Central Tower 27
The Transepts 27
The East End 28
CHAPTER III.--The Interior 33
The Nave 34
The Minstrels' Gallery 40
The Grill-work 43
The Norman Font 44
Wykeham's Chantry 46
Edingdon's Chantry 50
The Choir 50
The Tomb of "William Rufus" 52
The Reredos 55
The Transepts 61
North Transept 65
South Transept 65
The Library 71
The Feretory 72
The Holy Hole 72
Gardiner's and Fox's Chantries 74
The Mortuary Chests 76
The Retro-choir and its Chantries 79
The Lady Chapel 84
The Guardian Angels and Langton Chapels 90
The Crypts 93
The Stained Glass 94
CHAPTER IV.--History of the See 96
CHAPTER V.--The Bishops of Winchester 101
CHAPTER VI.--Other Institutions connected with the Cathedral 118
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The Cathedral from the North-West _Frontispiece_
The Deanery 2
Old View of the North Side of the Cathedral 11
Monument to Bishop Ethelmar 15
The Cathedral from the Deanery Gardens 19
The West Front 21
North-West Bay--Exterior 25
East End--Exterior 29
Nave, showing Screen before Restoration 31
Transformation of the Nave 35
The Nave, looking East 37
The Nave, looking West 39
The Grill-work from S. Swithun's Shrine 41
The Norman Font 45
William of Wykeham's Chantry 47
The Choir, looking East 51
The Choir Stalls 53
The Altar and Reredos 57
The North Transept 59
View in North Transept 63
Door to Henry de Blois' Treasury 66
Bishop Wilberforce's Monument 67
South Aisle, from Transept 69
Back of Feretory, with Bishop Gardiner's Chantry 73
Bishop Fox's Chantry and Details 75, 76
South Aisle of Retro-choir 77
Cardinal Beaufort's Chantry 81
The Lady Chapel 85
Details of Lady Chapel 85
Bishop Langton's Chapel and Details 89, 90
Queen Mary's Chair 91
Mortuary Chest in Choir 95
Carving on Choir Stalls 111
Details of Font 117
Winchester College: "School" 119
Winchester College: The Outer Gateway 120
Winchester College: Chantry Chapel 121
Winchester College: Inscription and The Trusty Servant 122, 123
St Cross from the South 124
St Cross from the Quadrangle 125
St Cross: East End from Nave 126
County Hall with Round Table 127
The City Cross 129
Tombstone in Churchyard 131
The West Gate 132
PLANS OF THE CATHEDRAL AND CRYPTS 134, 135
[Illustration: THE DEANERY, WINCHESTER.
_S.B. Bolas & Co., Photo._]
WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL
CHAPTER I
HISTORY OF THE CATHEDRAL
Unlike many of our cathedral cities, "Royal" Winchester has a secular
history of the greatest importance, which not only is almost
inextricably interwoven with the ecclesiastical annals down to a
comparatively recent date, but should at times occupy the foremost
position in the records of the place. To attempt, however, to trace the
story of the city as well as that of the cathedral would be to
recapitulate the most important facts of the history of England during
those centuries when Winchester was its capital town. Its civic
importance, indeed, was not dependent upon the cathedral alone, for
before the introduction of Christianity into the island Winchester was
undoubtedly the principal place in the south of England. The Roman
occupation, though it seems a mere incident in its record, lasted over
three centuries, about as long as from the reign of Henry VIII. to that
of Queen Victoria. Richard Warner (1795) sums up the various names of
Winchester when he speaks of "the metropolis of the British Belgæ,
called by Ptolemy and Antoninus Venta Belgarum; by the Welch or modern
Britons, Caer Gwent; and by the old Saxons, Wintancester; by the Latin
writers, Wintonia" ("Collections for the History of Hampshire").
Even, therefore, when we read the account of the legendary king of the
Britons, Lucius, founding a great church at Winchester in A.D. 164, we
do not touch the source of its fame, nor have we discovered the record
of the first building devoted to religious worship on the site of the
present cathedral. How far certain references to early pagan temples may
be trusted does not here concern us; but at Christchurch Priory, some
thirty-five miles to the south-west in the same diocese, bones "supposed
to be those of sacrificial birds" have been exhumed on the site of its
church. There was, however, a relapse into paganism after the first
dedication of the Christian building, so that there can be no certainty
about the date of such discoveries.
On the authority of Vigilantius' "_De Basilica Petri_" (_i.e._ at Wynton
or Winchester), quoted by Rudborne in "_Anglia Sacra_," John of Exeter,
and other writers, we have it that a great church was rebuilt from its
foundations at Caergwent by Lucius after his conversion in A.D. 164; and
that he erected also smaller buildings with an oratory, refectory, and
dormitory for the temporary abode of the monks until the monastery
itself should be completed. Quotations from another lost author,
Moracius, provide us with the dimensions of this edifice, the length
being variously given as 209 and 200 _passus_, the breadth as 80 and
130, while the tower was 92 _passus_ in height. This church, it was
said, was dedicated to S. Saviour in November 169, and endowed with
property formerly held by the pagan priests. "The site of the monastery
to the east of the church was 100 _passus_ in length toward the old
temple of Concord and 40 in breadth to the new temple of Apollo. The
north position was 160 in length and 98 in breadth. To the west of the
church it was 90 in length and 100 in breadth, to the south 405 in
length and 580 in breadth." Willis, from whom the above dimensions are
quoted, does not attempt to reconcile the figures except in so far as he
suggests _pedes_ for _passus_, substituting one foot for five. During
the persecution of the Christians by Diocletian in A.D. 266 the
buildings were destroyed; and the new church, dedicated to "S.
Amphibalus," who was said to be one of the martyrs in that persecution,
was not so large as its predecessor. In writers of the period we find
occasional references to the "Vetus Coenobium" or old monastery at
Winchester. The new building was not destined to remain long undisturbed
in the service for which it was intended, for when Cerdic, King of the
West Saxons, was crowned at Winchester and the pagans once more gained
the ascendancy, the monks were slaughtered and the church, devoted to
other rites, remained a temple of "Dagon" from 516 to 635. In the latter
year S. Birinus, in pursuance of his mission from Honorius to "scatter
the seeds of the holy faith in those farthest inland territories of the
English which no teacher had yet visited," converted King Cynegils to
Christianity. This king intended to erect a great new church, and, with
that end in view, destroyed the desecrated building and granted the law
for seven miles round to the monks whom he destined to take possession
of the new building. He died, however, within six years of his
conversion, and was buried before the altar of the partly-erected
church. His son Cenwalh therefore completed the building, which S.
Birinus dedicated to Christ in honour of the Holy and Indivisible
Trinity. Birinus was followed by Aegelberht, afterwards Bishop of Paris,
who resigned in 662; Wina, who died as Bishop of London, ejected in 666;
and Eleutherius, who died in 676.
So far the see was not at Winchester, but was temporarily placed at
Dorchester in Oxfordshire. Under Hedda, the fourth successor of S.
Birinus, the seat was at last moved to Winchester, in accordance with
the intention of the royal founder, and at the same time the body of the
saint, which had hitherto rested at Dorchester, was removed to the
cathedral city. King Cenwalh himself also on his death was buried in the
building which he had completed.
Practically nothing is known of the actual Saxon building, and the very
legends are scanty. We learn that the city was ravaged by the Danes two
years after the death of S. Swithun, but the cathedral itself appears
fortunately to have escaped damage.
The bishopric of Athelwold, commencing with his consecration by Dunstan
on November 29, A.D. 963, has more importance in the history of the
cathedral than that of his immediate predecessors. He was chosen by King
Edgar to undertake the work of a new monastery in which the king took
such pleasure that he is said to have measured the foundations himself.
This work carried out at Winchester by Athelwold is described at great
length in a Latin poem by Wolstan. No doubt the florid eulogy of the
poem is open to grave suspicion where it concerns the details of the
building, but, even when we make full allowance for poetic exaggeration,
the church appears certainly to have been a large and important one. The
poem in its first form is reproduced in Mabillon's version of Wolstan's
"Life of S. Athelwold," but in its entirety it consists of an epistle of
over 300 lines to Bishop Elphege Athelwold's successor. Some passages
deserve quotation. "He built," says Wolstan, "all these dwelling places
with strong walls. He covered them with roofs and clothed them with
beauty. He repaired the courts of the old temple with lofty walls and
new roofs and strengthened it at the north and south sides with solid
aisles and various arches. He added also many chapels, with sacred
altars which distract attention from the threshold of the church, so
that the stranger walking in the courts is at a loss where to turn,
seeing on all sides doors open to him, without a certain path. He stands
with wondering eyes until some experienced guide conducts him to the
portals of the farthest vestibule. Here marvelling he crosses himself
and knows not how to quit, so dazzling is the construction and so
brilliant the variety of the fabric that sustains this ancient church,
which that devout father himself strengthened, roofed, endowed, and
dedicated." Later Wolstan speaks of Athelwold's addition of "secret
crypts," of "such organs that the like were never seen," of a sparkling
tower reflecting from heaven the sun's first rays, "with at its top a
rod with golden balls and a mighty golden cock which as it turns boldly
sets its face to every wind that blows." More might be quoted, but it is
sufficient here to refer those interested in the matter either to the
chronicle itself or to Willis in the "Proceedings of the Architectural
Institute" for 1845. Though Wolstan thus describes Athelwold's
undertaking at great length, it does not appear that the bishop actually
did more than commence the restoration of the original buildings, for
his successor is exhorted in the letter to carry out Athelwold's design.
The chronicler Rudborne makes mention only of the dedication of a
minster in honour of the Apostles Peter and Paul, in the presence of
King Aethelred, Archbishop Dunstan and eight other bishops, on October
20, 980 A.D. John of Exeter ascribes to Athelwold the entire rebuilding
of the cathedral, but the Winchester annalist does not mention
Athelwold's great works.
From Athelwold's death to the succession of Walkelin the history of the
cathedral is little more than a record of its bishops; but with Walkelin
we reach a very important epoch in its existence. In 1079, the
Winchester Annals relate, this bishop began to rebuild the cathedral
from its very foundations, as was commonly done by the Norman
ecclesiastics of the time. According to this account, it was in 1086
that the king granted Walkelin, for the completion of his new building,
as much wood from the forest of Hempage (three miles distant from the
city on the Alresford road) as he could cut in four days and nights.
Walkelin collected all the men he could, and within the given time
removed the whole forest. The king, passing its site, cried: "Am I
bewitched? or have I taken leave of my senses?" But the bishop, when he
heard of his anger, pleaded to be allowed to resign the see if he might
but keep the chaplaincy and the king's favour. At this William relented,
saying: "I was as much too liberal in my grant as you were too greedy in
availing yourself of it" (Willis). In 1093 the new church was formally
consecrated, and on April 8, "in the presence of almost all the bishops
and abbots of England, the monks came with the highest exultation and
glory from the old minster to the new one: on the Feast of S. Swithun
they went in procession from the new minster to the old one and brought
thence S. Swithun's shrine and placed it with honour in the new
buildings; and on the following day Bishop Walkelin's men first began to
pull down the old minster, and before the end of the year they
demolished the whole of it, with the exception of one apse and the high
altar." When the old high altar was pulled down, we are told, "the
relics of many saints were found." The cathedral, as Walkelin designed
it, was for the most part so strong that its core and much of its actual
work remains to this day; but the central tower lacked the stability of
the rest, for on October 7, 1107, during the vacancy which occurred
after Walkelin's death, it fell. The monkish chroniclers attributed the
fall to the fact that William Rufus, "who all his life had been profane
and sensual and had expired without the Christian viaticum" (Rudborne),
was interred beneath it in 1100. William of Malmesbury, however, with a
degree of incredulity rare in his days, says it may have been that it
would have fallen in any case "through imperfect construction." He
describes the burial thus:--"A few countrymen conveyed the body, placed
on a cart, to the cathedral of Winchester, the blood dripping from it
all the way. Here it was committed to the ground within the tower,
attended by many of the nobility, but lamented by few. The next year the
tower fell; though I forbear to mention the different opinions on this
subject, lest I should seem to assent too readily to unsupported
trifles."
After Walkelin's death the history of the building is lost sight of for
some time, owing to the continual disturbances which all England was
undergoing. With De Lucy's accession, however, in 1189, considerable
additions were made to the cathedral, in the form of the Early English
retro-choir, of which the details are given later in this volume. De
Lucy's work, it has been pointed out, was carried out in such a way as
to leave the Norman building undisturbed as long as it was practicable
to do so, the circular apse being left _in situ_ until the new external
walls had been erected, while the presbytery itself was not touched
until the Decorated Period set in. De Lucy would doubtless have made
further alterations but for his death in 1204. As it was, two years
before that event he instituted a confraternity to carry on his work for
the space of five years, and to this body is due some of the work which
is attributed loosely to him.
It was during De Lucy's tenure of Winchester that Richard was re-crowned
by the Archbishop of Canterbury after his return from captivity. He
passed the night before at S. Swithun's Priory, and was brought thence
in the morning to the Cathedral "clothed in his royal robes, with the
crown upon his head, holding in his right hand a royal sceptre which
terminated in a cross, and in his left hand a golden wand with a figure
of a dove at the top of it, ... being conducted on the right hand by his
chancellor, the Bishop of Ely, and on the left by the Bishop of London"
(Roger de Hoveden). The Bishop of Winchester himself does not seem to
have been present, probably on account of a dispute with the king.
Another period of disturbance follows the comparatively quiet rule of
Bishop De Lucy, and it is not until we reach 1346 that we come to a
fresh outburst of architectural zeal on the part of the incumbents of
Winchester. But Edingdon, and still more his successor Wykeham, left
very lasting monuments of their occupancy at Winchester. It must not be
forgotten that, while to Wykeham is due the credit of most of the actual
transformation of the building, Edingdon must have first conceived,
however vaguely, the design. Edingdon's attachment to Winchester is well
illustrated by his quaint reason for refusing the offer of Canterbury:
"if Canterbury is the higher rack, Winchester is the better manger." He
is, indeed, charged with having left a considerable debt on the
building, since his successor seems to have recovered a large sum from
his executors, who had also to compensate Wykeham for large numbers of
cattle which had "disappeared from the various farms of the bishopric."
Yet it appears from Edingdon's own will that he began rebuilding the
nave and left money for the continuation of the work.
Wykeham, as we shall see, had already a reputation for architectural
skill when first introduced to Edward III., and this reputation stood
him in good stead in the matter of preferment. When he was elected to
Winchester he found the bishop's palaces of Farnham, Wolvesey, Waltham,
and Southwark in a very dilapidated condition, and he set these in order
before he turned his attention to anything else. New College, Oxford,
and Winchester College practically occupied him up to 1393; whilst his
work in the cathedral was really the last great undertaking of his life,
inasmuch as it was not finished at the time of his death. The actual
method of Wykeham's transformation of the interior is described more
fully elsewhere, and we will not therefore do more than quote a few
words from Willis on the work done. "The old Norman cathedral was cast
nearly throughout its length and breadth into a new form; the double
tier of arches in its peristyle was turned into one, by the removal of
the lower arch, and clothed with Caen casings in the Perpendicular
style. The old wooden ceilings were replaced with stone vaultings,
enriched with elegant carvings and cognizances. Scarcely less than a
total rebuilding is involved in this hazardous and expensive operation,
carried on during ten years with a systematic order worthy of remark and
imitation.... Judging from the provision of his will of the expenditure
for the last year and a half, the cost of this great work to the bishop
in present money cannot be estimated at less than £200,000."
Wykeham's successor, Beaufort, was far less a bishop of Winchester than
an English statesman. His contributions to the architecture of his see
are very small. He did indeed so add to the hospital of St Cross as to
make it almost a new foundation; but in the cathedral he only left one
monument, though this Milner styles the "most elegant and finished
chantry in the kingdom," lying on the south side of the retro-choir.
Waynflete, who followed him, left another fine chantry in a
corresponding position to the north. Under Bishops Peter Courtenay and
Thomas Langton, the latter of whom has his chapel at the east end, next
the Lady Chapel, considerable additions were made to the architecture of
the cathedral, though most of the credit is due to the priors Hunton and
Silkstede, who seem to have been chiefly responsible for the new work.
This included a prolongation of De Lucy's Lady Chapel, carried out in
all probability between the years 1470 and 1524; and the erection of the
present side aisles of the presbytery, in place of the original Norman
aisles. In the latter year (1524) the side screens of the presbytery
were added by Bishop Fox, whose motto can be read on them. The work of
Fox, whose chapel is behind the reredos to the south, began in 1510, and
was carried out under early Renaissance influence. He found the choir
and presbytery converted, to a great extent, to the Decorated style,
though the Norman aisles remained. He completed the transformation,
adding the above-mentioned screens, together with a wooden vaulting. He
would probably have also replaced with his own work De Lucy's additions
at the east end and the Norman transepts, had he but had the time. This,
however, he did not live long enough to do, for he died in 1528. Roughly
speaking, his work lies between the transepts and the Early English east
end.
The Reformation Period did not benefit much to the architectural
features of Winchester Cathedral, while it most certainly did them harm.
"The bones of S. Swithun," says Woodward, "were doubtless lost at the
Reformation, when his costly shrine was taken from the feretory, where
it stood so long, and destroyed." The period was now at hand when many
seem to have considered it a religious duty to destroy monuments, or at
least deface them; and Winchester, though it suffered less than many
churches, by no means escaped damage. Under Stephen Gardiner, however,
no great evil befell the building. Gardiner's own chantry behind the
reredos commemorates his connection with the cathedral, and distinctly
illustrates the inferior taste of his day, when compared with the
earlier tombs about him; though it might easily have been far worse. The
Puritans maltreated it on other grounds than those of taste, it is to be
feared. It was during Bishop Gardiner's tenure of the see that Philip of
Spain and Mary were married at Winchester. Contemporary records by a
Spaniard in Philip's suite, and by an English observer of the same date,
recently revealed to us by Mr Martin A.S. Hume, set forth the story of
the marriage most vividly. The king arrived from Southampton in a storm
of rain, and "donned a black velvet surcoat covered with gold bugles and
a suit of white velvet trimmed in the same way, and thus he entered,
passing the usual red-clothed kneeling aldermen with gold keys on
cushions, and then to the grand cathedral, which impressed the Spaniards
with wonder, and above all to find that 'Mass was as solemnly sung there
as at Toledo.' A little crowd of mitred bishops stood at the great west
door, crosses raised and censers swinging, and in solemn procession to
the high altar, under a velvet canopy, they led the man whom they looked
upon as God's chosen instrument to permanently restore their faith in
England." Two days after the wedding took place. Great attention is paid
to the clothes by both English and Spanish narrators, and the ceremony
and dresses were very magnificent; the Queen's ladies "looked more like
celestial angels than mortal creatures." The Queen, we are told, blazed
with jewels to such an extent that the eye was blinded as it looked upon
her; her dress was of black velvet flashing with gems, and a splendid
mantle of cloth of gold fell from her shoulders; but through the Mass
that followed the marriage service she never took her eyes off the
crucifix upon which they were devoutly fixed. The marriage took place in
the July of 1554, and the chair used by Queen Mary is now standing in
Bishop Langton's chapel.
[Illustration: OLD VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL (LOOKING SOUTHWARDS).]
Some stormy years at the end of Gardiner's interrupted episcopacy and
during the rule of his immediate successors did not much affect
Winchester externally; but under Robert Horne the whole diocese suffered
terribly through the "Puritanical" views of its bishop. The Norman
chapter-house was pulled down, part of the lead on the cathedral roof
was stripped off, and stained glass, architectural decorations, etc.,
throughout the neighbourhood were ruthlessly destroyed. However, after a
short period of comparative peace, far worse had yet to come. Under
James I. and during the early part of the reign of Charles I., little
happened to the building beyond the institution of Curle's passage
through the buttress at the southern end of the cathedral, with its
quaint inscription on the western wall. The Great Rebellion, as was only
to be expected, brought Winchester into the utmost peril. The important
situation of the town in the south of England caused it to become the
centre of much hard fighting. Sir William Waller, whom Winchester has no
cause to remember with affection, came very near to destroying the
interior of the cathedral entirely. His troops marched right up the nave
in full war equipment, some even being mounted. Tombs were defaced,
relics scattered, statues mutilated, stained glass smashed, and the more
portable objects carried out into the streets. It is difficult to
estimate with any exactitude what was the whole extent of the damage
done; but we have sufficient testimony in the broken figures, empty
niches, etc., to see that it was great. One highly creditable incident
in the midst of the general disgrace has been recorded--namely, the
preservation from insult of Wykeham's chantry. This was the work of a
Colonel Fiennes, who had been educated at Wykeham's College at
Winchester. The protests of the inhabitants seem to have finally induced
Waller to call off his fanatical troops from their work of destruction
and violation. What might have happened to the cathedral, had this not
been done, it is quite impossible to imagine. "Of the brass torn from
the violated monuments" in 1644 "might have been built a house as strong
as the brazen towers of old romances" (Ryves's "_Mercurius Rusticus_"
quoted by Milner).
