no precedent before him, so that his design was to a large extent in the
nature of an experiment. His idea, of course, was to enable those who
proceeded from the Winchester to the Oxford College to receive a
systematic and continuous education. Where Wykeham led, others were not
long in following. Two of his successors in the see of Winchester,
Waynflete and Fox, gave to Oxford the beautiful colleges of Magdalen and
Corpus Christi respectively. Archbishop Chichele, one of Wykeham's first
scholars, built St. Bernard's College, now St. John Baptist's, which he
gave to the Cistercians before its completion; and later in life he
founded the College of All Souls, while in his native village of Higham
Ferrers, Northants, he built and endowed a school, bede-house, and
church, which are among some of the loveliest pieces of building we
possess. Henry VI made himself intimately acquainted with the works of
Wykeham, and copied them for his two colleges of Eton, and King's
College, Cambridge. Until Wykeham's time, schools had been under or
connected with monastic houses; now they were distinct foundations, with
priests still as masters, but priests secular and not religious. Wykeham
was, indeed, the pioneer of the public-school system, of which, with all
its shortcomings, England is so justly proud.
Each of the bishop's colleges took about six years in building, and that
at Oxford was the first to be finished. It must have been a proud day
for Winchester when, on March 28, 1393, the "seventy faithful boys",
headed by their master, came in procession from St. Giles's Hill, where
they had been temporarily housed, and, all chanting psalms, entered into
possession of their fair college.
The buildings have been but little altered since their founder's day,
and extend now, as then, on the south side of the Close, and along the
bank of the Itchen. They consist mainly of two quadrangles, in the first
of which, entered from College Street by a gateway, are the Warden's
house and other offices. Here is the brewhouse, quite unaltered; but the
Warden's house has absorbed the old bakehouse, slaughterhouse, and
butcher's room. Over the second archway are figures of the Virgin, with
Gabriel on her right, and Wykeham kneeling on her left. Here was a room
for the Warden, from which he could see all who entered or left the
college; and here also is the site of the old penthouse under which the
scholars used to perform their ablutions, and which they called "Moab".
The old Society comprised the Warden, ten Fellows, three Chaplains,
sixteen Queristers, and seventy scholars. The boys, the chaplains, and
the choristers lived within the inner quadrangle, the northern side of
which is formed by the chapel and the refectory. The original chapel,
with the exception of the beautiful fan-groining of its roof, was much
defaced in the seventeenth century, but was restored in the nineteenth,
when a new reredos was added. The refectory remains practically
untouched, and has a roof enriched with some beautiful carved woodwork,
the painted heads of kings and bishops, and some great mullioned
windows. Over the buttery is the audit-room, hung with ancient and rare
tapestries, and containing a large chest known as Wykeham's money box.
The original schoolroom was in the basement, and has long been put to
other uses. The chantry, the beautiful cloisters, and the chapel tower
were all built after the founder's death, but he provided a wooden bell
tower, which stood away from the chapel, so that the main building
should not be injured by the vibration of the bells. The remaining
portions are mostly modern, and the foundation has naturally been much
enlarged since Wykeham's day, the last addition being the gateway in
Kingsgate Street, erected as a memorial to the many Wykehamists who
fell in the South African War.
On the wall of a passage adjoining the kitchen is a singular painting,
supposed to be emblematical of a "trusty servant", compounded of a man,
a hog, a deer, and an ass. The explanatory words beneath it are
attributed to Dr. Christopher Jonson, headmaster from 1560 to 1571.