Here the architectural history of Winchester Cathedral practically ends.
We find tombs and memorial brasses of all dates, but until the modern
restorations nothing of importance affected the actual appearance of the
church. Among the few examples of Jacobean work to be seen within, the
nave pulpit can hardly be classed, since it was brought from New College
Chapel at Oxford as late as 1884. The two statues of James I. and
Charles I. by the west door are the work of Hubert le Sueur, who came to
England in 1628. The urns which were supposed in the last century to
decorate the reredos have long ago been removed, as has also the gilt
Jacobean canopy which formerly disfigured the centre of this screen; but
Benjamin West's "Raising of Lazarus" still remains above the altar.
This century's work in the cathedral is not very formidable in its
extent. All of it is mentioned elsewhere in this book, and it is
sufficient here to say that the erection of Sir G. Scott's choir-screen
and the restoration of the reredos are the most noticeable "modern"
features, though the latter was carried out on the old lines as nearly
as was thought advisable. Sir G. Scott's additions to Winchester have by
no means given universal satisfaction, severe language having been
applied to them by more than one expert. The most recent alterations
have consisted chiefly of a very necessary, though costly, strengthening
of the nave roof. This work is, of course, invisible from the ground
level, but can be reached from the stair in the south transept. A repair
of the organ has also been provided for, and new glass has been inserted
in the large south window of the Lady Chapel, in memory of Bishop
Thorold.
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO BISHOP ETHELMAR.
(From Carter's "Ancient Architecture of England.")]
CHAPTER II
THE CATHEDRAL BUILDING AND CLOSE
Before any detailed consideration of the architecture of the cathedral,
it is well to be clear as to the various dates of the chief parts. But
it must here be remembered that practically in every instance the now
existing portions replaced still earlier structures on the same site.
Mention has been made already of the changes from the original building
to the one commenced in the eleventh century. In 1079 Bishop Walkelin
laid the foundations of a great Norman church, of which the transepts,
the outer face of the south nave wall, the core of the nave itself, the
crypts, and a portion of the base of the west front are still existing.
Walkelin's work was completed in fourteen years, just before the end of
1093. The tower fell in 1107, but was rebuilt soon afterwards in the
form which we now see it. Bishop de Lucy's work, which came next in date
(1189-1204), includes the Chapel of the Guardian Angels, flanking the
Lady Chapel, at the north-east end of the cathedral, and the
corresponding chapel on the south-east, which afterwards became the
chantry of Bishop Langton. The piers of the presbytery probably date
from about 1320. The west front was rebuilt in Edingdon's time
(1345-1366), and a small part of the reconstruction of the nave, the
first two bays of the north aisle, and a bay of the south are generally
attributed to him. The great re-modelling of the nave, the outer walls
of the presbytery, and the continuation of the Lady Chapel range in date
of completion from the end of the fourteenth to the sixteenth century.
So much, however, of each period has been altered, and often modified
almost beyond recognition by later additions, that it is impossible to
make more than a rough guess at the age of the various portions. The
work of Wykeham and his successors is so important that it must be left
until we reach it in its proper place.
The ground covered by the actual building is one and a half acres in
extent. The close is fine and extensive, and is surrounded by a high and
stout wall which marks the limits of the old Benedictine monastery. The
houses within the close are of widely different dates, from the Early
English period to recent years. They comprise the official residences of
the dean and the canons, together with some private houses. The changes
made from time to time in the distribution of the ground have involved
the disappearance of the old priory buildings, and it is not possible to
trace with certainty their original form. The laying out of the close
has concealed the ground plan of the cloisters which once adjoined the
cathedral. What is now called by the name is the passage between the
south transept and the former chapter-house, which was pulled down in
1570 by the destructive Bishop Horne, in order, it is said, that the
lead in the roof might be sold. Five extremely fine Early Norman arches
which were once part of the chapter-house still remain, and may be seen
in a line with the end of the slype, beyond the south transept. Some
traces of small arches on what is now the extreme outer wall of the
transept mark where arcading once ran along the inner wall of the
chapter-house. No vestige of the roof remains. The "slype" is a passage
which was cut through the southern buttress by Bishop Curle, to put a
stop to the constant use of the nave and south aisle as a thoroughfare
by the townspeople. The anagrams on the walls commemorate the purpose of
the passage; the first, on the western arch, reading:--
ILL\ PREC\
\ \
>AC >ATOR
/ /
H/ AMBULA VI/
and that over the eastern arch:--
/ACR\ S\ ILL\ CH\
/ \ \ \ \
S< >A >IT >A >ORO[1]
\ / / / /
\ERV/ S/ IST/ F/
In the angle of an old extension of the chapter-house south wall are
traces of the dormitory and infirmary which formerly stood there. The
Early English doorway with Purbeck marble shafts seems to have led to
this dormitory. To the south of this is the deanery or prior's hall, the
acute external arches, which date from the reign of Henry III., forming
a vestibule with a southern aspect, while above are some narrow
lancet-windows. Although the original portion of this hall dates from
the fifteenth century, it was considerably altered in the seventeenth,
during the second Charles's reign. This king himself sometimes stayed at
the deanery, where Philip of Spain lodged for one night before his
marriage. Over a wooden building, which now serves as the dean's
stables, is an ornamental timber roof of late thirteenth-century work,
which was once part of the old pilgrims' or strangers' hall originally
standing in this part of the close for the benefit of pilgrims to the
shrine of S. Swithun.
[1] _Illac precator, hac viator ambula_ (That way thou that
prayest, this way thou that passest by, walk); _Sacra sit illa
choro, serva sit ista foro_ (That way is sacred to the Choir,
that for use to the market-place).
In the south wall of the cathedral, close to the west front, there is a
doorway which is reported to have led to the chapel and charnel-house
mentioned by Leland. "S. Swithin, now called Trinity," he says, "stands
on the south side of the town, and there is a chapelle with a carnarie
at the west end of it." S. Swithin is, of course, the cathedral itself.
Leland's other carnary, which must not be confused with this, was
attached to a chapel "on the north side of S. Mary Abbey church at
Winchester, in an area thereby, on which men entre by a certen steppes.
One Inkepenne, a gentilman that berith in his shield a scheker sylver
and sables, was founder of it. There be three tumbes of marble of
prestes _custodes_ of the chapelle."
Among the old houses which have vanished from the close is one in which
Charles II. in vain requested Bishop Ken to allow Nell Gwynne to lodge;
and one which was erected for her and not pulled down until this
century. The cathedral precincts, however, still contain on the southern
side several buildings well worthy of notice. A picturesque house yet
standing is that which was known by the name of Cheyney Court. It now
serves as a porter's lodge, and stands by the wooden-doored gateway
which opens into Kingsgate Street. The doors are supposed to have come
down to us from the thirteenth century. Previously this lodge was the
courthouse of the Soke of Winchester, and the centre of the episcopal
jurisdiction here. The old timbered front, with its barge-boards, was in
1886 concealed behind a rough-cast cement coating, but in that year this
was fortunately stripped away, and the present charming aspect revealed
to the eye.
[Illustration: SOUTHERN SIDE OF CATHEDRAL, FROM DEANERY GARDEN.
_S.B. Bolas & Co., Photo._]
#The Exterior.#--It would be difficult to deny that the exterior of
Winchester Cathedral is disappointing, and few are likely to echo the
opinion of an over-zealous admirer of the building who said that the
longer one looks at it the more one feels the low central tower to be
the only kind that would suit the huge proportions of the building. On
the contrary, it may be said that it is impossible to look at Winchester
without a feeling of regret that the superb mass of the great fabric,
the largest mediæval church in England since the destruction of old S.
Paul's, is not crowned by a loftier central tower. There is a legend to
the effect that there were seven towers in the original design--the
central one, two at the west end, and one at each angle of the
transepts; and this seems to be supported by the solid character of some
of the piers in the transepts. Yet, despite the rather ungraceful
outline of the whole building, when its mere size is realised, it
gradually asserts its importance and incontrovertibly proves its right
to be considered one of the very finest structures in England.
It will not be out of place to quote a short criticism which sums up the
external qualities of the cathedral in a concise way:--"With the
exception of portions of the late work in the presbytery, the exterior
of Winchester is severe in treatment, and plain wall-space plays an
important part in the design. Plain parapets and simply treated
pinnacles characterise the work of the nave. The Norman transepts are
externally but little altered, except by the insertion of Decorated
windows to give more light to the altars in their eastern aisles; and De
Lucy's work eastwards is, compared with some work of its date, simple in
the extreme. Rather more elaboration was bestowed on the design of the
new eastern bay of the Lady Chapel by Prior Silkstede and Bishop
Courtenay; but, taken as a whole, Winchester has one of the simplest
exteriors for its size and importance in the country" ("Winchester
Cathedral" in _The Builder_ for October 1892).
The ground-plan of Winchester Cathedral is in the form of a plain Latin
cross, hardly broken in its outline save by the Perpendicular
prolongation of the Lady Chapel at the east end. But, simple as is the
plan, "the great length of the church" (to use the words of Fergusson)
"is pleasingly broken ... by the bold projection of its transepts, which
here extend, as usual in England, three bays beyond the aisles, their
section being the same width as that of the nave." The width of the nave
with the aisles is 88 feet, while the transepts measure, from east to
west, 81 feet. The total length has already been given as 556, and the
width from north to south across the transepts is 230 feet. The altitude
of the walls is 75 feet, which is a foot less than at Peterborough,
though three more than at Ely.
#The West Front#, the work of Bishop Edingdon, has been roughly handled
by its critics, though Britton calls it a fine specimen of Perpendicular
architecture. The original Norman work demolished by Edingdon was, as
excavations have proved, forty feet in advance of the present _façade_.
To judge by accounts of the destroyed portions, the west front in its
earlier state must have been far more imposing than it is at present,
for not only is it now commonplace in mass, but even the detail has no
particular charm to atone for the change. The whole of this work appears
so thoroughly Perpendicular in character that it has been questioned
whether at such an early date as that to which it is assigned the style
can have been so far developed. Woodward, indeed, though attributing to
Edingdon the walls and the principal part of the west end, declares the
tracery, the fronts of the porches, and much of the panelling to be
later; but a comparison of Winchester with another church undoubtedly
built by this bishop, at his native town of Edingdon, in Wiltshire,
supports the tradition which credits him with its erection. Besides this
evidence, we have additional proof in the fact that he left by his will
certain property to be devoted to the completion of the nave. Late
though his work may appear at first sight, yet when it is closely
examined and compared with Wykeham's work the difference is very
apparent.
[Illustration: THE WEST FRONT, WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL.
_S.B. Bolas & Co., Photo._]
The whole western _façade_ with its three bays is wanting in greatness,
and its effect may be said to be that of a large parish church rather
than a cathedral. Not only do we miss the western towers which are so
often the most striking feature of an English west front, but the screen
which masks the lower storey lacks the richness which distinguishes a
somewhat similar feature at Exeter. The curiously poor appearance,
notwithstanding its huge size, of the great west window is perhaps
chiefly responsible for the want of dignity in the whole; nor is there,
to redeem this, any delicate fancy in the tracery. The "merest stone
grating" Willis terms the window, and though from so warm a panegyrist
of the church this seems a severe criticism, no one can traverse his
opinion.
By way of further proof that the west front was Edingdon's work, Willis
points out that, while in Wykeham's panels the masonry itself is
carefully finished, and the same stones used for the ground of the panel
and its mouldings, in Edingdon's work the monials and tracery alone
exhibit good masonry, the panels being filled with rough ashlar. By
other tests, too technical to quote here, the same critic makes it clear
that the west front, with two compartments of the nave on the north and
one to the south, must be attributed to Edingdon, though he probably did
not finish the gable and turrets, which seem to be the work of Wykeham.
The present state shows a gable rising in the centre, flanked by
octagonal pinnacle turrets. On the apex of this gable is a canopied
finial containing a niche wherein now stands a figure of William of
Wykeham, the original statue, which was supposed to represent S.
Swithun, having been removed to the feretory when the west front was
restored in 1860 at a cost of £3000. The triangle of the gable is filled
with tracery, the lower part of the central panels in which serve as a
smaller square-headed six-light window above the parapet which crosses
at the head of the great nine-light window. Buttresses assist in
supporting the two towers, and lesser ones project to hide the sides of
the porch, which, pierced by three doorways and crowned by a parapet,
extends along the whole lower storey, across the nave and both aisles.
Above the screen the pitched roofs of aisles may be seen. The bays
containing the side windows, of four lights each, accord in style with
the large central one, having also wall tracery in panels over the
comparatively small surface of unpierced wall. The screen itself has
three deeply-recessed portals with pointed arches, and a large canopied
empty niche on each side of the main entrance.
The central doorway is divided by a clustered shaft, where from spring
two cinquefoil arches. The recessed portal has a groined roof, with an
arcade of cusped arches on the main west wall, broken by the doorways
which give admission to the nave. A pierced balcony of simple design
crowns the whole of the screen and forms a gallery which is said to have
been used for bestowing episcopal benedictions to the people outside the
cathedral on festival days.
The excavations which brought to light the old foundations of the
original west front showed "a wall of 128 feet from north to south, and
12 feet thick, with returns at each end of the same thickness 60 feet in
length. At their eastern ends the walls again turn in at right angles
and meet the present side aisles at 17 feet from each corner. Within the
parallelogram thus partially traced two other walls run from east to
west at a distance of 36 feet from each other." In a garden adjoining
the west end of the cathedral at the time when these observations were
made, part of the south-west angle of the walls still remained.
Indications of the western towers were apparent; and Willis suggests
that they were probably either unfinished, or in a threatening
condition, so that Edingdon demolished them; even as at Gloucester the
western towers of the cathedral were removed, and the _façade_ was
replaced by a perpendicular west front at the beginning of the fifteenth
century.
[Illustration: EDINGDON'S WINDOWS IN NORTH-WEST BAYS.
North West Bay.
Winchester Cathedral.
H.P. Clifford
From a Drawing by H.P. Clifford.]
The original west front may very probably have been similar to that of
Lincoln Cathedral, "unornamental," says a writer in _Architecture_,
"save for some interlacing arches and dwarf blind arcades, and with no
windows to reflect the setting sun, or to light the cavernous interior."
The two westernmost bays of the #North side# are due to Edingdon, and we
get here well contrasted the work of Edingdon and of Wykeham. In
Willis's plan the difference can be clearly seen. The two windows to the
right are heavier, lower, and broader, and display much deeper exterior
mouldings, with "a most cavernous and gloomy appearance," while the
window on the left hand is much narrower and lighter. The left-hand
buttress is like the others on the north side of the church, whereas the
other three are different from it and from one another, that on the
extreme right, together with its pinnacle, being apparently just as
Edingdon left it. The pinnacles and upper set-off of the two centre
buttresses in the figure were added by Wykeham to Edingdon's underwork.
The mouldings of Wykeham's windows are more elaborate than those of
Edingdon's, where the tracery is similar to that of the west window. Of
the bays on the north side the nine next to Edingdon's two, together
with the three beyond the northern transept, are Wykeham's work, as are
the three bays beyond the transept on the southern side and the
extension of the Lady Chapel. Edingdon claims, beside what has been
already mentioned, one bay on the south, next the west front. De Lucy's
work consists of the three easterly bays on either side, and part of the
Lady Chapel exterior. The rest of the bays are Norman, and the
prevailing note is simplicity, not to say rudeness. The #South side# of
the nave is almost devoid of decoration, the bays being merely divided
by flat buttresses which do not reach below the bottoms of the aisle
windows. The eleven windows in the clerestory above are all alike,
divided only by flat buttresses. Aisle and clerestory both show a plain
parapet and corbels. The bold buttresses on the north side, with their
panelled and crocketted pinnacles, save it from the monotony of the
south side, which, however, was once greatly concealed by cloisters and
convent buildings, and is even now far more enclosed than the northern
side.
The low #Central Tower#, the coping of which is only 35 feet above the
ridge of the transept roof, is Norman, though, as explained before, of
later date than the transepts. It is of a simple square form, 150 feet
high by 50 wide, and is divided by a string course into two storeys, the
lower of which is plain with small round-headed windows; the larger
upper storey has on each side three narrow round-headed windows, which
form a kind of arcade round the upper part of the tower, surmounted by a
zig-zag string course. At the angles are engaged shafts. The massive
manner in which the tower was rebuilt in the eleventh century can be
better appreciated from within, when we come to the piers which support
it. The building has been said to prove that the Normans of the period
were "still bad masons and imperfectly acquainted with the principles of
construction," the masses of masonry employed showing an enormous waste
of both labour and materials. But the architects at any rate gained
their end, since the tower has stood to the present day. The strength of
the original Norman work, indeed, is so great that for all the 250 feet
of nave no flying-buttresses were required to support the later
vaulting.
The gables of the #Transepts# are not so high as those of the nave, but
the clerestory parapets are on the same level. The side aisles are much
lower than those in the nave or the presbytery. The parapets are plain,
over a series of small arches supported by corbels; except that in the
eastern aisle of the south transept the parapet rests on plain corbels,
and above the western clerestory of the other transept is a cornice with
Perpendicular bosses. In this clerestory, again, the buttresses are
Perpendicular, whereas otherwise throughout the transepts they are flat
Norman. Over the eastern aisle of the north there is no cornice or
corbel; "the parapet," says Woodward, "with no more than a water-table
under it, is carried across the gable of the north transept, so as to
form an _alura_ above the buttress, in front of the circular window
there." The Perpendicular rose-window in the northern gable cannot now
be seen from the interior, being hidden by the transept ceiling, but in
the illustration from _Britton_, on page 59, it is visible. The
corresponding gable on the south shows panelling with interlacing Norman
arches, but there are only two narrow lights. Many symptoms show that
square towers were to have been erected flanking the transept gables.
There is an unfinished turret at the north-east corner of the north
transept, while the springing of an arcade and the generally incomplete
appearance prove that a side tower was intended. The other three extreme
angles of the transepts also bear out this view. The width from east to
west of the transepts is enormous as compared with the height of the
central tower above. It rather looks from the presence (barely
perceptible from outside) of the westernmost windows of the presbytery
aisles as if those who carried on Wykeham's work had meant to reduce
this great width, and give more importance to the presbytery and
retro-choir externally. It is certain, at any rate, that the Norman
transepts narrowly escaped a complete transformation. That on the north
side of the cathedral shows very considerable alterations, in the
majority of its windows, from the old Norman pattern. A built-up doorway
may be noticed under the first window from the west of this transept.
The exterior of the #Presbytery# has only three compartments on each
side, but in each there are four lights in aisle and clerestory alike.
The windows are of the Wykeham pattern, though probably a little later
in date than his work. The buttresses, which rise above the aisle roof,
culminate in square panelled pinnacles, surmounted by crocketted ogee
canopies. From these buttresses spring graceful flying-buttresses, with
pierced spandrels running to the clerestory walls. On the northern side
the plain parapet has over it a pierced battlement.
The #East End#, as it now stands, is some 110 feet beyond the original
Norman termination, and presents a square face, projecting with a flat
parapet beyond the high gable over the actual east window. The Norman
apse was demolished about 1320 in all probability, and the present
polygonal end substituted for it. It seems that originally the aisles of
the Norman presbytery continued round this apse, which was flanked by
two small towers. The eastern chapel may have been dedicated to the Holy
Trinity as at Canterbury, and probably extended as far as the western
arch of the present Lady Chapel. The central gable of the old
termination, rather acute in form, is richly decorated with panels and
crocketting, and is crowned by a tabernacle wherein Bishop Fox is
represented leaning on the pelican. "Three of the panels in the centre
are pierced and glazed, forming a small square-headed window; and under
it is a door opening upon an _alura_, behind a crenelated, panelled, and
pierced parapet, over a cornice with bosses, at the base of the gable,
and just above the east window" (Woodward). The Perpendicular east
window has seven lights, and resembles, in the form of its head,
Wykeham's windows. A portrait bust of Fox has been discovered on the
north corbel of the hood-mould of this window, and the flying-buttresses
(which, as Willis pointed out, the jointing of the masonry proves to be
later insertions into the clerestory walls) have the pelican carved on
them. The whole gable is flanked by richly canopied octagonal turrets,
on which the flying-buttresses abut. The lower part of the east window
cannot be seen from below, being lost behind the roof of the chantry
aisles.
[Illustration: THE EAST END--EXTERIOR. _S.B. Bolas & Co., Photo._]
The whole of the eastern arm of the cathedral is curiously mixed in
style, furnishing examples of Early English, Decorated, and
Perpendicular architecture. Beyond the main east gable just described
projects a low Early English structure of three nearly equally high
aisles, of which the central or Lady Chapel has received a further
Perpendicular addition. There has been apparently a slight subsidence of
the Early English walls, which has caused the irregular look of the
arches in the interior of the southern retro-choir aisle (see page 69).