With the completion of Winchester College, Wykeham turned his attention
to the Cathedral, although he was then seventy years of age. He lived to
see his munificence bearing good fruit, and his foundations flourishing
in reputation and usefulness; so that when he lay down to die, on
September 27, 1404, in his palace of Bishops' Waltham, he could look
back to a long life spent in the service of his Maker. The funeral
procession moved slowly along the ten miles that separated palace from
Cathedral through crowds of people mourning his loss. At the Cathedral
door the prior met the procession, and the great bishop-builder was laid
to rest in the beautiful chantry he had himself prepared. Four days
before his death he made and signed his will, in which he bestowed gifts
and legacies with the liberality that was so marked a characteristic of
his life. That crowds of poor would attend his obsequies he was probably
aware, for to each poor person seeking a bounty he bequeathed fourpence,
"for the love of God and his soul's health". To the Cathedral, on
which he had expended so much of his genius, he left money for its
completion; and bequeathed to it many precious things, including a cross
of gold in which was a piece of the "Tree of the Lord". Henry IV was
forgiven a debt of five hundred pounds, and was to have a pair of
silver-gilt basins, ornamented with double roses, which were probably
given to Wykeham by Edward III, as a special mark of his favour. So we
take leave of this master builder and munificent bishop, whose motto
"Manners makyth man" is known the world over. The inscription on his
tomb tells us of his works, but Wykeham needs no inscription so long as
the stones of the Cathedral hold together, and his two fair colleges
raise their buttressed walls beside the waters of the Isis and the
Itchen.
[Illustration: THE CLOISTERS, WINCHESTER COLLEGE]
Returning to the Butter Cross, the Piazza adjoining reminds one of the
Butter Walk at Dartmouth, and the famous "Rows" of Chester. It was used
for many years as a market where the country folk brought their produce,
being then known as the "Penthouse". The mints established on the site
by Athelstan were noted for the excellence of the coinage made there. In
the Westgate Museum an old leaden box is shown which was discovered at
Beauworth by a shepherd. It was found to contain some six thousand
silver pennies of the coinage of William I and Rufus. In addition to its
famous mints Winchester was the chief trading centre of this part of
England during mediaeval days. A great woollen trade was carried on with
Flanders when the city became one of the "staple" towns, still
commemorated by "Staple Gardens", a narrow lane leading out of the north
side of High Street, where the great warehouse for the storage of wool
once stood. A little below the Queen Anne Guildhall, but on the opposite
side of the street, is St. John's Hospital; while another old lane
leading off from the main thoroughfare is Royal Oak Passage, at the
junction of which with the street is the ancient house known as
God-begot House, with some good timberwork and a fine gable. "Jewry"
Street recalls to our memory the early settlement of the Jews in
Winchester, for the citizens seem to have been more kindly disposed
towards this persecuted race than those of the majority of English
cities at an early period in their history. Richard of Devizes, in 1189,
called Winchester the "Jerusalem of the Jews", and, writing of the
massacre and plunder of the Jews in London and other cities, said:
"Winchester alone, the people being prudent and circumspect and the city
always acting mildly, spared its vermin". The Jews settled in Winchester
between the years 1090 and 1290, landing at Southampton and making
their way up the Itchen until they came in sight of the old capital of
the kingdom. Crossing the river, they entered the city by the East Gate,
and finally chose as their abiding-place a site near the north walls, in
a thoroughfare then known as "Scowrtenstrete", Shoemakers' Row. The
community soon could boast of a synagogue, and were the possessors of
several schools. At the bottom of the High Street are the Abbey Gardens,
so called from their being on the site of an abbey founded by Ealhswith,
King Alfred's queen, in which to spend the years of her widowhood. The
general plan of the gardens has probably been but little altered since
the days when the nuns paced their shady paths in pious meditation. An
ancient manuscript of prayers, used by the abbess in the ninth century,
is preserved in the British Museum. Ealhswith's son, Edward the Elder,
levied a toll from all merchandise passing under the City Bridge by
water, and beneath the East Gate by land, for the better support of the
abbey founded by his mother. Before the bridge stood the East Gate, and
crossing we are in that part of the city known as the "Soke". In the
"Liberty of the Soke" the bishop of the diocese had his court, presided
over by the bailiff as his deputy. Thus the bishop's jurisdiction was
entirely independent of that of the civic authorities. Wolvesey was his
palace, and within its walls, now ivy-clad and crumbling to decay, he
held his court, with three tithing men and a constable to assist him.
Here also was his exchequer, and here he imprisoned those who offended
against his laws. All that now remains of the once celebrated episcopal
palace of Wolvesey--said, with no authority, to have been so named from
the tribute of wolves' heads levied upon the Welsh by King Edgar--are a
few ruined walls, of sufficient extent to give one an idea of the
strength of the castle in its original state. At Wolvesey King Alfred
brought together the scholars who were to aid him in writing the
"Chronicles of the Time"; and on the outer walls he hung the bodies of
Danish pirates as a warning to those who made periodical raids up the
valley of the Itchen.