Above the plain string-course of the retro-choir there is in each
compartment, under a level parapet, an arcade of narrow pointed arches,
four in number, the central couple of each set being pierced and glazed,
so as to form pairs of lancet windows. The Langton and Guardian Angels'
chapels, which project not quite half as far as the Lady Chapel from the
old eastern limit of the church, show a triple series of arcades,
diminishing in size as they mount. The central arcade is much cut into
on the eastern face by the large three-light windows of the lateral
chapels. There is no parapet above the arcades. At the angles between
these chapels and the retro-choir aisles are staircases enclosed in
small octagonal turrets rising slightly above the adjoining parts with
merely a plain parapet at the top.
The #Lady Chapel# has at the end and at each side a fine seven-light
Perpendicular window, the heads of the lights below the transom being
cinquefoiled, while above each window is a cornice supported by small
arches resting on corbels; over all is a pierced battlement, which is
also crenelated at the actual east end. Below the east window of the
Lady Chapel, between the two great buttresses with mutilated canopies on
the two lower of their three divisions, there is some blank panelling,
consisting of four shallow-arched recesses with a pilaster down the
centre, each arch uniting two minor ones with cinquefoil cusps at the
head and crowned by a quatrefoil with a rosette in the middle. There
were originally four heads at the ends of the corbels under these
quatrefoils, but the southernmost is broken away. A similar arcade runs
along the southern wall of the Lady Chapel, but there is none on the
north side. The two main corbel-tables at the east end show the arms of
England and France and the bishop's device of three "torteaux." Under
these, at a short distance from the ground, are two smaller windows,
which give light to the Lady Chapel crypt. The panelling dates from
about 1490, and is due to Bishop Peter Courtenay.
[Illustration: NAVE, SHOWING THE SCREEN BEFORE RESTORATION.
_A. Pumphrey, Photo._]
CHAPTER III
THE INTERIOR
The very first glimpse of the nave, as one enters by the west door,
reveals the superb proportions of the interior. In spite of all
statistics of its size, the outward appearance of the building hardly
impresses the spectator with the fact that Winchester is the largest
cathedral in Northern Europe, and it is not until one is within the
walls that the great length of the cathedral begins to become real and
its majesty is properly appreciated. The total span, from end to end, of
556 feet, compared with the 537 feet of Ely, the 525 of York, the 524 of
Lincoln, and the 516 of Canterbury, would not alone produce the effect
of almost infinite vastness, and is certainly not realised either in a
distant prospect from the hills or in a nearer view from the cathedral
precincts. But when once the nave is entered, owing partly to the open
and comparatively low choir-screen, the magnificent vault of nearly 400
feet may easily be understood to have few rivals in the world. Certainly
neither of the two buildings in England which are practically equal in
size to Winchester Cathedral give the peculiarly overwhelming sense of
length produced here. The old epithet of "Royal" may be said to apply as
fitly to the cathedral as to the town, and it certainly is a worthy
shelter for the bones of half-forgotten dynasties, and as fine a
monument of an earlier England as Westminster is of later periods in the
development of the country.
Of course, as in all English cathedrals, a lack of colour and a sense of
coldness and emptiness modifies any unqualified admiration which one
might at first feel. But Winchester could well afford to admit far more
than the most captious critic could utter against it, and yet claim to
be the most stately nave that England can show. Despite the late
recasting, the proportions are Norman, and the very core of the pillars
is still the original Norman stonework. Notwithstanding the changes
wrought by Edingdon and Wykeham, all the more petty detail of the
Decorated period is lavished on a colossal structure planned with the
simple magnificence of those that "builded better than they knew."
Perhaps it is not quite fair to the later architects to attribute all
the excellence of the work to the earlier builders, for the graceful
columns of the nave's eleven bays which rise unbroken to where the
roof-groining springs from their capitals are made by Wykeham to fulfil
a new duty which entirely alters their whole aspect. The general effect
has been said to be as if a Norman architect had expressed himself in
the more refined idiom of the early fifteenth century. Yet the work of
Edingdon and Wykeham was ruthless in its way. The original Norman nave
of Walkelin consisted of the normal three storeys, of equal height in
this case--the main arches, triforium, and clerestory. At the present
day the main arches are fully half as high again as they were in the
Norman cathedral, while the base of the clerestory has been brought down
to meet them, so that the triforium appears to have vanished or rather
to exist merely as a balcony over each arch. As a matter of fact,
however, it was the old clerestory which was entirely removed and
replaced by the present upper storey. On p. 35 we see on the one hand
typical Norman work, of the character still existing at Romsey Abbey and
Christchurch Priory--to mention only the two large churches nearest to
Winchester. During the conversion of the nave the bases and capitals of
the grouped shafts of the main arches were removed, together with all
the masonry above them. This is not mere conjecture, for the Norman
shafts and capitals which still remain on the north side of the nave, in
the second bay from the crossing, where they were covered by the ancient
rood-screen, show that the pier-arches of the nave sprang from the same
height as those of the transepts; the Norman main arch of the triforium
still exists in every compartment over the vault of the side aisles to
prove that the triforium of the nave was practically on the same level
as that of the transepts, and the tops of the Norman shafts yet
remaining above the nave-vaulting are additional evidence that the nave
was to all intents and purposes uniform with the transepts in its
general arrangement. In the south aisle, moreover, there is to be seen
the lower extremity of a Norman shaft, once covered by some votive altar
or shrine which was removed during the destructive period of the
Reformation. "It may be readily noted," says the writer of a recent
article on Winchester Cathedral, "how the new ashlar was brought down to
the level of this vanished altar, and how Wykeham's vaulting-shaft has
been made to end in foliation where it once rose in receipt of prayers
and wax-candles vowed in return for mercies vouchsafed." In the seven
westerly piers of the south aisle, the Norman stonework has merely
received new mouldings; while flat Norman buttresses can be seen outside
between the clerestory windows, also on the south side.
[Illustration: ELEVATION OF TWO BAYS OF THE NAVE,
SHOWING ITS TRANSFORMATION.
From Willis's "Architectural History of Winchester Cathedral," 1846.]
On the division into two, in place of the usual three, storeys, it may,
perhaps, be of interest to quote some remarks of Willis in the
"Proceedings of the Archæological Institute." "The compartment of
Wykeham's nave," he says, "is divided into two parts vertically instead
of three; for although it has a triforium gallery, yet this is so
completely subordinated to the clerestory window that it cannot be held
as a separate division of the composition, as in the Norman work where
the triforium compartment is of all importance and similar in decoration
to the other two, although not exactly like them. In Wykeham's work, on
the contrary, we find above the lofty pier-arch what at first sight
appears to be a clerestory window divided at mid-height by a transom,
and recessed under a deeply-pointed archway. But it is above the transom
only that the real window is formed by glazing the spaces between the
monials. Below the transom these spaces are filled with panels, and two
narrow openings cut through the latter give access from the roof to a
kind of balcony which projects over the pier-arches. In each compartment
this balcony exists, but there is no free passage from one to the other.
This mode of uniting the triforium and clerestory by the employment of a
transom dividing the stone panels of the former from the glazed lights
of the latter is common enough at the period of Wykeham's work and
before it, but the balcony is unusual."
It is needless to add any further explanation, since the diagram fully
explains both the present state of the nave and the manner in which the
transformation from the original Norman design was brought about; but it
may be worth while to quote an architect's verdict on the general effect
of Wykeham's work in the nave. "If we cannot admire all the details,"
says this writer, "we can but bear tribute to the conception of the
whole. Its lofty arcades give no space for triforium, and the proportion
between the clerestory and the arcade is somewhat unsatisfactory. If we
except the vaulted roof, and the chantry of the great Wykeham himself,
and his predecessor Edingdon, this portion of the church may, with
reason, be considered simple in its character, and bears distinct
evidence of having been grafted on earlier work. The Norman columns
still remain in one or two places towards the east end of the nave
arcade, but with the exception of these and of the Norman masonry
existing in the piers on the south, and perhaps portions of the aisle
walls, all is transformed to Perpendicular detail" (_The Builder_,
October 1892).
[Illustration: THE NAVE, LOOKING EAST. _S.B. Bolas & Co., Photo._]
Altogether there are, between the western doors and the piers supporting
the tower, twelve arches on each side, one of each series being included
in the choir. Hooks and brackets may be seen in the face of the piers at
about three-quarters of their height; these were formerly used for the
suspension of arras on occasions of great festivity.
It has been practically established that the sculpture at least of the
nave and its vault was not finished for nearly half-a-century after
Wykeham's death. We find Cardinal Beaufort's arms and bust, and his
device, a white hart chained, as well as Waynflete's lily, intermingled
with the arms and bust of Wykeham. Under the triforium gallery is a
cornice, in each compartment of which are to be found seven large
sculptured bosses, representing a cardinal's hat, a lily, roses, etc. Of
the compartments of the clerestory in the nave we have said that they
have the appearance of a very fine Perpendicular window. All, however,
except the upper part of the centre of these seeming windows is really
panel-work. The old Norman main arch of the triforium may be seen behind
this panelling, under the present clerestory windows.
Until recently the mass above pressed very heavily on the nave-vaulting,
but during the last and preceding years (1896-7) the strain has been
relieved by the insertion of new supplementary timbers above the
original Hempage Forest beams, which can still be seen by those who
wish. The cost of this work of repairing the roof and vault has been
about £9000, and so far has not at all exceeded the original estimate.
In August 1897 a large amount still remained to be subscribed. As seen
from below each division of the vault is "bounded by two
vaulting-shafts, which rise to the level of the clerestory window-sill
and send out from above the capital nine diverging ribs to the
ridge-rib, by which the whole vault is divided into a series of bisected
and interlacing lozenges, as the basis for all the groining" (Woodward).
[Illustration: WEST WINDOW, FROM NAVE. _Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]
The general effect of the nave can be gathered from the illustrations,
which bring out well the appearance of height which is bound to impress
the spectator standing near the central western door. In the nave aisles
also a fine view may be obtained, the comparative narrowness
counteracting the lessened height. As one looks down the church towards
the west, it will be noticed that the western interior wall is
practically entirely filled by the great window, for not only does this
stretch across the whole width, but the mullions also are carried right
down to the floor-level, a double series of panels occupying the space
below the sill of the window. The glass in the window proper is, for the
most part, very old, and, as is pointed out elsewhere (see p. 94), is
arranged in patterns after the fashion of a kaleidoscope. This arises
from the fact that the fragments of which it is composed are entirely
disjointed, and probably incapable of being pieced together.
The monuments and objects of interest in the nave are numerous, but
chief perhaps are, on the north side, the Minstrels' Gallery, the old
grill-work, and the font; and, on the south side, the chantries of
Bishops Wykeham and Edingdon. But, first of all, though not on account
of pre-eminent merit, should be mentioned the bronze statues of James I.
and Charles I. to the north and south of the main west door, against the
interior wall. They were executed by Le Sueur, the artist who executed
the fine equestrian figure of Charles I. at Charing Cross. A note on the
sculptor's payment for these bronzes may be seen in the "Record of
Exchequer," from which it appears that he received £340 for the two,
with a further £40 for "carrying and erecting them" at Winchester.
In the north-west corner stands the #Minstrels' Gallery# or #Tribune#,
the work of Edingdon. It is supported by two flattened arches springing
from the pier shafts, and is panelled on its face and spandrels The
panelling is decorated with flowered cusps, and the central bosses bear
the arms of Wykeham. This gallery appears to have been intended for use
on State occasions; now, however, it is merely used as a room in which
the episcopal registers may be stored. In height it extends half-way up
the neighbouring piers.
[Illustration: IRON GRILL-WORK FROM S. SWITHUN'S SHRINE.
_From Mr Starkie Gardiner's "Iron-work" Vol I., by permission of the
Science and Art Department, South Kensington._]
Near this, at the western end of the north aisle, is a door made up of
four pieces of iron #Grill-work#, which originally stood at the top of
the steps leading up from the south transepts to the retro-choir. The
place where it used to be is still pointed out, and indeed marks are
visible in the piers to which it was secured. A paper read to the
Society of Arts by Mr J. Starkie Gardiner, describes the door as being,
from its style, "the oldest piece of grill-work in England. The design
is composed of sprays formed of two rolls of scrolls, welded to a
central stem, like a much-curled ostrich feather, with lesser scrolls in
the interstices and the major scrolls, each terminating in an open-work
trefoil, or quinquefoil. The large scrolls are 5½ in. in diameter and
rather stout, the grill possessing great resisting powers, though it
would not be hard to climb.... There is, unfortunately, no means of
fixing the date, since no other grill resembles it; but, from the
position indicated in the cathedral, it may well have been made as long
ago as the eleventh or twelfth century." It was originally intended to
keep the miscellaneous crowd of pilgrims to the shrine of S. Swithun
from penetrating farther into the church by way of the south transept.
They were obliged to enter and depart by the Norman doorway in the north
transept.
It will not be necessary to record all the monuments and the brasses
which so abundantly cover the walls, but those of the greatest interest
will be alluded to. In the fifth bay of the north aisle are two
memorials of very different dates, those of the "Two Brothers of
Avington" (1662), and of the novelist, Jane Austen, the youngest
daughter of the rector of Steventon in Hampshire. Her monumental brass
is affixed to the wall below the other, which records how the two
brothers were "both of Oxford, both of the Temple, both Officers to
Queen Elizabeth and our noble King James. Both Justices of the Peace,
both agree in arms, the one a Knight, the other a Captain."
In the next bay, opposite the Norman Font, is an inscription relating to
Mrs Montagu, the founder of the "Blue Stocking" Club. It is to this
effect:--"Here lies the body of Elizabeth Montagu, daughter of Matthew
Robinson, Esq., of West Layton, in the County of York, who, possessing
the united advantages of beauty, wit, judgment, reputation, and riches,
and employing her talents most uniformly for the benefit of mankind,
might be justly deemed an ornament to her sex and country. She died on
the 25th August, 1800, aged 81."
The #Norman Font#, which Milner called _crux antiquariorum_, is situated
on the north side of the nave between the fifth and sixth pillars from
the west front. It is one of a group of seven found in England; of which
four are in Hampshire, at East Meon, S. Michael's (Southampton), S. Mary
Bourne, and Winchester; two in Lincolnshire, in the cathedral and at
Thornton Curtis; and one at S. Peter's, Ipswich. Of four similar fonts
on the Continent, that at Zedelghem, near Bruges, is most like the
Winchester example, and also illustrates the same legend. The material
of which these fonts are made is a bluish-black calcareous marble, such
as is still worked at Tournai in Hainault. The font before us is a
nearly square block of marble supported on a solid central column
ornamented with horizontal mouldings, with four disengaged pillars of
lesser diameter, with "cable" mouldings, at each corner. The spandrels
of the top are decorated with carved symbolic subjects, leaves and
flowers on two sides, and on the other two doves drinking from vases out
of which issue crosses, typifying baptism, it is said. It is rather
curious that the artist has disregarded the usual symmetry, and filled
his spaces without reference to the corresponding ones. On the north and
east faces of the font are three circular medallions with symbolic doves
and salamanders. On the south and west are scenes from the life of S.
Nicholas of Myra, as was fully demonstrated by Milner; the north side
showing the saint dowering the three daughters of a poor nobleman, while
on the west he restores to life a drowned person, probably the king's
son in one of the stories of his life, and rescues from death by the axe
three young men who are about to be slain either by the executioner or
by a wicked innkeeper, for there are two versions. Some authorities
would find four scenes represented on the west side; but on what grounds
it is difficult to see. There only appear to be two figures of the
saint, and the two scenes are divided by what looks like a short
vertical bar indicating a difference of subject (see p. 117). The cult
of S. Nicholas of Myra grew rapidly in the twelfth century, being
popularised by the crusaders. In this century it is known that the
carved work at Tournai, whence it is probable that the black marble
came, was remarkable for its symbolism. The font has been thought to be
older, on account of its archaic figures, but, as the Dean of Winchester
pointed out in a paper read before the Archæological Association in
1893 (to which we are indebted for much of this account), the mitre
which S. Nicholas is represented as wearing was not recognised as part
of a bishop's official dress until the very end of the eleventh century;
in fact, the particular form of mitre depicted appears to have been late
twelfth century. The conclusion naturally arrived at is that the font is
of Belgian origin, carved at Tournai between 1150-1200, and its presence
at Winchester may well be due either to Henry of Blois or to Toclive.
[Illustration: THE NORMAN FONT--SOUTH AND WEST SIDES.
_Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]
On the north side of the steps leading up to the choir is a brass tablet
on a pillar, recording the merits of the "renowned martialist," Colonel
Richard Boles, who fought on the king's side at Edgehill, and died
bravely in a small action at Alton, Southampton, in 1641, his party of
sixty being surprised by a large force of the rebels. "His gracious
sovereign hearing of his Death gave him high Commendation, in that
passionate expression,--Bring me a Moorning scarf, I have lost one of
the best Commanders in the Kingdome." Between the ninth and tenth
pillars on this side is the tomb of Bishop Morley, with an epitaph
written by himself at eighty years of age. By the next pillar is the
monument of Bishop Hoadley, with a good medallion-portrait of him on it.
On the south side of the nave we find two remarkable tombs, of which the
first is the #Chantry of William of Wykeham#, called by Timbs "one of
the best remaining specimens of a fourteenth century monument." It
stands, where Wykeham erected it, "in that part of the cross (formed by
the church) which corresponds to the Saviour's pierced side," and
occupies the space between the piers which enclose the fifth bay from
the west end. The site is said to have been previously occupied by an
altar dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, Wykeham's patroness. He left
directions, moreover, that three monks should celebrate masses thrice
daily in his chantry, receiving for this one penny a day, while the boys
who were to sing there nightly were assigned 6s. 8d. a year. Needless to
say, his wishes are not now carried out. The stone-screen which
surrounds the chantry is of beautiful and elaborate workmanship, the
effect of which has been compared to lace, while above graceful shafts
support a canopy, of which the pinnacles rise to the level of the
triforium gallery. At the east end are traces of an altar and credence
table, and close by is a piscina. Above are two rows of canopied niches,
which, however they were originally occupied, have for long been
untenanted until quite recently. During the early part of 1897 the
pedestals have been filled with ten statue of modern workmanship.[2] A
row of five empty niches runs along the western wall. The vault of the
chantry is richly groined with lierne work; it is tinted a vivid blue on
the back-ground, and the bosses on the groins are gilt. The ironwork in
this chantry is also noticeable. The tomb within has fortunately
suffered but little from time, and, thanks to the courage of one of the
pupils in Wykeham's foundation at Winchester, Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes,
the Parliamentarians left both this monument and the college buildings
untouched. On the tomb itself lies the figure of Wykeham with his hands
folded across his breast, habited in Episcopal robes and mitre, his
crozier on his shoulder. Three small figures of monks praying kneel at
his feet, while his head is slightly raised up by supporting angels. A
little arcade runs all round the tomb, with a series of shields in the
spaces, containing his arms and motto "Manners Makyth Man" and the arms
of the see of Winchester. His epitaph, on a slip of red enamelled brass
in a chamfer round the edge of the tomb, has been thus translated:--
Here, overthrown by death, lies William, surnamed Wykeham.
He was Bishop of this Church, which he repaired.
He was unbounded in hospitality, as the rich and poor alike can prove.
He was also an able politician, and a counsellor of the State.
By the colleges which he founded his piety is made known;
The first of which is at Oxford and the second at Winchester.
You, who behold this tomb, cease not to pray
That, for such great merits, he may enjoy everlasting life.
[2] "One method of commemorating the Quincentenary of Winchester
College (1893) was the insertion of statues into the niches of
the Founder's Chantry in the Cathedral. The work was done by Mr
Frampton, A.R.A., under the direction of Mr Micklethwaite. The
subjects are the Virgin and Child, with Angels; William of
Wykeham, presenting a scholar of Winchester; and a Warden of New
College, presenting a scholar of that college (the artist worked
with a photograph of the present Warden before him); the Pastor
Bonus with SS. James and John; SS. Peter and Paul. The altar and
fittings were presented by Colonel Shaw Hellier; the cross being
inscribed with the chronogram;--nVnC gLorIa In eXCeLsIs Deo et In
terra paX hoMInIbVS bonae VoLVntatIs" (_The Church Times_, Aug.
20, 1897).
[Illustration: WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM'S CHANTRY.
From Britton's "Winchester."]
As one proceeds along the nave toward the east, the choir is reached by
two flights of four steps each with a landing between, over which
formerly there extended a rood-loft from pillar to pillar, bearing on it
Stigand's great cross. To the south of these choir steps and adjoining
the intermediate landing is the #Chantry of Bishop Edingdon#, the
earliest in date of the chapel-tombs at Winchester. The chantry is very
plain in comparison with the others in the cathedral, and apart from the
tomb there is only a slightly raised platform at the east end, without
an altar. A shaft of the large pillars runs down the centre of the east
and west interior walls. On the tomb lies the figure of the Bishop _in
pontificalibus_, his stole bearing the symbolic and much-disputed
"Fylfot" cross, which has been interpreted as a sign of submission.
Edingdon's curious Latin epitaph, given on page 107, is on a blue
enamelled strip of brass on the edge of the tomb.
Close to Edingdon's chantry is the #Nave Pulpit#, which is in itself a
good piece of Jacobean work, though not happily situated in the nave of
Winchester. It stood formerly in the chapel at New College, Oxford, and
did not appear at Winchester until 1884, when it was presented by
members of the Mayo family. If one stands facing east in the aisle to
the right of this pulpit, one of the most picturesque views in the
cathedral lies before one, through part of the south transept and up the
southern ambulatory of the retro-choir to the bright colours of
Langton's chapel window at the end. It will readily be noticed how out
of the perpendicular are the piers of this ambulatory as one approaches
the east end of the church. This seems to have arisen through a slight
subsidence of the ground here.
The original rood-screen exists no longer, and in its place we have but
a modern copy, by Sir Gilbert Scott, of the work in the Decorated choir
stall canopies. This oak #Choir Screen#, which is all that breaks the
view between west porch and reredos, has not met with much approval, and
the pallor of its wood does not contrast agreeably with the rich colour
of the old choir stalls. This, however, cannot with justice be made a
ground for complaint against the architect, who modelled his work as far
as possible on the original.
As one enters the #Choir#, which is raised above the level of the nave
by the two sets of four steps, the stalls above-mentioned will be found
to reach on either side from the eastern piers of the central tower to
the first piers of the nave. They are of carved oak and are possibly the
best existing examples of their date in England. The style is Early
Decorated, and Willis points out the similarity between their canopies
and gables and those of Edward Crouchback's chapel in Westminster Abbey.
The details are varied and graceful, with the design of each pair
coupled under a pointed arch with a cinquefoil in its head, which is
again surmounted by a high crocketted gable. The oak has turned a superb
hue with age, very different from the colour of the modern screen which
is banked by the reveals of the old bishop's throne. The _misereres_
below are much earlier in date than the canopies, but do not go quite so
far back as those at Exeter, which may be assigned to about 1230. The
desks and stools of the upper tier show the date 1540 and bear also the
initials of Henry VIII., Bishop Gardiner, and Dean Kingsmill. The pulpit
on the north side of the choir was given by Prior Silkstede, whose name
it bears, and is also of finely carved work. Above the choir stalls on
the northern side is the organ, which was repaired this year.
[Illustration: THE CHOIR, LOOKING EAST. _H.W. Salmon, Photo._]
Toward the east end of the choir stalls, in the centre of the pavement,
lies the much-disputed #Tomb of William Rufus#. It is a plain coped
tomb, constructed of Purbeck marble. Since it was known that William was
buried originally beneath the tower, this tomb was assumed to be his,
and in Cromwell's time it was violated, when, as Milner relates, there
was found therein, "besides the dust, some pieces of cloth embroidered
with gold, a large gold ring, and a small silver chalice." The very fact
of these discoveries, however, tend to prove that the grave was not that
of Rufus. It is now frequently held that it is that of Henry of Blois,
who is known to have been buried "with much honour before the high
altar"; Rudborne records that he was _sepultus in ecclesia sua coram
summo altari_. Yet others suppose that he still lies in the space
_before_ the altar. The ring found in Cromwell's time, set with a
sapphire which denotes a bishop, may be seen in the cathedral library.
When the contents of the tomb were last examined, on August 27, 1868,
the remains, though much disturbed by the previous violation, indicated
a man of about 5 feet 8 inches, and fragments of red cloth with gold
embroidery were to be seen. It was also gathered that the body had been
wrapped in lead, as Henry of Blois was said to have been.
The vaulting of the presbytery, which is of timber carved to imitate
stone, is remarkable for its very fine and brilliantly coloured bosses,
forming a quite unique collection of designs. Milner mentions as the
chief among these, "the arms and badges of the families of Lancaster and
Tudor, the arms of Castile, of Cardinal Beaufort, and even of the very
sees held successively by Bishop Fox. The part of the vaulting from the
altar to the east window bears none but pious ornaments: the several
instruments of the Saviour's Passion, including S. Peter's denial, and
the betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, the faces of Pilate and his
wife, of the Jewish high priest, Judas kissing Jesus, Judas' money-bag,
the Veronica"--this is immediately above the place of the cross on the
reredos--"the Saviour's coat, with the Cross, crown of thorns, nails,
hammer, pillar, scourges, reed, sponge, lance, sword with the ear of
Malchus upon it, lanthorn, ladder, cock, dice, etc." Under the tower the
vaulting is of wood, dating from 1634. Before this year the
choir-lantern was visible from below, with its striking late Norman
stonework divided into two tiers. It has been proposed to re-open the
lantern, but this would necessitate the removal of the bells from the
tower, a matter of considerable expense. It would also be a pity to take
down the vaulting with its various devices, including the arms, etc., of
Charles I., his queen, and the Prince of Wales, a medallion of the two
former, the Scotch and Irish arms, and those of Archbishop Laud, Bishop
Curie, and Dean Young. The central emblem is that of the Trinity, with a
"chronogram" indicating the year 1634 thus:--sInt DoMUs hUjUs pII reges
nUtrItII regInae nUtrICes pIae. The larger letters, picked out in red,
serve as Roman figures which added together make up the required number.
[Illustration: THE CHOIR STALLS. _Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]
From the commencement of the choir to the high altar are eleven steps,
making nineteen in all from the level of the nave. This elevation, of
course, much enhances the imposing effect of the altar and reredos as
seen from the lower plane. It is due to the existence of the Norman
crypt beneath, and can be paralleled both at Canterbury and at
Rochester. The raised platform includes the presbytery with its aisles
and the retro-choir, and extends under the central tower to the second
pillar beyond. The nave and transepts are thus on a lower level. Before
the altar are rails which date from the reign of Charles I., while the
Altar Books were presented to the cathedral by Charles II.
The great #Reredos#, which separates the presbytery from the feretory
and the eastern end of the church, is, to judge from its style, late
fifteenth-century work. It has been attributed to Cardinal Beaufort, and
to Bishop Fox and Prior Silkstede, but no inscription or armorial
details can be discovered to confirm either of these suppositions. It is
similar in character to the altar-screens of Christchurch Priory, Hants,
and S. Mary Overy (S. Saviour's, Southwark); but, less fortunate than
the former, it was despoiled of all the statues which once filled its
niches, while it has not "the exquisite grace of detail which marks the
choir of angels at Southwark." The reredos at S. Albans, in the same
style, though not so large, was erected between 1476 and 1484; and, as
at Winchester before 1899, shows a cross-shaped space where, according
to legend, a huge silver crucifix was placed. Now once more, as in the
sixteenth century, there is a figure on the great cross. It is curious
to note an attempt, during the rage for pseudo-classic architecture in
the last century, to beautify the reredos by placing sham funeral urns
in its niches. These were fortunately removed in 1820, and in recent
years they have been replaced by a series of statues intended to
reproduce as far as possible the original effect. In the _Builder_ for
October 10, 1892, a large reproduction was given of a very interesting
drawing by the late Mr J.W. Sedding, showing the whole screen completely
restored; but this scheme was unfortunately not used. A large
oil-painting, "The Raising of Lazarus," by Benjamin West, purchased in
1782 by Dean Ogle, till 1899 hung immediately over the altar. Before
1818 a huge wooden canopy in Jacobean style, freely enriched with gold,
covered all the central portion of the screen. This was due to Bishop
Curie.
The reredos is so large that it occupies the whole of the space between
the choir piers, and, being constructed of a very white stone, is the
prominent feature of the choir. The work is very elaborate, the whole
screen being arranged in three tiers with canopied niches containing
eighteen large statues, while smaller figures--kings, saints, angels,
etc.--occupy the splays between. The pinnacles are pierced and
crocketted, and there is a central projecting canopy over the place of
the original crucifix. On either side of the high altar is a door
leading to the feretory at the back of the reredos, and these have in
their four spandrels interesting groups of fifteenth-century sculpture,
representing various scenes in the life of the Virgin, the Annunciation,
and the Visitation of S. Elizabeth, still showing traces of colour. The
fact that these carvings have escaped destruction, just as the lower
tier at Christchurch escaped, is only to be explained on the assumption
that they were hidden behind some panelling since removed, for of all
images which provoked iconoclastic fury those representing the Virgin
were the most certain to be attacked. The whole is crowned by a triple
frieze of leaves, Tudor roses, and quatrefoils, at a height little short
of the corbels which support the arches of the roof.
[Illustration: THE ALTAR AND REREDOS. _H.W. Salmon, Photo._]
The eighteen larger statues were, and are now, since the restoration of
the reredos, arranged in the following order. In the uppermost tier, to
the left and right of the head of cross, were S. Peter and S. Paul, who
were the patron saints of the church. Two on either side of these were
the four Latin Doctors, SS. Augustine, Gregory, Jerome, and Ambrose.
"Below these, on the middle tier, we had two great local bishops, S.
Birinus, first occupant of the see, standing beside the figure of the
Virgin, and on the other side S. Swithun, the benevolent bishop,
patron-saint of the church: beyond them, over the two doors, were SS.
Benedict and Giles,[3] the one founder of the Order to which the Priory
belonged, the other the Hermit Saint, who always pitched his tabernacle
just outside the walls of medieval cities; he is here set in honour to
commemorate S. Giles' Hill, and especially S. Giles' Fair, from which
the Convent reaped great benefit" (Dean Kitchin: "Great Screen of
Winchester Cathedral"). Outermost on this tier stand the statues of the
two deacons, SS. Stephen and Lawrence. In the lowest tier, on either
side of the altar, stand SS. Hedda and Ethelwolf, two of the most famous
Anglo-Saxon bishops of the see of Winchester. Next these saints there is
the doorway on either side and beyond these doors are statues of King
Edward the Confessor, and S. Edmund the King. Between the figures of SS.
Swithun and Birinus, stand statues of the Virgin and S. John, while
above the arms of the Cross are the four Archangels, Uriel, Gabriel,
Michael, and Raphael. In all there are now fifty-six statues on the
screen, the smaller figures including famous kings, bishops, women, and
a representation of Izaak Walton.
[3] The charter of William Rufus which gave permission for S.
Giles' Fair still exists, and may be found, with a commentary by
Dean Kitchin, in the "Winchester Cathedral Records." The Fair was
granted for three days (August 31, September 1 and 2) on the
"eastern hill," known as S. Giles' Hill. The object of the Fair
"was evidently," says Dean Kitchin, "to help the Bishop in
completing his great Norman Church.... Parts of the proceeds of
the Fair were at a later time assigned to Hyde Abbey, to S.
Swithun's Priory, and to the Hospital of S. Mary Magdalen."
Above the altar it is said that there was once "a table of images of
silver and gilt garnished with stones." These images are conjectured to
have represented Christ and his disciples, possibly at the Last Supper;
but no traces remain of them. From 1782 till 1899 West's picture, "The
Raising of Lazarus," now in the South Transept, hung here. The place is
now more happily occupied by a representation of the Incarnation.
[Illustration: THE NORTH TRANSEPT. From Britton's "Winchester."]
The most recent feature of the screen is the great central figure of
Christ Crucified, the gift of Canon Valpy and the work of Messrs Farmer
and Brindley. The final restoration of the screen by the filling of the
space left vacant for three centuries was commemorated by a solemn
dedication service, held at the Cathedral on March 24, 1899.
On the reredos as a whole, one authority has said that "no description
could do justice to the beauty and effect of the whole work." But
another has declared that "a huge screen of this uncompromising
squareness of outline is a flagrantly artless device which in previous
periods (to the latter half of the fifteenth century) would have been
impossible." Milner again describes its "exquisite workmanship" as being
"as magnificent as this or any other nation can exhibit." Doctors most
certainly differ here.
It will perhaps be most convenient to deal at this point with the
#Transepts#, of which the western walls are almost level with the
choir-screen. Having been but little injured by the fall of the tower in
1107, they still remain to a great extent what they were when originally
built by Walkelin. We therefore get the massive and rugged early Norman
walls still divided into the three nearly equal storeys which in the
nave have given place to two. Where the fall of the central tower
necessitated a partial rebuilding, the difference between the Early and
the Late masonry is very evident. That of the transepts generally is
coarse and very thick, as is the case with all Early Norman stonework.
The new masonry, on the other hand, recalls what William of Malmesbury
says of the Later Norman masonry at Salisbury, when he speaks of "the
courses of stone so correctly laid that the joint deceives the eye, and
leads it to imagine that the whole wall is composed of a single block."
The juncture of the two works at Winchester can be easily traced. Of the
general style of the transepts, Willis says: "The architecture is of the
plainest description. The compartment of the triforium is very nearly of
the same height as that of the pier-arches, and the clerestory is also
nearly the same height.... Each pier-arch is formed of two orders or
courses of voussoirs, the edges of which are left square, wholly
undecorated by mouldings. This is the case with the pier-arches of Ely
transept, but in the arches of the triforium at Ely, and in every other
Norman part of that cathedral, the edges of the voussoirs are richly
moulded. In Winchester transept, on the contrary, the arches of the
triforium and clerestory are square-edged like those of the pier below
and hence arises the peculiarly simple and massive effect of this part
of the church." Between the tower-piers and the terminal walls of each
transept there are three piers, making four compartments, the farther
two of which from the nave and choir open into the terminal aisles. The
arches were all originally plain, semi-circular, and square-edged, and
are supported by shafts with the cushioned capitals so characteristic of
the ruder Norman style, and the bases are simple with a chamfer and
quarter-round, very different from the ornamental Late Norman bases,
such as may be seen at S. Cross, Winchester, for example. Where the
Later Norman work has taken the place of the original, we find stronger
piers. The vault above is groined, but there are no ribs. Nothing,
however, can now be seen of the vaulting above the level of the
side-walls, since a flat wooden ceiling, painted in "Early Tudor" style
was put up in 1818, by which, among other things, the rose-window in the
gable of the north transept was hidden, though in Britton's view, which
we give on page 59, we have the transept previous to the timbering. Each
transept has an eastern and a western aisle, while at the extreme ends
there are aisles rising to pier-arch level, consisting of two arches,
which a triple bearing-shaft supports in the centre. A kind of gallery
is formed at the terminations of the north and south transepts, over and
beyond which may be seen the triforium and clerestory windows. This can
best be appreciated by a reference to the illustration, Plate XV.
Possibly this platform or gallery was not originally so bare as it
appears at the present day, but there is no doubt that it was built in
order that processions might pass round on the triforium level.
It has been mentioned that when the tower was rebuilt the columns
nearest it in the transepts were strengthened. They now, indeed, present
a singularly massive outline to the eye, and contrast strongly even with
the remaining Norman pillars in the transepts. The arches also are
changed. All were once semi-circular, but the rebuilding necessitated a
change of the first and second from the actual tower-pier into the
stilted or "horse-shoe" form. They are doubly recessed (except those
supporting the end platform, which have but one soffit), and present
quite plain and unadorned square edges.
[Illustration: VIEW IN NORTH TRANSEPT. _Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]
In each transept there is at the eastern angle a spiral staircase
leading up to the roof.
If we take first the #North Transept#, there will be found at the
southern end, against the side wall of the choir, and between the two
great tower-piers, the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, a small compartment
which contains some interesting and still distinct mural paintings on
the roof and walls, representing scenes of the Passion, etc. The most
striking is a large head and bust of Christ on the easternmost division
of the vaulting. One hand holds the Gospels, with the inscription _Salus
Populi Ego Sum_. On the wall beneath are the Descent from the Cross and
the Entombment. The Nativity and Annunciation also appear on the roof,
while on the walls are the Entry into Jerusalem, the Raising of Lazarus,
the Descent into Hell, and the Appearance to Mary Magdalene in the
Garden.
Two of the Norman piers on the eastern side of this transept have
received very elaborate canopies of the Decorated period, under which it
is probable that there were at one time altars. Some Early English work
may be seen in the heads carved on some of the larger shafts and the
caps of the subsidiary pillars, a noticeable figure being "a monk
crouched in a caryatidal attitude and holding a chess-board."
The modern entry to the crypts is in the south-east interior wall of
this transept, the old means of entrance, through the "Holy Hole,"
having been blocked up.
The large tomb in the north transept is that of Prebendary Iremonger. On
the western wall, at the end of the transept, are very faint traces of
mural paintings, representing S. Christopher carrying Christ, etc., and
it is probable the transepts were once thus decorated throughout.
The #South Transept# has received far more additions to its interior
decorations than has the north. In the back of the choir-wall is
recessed Sir Isaac Townsend's memorial, not a very noteworthy object.
Just under it there now stands the old oak settle which was once used by
the Norman monks. In the central space of the transept itself is a large
monument to Bishop Wilberforce, showing beneath a canopy a life-sized
figure, with mitre, cope, and staff, on a slab borne by six kneeling
angels. A Latin inscription records his birth on 1st September 1805, and
his death on 19th July 1873. The monument is the work of Sir Gilbert
Scott, and has met with some severe attacks. It certainly is out of
place in its Norman surroundings. The aisles of the south transept are
divided up into six chambers, of which the larger of the two westernmost
is used as a chapter-room, and does not betray its age by its present
appearance; the one next the body of the church, Milner's "ancient
sacristy," but now known as Henry of Blois' treasury, serves as a boys'
vestry. The Norman work over the door must not be overlooked. The
chamber to the extreme south is the entrance lobby to the south door,
which leads into the "slype" or passage running between the church and
the old chapter-house. Leading out of it is the ancient "calefactory,"
where the fire for the censers and thuribles was preserved. Panelled oak
screens enclose this room on both sides. Next it comes Silkstede's
chapel, the central of the three easterly divisions of the transept
aisles. The prior's rebus, in the form of a skein of silk, is evident
among the carvings, and his Christian name Thomas may be seen on the
cornice with the MA, the monogram of the Virgin, standing out
distinctly. The screen in this chapel is worthy of remark, and is
divided into four compartments, the upper part of each being open-work
and arched with pierced quatrefoils in the spandrels. In this chapel
traces of painting were discovered in 1848, beneath the whitewash on the
eastern wall, the subject apparently being Christ upon the water,
calling to him S. Peter, who, in an attitude of hesitation, holds the
prow of the boat. Fine canopy-work surmounts the whole. Originally there
were eight canopies enclosing figures, but little except the canopies
remain, the distemper-painting having almost vanished. On the floor of
the chapel may be found a black marble slab, the tomb of Isaak Walton,
with Bishop Ken's often-quoted inscription, which, however, it is
perhaps pardonable to quote again:--
"Alas! Hee's gone before,
Gone, to returne noe more;
Our panting hearts aspire
After their aged Sire,
Whose well-spent life did last
Full ninety years, and past.
But now he hath begun
That which will nere be done:
Crown'd with eternal Blisse,
We wish our souls with his."
[Illustration: DOORWAY FROM THE CLOSE INTO THE RETRO-CHOIR.
From a Drawing by H.P. Clifford.]
[Illustration: BISHOP WILBERFORCE'S TOMB IN SOUTH TRANSEPT.
_Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]
[Illustration: SOUTH AISLE, FROM TRANSEPT. _S.B. Bolas & Co., Photo._]
Next to Prior Silkstede's chapel comes the "Venerable" chapel, which
serves as a vestry for the minor canons of the cathedral. The screen of
this fills the whole archway, the six canopies extending beyond the
sweep of the arch. Down each side are untenanted niches, and the
openings of the tracery show some beautiful and elaborate iron-work,
dating from the Renaissance. A similar screen, though without canopies,
divides the Venerable Chapel from Silkstede's.
#The Library# is approached from an old wooden staircase in the south
aisle of this transept. It is a "long, low room, with oaken presses
curiously carved and ornamented with gilded knobs, after the fashion of
the latter half of the seventeenth century." It contains three or four
thousand books, most of which are the gift of Bishop Morley, and there
are many fine MSS.; but its chief treasure is a Vulgate of the twelfth
century, in three folio volumes on vellum. The gorgeously illuminated
manuscript is the best work extant of the Winchester school, and the
fact that it was never finished renders it only the more interesting,
since thereby the whole process from the first outline to the final
touch of colour is evident. A legend concerning Hugh of Avalon,
afterwards Bishop of Lincoln (associated with this book), is worthy of
mention. Henry II., who founded the Carthusian Monastery of Witham, in
Somerset, had appointed Hugh prior in 1175 or 1176, and finding that his
monks needed MSS. to copy, and in particular a complete copy of the
Bible, promised to give them one. To avoid expense, he borrowed this
superb Vulgate from Winchester and sent it to Witham. A chance visit
long afterwards of a Winchester monk revealed what had happened, and on
the matter becoming known to Hugh, he returned the volume without the
king's knowledge.[4] Among other important MSS. in the Library are an
eleventh century copy of Bede's "Ecclesiastical History"; a twelfth
century "Life of Edward the Confessor," by S. Aelred, Cistercian Abbot
of Riévaulx about 1160, containing a portrait of the king within one of
its initial letters; a copy of the "_Promptorium Parvulorum_"; a charter
of Æthelwulf, King of Wessex, dated 854 and bearing the signatures of
the king, his young son Alfred, and S. Swithun. There are also the
chapter-books for 1553-1600; the cathedral statutes, with the signatures
of Charles I. and Bishop Laud; the original charter of Henry VIII. to
the cathedral, on the dissolution of the priory; and many interesting
documents and printed books, some with the original chains which were
fastened to their covers. Here also are kept the great seal of Henry V.,
the pastoral staff from Bishop Fox's tomb, his ring, those of Bishops
Gardiner and Woodlock, and the one, set with a sapphire, which comes
from the tomb of "William Rufus"--probably, as we have said, belonging
to Henry of Blois. The library was built in 1668 A.D.
[4] It is now, however, on record that the book was bequeathed by
Bishop Nicholas of Ely in 1282.
We may now return to the body of the cathedral and pass to the
surroundings of the choir.
The #Feretory#, where the _feretra_ or shrines of the saints were
placed, lies behind the high altar and reredos, and the two doors in the
latter give access to it. At one time, before the erection of the
reredos, the feretory must have been visible from the choir. Behind the
doors is a raised platform, seven feet in breadth, extending right
across. The upper surface of this is now only three feet above the
ground level, but originally it must have been far higher. Four steps
give access to it. Before it is a hollow space with stumps of piers,
demonstrating the ancient presence of an arcade in front of the
platform. The feretory is without internal decoration, but the exterior
of the east wall is adorned with nine rich Decorated tabernacles, with
the yet legible names of saints and king who once occupied the eighteen
pedestals within them. This inscription is to be found here:--
_Corpora sanctorum sunt hic in pace sepulta,
Ex meritis quorum fulgent miracula multa_.
The floor beneath the platform is supported by a small vault, "the
entrance to which (to quote Willis) is by a low arch in the eastern face
of the wall under the range of tabernacles." This vault is that which
was designated as the _Sanctum Sanctorum_ or #Holy Hole#. The feretory
is used as a receptacle for the carved work found at various dates about
the cathedral, including portions of statuary once belonging to the
great screen. Here lies a really marvellous lid of a reliquary chest,
presented in 1309 by Sir William de Lilburn, with events in the life of
our Lord and various saints vividly portrayed in colours, and decorated
with the donor's armorial bearings. The "Holy Hole" has been used as a
receptacle for fragments of various kinds since the end of the fifteenth
century, before which it was visible from the choir, for no reredos
intercepted the view. Milner states that in 1789 the whole passage and
vault was so choked with rubbish that the attempt to enter it had to be
abandoned. A more recent observer records that there appears to be no
space for a crypt or receptacle for relics within the "Holy Hole," the
chest of bones, etc., being placed on the platform over the arcade. The
fragments now in the feretory are often very fine, but are most of them
sadly mutilated.
[Illustration: BACK OF FERETORY, WITH BISHOP GARDINER'S CHANTRY
_S.B. Bolas & Co., Photo._]
The north and south sides of the feretory are flanked by the chantries
of Bishops Gardiner and Fox, into which it opens. #Gardiner's Chantry#,
in the Renaissance style, was much damaged by the Reformers, the head
being knocked off the figure lying in a long niche on the outside of the
chantry, and other indignities committed. Of the tomb nothing now
remains, but there is an altar with figures at the back, after Italian
models, representing, according to one tradition, Justice and Mercy,
while others say the Law and the Gospel. At the east end is a small
vestry used as a repository for fragments. The details and the mouldings
of Gardiner's chantry are of the Renaissance style, and Britton has
described the chapel as "bad Italian and bad English." This is true of
the eastern end of the compartment, but there are redeeming features
amid the curious mixture of styles. Below the floor-level of this
chantry may be seen the base of one of the Norman apse piers, the sole
remaining feature of the Norman east end except the crypt.
#Bishop Fox's Chantry# is a far finer piece of work and is certainly the
most elaborate chantry in the cathedral. It displays no fewer than
fifty-five richly-groined niches, all different in pattern; only two of
them are tenanted, and these by very recent figures, on either side of
the door. There is a great amount of wonderful undercutting to be seen
in the spandrels to the arches, and the upper part of the erection shows
open tracery with niches and canopies, under a cornice of running
foliage and Tudor flowers, surmounted by panelled pinnacles. Fox's
"pelican in her piety" alternates on the pinnacles with small octagonal
turrets. At one time, moreover, all the arches, etc., contained stained
glass, but this has now vanished. Within there is no tomb, but, as in
Gardiner's chantry, there is, in an arched recess at the side, the
ghastly carved figure of a corpse so frequently introduced in monuments
of the period. The altar is surmounted by a small reredos in a sunk
panel, now unoccupied, crowned by a band of angels bearing emblems of
the Passion. Over the altar is this inscription in Latin:--
_O sacrum convivium in quo Christus sumitur._
There is here, as was the case with Gardiner's chantry, a small room at
the eastern end. In this are chests in which relics were kept.
[Illustration: BISHOP FOX'S CHANTRY.]
The interior part of the choir aisles have received "Wykeham" windows,
four on each side, though from the exterior only three can be seen. The
westernmost on the north side has two lights partly looking into the
open, while two are unglazed and the top of one looks into the northern
transept. On the south side all are glazed, but only three get any light
from outside. These can be seen from the close at the junction of
transept and retro-choir. All these windows have blank panelling or
arcading below. It looks as if Wykeham or his successors meant to reduce
the width of the Norman transepts, so as to bring them into better
proportion with the eastern arm of the church.
[Illustration: DOOR OF FOX'S CHANTRY.]
Between the presbytery and the side aisles, extending from pier to pier,
are screens of pierced stonework, erected by Bishop Fox, whose motto
frequently occurs on them, together with his initials and Cardinal
Beaufort's. On the top of the screens are six painted chests (see p.
95), in which are collected the bones of saints and kings of the Saxon
period; the original collection being made by Henry of Blois. These
#Mortuary Chests# were desecrated by the Cromwellian ruffians when they
broke into the cathedral, and the bones were hurled through the stained
glass of the west and other windows. Afterwards they were collected once
more and replaced in the chests where they now lie. Among the relics are
the bones of Edred, Edmund, Canute, William Rufus, Emma, Bishops Wina,
Alwyn, Egbert, Cenwulf or Kenulf, Cynegils, and Ethelwulf, and there are
the old inscriptions to indicate whose remains were originally enclosed
within the boxes, though there is now no warrant that the bones within
correspond at all to the names without.
[Illustration: DETAIL OF PULPIT.]
Among those who have been buried in the presbytery aisles is Bishop de
Pontissara, of whom Rudborne says that he was buried _ex aquilonari
plaga majoris altaris_. Accordingly we find his monument on the north
side. Close by him, and still nearer the altar, was laid Hardicanute,
the last Danish king, who was brought hither from Lambeth for interment.
His death was attributed to "excessive drinking." In the southern aisle
are Richard, the Conqueror's younger son; Edward, eldest born of Alfred
the Great; and Bishop Nicholas de Ely's heart.
[Illustration: SOUTH AISLE OF RETRO-CHOIR, WITH BEAUFORT'S AND FOX'S
CHANTRIES. _S.B. Bolas & Co., Photo._]
Eastward of the feretory the building is known by the name of the
#Retro-choir#, and presents a very old and pure example of Early English
work from the hands of Bishop de Lucy. The aisles are said to have been
used as a model in the building of Salisbury Cathedral. Similar
processional aisles may be seen also at Hereford on a minor scale. This
part of the cathedral is lower and consequently appears broader than the
more westerly portion. There is a considerable amount of wall-space,
only interrupted by the numerous imposing chantries erected on the
floor. The lower part of the walls is remarkable for some fine, though
simple, blank arcading, dating also from De Lucy's time; while light is
given by pairs of lancet windows, the rear arches being borne on groups
of detached shafts. Many of the original chased tiles of the pavement
remain to this day, and, in fact, there has been little interference
with De Lucy's work. Unfortunately, however, as has been remarked, much
of it has settled considerably, throwing the south-eastern angle
altogether out of the perpendicular, one vaulting-shaft having in this
manner been bent back and cracked in half. The effects of the subsidence
can easily be seen in the photograph of the south aisle of the
retro-choir looking toward the east.
As one passes beyond the feretory through the retro-choir, the #Chantry
of William Waynflete# stands to the north of the central alley. The
canopy is very elaborate and beautiful, and plentiful traces of the
original colour still can be seen, especially on the groining. On each
side are three flat-headed arches, those at the east end being closed,
while on each side of the piers adjoining the west end there are narrow
open arches. Corniced and battlemented screens fill these arches to
mid-height. The figure on the tomb is a modern restoration, very
elaborately clad in full pontificals, while the hands are clasped about
a heart, representing the _sursum corda_, or lifting up of the heart.
The chantry is kept in repair by Magdalen College, Oxford, which
Waynflete founded. Its situation, like that of the companion tomb of
Cardinal Beaufort, makes it very impressive. There is no altar now. At
the east end is a blank wall surmounted by three empty canopied niches,
while at the other are two open gratings.
In the corresponding position to the south is the #Chantry of Cardinal
Beaufort#, now kept in repair by the Dukes of Beaufort. In Britton's
time, as he tells us, there had fallen a "horse-load of the pinnacles in
the canopy of Cardinal Beaufort's chantry." Owing, however, to the
extreme elaboration, the effect is hardly impaired by this loss. The
plan of the tomb is two groups of four clustered piers at each end,
supporting a mass of canopies, niches, and pinnacles, which "bewilder
the sight and senses by their number and complexity," as Britton
quaintly says. The screen at the west end is closed, that at the east
end open. The vault displays some elaborate fan-tracery. The body of the
cardinal is presented in his scarlet official robes and the tasselled
and corded hat, and the serenity of his face suggests very little the
traditional portrait of him, as represented, for example, in
Shakespeare's "Henry V." His death-bed moments, it is well known, have
been much misrepresented. The inscription originally on his tomb has
been destroyed, but Godwin quotes one sentence of it thus:--_Tribularer
si nescirem misericordias tuas_.
Against the north wall, not far from Waynflete's chantry, is an unknown
tomb with part of an effigy, to the east of which is the grave of one
William Symonds, "Gentleman, of Winchester twice Maior and Alderman," as
his epitaph of 1616 relates. The last four lines of the inscription run
as follows:--
His Merrit doth Enherit Life and Fame,
For whilst this City stands Symonds his name
In alle men's harts shall never be forgotten,
For poores prayers rise when flesh lyes rotten.
Between the same chantry and the wall lies the tomb of Bishop de
Rupibus, while in the space between the chantries of Beaufort and
Waynflete lies the only ancient military effigy in the cathedral, a
genuine relic of the fourteenth century. It is commonly known as William
de Foix, and represents, in a slightly mutilated form, a knight in
surcoat and complete ringed armour of the thirteenth century. His legs
are crossed[5] and the feet rest on a crouching lion, while the head is
supported on two cushions which were formerly held up by angels. The
right hand grasps the sword hilt, and the pointed shield, one of the
earliest examples of a quartered shield, bears "quarterly, in the first
and fourth, the arms of Bearn, two cows passant, gorged with collars and
bells; in the second and third, three garbs; over all a cross." On the
front edge of the slab Mr F.J. Baigent discovered the name Petrus
Gavston or Gauston twice encised, but to this "scribbling" Mr Weston S.
Walford, who has a note on this tomb in the fifteenth volume of the
_Archeological Journal_, does not attach much importance, for it may
merely record the engraver's conjecture as to the person here buried.
The body of Edward II.'s favourite, Piers, was moved from Oxford to
King's Langley in Hertfordshire two years after his execution, and
buried there on January 2, 1314, in the presence of the king. It is not
known to have been moved since. It seems probable that the effigy here
is that of the father of the Piers known to us, a Sir Arnold de
Gavaston, a record of whose interment at Winchester in May 1302 we
possess, with the additional fact that Edward I. sent money and two
pieces of cloth of gold to the funeral. Such respect would naturally be
paid to the father of Edward II.'s foster-brother. Mr Walford suggests
that the garbs on the shield are a canting allusion to the name Gabaston
or Gavaston, for the spelling varies very much--Gaveston, Gaverston, and
Gaberston being also found. The date of the tomb Mr Walford places
between the death of Arnold in 1302 and the murder of his son in 1312.
The tomb itself is adorned with five Decorated arches with the Gavaston
arms on the shield, together with those of England, of France, and of
Castile and Leon.
[5] "Such figures as lie crosslegged are those who were in the
wars of the Holy Land, or vowed to go and were prevented" (Sir
William Dugdale).
[Illustration: CARDINAL BEAUFORT'S CHANTRY.
_S.B. Bolas & Co., Photo._]
West of this are the tombs of Bishop Sumner and Prior Silkstede. The
latter's grave, according to Woodward, was found, when opened, to
contain the complete remains of a body robed in black serge, with the
"funeral boots" yet on the bones of the feet. The body seems to have
been removed hither from Silkstede's chapel in the south transept.
Next the western end of Beaufort's chantry is the tomb of William de
Basynge, prior of this church (_quondam Prior istius ecclesiæ_), as his
inscription states, promising 145 days' indulgence to whoever prays for
his soul three years. He died in 1295.
On the south wall facing the same chantry is a marble monument of the
Royalist, Sir John Clobery; and near this is a large slab in the floor,
in memory of Baptist Levinz, Bishop of Sodor and Man, and prebendary of
Winchester, who died in 1692.
On the end wall of the ambulatory, to the left of the entrance to the
Chapel of the Guardian Angels, is a fine monument, somewhat mutilated,
to Ethelmar or Aymer de Valence, half-brother of Henry III., who was so
unpopular a bishop at Winchester. Only his heart is in the cathedral,
having been conveyed hither from Paris, where his body was buried. The
facts are commemorated by the following inscription on the presbytery
wall:--
Corpus Ethelmari
Cuius Cor Nunc Tenet
Istud Saxum Parisiis
Morte Datur Tumulo
Obiit A.D. 1261.
When Winchester was attacked by the so-called religious zeal of the
Puritans, Ethelmar's heart was disturbed, as is recorded by a writer of
the period, who says that "when the steps of the altar were levelling
with the rest of the ground one of the workmen accidentally struck his
mattock on this stone and broke it; underneath which was an urn wherein
the heart of this Ethelmar was, being enclosed in a golden cup, which
thing ... being conveyed to the ears of the committee-men they took the
cup for their own use, and ordered him to bury the heart in the north
isle, which he accordingly did." The heart, he goes on to say, was "so
entire and uncorrupt" that it was "as fresh as if it had just been taken
from the body, and issued forth fresh drops of blood upon his hand. This
I had from the mouth of the workman himself, whom I believe." The slab
which once covered the heart shows, within the symbolic vesica, "in a
trefoil canopy the half-length figure of the Bishop, mitred and in his
episcopal robes, his uplifted hands holding a heart, his pastoral staff
represented as resting on his left arm." Below are his arms and the
inscription in Lombardic letters, + _Ethelmarus. Tibi Cor Meum Dne._
[Illustration: THE LADY CHAPEL. _Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]
[Illustration: DETAIL OF LADY CHAPEL.]
The #Lady Chapel#, due in part to De Lucy and in part to Priors Hunton
and Silkstede, is of rectangular shape, the easternmost portions being
added about 1524. It should be noticed that in De Lucy's work the
central aisle is but little higher than the laterals, which still have
their eastern walls, whereas the actual material of the Lady Chapel east
wall was erected by Hunton. The north and south walls exhibit De Lucy's
Early English arcades and lancets, while they become Perpendicular at
the eastern end, and the east window is of the same period. This large
seven-light window shows "transom and tracery of a peculiar kind of
subordination, or rather inter-penetration of patterns, well worth a
careful study" (Willis). The stone work of the interior is quite plain,
but a large portion of the wall space is concealed by some richly-carved
wooden panelling added by Bishop Fox. Seats, desks, and screen are also
of fine workmanship. Where the walls are not hidden by wood-work are the
very faint remains of some curious old mural paintings of the miracles
of the Virgin, executed under the direction of Prior Silkstede in 1489.
These frescoes are decidedly archaic, but they are extremely
interesting. Starting from the south side the nineteen pictures
represent:--
1. Miracle of an image of the Virgin bending its finger to prevent a
young man taking off a ring which he had placed on the image that it
might not be lost or injured while he played at ball. By this the young
man was won to monastic life.
2. Protection and honour conferred by the Virgin on an ignorant priest,
who knew and could sing only one mass, which was in honour of her.
3. Prior Silkstede kneeling before Virgin, saying: "_Benedicta tu in
mulieribus_." Beneath is the following:--"Prior Silkstede also caused
these polished stones, O Mary, to be ornamented at his expense."
4. Jewish boy, after receiving the Eucharist, thrown into a furnace by
his father, but delivered from the flames by the Virgin.
5. Famous portrait of the Virgin, carried in procession by Pope Gregory
to allay a fearful pestilence. During the procession the destroying
angel is seen sheathing his sword.
6. A widow receives back her son who had been kidnapped, and thereupon
restores the silver image of the child Jesus, which she had taken from
the image of the Virgin on losing her son.
7. Virgin assisting woman taken ill on pilgrimage.
8. Virgin enables boys, with ease, to raise that which strong men could
not.
9. Nun brought to life to confess a sin not confessed before death.
10. Virgin saves a monk from drowning, and from two evil spirits, with
instruments of torture, one who had lived an immoral life.
11. Two Brabançons seized by devils and killed for throwing stones at an
image of the Virgin.
12. Deliverance at sea effected by the Virgin.
13. Mass of the Virgin celebrated by Christ himself, with saints and
angels, on an occasion when the priest was unable to do so.
14. S. John's (of Damascus) arm restored; thereby establishing his
innocence of having corresponded with unbelievers.
15. Virgin delivering from the gallows a thief who had always venerated
her.
16. Virgin commanding the burial of a clerk of irreligious life in
consecrated ground, because he had been her votary.
17. Virgin assisting a painter to paint the devil "as ugly as he knew
him to be," in spite of all the devil could do to prevent him from
completing it.
18. The Annunciation--over door, which formerly led to a particular
sacristy.
19. How, by praying to the Virgin, a robber-knight was delivered from
the clutches of the devil.
The altar is flanked on the north by a memorial of Bishop Brownlow
North, representing him kneeling in adoration. The vault above, though
not so elaborate as that of Langton's chapel on the right hand, is a
fine example of lierne work, and the shafts are noticeable for their
capitals and bases. Among the devices are T and the syllable HUN,
followed by the figure of a tun; and T and the syllable SILK, followed
by the figure of a horse; signifying Thomas Hunton and Thomas Silkstede
respectively.
[Illustration: BISHOP LANGTON'S CHAPEL. _S.B. Bolas & Co., Photo._]
[Illustration: DETAIL OF LANGTON'S CHAPEL.]
The southern window of the Lady Chapel has recently been filled with a
memorial window to the late Bishop Thorold, whose tomb lies in the
cathedral precincts just below the new window. In pre-Reformation times
this window, like those on the north and east, was glazed with fine
painted glass, of which a few fragments still remain in the tracery. The
remaining portions of the old work have been worked in with the new by
Mr C.E. Kempe, the designer and executor. The memorial glass presents
scenes in the life of Christ, while above appear S. Birinus, Pope
Honorius, S. Swithun, S. Alphege, and other saints. The dedication
ceremony took place on August 7, 1897, two years after the burial of
Bishop Thorold at Winchester.
Of the two chapels which flank the Lady Chapel, that to the north is the
#Chapel of the Guardian Angels#, once the chantry of Bishop Adam de
Orlton, of whom no memorial here exists, though he is buried in the
chapel. This compartment is sometimes called the Portland chapel, owing
to the fact that it contains on the south side the tomb of Richard
Weston, Earl of Portland, who was treasurer to Charles I. A recumbent
bronze statue by Le Sueur adorns the tomb, while in the wall above are
four tabernacles, three of which contain mutilated busts, probably
representing members of his family. A mural monument of Bishop Peter
Mews, who is also interred here, is marked by a crozier and mitre. On
the north side, too, there is in the wall an aumbry with a shelf, having
a curious square head within a trefoil. The early vaulting of this
chapel has, between the ribs, figures of seraphim, which are very fresh
in colour.
[Illustration: QUEEN MARY'S CHAIR. _Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]
The corresponding chapel to the south is #Bishop Langton's Chantry#,
though the work is partly De Lucy's, including the walls and the early
vaulting shafts. The defaced front-screen and the oak-panelling all
round are very rich examples of late Gothic, and the stone vaulting has
been compared in point of elaboration with that in the chapel of Henry
VII. at Westminster. On the groining, at the junction of the ribs, is
carved Bishop Langton's rebus, consisting of the musical sign for a
"long" upon a tun, while his motto _Laus tibi Christe_ also occurs. It
is supposed that the magnificent carved vine on the upper part of the
oak-panelling which runs round the chapel originally formed the rebus of
Langton's see, the tun from which it sprang being now lost. The
woodwork, which is certainly one of the most striking things in the
cathedral, is unfortunately mutilated, as is also part of the heraldic
work on the entrance door. At the east end of the chapel above the
former altar there is a row of seven tabernacles, under which is a
cornice which was originally gilt and painted. The statues which once
occupied the tabernacles are no longer extant. The central tomb here is
that of Bishop Langton himself. Queen Mary's chair now stands in this
chapel; it is in a wonderful state of preservation for its age, and the
woodwork is still sound.
The entrance to the #Crypts# is in the north transept, as was noted
above. They are three in number, the main division stretching from the
eastern tower-piers to the first piers of the retro-choir. It consists
of a central room divided by a row of five columns in the middle, with
an apsidal eastern termination, and is flanked by two aisles with square
eastern ends. The well here is said to be considerably older than the
building above it. From this opens out a narrower crypt, which also has
five columns down the centre, while its apse reaches to the eastern end
of the retro-choir. These crypts cannot, as some have supposed (and the
tradition still survives), form part of the old Saxon church, since it
has been fairly established that the site of this was not that of the
present building. The plan of the chambers is in perfect accord, as
Willis says, with that of Norman churches in general. The main crypt
shows by its circular apse what was the form of the east end in the old
Norman church. The actual work is strikingly like that of the transepts,
the peculiar thin square abacus, combined with a round capital, being a
noteworthy point in both these portions of the building. The third
crypt, which is narrow like the second, is rectangular in shape, and its
vaulting rests on columns. It is Early English in architecture, and is
contemporary with De Lucy's work in the upper part of the church. In
1886 the crypts were to a great extent cleared out to their original
level, a vast quantity of rubbish being removed. Many fragments of early
work still remain, though in too mutilated a form to indicate where they
originally stood.
The #stained glass# at Winchester can, perhaps, best be treated
separately from the windows which it occupies. Most of the information
may be found summed up in a paper addressed to the Archæological
Association in September 1845, by Mr C. Winston. Two circles of Early
Decorated glass are to be seen in the west window, but they are merely
composed of coloured pieces arranged in geometrical patterns. The
general arrangement of the great window is, as has been already said,
kaleidoscopic, the fragments which compose it being too scattered to
admit of being put together again in their original form. The effect,
however, is striking, particularly at some distance from the west end.
There are remains of the original glass in the west windows of the
aisles and in the first window from the west in the south aisle, but the
Edingdon windows in the north aisle have lost their glass. The glass in
the above windows consists of the heads of canopies, though in the west
window some of the original figures are still to be seen. This is the
earliest Perpendicular glass in the cathedral, and may date from
Edingdon's time. Next in date is the glass in the other windows of the
nave aisles and clerestory windows, a little later than that in the west
window, and of the same character as that at New College, Oxford, in the
north, south, and west windows. Of this glass, apparently four figures
and part of their canopies have been removed to the first window from
the east in the choir clerestory. The heads of the three westerly
windows, to the north of the choir clerestory, showing canopy-work and
cherubim, come next in date, with eight canopied figures in the upper
tier of the two easterly windows on the south of this clerestory. The
latter seem to have come originally from some other window, being too
short for their present situation. Their date may be about the end of
the reign of Henry VI. The east window of the choir may be a little
earlier than 1525, and has introduced in it Bishop Fox's arms and motto,
_Est deo gracia_. This window has been much disturbed, the top central
light being filled with glass of Wykeham's period, while little of Fox's
glass seems to be in its original position. To Fox also may be
attributed part of the aisle windows north and south of the choir, and
some canopies in the side windows of the choir clerestory. Some late
glass, much mutilated, may be seen in the east window of the Lady
Chapel. Warner says of the two large windows, that "the great east
window is remarkable for the beauty of its painted glass, which contains
the portraits of saints, and of some bishops of this see; it is whole
and entire, the west window is magnificent, but much inferior to this."
[Illustration: ONE OF THE MORTUARY CHESTS IN THE CHOIR SCREEN
(see "Mortuary Chests" in Chapter III).
(From a Drawing by Reginald Blomfield in his "History of Renaissance
Architecture in England." Bell, 1897.)]
CHAPTER IV
HISTORY OF THE SEE
The West Saxon kingdom, of which S. Birinus became the first bishop,
included the counties of Surrey, Berkshire, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset,
Devon, and Somerset. When Birinus was consecrated by the Bishop of
Milan, he was not assigned any exact territorial jurisdiction, as was
only natural, seeing that he was a missionary to a little-known land. He
met, however, with a rapid success, and in 635 performed the baptism of
Cynegils, king of the West Saxons, on the day of his marriage to the
daughter of the Northumbrian king. The town of Dorchester on the borders
of Mercia was immediately assigned to Birinus as a bishop's seat. But
when Aegelberht had succeeded him, the next king, Cenwalh, made a
division of the kingdom into two distinct dioceses of Dorchester and
Winchester, the new creation being assigned in 661 to Wina; who,
however, succeeded to the whole of the original diocese, as Aegelberht
appears to have left England in disgust. Eleutherius, Wina's successor,
continued to hold the still united offices at Dorchester, and it was not
until Hedda became bishop, about 679 A.D., that Winchester was really
made the seat of a diocese. Even Hedda continued to rule all from
Winchester, and not before his death was a permanent division of sees
carried out. Winchester retained Surrey, Sussex, and the Southampton
district; while the other counties were assigned to Sherborne--Dorchester,
which belonged more properly to Mercia, having been taken away, as there
was no longer the same need of an inland centre to the see, with four
bishops now in Mercia. Sussex was also taken from the Winchester diocese
during the episcopacy of Daniel, Hedda's successor, and by way of
compensation he was only able to add the Isle of Wight, hitherto
unattached to any see. When the West Saxon kingdom became, in the ninth
century, practically the kingdom of England, Winchester, of course,
assumed a very important position. S. Swithun, who was chosen as bishop
in 852, had great influence with King Ethelwulf, and his cathedral
correspondingly became an object of veneration. The see suffered,
however, from the Danish raids which occurred during the next two
reigns; but with Bishop Athelwold its prestige was quite restored. To
him is due the establishment of a Benedictine monastery at Winchester,
the previous convent having been one of secular (and non-celibate)
canons. With the supremacy of the Danes, we find Cnut both elected king
and subsequently buried at Winchester. Edward the Confessor, moreover,
was crowned in the cathedral on Easter Day, 1043, so that Winchester
maintained its position well up to this date. Further invasions of the
Northmen then very much wasted the south coast, and gradually Winchester
began to yield its pride of place to Westminster.
However, the town remained a place of considerable importance, for, as
Mr H. Hall says in his "Antiquities of the Exchequer," "although
Westminster possessed an irresistible attraction to a pious sovereign
through the vicinity of a favoured church, Norman kings, engrossed in
the pleasure of the chase and constantly embroiled in Continental wars,
found the ancient capital of Winchester better adapted for the pursuit
of sport, as well as for the maintenance of their foreign communications
through the proximity of the great mediæval seaport, Southampton." This
traffic between London and the two Hampshire towns passed through
Southwark, which always had a close connection with Winchester,
remaining even to this day in a modified degree. The Norman bishops, if
they found Winchester no longer the chief town of England, certainly
added to the glory of the church by the erection and beautifying of a
new cathedral. Immediately after the death of Walkelin, the first bishop
of the conquering race, there was a vacancy in the see which lasted for
nine years, owing to the vexed question of investiture. When Giffard was
finally installed, he displayed considerable activity. Among his other
works, he built the town residence of the bishops of Winchester at
Southwark. Bishop's Waltham remained the principal residence until its
destruction by Waller in 1644, after which Farnham Castle took its
place.
Rumour says that there was a suggestion made of raising the see of
Winchester to the rank of an archbishopric during its tenure by that
foremost of fighting churchmen, Henry de Blois, who certainly desired
the elevation. At any rate, Fuller says of Henry that he "outshined
Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury." The Pope's consent, however, was
not secured. Henry paid considerable attention to the temporal affairs
of his see, rebuilding the castles at Farnham and Wolvesey, and founding
the Hospital of St Cross. He translated also the bodies of the old kings
and bishops from the site of the Saxon crypt, the remains without
inscriptions being placed in leaden sarcophagi, mixed in hopeless
confusion. After Henry's death there occurred another vacancy in the
see, ended at last by the admittance of Toclive in 1174 A.D.
With De Lucy's accession in 1189 we reach another epoch of building
activity, for not only was this bishop busy himself, but also under his
guidance there was instituted in 1202, as the Winchester annalist
records, a confraternity, to last for five years, for repairing the
cathedral. De Lucy's work at the eastern end of the building is
described elsewhere. We should not omit to notice, when considering the
position of Winchester, that Richard, on his return from captivity in
1194, was re-crowned here on the octave of Easter Day.
Bishop de Rupibus, De Lucy's successor, introduced preaching friars into
England, and set up at Winchester in 1225 a Dominican establishment,
while a few years later the Franciscans were also established here. Both
institutions have since vanished.
The middle of the thirteenth century was marked at Winchester by
continual struggles between king, monks, and Pope, as to the right of
electing the bishop of Winchester. Some record of these struggles will
be found in the list of bishops of the see. The contest about the
election of De Raleigh lasted five years, and the king only finally
accepted the monks' choice after the Pope and the king of France had
also lent their influence on his behalf. In 1264-7 the town rose up
against the prior and convent, burning and murdering under pretext of
assisting the king, the bishop being a partisan of De Montfort. After
the battle of Evesham the cathedral was laid under an interdict by the
Papal legate, Ottoboni, and this was not removed until August 1267.
With Wykeham's importance in the story of Winchester we have dealt
elsewhere. His successor, Beaufort, greatly enlarged the foundation of
St Cross, adding to it his "Almshouse of Noble Poverty." It is a
remarkable fact that these two bishops and Waynflete, the founder of
Magdalen College, Oxford, between them occupied the see for no less than
120 years. The history of this period, as far as the cathedral is
concerned, is mainly architectural and therefore uneventful in
comparison with that of the earlier times. The intervals whose history
is less stirring, however, fortunately leave far better marks on the
actual buildings than do the more eventful epochs; and the fact that
Cardinal Wolsey once was Bishop of Winchester could not be gathered from
the cathedral itself. Indeed, he never visited the town at all during
the course of his episcopate--a circumstance which is, perhaps, hardly
to be regretted.
In 1500 Pope Alexander issued a Bull separating the Channel Islands from
their former see of Coutances, which was now no longer English
territory, and attaching them to the see of Salisbury. "This was
afterwards altered to Winchester," says Canon Benham, "but from some
cause which does not appear, the transfer was never made until 1568,
after the Reformed Liturgy has been established in the islands." The
cathedral itself received architectural additions during this period
from Bishops Courtenay and Langton, their priors, and Bishop Fox. When
in Henry VIII.'s reign the former town of Southwark had either been
conveyed to the city or had become the king's property (the latter being
such parts as had previously been the holding of Canterbury), the
"Clink," or the Bishop of Winchester's Liberty, was not interfered with.
The result of this was that the Clink became the home of the early
play-houses--the Globe, Hope, Rose, and Swan--since within the city
bounds actors were not allowed to carry on their profession. In Mr T.
Fairman Ordish's "Early London Theatres" the extent to which the first
theatres flourished in the Winchester Liberty may be clearly seen.
The early Reformation period at Winchester led to a great impoverishment
of the see: so much so that the second William of Wickham (1594-5)
ventured, in a sermon preached before the queen, to say that, should the
see continue to suffer such rapine as it had already undergone in her
reign, there would soon be no means to keep the roof on the cathedral
building. We do not know that this remonstrance produced much effect,
for the cathedral and its revenues underwent many losses after this. The
ravages of the Parliamentarians, however, which were the most serious,
have been alluded to elsewhere.
It appears from "the old Valor printed 1685," which was quoted by Browne
Willis in his "Survey of the Cathedrals" of 1742, that some dioceses
about Calais used once to belong to Winchester. We learn also from
Browne Willis that in his time the see of Winchester contained "the
whole County of Southampton, with the Isle of Wight, and one parish in
Wiltshire, viz. Wiltesbury: It has also all Surrey, except 11 churches
in Croyden Deanry which are peculiars of the See of Canterbury. Here are
two Archdeacons, viz. 1. Winchester, valued at 61l. 15s. 2d. for
First-Fruits, which has all the Deanries in the County of Southampton
and the Isle of Wight. 2. Surrey, which has all the Deanries in the
County of Surrey, the corps of which is the Rectory of Farnham; and it
is rated for First-Fruits at 91l. 3s. 6d."
The subsequent history of the see is mainly bound up with political and
theological questions which need not be touched on here. It may,
however, be mentioned that the Ecclesiastical Commission of 1836-7
re-adjusted the boundaries of the diocese; while in 1846 there were
transferred to London the following districts:--Battersea, Bermondsey,
Camberwell, Clapham, Graveney, Lambeth, Merton, Rotherhithe, Southwark,
Streatham, Tooting, and Wandsworth. This re-arrangement still left
Winchester the largest rural diocese in England.
CHAPTER V
THE BISHOPS OF WINCHESTER
Winchester boasts a very long list of bishops as compared with many of
our English cathedrals, but the details about a great number of them are
most scanty. The exact year from which the history of the diocese should
be dated is not certain, but it is to be placed somewhere during the
reign of Ine over the West Saxons. Under Bishop Eleutherius, to whom
Hedda succeeded, the kingdom of Wessex was still but a single diocese.
The removal of the see from Dorchester to Winchester was rendered
necessary by the extension of the Mercian rule, which made the former
town unsuitable for a West Saxon see. The date of the change,
simultaneous with the moving of the bones of S. Birinus, is fixed by
Rudborne at 683, but, according to recent authorities, it would appear
to be earlier.
#Hedda# (? 679-705) was, at any rate, the first bishop of Winchester,
properly speaking; though he was the fourth successor to S. Birinus. As
his most recent biographer says, Hedda "was a man of much personal
holiness and was zealous in the discharge of his episcopal duties.... He
is reckoned a saint, his day being 30 July. Many miracles were worked at
his tomb." He figures on the reredos as restored in accordance with the
original design.
#Daniel# (705-744) had the misfortune to see his diocese considerably
docked in order to form the see of Sherbourne. He resigned, by reason of
loss of eyesight, in 744. According to some accounts, Ethelwulf,
afterwards king of Wessex, and father of Alfred, succeeded him; but this
story certainly lacks proof, though Ethelwulf seems to have been
educated at Winchester.
#Hunferth# or Humfredus (744-754), like most of the immediately
succeeding bishops, has his place of interment at Winchester recorded by
John of Exeter.
#Cyneheard# became Bishop of Winchester in 754. His successors during
the next century were #Aethelheard#, #Ecbald# (_circ._ 790); #Dudda#
(793); #Cyneberht# (_circ._ 799); #Almund# or Ealhmund (_circ._ 803);
#Wigthegen# (_circ._ 824); #Hereferth# (? 829-833); #Edmund# (833); and
#Helmstan#. Of none of these do we know much, and their dates cannot be
assigned with any certainty.
With #S. Swithun# (852-862), who was first prior and afterwards bishop,
we come upon one of the names especially connected with the history of
the church. It is, however, to be feared that it is not so much because
of his fame in church-building and his acts of humanity that he will be
remembered as for the popular superstition which asserts that the
weather for forty days after his feast-day on July 15 is dry or rainy
according to its state on that day. The legend is said to be based on
the fact that the removal of his body from "a vile and unworthy place
where his grave might be trampled upon by every passenger and received
the droppings from the eaves" to the golden shrine in the cathedral was
delayed by a long continuance of wet weather. Similar legends to explain
a wet summer are found elsewhere in Europe. "The saint was translated,"
says Rudborne, "in the 110th year of his rest. And for his glory, so
great was the concourse of people and so numerous and frequent the
miracles that the like was never witnessed in England." A figure
representing S. Swithun seems once to have stood in a niche at the apex
of the gable of the west front.
He was succeeded by #Alhferth# or Ealhfrith (863-871), translated to
Canterbury; #Tunbriht# or Dunbert, whose name was Latinised as Tunbertus
(871-879); #Denewulf# (879-909), whom a singularly incredible legend
asserts to have been the swineherd in whose cottage Alfred allowed his
hostess's cakes to burn; #Frithstan# (909-931); #Byrnstan# (931-934);
#Aelfheah# or Elphege (934-951); #Aelfsige# (951-958), who was nominated
to Canterbury, but died in the snow while crossing the Alps on his way
to Rome for his pall--the only fact which is really known about him; and
#Brithelm# (958-963).
Next came "the holy #Athelwold#, a great builder of churches and of
various other works, both when he was abbot and after when he became
bishop of Winchester" (Wolstan). He seems to have moved the bodies of
Swithun and other saints to a more suitable resting-place than they had
hitherto enjoyed. Of Athelwold's building operations at Winchester
Wolstan's account is quoted on page 6. He held the see of Winchester for
twenty-one years (963-984), and he was by birth a native of the town. It
was said of him that he was "terrible as a lion" to the rebellious, but
"gentler than a dove" to the meek.
#Elphege# or Aelfheah (984-1005), his successor, to whom Wolstan's
account of Athelwold is addressed, was martyred in 1012 by the Danes
while Archbishop of Canterbury, where his tomb subsequently received
great honours. Aelfheah's great work was spent in the conversion of the
"Northmen," or Danish invaders of England.
#Cenwulf# or Kenulf (1005-1006) is allowed three years by Rudborne, but
apparently wrongly; another #Athelwold# or Ethelwold (1006-1015), and
#Aelfsige# (1015-1032) are not of great importance.
#Aelfwine# or Alwyn (1032-1037), called by Anglo-Saxon chroniclers "the
king's priest," seems to have been a monk of S. Swithun's monastery and
also chaplain to Cnut before he was elevated to Winchester. The legend
which makes him the lover of Emma, widow of Aethelred and Cnut, and
mother of Edward the Confessor, has been declared unhistorical; but, at
any rate, the story of her ordeal, when she walked blindfold and
barefoot over nine red-hot plough-shares, was once celebrated. It is a
curious coincidence that the bones of queen and bishop were deposited by
Bishop Fox in the same chest, Aelfwine's remains being exhumed from his
grave to the south of the high altar to be placed in a leaden
sarcophagus above the crypt-door.
#Stigand# (1047-1069) was chiefly remarkable, it appears, for his
avarice, especially shown in his retention of Winchester after his
election to Canterbury. He received the pall in 1058 from the
"anti-Pope" Benedict X., so that he was never regarded as the rightful
possessor of the dignities he enjoyed, the Normans refusing to recognise
him except as bishop of Winchester. His wealth attracted the attention
of William the Conqueror, and by a Council held at Winchester after
Easter 1070, Stigand was deposed. Some reports state that he was cast
into prison, where he died of voluntary starvation; and that on his body
was found a key of a casket containing the clue to great hidden
treasures, which the king appropriated, giving from them, says Rudborne,
a great silver cross with two images; but the cross is generally called
Stigand's. He was buried in a leaden sarcophagus to the south of the
high altar.
#Walkelin# (1070-1098) was related by blood to the Conqueror, and was
brother of Simeon, prior of Winchester and afterwards abbot of Ely. He
was the first of the Norman bishops, and signalised his incumbency by
rebuilding the cathedral from its very foundations, as the Norman
ecclesiastics frequently did. He figures more largely in the
architectural history of the cathedral than in its historical records,
and his work has been described elsewhere. Walkelin was buried in the
nave before the rood-loft, where stood the great silver cross.
#William Giffard# (1100-1129) succeeded after an interregnum such as
occurred in many sees during the reign of William Rufus. He founded S.
Mary Overy, now S. Saviour's, Southwark, as well as the bishop's
residence in the same district. Before his death he became a monk.
#Henry de Blois# (1129-1171) was grandson of the Conqueror and younger
brother of Stephen, afterwards King of England. Although an ecclesiastic
from his youth, he was by no means a man of peace or a mere scholar and
theologian; _Vir animosus et audax_, says Giraldus. During his prelacy
he influenced greatly the secular history of his time. In the quarrel
between Matilda and Stephen, Henry at first recognised Matilda, but
subsequently, as the foremost power in the church and a strong partisan
of his brother, he lent his weight against the Empress, and, with the
aid of Roger of Salisbury and other bishops, gained the crown for
Stephen. On Whitsunday 1162 Henry de Blois consecrated Thomas à Becket
as archbishop, and it is said that when King Henry visited him just
before his death he was reproved by the bishop for his murder of Becket.
Henry de Blois was certainly a militant churchman; but in an age not
conspicuous for such virtues, we are told, his private life was pure,
and he laboured steadfastly for the good of his diocese. The Winchester
annalist says of him, "Never was man more chaste and prudent, more
compassionate, or more earnest in transacting ecclesiastical matters, or
in beautifying churches." His great foundation was the still existing
hospital of St Cross.
#Richard Toclive# (1174-1188) was elected by the monks after the see had
been vacant three years. He was strongly against Becket, having even
been excommunicated by him; yet after the archbishop was murdered and
canonised he dedicated to him several new churches at Portsmouth,
Newport, and elsewhere. He founded a small hospital at Winchester
dedicated to S. Mary Magdalene, which by the time of Charles II. had
become a ruin, and was pulled down in 1788. Its Norman doorway may be
seen in the Roman Catholic chapel in S. Peter's Street.
#Godfrey de Lucy# (1189-1204) was son of Richard de Lucy, Grand
Justiciary of England, and a great benefactor to the Priory of Lesnes in
Kent, founded by his father. De Lucy's work at Winchester is a fine
specimen of Early English architecture, and consists of what is known as
the retro-choir, where he was buried in accordance with the practice of
interring a founder amid his work. The large slab of grey marble without
inscription which marks his grave was, Willis tells us, "by a slight
confusion of tradition" pointed out by former vergers as the tomb of
King Lucius.
#Peter de la Roche# or de Rupibus (1204-1238) sprang from a knightly
family in Poitou, and was consecrated bishop of Winton at Rome in 1205.
He was a hot and unscrupulous partisan of King John, in spite of the
latter's scornful treatment of the church, and in 1214, when John had
submitted to Innocent III., Peter was made Grand Justiciary of England,
much against the wish of the English nobles. He became guardian of the
young Henry III., coming often into conflict with Henry de Burgh. Peter
was in many ways a type of the Norman ecclesiastic so hated by the
people, but, according to Matthew Paris, he fought bravely in the Holy
Land, whither he led a body of Crusaders in 1226. He founded the Domus
Dei at Portsmouth, some portions of which still exist in the "Garrison
Chapel"; and also the monastery at Selborne, described by Gilbert White.
He died at Farnham Castle in June 1238.
#William de Raleigh# (1244-1249) came from the see of Norwich to that of
Winchester. He was elected by the monks in 1238, but, as explained
elsewhere, it was six years before he gained possession, though
confirmed in his office by the Pope. He retired to France, then under
the rule of Louis IX., until Henry at length gave way. Raleigh, however,
did not live to enjoy his honours long, dying during a stay at Tours in
1249.
#Ethelmar# or Aymer de Valence (1250-1261), who succeeded him, was
half-brother of Henry III., being son of the Count of La Marche, who
married John's widow. As a native of Poitou, his appointment was as
unpopular as that of de Roches, and, moreover, he is said to have been
only an acolyte when Henry forced the monks to accept him as their
bishop. At first he was only styled "bishop-elect" of Winchester, and he
was not consecrated until Ascension Day 1260. Even before his
appointment we are told that his revenues exceeded those of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and he was permitted to retain them. His
tyranny and greed provoked the Oxford Parliament in 1258 to expel him
from the kingdom and he fled to France, dying three years later in Paris
while on his return from Rome to England; for he had induced the Pope to
espouse his cause and consecrate him.
#John Of Exeter# or John Gervase (1265-1268) was appointed by the Pope
on the death of Aymer, in preference to two rivals whose election was
disputed. He is accused of having purchased his elevation. He assisted
the barons in the Civil War, and after Simon de Montfort's failure was
suspended and cited to appear at Rome, where he died.
#Nicholas of Ely# (1268-1280) had been lord chancellor and high
treasurer before he obtained Winchester. On his death he was buried at
Waverley Abbey, but an inscription on the wall of the south choir aisle
marks where his heart was interred in his cathedral.
#John de Pontissara#, Pontoise, or Sawbridge (1282-1304), nominated by
the Pope against the will of Edward I., at length made his peace by
paying a fine of 2000 marks and giving his manor of Swainstone, Isle of
Wight, to the king. He built a college of S. Elizabeth of Hungary at
Winchester. He had been Chancellor of Oxford University, though at the
time of his election he was Professor of Civil Law at Modena.
#Henry Woodlock# (1305-1316), former prior of S. Swithun's monastery,
who performed the coronation of Edward II.; #John Sandale# (1316-1319);
#Reginald Asser# (1320-1323); #John Stratford# (1323-1333), whose
election was opposed by the king, but who in the next reign was
translated to Canterbury--are not particularly noticeable.
#Adam Orleton# or de Orlton (1333-1345) was translated hither from
Worcester by the Pope against the king's wishes. He has the most
unenviable notoriety of having been the bishop of Hereford who
instigated the brutal murder of Edward II. on September 21, 1327. He had
been accused of high treason and deprived of Hereford, but was restored
thereto by the barons. Edward III. apparently at length received him
into favour; but Orleton went blind some years before his death. He is
buried in the Chapel of the Guardian Angels.
#William Edingdon# (1346-1366), though chiefly notable for his
architectural work at Winchester, was treasurer of England in 1350 and
chancellor seven years later. He might, had he wished it, have become
Archbishop of Canterbury, but preferred Winchester. He began the great
remodelling of the nave, and, dying before much of the work was done,
left certain property, as appears from his will, for carrying on the
work; though it is also said that a claim was made against his executors
with regard to the dilapidations of the see. His general reputation was,
as a biographer says, "that he loved the king's advantage more than that
of the community." He founded a convent of "Bonhommes" at his native
village of Edingdon, in Wiltshire, where the church building, or rather
rebuilding, is due chiefly to him. He was buried in his own chantry in
the cathedral. His "monkish epitaph," as Warner calls it, runs thus:
Edyndon natus Wilhelmus hic est tumulatus
Praesul praegratus, in Wintonia cathedratus.
Qui pertransitis, ejus memorare velitis.
Providus et mitis ausit cum mille peritis.
Pervigil Anglorum fuit adjutor populorum.
Dulcis egenorum pater et protector eorum.
MC tribus junctum post L.X.V. sit I punctum
Octava Sanctum notat hunc Octobris inunctum.
#William of Wykeham# (1367-1404), whose name has become so identified
with Winchester Cathedral and College, was probably a native of the
village of Wykeham, near Litchfield. Born in 1324, after education at
Winchester and Oxford he was in 1346 presented to the king, Edward III.,
at the age of twenty-three, "with no other advantages than his skill in
architecture" and "the courtly attribute of a courtly person." In the
course of the next twenty-one years he rose rapidly, filling various
offices until he became Bishop of Winchester and Lord High Chancellor of
England. His first recorded appointment is to the clerkship of all the
king's works near Windsor, and in the same year he was surveyor of the
new buildings there, including the round tower and the eastern ward of
the Castle and a College to the west for the Order of the Garter,
occupying the site of the ancient Domus Regis, close to the present S.
George's Chapel. On one of the towers the inscription _This made
Wykeham_ may or may not be meant to convey a double meaning, but it is
certainly true that his architectural successes furthered his fortunes.
In 1357 he received the tonsure, and in 1360 was made Dean of S.
Martin's Le Grand, Archdeacon of Lincoln, Northampton, and Buckingham,
and Provost of Wells. In 1361 he commenced Queenborough Castle on the
island of Sheppey; this important edifice, covering over three acres of
ground, was demolished about 1650. The castles of Winchester,
Porchester, Wolvesey, Ledes, and Dover, with many others, are believed
to have been either entirely rebuilt, or at least enlarged, by him. He
was only ordained priest five years before his elevation to Winchester.
In 1394 he undertook the great reformation of the cathedral which is
dealt with in another part of this book. New College (Sainte Mary of
Wynchestre), Oxford, opened by Wykeham on April 14, 1386, effected
almost as great a revolution in university education as his famous
college at Winchester did for the training of boys. As Dr Ingram has
pointed out, the very title of "New" College which has clung to it shows
how completely a new collegiate system was established by its
foundation, which served as a model for future endowments. His
well-known motto--chosen when his growing dignity made it necessary for
him to possess armorial bearings--"Manners Makyth Man" has generally
been taken to mean that virtue alone is true nobility; Lord Campbell,
however, would have us rather interpret "manners" as the studied
etiquette of courts and the polished courtesy which Lord Chesterfield
held so important a factor in success. Willis styles it "a somewhat
radical sentiment at the time." In his own day the secular arts Wykeham
practised did not meet with universal approval, for Wiclif alludes to
him when he observes, "They wullen not present a clerk able of God's
word and holy ensample, but a kitchen clerk, or a penny clerk, or one
wise in building castles and other worldly doings." But despite this
objection, the whole of Wykeham's biographers, contemporary or
posthumous, agree in praising him as highly as Fuller, who says that his
"benefaction to learning is not to be paralleled by any English subject
in all particulars," and his great innovation, whereby elementary
education was taken from the hands of the monks and, as in his own
college, established upon an entirely different plan, would alone stamp
him as one whose foresight was far beyond his own times. He influenced
the nation in a way not easy to over-estimate, inasmuch as he
originated, or at least carried into execution, the idea of the great
public school, as Englishmen understand it, and, by the building of
Winchester College, founded the institution he had long meditated in a
way worthy of his design. Previously to the actual construction of the
college, he had maintained in temporary shelters numbers of poor
students. On the death of the Black Prince, whose fortunes he had
vigorously espoused, and the assumption of power by John of Gaunt,
Wykeham was impeached on the charge of embezzling the royal revenues,
accepting bribes, and the like; and the king laid hands on the
temporalities of his see. But almost the last act of Edward III. was to
restore what he had seized to the bishop, under certain conditions which
show the great wealth of the latter. Milman, in his "Latin
Christianity," does full justice to the "splendid, munificent prelate,
blameless in character," who devoted his vast riches to the promotion of
learning, and says that, though his endeavour to maintain the
hierarchical power over humanity was bitterly opposed by Wiclif, "the
religious of England may well be proud of both." Wykeham was eighty
years of age when he died, and his body lies in the chantry erected by
his orders on the south side of the nave.
#Henry of Beaufort# (1405-1447), who followed Wykeham in the bishopric,
was the second son of John of Gaunt, by Catharine Swynford, and uncle of
Henry V. In 1398, at the early age of twenty-one, he was made bishop of
Lincoln, and in 1404 was translated to Winchester. During the reign of
Henry V. he thrice filled the office of chancellor. In 1417, when
ostensibly on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he was present at the Council
of Constance which was then considering the affairs of the church. At
this time he was offered the cardinal's hat by Martin V. and appointed
papal legate, but the bestowal of this dignity on him was resented by
the English monarch, who commanded him to surrender his office at
Winchester, which he declared was forfeited by his becoming a cardinal.
The dispute, however, was arranged, and "the haughty cardinal, more like
a soldier than a man of the church," formally received his hat at Calais
in 1426. In the following year he led a crusade against the followers of
Huss in Bohemia, where, during the retreat of the great army from Mies,
he alone at the head of a band of English crusaders endeavoured, but in
vain, to arrest the utter rout. The death of Henry V. brought about a
fierce rivalry between the two great uncles, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester
and the cardinal bishop of Winchester, lasting until the death of the
former, which only occurred six weeks before that of Beaufort himself.
During the half-century of his rule at Winchester he rebuilt St Cross
and founded the "Almshouse of Noble Poverty." Shakespeare has made
Beaufort a prominent figure in Parts I. and II. of "Henry VI.," but, for
dramatic reasons, perhaps, he is painted very much blacker than he
deserved. That he was a militant ecclesiastic, scheming and
unscrupulous, is no doubt true; but he was a statesman and possessed
firmness of purpose, fertility of resource, and confidence in those whom
he selected to carry out his designs. His wealth was very great, for he
was able to lend his nephew the king £20,000, besides spending an
enormous amount in charities, including £400,000 devoted to the inmates
of London prisons.
#William of Waynfleete# (1447-1486), a student in Wykeham's colleges at
Winchester and Oxford, was first master of Winchester College, then made
provost of Eton in 1443, and in 1447 succeeded Beaufort in the bishopric
of Winchester. From 1449 to 1459, like his predecessor, he held the
chancellor's seal, and during the Wars of the Roses was a firm adherent
of Henry VI. His death took place in 1486. He founded Magdalen College,
Oxford, and possibly influenced Henry in his endowment of King's
College, Cambridge, and Eton. Waynfleete appears to have been a man of
great piety and learning, and, as Milman observes, his actions, in
advancing non-monastic institutions, reveal a sagacious fore-knowledge
of the coming changes in the temporal power of the church, and were
planned to maintain its supremacy in ways better adapted to the new
spirit which soon after his death caused the downfall of the religious
houses. The effigy of this bishop, in his chantry in the retro-choir,
has been restored.
#Peter Courtenay# (1486-1492) was translated from Exeter to Winchester,
but at neither see has he left any mark on the history, the
architectural work of his period being due chiefly to his priors.
#Thomas Langton# (1493-1500), translated hither from Salisbury, where he
was active against the adherents of Wiclif, was chosen in 1500 to occupy
the see of Canterbury, but he died of the plague before his translation,
and was buried in his chantry to the south of the Lady Chapel. He seems
to have been enthusiastic in the cause of education, since he is said to
have himself superintended the teaching of boys in his town.
#Richard Fox# (1500-1528) was bishop successively of Exeter, Bath and
Wells, and Durham before he was appointed to Winchester. Great
confidence was reposed in him by Henry VII., who chose him as godfather
of the future Henry VIII. To Fox is attributed the introduction of
Wolsey to the king. Yet this appears to have failed to win him the
cardinal's gratitude, for, according to Fuller: "All thought Bishop Fox
to die too soon, only one excepted who conceived him to live too long,
Thomas Wolsey, who gaped for his bishopric." With Hugh Oldham, bishop of
Exeter, Fox was joint-founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the
pelican in her piety, which appears on the college arms, being borne by
the bishop. His fine chantry and the reconstruction of the choir aisles
bear witness to his interest in the fabric of his cathedral, and he is
otherwise noted for the assistance he gave to various foundations.
[Illustration: CARVING ON CHOIR STALL IN LADY CHAPEL--BISHOP FOX'S WORK.
(From a Drawing by H.P. Clifford.)]
#Thomas Wolsey# (1529-1530) at length gained the coveted see, which he
held _in commendam_ with the archbishopric of York, but only for one
year.
#Stephen Gardiner# (1531-1555), another of the more famous prelates who
have held this see, is said to have been the illegitimate son of Bishop
Lionel Woodville of Salisbury, brother-in-law of Edward IV. Fuller, in
one of his favourite conceits, says that Gardiner retained in his wit
and quick apprehension the sharpness of the air at his birthplace of
Bury St Edmunds. In 1529 he became archdeacon of Norwich, and, owing to
his services to Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII., was appointed to
Winchester. On the whole, he managed to keep on good terms with the
king; but his famous six articles in support of the Real Presence sent
so many to the stake that the title of "the bloody statute" has clung to
them. During the reign of Edward VI. he was kept prisoner in the Tower,
and in 1550 was deprived of his bishopric, which was restored to him on
the accession of Mary, whom he crowned at Westminster. He performed also
the marriage service of Mary and Philip of Spain, mentioned on page 13.
"His malice," says Fuller, "was like what is commonly said of white
powder which surely discharged the bullet yet made no report, being
secret in all his acts of cruelty. This made him often chide Bonner,
calling him 'ass,' though not so much for killing poor people as for not
doing it more cunningly." Cruel and vengeful as he was, it is yet
possible that he has been rather unjustly accused of personal delight in
his victims' sufferings; but, while the persecutions under Mary continue
to be the worst chapter of English church history, the "hammer of
heretics," as he was called, will always continue to be execrated. On
his death-bed at Westminster in 1555 he is reported to have said: "I
have sinned with Peter, but I have not wept with him." It has indeed
been held that in his latter days he was half a Protestant at heart,
though this is difficult to establish. There is preserved a rather
amusing appeal of Gardiner to the Privy Council, dating from 1547. He
had intended to hold in Southwark a solemn dirge and mass in memory of
Henry VIII., and writes to complain that the players who flourished in
the neighbourhood say that they will also have "a solemne playe to trye
who shal have most resorte, they in game, or I in earnest." During
Gardiner's imprisonment by Edward VI., #John Poynet#, once Cranmer's
chaplain, held his see. As the author of "On Politique Power" (1558),
where he pleads that "it is lawful to kill a tyrant," and uses some very
immoderate language, Poynet may be remembered, but as an ecclesiastic he
has left only a discreditable record in his short term of office. He
died in 1556 in Germany, whither he had retired on the Roman Catholic
revival.
#John White# (1556-1559), who succeeded Gardiner, was deposed by Queen
Elizabeth. He was born at Farnham, and educated at Winchester. Though
personally he appears to have been pious, during his tenure of the see
four burnings of religious opponents took place in the diocese.
#Richard Horne# (1560-1580) was a very vigorous supporter of the
reformed religion, and suffered consequently under Mary. He appears to
have been very fanatical against the use of vestments, pictures, and
ornaments of all kinds. He may have pulled down the monastic buildings
at Winchester, less from a mistaken zeal than from motives of economy;
but his reputation in this respect is very bad.
#John Watson# (1580-1583), formerly a Doctor of Medicine, only held the
see for three years.
#Thomas Cooper# (1583-1594) was ordained on the accession of Elizabeth,
his Protestancy hindering him from taking holy orders under Mary. His
preaching abilities rapidly secured his promotion to the see of Lincoln
in 1570, and Winchester thirteen years later. He was buried in the
choir, but his monument has disappeared. He engaged in controversies
both with the "recusants" and with the Puritans.
#William Wickham# (1594-1595), who also came from Lincoln to Winchester,
only held the see for ten weeks.
#William Day# (1595-1596), brother-in-law of the preceding, was provost
of Eton for no less than thirty-four years, but he died eight months
after his elevation to Winchester.
#Thomas Bilson# (1597-1616), though called by Anthony à Wood "as
reverend and learned a prelate as England ever afforded," and the author
of several theological works, has left little behind him at Winchester.
#James Montagu# (1616-1618) may also be briefly dismissed. Bilson's "On
the Perpetual Government of Christ's Church" and Montagu's Latin
translation of the writings of James I. can hardly be said to have made
them famous. Montagu's tomb is in Bath Abbey.
#Lancelot Andrewes# (1619-1626) is the most celebrated of the
post-Reformation bishops who have held the see. He was made Bishop of
Chichester in 1605, Bishop of Ely in 1609, and moved to Winchester nine
years later. As a pious and austere man, a powerful preacher (an "angel
in the pulpit," he was called), a scholar versed in patristic
literature, and a polemical writer, he is well known. Milton's elegy
suffices to prove the great respect and admiration which he inspired in
his contemporaries, and he held a considerable influence over James I.;
but his "Manual of Devotion" is the only volume of all his writings that
can fairly be said to have become a classic in any sense of the word.
Andrewes died at Winchester House, Southwark, on September 11, 1626; and
his tomb is at S. Saviour's, Southwark, in the Lady Chapel, whither it
was moved on the destruction of the chapel to the east of the building,
where it was originally placed.
#Richard Neile# (1627-1631), son of a tallow-chandler, though of good
descent, became Bishop of Rochester 1608, Lichfield and Coventry 1610,
Durham 1617, Winchester 1627, and Archbishop of York 1631. He was
censured by the House of Commons, together with Archbishop Laud, as
"inclined to Arminianism and favouring Popish doctrines and ceremonies."
#Walter Curle# (1632-1650), who came next, was deprived of his see
during the Civil War. Like Neile, he was a follower of Laud. He is best
remembered in the Winchester of to-day for his cutting of the passage
known as the "slype."
#Brian Duppa# (1660-1662), chaplain to Charles I. and tutor to his sons,
was appointed to Chichester in 1638, having previously been dean at
Oxford. In 1641 he was translated to Salisbury, but during the
Commonwealth he retired to Richmond, where he lived in solitude until
the Restoration, when he obtained the see of Winchester. An allusion to
him during his first year here may be found in Pepys, who, in his diary
for October 4, 1660, says: "I and Lieut. Lambert to Westminster, where
we saw Dr Frewen translated to the Archbishoprick of York. Here I saw
the Bishops of Winchester, Bangor, Rochester, Bath and Wells, and
Salisbury, all in their habits, in King Henry VII.'s chapel. But, Lord!
at their going out how people did most of them look upon them as strange
creatures, and few with any kind of love or respect." Duppa was,
however, we are informed, "a man of such exemplary piety, lively
conversation, and excess of good nature, that when Charles I. was in
prison at Carisbrooke Castle he thought himself happy in the company of
so good a man." He died in 1662 at Richmond (where an almshouse, founded
by him, bears over its gate the inscription: _I will pay my vow which I
made to God in my trouble_) and was buried at Westminster Abbey in Abbot
Islip's chapel, where a tablet records his adherence to his two kings.
#George Morley# (1662-1684), a constant supporter of Charles I., was
much favoured by him until his death on the scaffold. From this point he
lived in exile until the Restoration, when he was created Bishop of
Worcester in 1660, and was chosen to be one of the revisers of the
liturgy. In 1662 he succeeded Duppa at Winchester. He restored Farnham
Castle, the palace of the bishops, at a cost of £8000; obtained
Winchester House, Chelsea, for the see; and founded the "College for
Widows of the Clergy" near the close at Winchester. He died at Farnham
Castle in 1684. Bishop Morley was an acquaintance of Isaak Walton the
angler, whose guest he was after Parliament had expelled him from his
see. The cathedral library owes its being to a bequest from Morley to
"the dean and chapter and their successors."
#Peter Mews# (1684-1706), bishop of Bath and Wells in 1672, took part
personally in the Civil War, attaining the rank of captain, and followed
Charles II. to Flanders in 1648. Even long after his ordination he
retained his martial spirit, for as bishop of Winchester he personally
took part in the battle of Sedgmoor against the followers of Monmouth
and received a wound. He died in 1706, and was buried in the cathedral.
#Jonathan Trelawney#, Baronet (1707-1721), was one of the famous seven
bishops who underwent trial in the reign of James II. He was before his
occupancy of the see of Winchester, bishop of Bristol and of Exeter.
During his episcopacy, the cathedral received some questionable
adornments, including the "Grecian" urns in the niches of the reredos,
now fortunately removed.
#Charles Trimnell# (1721-1723) was a very energetic Whig and a strong
opponent of the once famous Sacheverell. He only spent two years at
Winchester, his term being cut short by death.
#Richard Willis# (1723-1734) was bishop successively of Gloucester,
Salisbury, and Winchester, but he has left little by which he may be
remembered.
#Benjamin Hoadley# (1734-1761) was "a zealous partisan of religious
liberty," and a strenuous Low Churchman. He occupied in turn the
bishoprics of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. During his
tenure of the first-named see he started the famous Bangorian
Controversy by the publication of a tract and a sermon in which he
denied the existence of a _visible_ Church of Christ in which "any one
more than another has authority either to make new laws for Christ's
subjects, or to impose a sense upon the old ones, or to judge, censure,
or punish the servants of another master in matters relating purely to
conscience or salvation." As a result of the heated discussion of the
matter in Convocation, that body was virtually suspended for a century
and a half. Pope ridicules Hoadley for his verbose eloquence, speaking
of "Hoadley with his periods of a mile." He was, however, a great
favourite of George I., whose private chaplain he became on that king's
accession; and it was under royal protection that he published the works
which gave rise to the great controversy.
#John Thomas# (1761-1781) was tutor to George III. He was called by his
successor "a man of most amiable character and a polite scholar"; and it
is difficult to say much more about him.
#Hon. Brownlow North# (1781-1826) was half-brother of Lord North, to
whom he owed a rapid preferment. In 1771, when he was thirty years of
age, he was made bishop of Coventry and Lichfield; in 1774, bishop of
Worcester. At Winchester he spent over £6000 on Farnham Castle, and
during his time £40,000 was devoted to the restoration of the cathedral,
but the result cannot be commended.
#George Pretyman Tomline#, Baronet (1820-1827), had a distinguished
university career and was the author of several theological works.
#Charles Sumner# (1827-1869) came to Winchester after a year at
Llandaff. He was a vigorous supporter of the Evangelical party. During
his term of office the boundaries of his see were re-adjusted and
contracted.
#Samuel Wilberforce# (1869-1873), third son of the celebrated
abolitionist, William Wilberforce, was translated to Winchester from
Oxford, where for twenty-five years he was bishop. His record at
Winchester is neither so long nor so important as at Oxford, where he
successfully passed through the troubles of the Tractarian movement. His
death was occasioned by a fall when he was out riding with Lord
Granville.
Since the death of Bishop Wilberforce the see has been occupied by three
bishops whose names alone need be given here, for their records will be
fresh in the memories of all:--
#Edward Harold Brown# (1873-1890), who came from Ely to Winchester;
#Antony Wilson Thorold# (1890-1895), whose tomb lies outside the
cathedral, close to the new memorial south window of the Lady Chapel;
#Randall Thomas Davidson# (1895), the present occupant of the see.
[Illustration: DETAILS OF THE FONT (also see THE NORMAN FONT in Chapter
III).]
CHAPTER VI
OTHER INSTITUTIONS CONNECTED WITH THE CATHEDRAL
It is hardly possible to conclude an account of Winchester Cathedral
without briefly alluding to several places in the immediate
neighbourhood which are more or less intimately connected with the
church and its benefactors. Only four buildings, however, call for any
detailed description--Wolvesey Castle, the College, Hyde Abbey, and St
Cross.
#Wolvesey#, which is said to mean Wolf's Island, is quite close to the
east end of the cathedral. It contained at one time a regular residence
of the bishops of Winchester, the greater part of which was erected by
Henry de Blois. The remains of this castle are very ruinous, though the
outer walls and the exterior of the keep are in good condition still.
Woodward pointed out traces of a refectory with a Norman arch and
window. The building more than once underwent attacks, the earliest
being during the struggle between Stephen and Matilda, in which Henry de
Blois took a vigorous part. Finally, in 1646, Cromwell practically
destroyed it, after it had held out against him in the Royalist cause.
It served as the residence of many well-known characters in history, and
among its bishops Cardinal Beaufort died there. Mary slept at Wolvesey
Castle in 1554, before her marriage at Winchester. Bishop Morley
commenced building a modern house close by the old site, and subsequent
bishops completed it. Only the middle portion of this, with the Tudor
chapel, now remains, the southern end having been pulled down by Bishop
Brownlow North. The ruins of the castle can be seen from the top of the
cathedral tower.
On Wykeham's charter for the incorporation of his new foundation,
"Seinte Marie College of Wynchestre," is the date October 20, 1382; but
it seems that long before this date and up to the actual completion of
the #College# buildings, the bishop superintended the education of the
boys for whom his institution was founded, housing them in temporary
structures in the meantime--possibly in S. John's parish, on S. Giles'
Hill, it has been suggested. Before Wykeham's time, and indeed before
the Conquest, it appears that the monks of S. Swithun's institution had
a school at Winchester, at which no less celebrated a pupil than Alfred
the Great was brought up. We have already touched on the subject of
Wykeham's ideas on education, and the change which he brought about by
his colleges at Winchester and Oxford, and it is not necessary to go
into the subject again. The College buildings lie beyond the southern
limits of the cathedral close, on the south side of the narrow College
Street, being entered by a gateway with an ancient statue of the Virgin
in the niche over it. This door leads into the quadrangle, about which
are ranged various parts of the college. A further arch under the tower
in this court leads to a larger quadrangle, in which are the Chapel and
the refectory or Hall, a room 63 feet by 30, with a groined oak roof and
a dais at one end for the Warden and Fellows; while at the other is the
audit room, which has some fifteenth-century tapestry and an iron-bound
chest once belonging to William of Wykeham. Beneath the Hall is "Seventh
Chamber," an early schoolroom. Beyond are cloisters and more buildings,
and then the meadows which run down to the Itchen. The niches over the
second gateway contain figures of the Virgin, the Angel Gabriel, and
William of Wykeham; while the room below them is known as the election
chamber, where the annual election of scholars took place. In the inner
quadrangle the carvings over the windows should be noticed. "Over the
hall and kitchen entrance are the psaltery and bagpipe; over kitchen
window, Excess, a head vomiting; opposite a Bursar as Frugality, with
his iron-bound money-chest; over the Masters' windows are the Pedagogue,
the Listless Scholar, etc." In the Chapel, which is 93 feet long by 30
wide and 57 high, the Perpendicular windows should be noticed, and in
particular, the large east window. The glass is declared by Mr Winston
to be, with the exception of a few pieces, modern, dating from 1824,
while the "Jesse" window is "a very good copy of the old design." In the
vault Wykeham's wooden fan-tracery remains, but there has been much
change in the fittings of the chapel. The old screen has gone, and the
reredos is a restoration; the original stalls were removed as early as
1681. The tower had to be rebuilt in 1863, though the old stonework of
1470 was used where possible. At the north-east end are the sacristy and
muniment room, in which the college charters, etc., are kept. Among the
MSS., etc., kept here are certain Anglo-Saxon documents and charters of
Privileges from Richard II. to Charles II.; a table of Wykeham's
domestic expenses; a thirteenth century Vulgate in manuscript; a "Briefe
description of the Newe Founde Lande of Virginia," by Sir Walter
Raleigh; and a pedigree of Henry VI., tracing his descent from Adam. The
chief relic of Wykeham is a gold ring with a large sapphire in it. The
Cloisters are 132 feet in length on each side, and the stone roofing is
supported by rafters of Irish oak. The ground enclosed by the Cloisters
was once used for the burial of the Fellows. Among the names cut in the
walls may be seen the name of "Thos. Ken, 1646." In the square formed by
the cloisters is the Chantry Chapel, built in 1420, converted into the
library after Edward VI. had forbidden its use as a chapel, and now used
once more as a chapel for the junior scholars. A portrait of Wykeham
(the oldest on record) is shown in the east window, the glass of which
dates from 1470, and comes from Warden Thurbern's chantry in the larger
chapel. Behind the hall is "School," a detached building erected in 1687
by the Warden, Nicholas. It is now used for glee-club concerts and like
events. The western wall has on it the often-quoted inscription: _Aut
Disce Aut Discede Manet Sors Tertia Cædi_. Modern additions to the
college buildings include a library in memory of Bishop Moberly,
formerly head-master; a gymnasium, fives courts and a racquet court, and
a new infirmary. One of the most curious properties of the College is
the old painting (probably sixteenth century) of the "Trusty Servant,"
the words being ascribed to Johnson, the head-master in 1560-1571.
[Illustration: WINCHESTER COLLEGE "SCHOOL".]
[Illustration: WINCHESTER COLLEGE: THE OUTER GATEWAY]
[Illustration: WINCHESTER COLLEGE: CHANTRY CHAPEL.]
[Illustration: INSCRIPTION ON WESTERN WALL OF "SCHOOL,"
WINCHESTER COLLEGE.]
[Illustration: THE TRUSTY SERVANT.
A trusty servant's portrait would you see,
This emblematic figure well survey;
The porker's snout--not nice in diet shows;
The padlock shut--no secrets he'll disclose;
Patient the ass--his master's wrath to bear;
Swiftness in errand--the stag's feet declare;
Loaded his left hand--apt to labour saith;
The vest--his neatness; open hand--his faith;
Girt with his sword, his shield upon his arm--
Himself and master he'll protect from harm.]
[Illustration: ST CROSS FROM THE SOUTH. _Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]
The remains of #Hyde Abbey# lie considerably to the north of the
cathedral, outside the old North Gate of the city, where it was erected
during the bishopric of William Giffard by Henry I. The buildings were
occupied in 1110 A.D. by the monks who were forced to leave Alfred's
"New Minster," pulled down because of its too close neighbourhood to the
cathedral. Though the foundations of the abbey still exist, little is
left of the upper part except an arched gateway with hood-mouldings and
two royal corbel-heads. This gateway is in some walls that apparently
were once part of the out-buildings of the abbey. The body of Alfred the
Great was brought hither in 1110, and must still be here, though all
traces of the tomb have now vanished utterly. The institution, which was
a very wealthy one, was not always on good terms with the cathedral
authorities, of whom it was, of course, independent. A record is kept of
a dispute between Cardinal Beaufort and the Abbot of Hyde. In the
dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. it was impossible that
the riches of Hyde Abbey could escape, and in 1538 pillage and violation
overtook it. The Royal Commissioners wrote that they intended "to sweep
away all the rotten bones that be called relices, which we may not omit,
lest it should be thought that we came more for the treasure than for
avoiding the abominations of idolatry." Probably Thomas Cromwell, to
whom they wrote, understood how far the two motives influenced them and
the king. The monastic buildings did not altogether disappear until
close on the end of last century, when the materials were devoted to
other purposes.
[Illustration: ST CROSS FROM THE QUADRANGLE. _Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]
The #Hospital of St Cross#, the oldest almshouse in England, lies one
mile to the south of the town on the Southampton Road, and may be
reached from Winchester across the fields for part of the way. Situated
in the hamlet of Sparkford, it was founded originally by Bishop Henry de
Blois in 1136, on the site of a small monastery destroyed by the Danes.
The founder's wish was to give refuge to "thirteen poor men, feeble and
so reduced in strength that they can hardly or with difficulty support
themselves with another's aid"; while a meal was daily to be provided
for another hundred poor men. The Knights Hospitallers, in the person of
their Master, Raymund, were in 1151 A.D. put in charge of the
foundation. They agreed so ill, however, with the bishops of the
neighbouring cathedral that, about 1200, the Pope appointed a commission
which transferred to the bishops the right of choosing the master. The
new arrangement did not work well, for a little more than a century and
a half afterwards the master was found to be robbing his charge to such
an extent that the scandal was intolerable. William of Wykeham turning
his attention to the matter, a Papal Bull was procured ordering the use
of the revenues for the benefit of the poor. The next bishop, Cardinal
Beaufort, added to the buildings by the foundation of the "Almshouse of
Noble Poverty," for the maintenance of two priests, thirty-five
brethren, and three sisters. The master of the hospital was to be at its
head, otherwise the institutions were to be distinct; but by the middle
of the sixteenth century the hospital had practically absorbed the
almshouse. At the end of the next century, in 1696, the master and
brethren of the hospital made a public repudiation of their duties, and
commenced either to destroy the buildings or to convert them to other
than their original uses; and shortly after the southern side of
Beaufort's quadrangle was pulled down. The abuses were rectified in the
middle of the present century, and now a body of trustees, under the
control of the Charity Commissioners, has the management of the two
institutions. All the endowments of the hospital are still intact.
[Illustration: CHURCH OF ST CROSS: VIEW OF EAST END FROM NAVE.
_Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]
[Illustration: COUNTY HALL, WITH ROUND TABLE. From an Old Print.]
After one has passed through the remains of an outer court, the entrance
to the buildings is by a gatehouse known by the name of the "Beaufort
Tower." Over the groined vault of the doorway is the founder's chamber,
surmounted by an octagonal turret. Three niches exist above the exterior
or northern window, one of which has a kneeling figure of Beaufort,
while the representation of the Holy Cross, formerly in the centre, and
the figure of Henry de Blois have vanished. The niche on the inner side
used to be occupied by a statue of the Virgin, which, after surviving
the Civil War, fell about a hundred years ago. At the Porter's Lodge in
the gateway the time-honoured "dole" of beer and bread is given to
visitors. The square quadrangle on which the gate opens has the
brethren's rooms on the west (the right hand as one enters), the
ambulatory or cloister on the east, the church of St Cross at the
south-east corner, and to the right of the church a view of meadows
where the buildings were pulled down in 1789. In the centre of the grass
is a sundial. Next the Beaufort Tower at the south side is the
refectory, and beyond that the master's house. The refectory has three
two-light Perpendicular windows, a high-pitched wooden roof, and a
minstrels' gallery at the west end. It is now only used as a dining-hall
on great occasions. The master's house is thought to be the old "Hundred
Mennes Hall," but is now furnished with modern windows. The cloister on
the east side is of sixteenth-century work, paved with large red tiles;
"the roof is red-tiled," says a recent observer, "the long blank wall
faced with rough-cast of a warm yellowish tinge, and supported on a
range of broad and low timber arcading, which is, in its turn, supported
by a dwarf wall some three feet in height." The main feature of the
cloister is a red-brick oriel window; "reared upon two brick arches,
supported midway by an octangular pillar of the same material, and
flanked by splayed buttresses with stone quoins, the window-opening
occupies a comparatively small space, and is filled with stone mullions
and tracery of a Tudor character; the whole design proclaimed by a stone
tablet, let into the brickwork, to be the work of Bishop Compton." Above
the cloister is the infirmary, which opens into the church so as to
allow the sick to hear the service. The church, though considered by
many the finest existing example of Late and Transitional Norman, also
exhibits architecture of all periods down to Late Decorated. Commenced
by Bishop de Blois in 1171, it was not completed until the end of the
thirteenth century. From east to west it measures 125 feet, its ordinary
breadth is 54 feet, while at the transepts it is 115. Woodward thinks
from the appearance of the exterior that the body of the church was
widened at some period after its first erection. The windows are various
in style. In the nave they are Transition Norman and Early English, and
in the clerestory Decorated; in the choir aisles Late Norman. The
western doorway is Early English with dogtooth ornament, while the large
window above with its geometrical tracery is "fully developed
Decorated." The most striking feature of the exterior, however, is at
the south-east exterior angle of the south transept, a fine triple arch
with chevron and billet moulding, which was probably once a doorway into
a cloister no longer existing. Within the three-bay nave one is in the
midst of Early English and Transition Norman work. The bases and caps of
the Norman pillars are very rich, and, as has been pointed out, furnish
a great contrast to such Norman work as is seen on the transept pillars
at Winchester itself. The south walls are very plain, and were probably
connected with De Blois' buildings originally. In the choir above the
pier-arches is a triforium of intersecting arches (to which Milner
attributed the origin of the Pointed style), and there is a second
passage beneath the clerestory windows. The floor-brass of John de
Camden (1382) lies in the choir. When the church was restored by
Butterfield the choir was painted in imitation of the old colouring. It
cannot be said that the effect is at all pleasing. The new floor tiles
bear the letters Z.O. to commemorate the anonymous donor of the money
for this restoration. The old encaustic tiles bear the motto "Have
Mynde." In the chancel the Renaissance carving dates from about Henry
VII., while the Henry VIII. stalls have been removed to the morning
chapel in the south aisle. The transepts are a good example of the
transition to Early English style. In the northern arm can be seen the
window opening out of the infirmary, already mentioned above.
[Illustration: THE CITY CROSS, WINCHESTER. From an Old Print.]
[Illustration: TOMBSTONE IN THE CHURCHYARD. _A. Pumphrey, Photo._]
Of other points of interest in or near Winchester it would be out of
place to speak here at any length, but among the various objects that
are worth seeing in the town itself mention may be made of the City
Cross, erected by the Fraternity of the Holy Cross during the reign of
Henry VI. The chief figures represent William of Wykeham, Florence de
Anne, Mayor of Winchester, Alfred the Great, and S. Laurence, the latter
being the only old figure. Britton, in 1807, said: "The present building
is called the Butter Cross, because the retail dealers in that article
usually assemble round it." He complained of the injury done to it by
"boys and childish men." S. Laurence was the only figure in his day, and
it was then "generally said to be an effigy of S. John the Evangelist."
In the County Hall, which includes the remains of the ancient castle of
William the Conqueror's days, is "King Arthur's Round Table." This is
mentioned as being here by the chronicler John Harding (1378-1465), so
that its antiquity is undoubted. Its present painted design, however,
can not be earlier than the beginning of the sixteenth century, but
since Henry VIII.'s time the same design has been adhered to. The
illustration which appears here comes from an old print of the County
Hall. Milner, in his "History and Survey of Winchester" in the last
century, remarked that the Round Table "was evidently an eating table
for the knights who used to meet here to perform feats of chivalry,
which kind of meetings, from this circumstance, was anciently called
_The Round Table_. These, however, were not so much as known in England,
until the reign of King Stephen, 600 years after the reign of Arthur.
There is great reason to believe that the said Stephen was the real
author of the present table. The figures and characters now painted on
it were certainly first executed in the reign of Henry VIII."
[Illustration: THE WEST GATE, WINCHESTER. _Photochrom Co. Ltd., Photo._]
The last illustration represents the oldest of the city gates at
Winchester, parts of it being ascribed to the reign of Stephen. The town
now, of course, extends considerably beyond its original bounds.
DIMENSIONS
Total length (external) 556 feet.
Total length (internal) 526 "
Length of Nave (internal) 262 "
Width of Nave " 83 "
Width of Choir " 88 "
Length of Transept " 209 "
Height of Vault 78 "
TOTAL AREA 53,480 sq. feet.
Altar Screen {43 ft. 9 in. high.
{39 ft. 6 in. wide.
[Illustration: PLAN OF WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL.]
[Illustration: THE CRYPTS. From Britton's "Winchester" (1817).]
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester - A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See" ***
Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.