In the hands of Bishop de Blois the palace became of great importance,
and withstood a siege by David, King of Scotland, and Robert, Earl of
Gloucester. De Blois was one of those who assisted at the coronation of
Henry II, and pulled down the tower when the bishop was absent from the
diocese without the royal permission, on a visit to Clugny. Although
shorn of much of its former strength, the palace remained a fortress
until the fortifications of Winchester were reduced to a heap of ruins
by Cromwell.
[Illustration: RUINS OF WOLVESEY CASTLE]
Beyond the City Bridge rises St. Giles's Hill, named after Giles, one
of those numerous hermit saints who played so prominent a part in
establishing the Christian faith in these islands. The hill is deeply
grooved by a railway cutting; on it was held for many centuries a kind
of open market or annual fair, which attracted the wealthy merchants of
France, Flanders, and Italy. The fair generally lasted a fortnight,
during which time all other local business was suspended, the shops
closed, and the mayor handed over the keys of the city to the bishop,
who claimed large fees from the stall holders. Thirty marks were paid
for repairs needed at the Church of St. Swithun, and similar sums were
demanded by the abbeys. Bishop Walkelin was granted the tolls of the
fair for three days by William Rufus, his kinsman; but in the time of
Henry III the privilege was extended to sixteen days. The stalls were
arranged in long rows, and named according to the goods sold thereon, or
after the nationality of the vendors. Thus one row would be named the
Street of Caen, another that of Limoges, while the Drapery and Spicery
stalls were held by the monks of St. Swithun, who proved themselves
energetic traders at the great annual fair, which lasted until modern
times, and was removed in due course from St. Giles's Hill into the
city. Dean Kitchin writes: "As the city grew stronger and the fair
weaker, it slid down St. Giles's Hill and entered the town, where its
noisy ghost still holds revel once a year".
At the present day St. Giles's Hill is a pleasant spot from which to
view the venerable city. Down the valley, by the Itchen, rises the
Hospital and Church of St. Cross, a picturesque and peaceful group of
buildings viewed from any position, but particularly so taken in
conjunction with the ancient city and the fertile valley threaded by
numberless small streams. On the left side of the valley is St.
Catherine's Hill, a bold and outstanding spur crowned with a small belt
of trees surrounded by a circular earthwork. At one time a chapel
dedicated to St. Catherine capped the hill, and slight traces of the
building may yet be seen. Here is the interesting maze, said to have
been made by a Winchester College boy who was obliged to remain behind
during the holidays, but probably of a different origin, some
antiquaries holding the opinion that it is of great antiquity, and in
some way connected with ecclesiastical penance.
Looking citywards, one can see the towers of many churches rising above
the gables and chimneys of the houses. Near at hand are St. Peter's,
Cheeshill, and St. John's, the former an interesting little building
with a mixture of styles, among which the Norman and Early English
predominate, the windows being of a later period. The bell turret is
situated at the south-east corner of the building, which, as a whole,
gives a singular impression, due to the fact that it is nearly as broad
as it is long. St. John's Church is the most interesting in the city,
containing as it does a fine rood screen, with the rood-loft stairs
still existing in a turret of fifteenth-century date. Other features of
interest are the fourteenth-century Decorated screens that enclose the
chancel on each side, and an arched recess at the east end of the north
wall, containing an altar-tomb with quatrefoil panels supporting shields
on which are the symbols of the Passion. The tomb itself bears neither
inscription nor date.
Here also are a set of carved bench ends, a Perpendicular pulpit, and an
octagonal font.
Unfortunately, most of the other churches of Winchester have been either
rebuilt or so altered as to retain very little of their original
architecture. The Church of St. Maurice, rebuilt in 1841, has saved a
Norman doorway, fragments of a fine Decorated screen which now serve for
altar rails, and an ancient chest.
Like most of our cathedral cities, Winchester is well supplied with
charitable institutions, although the best known of them all, the famous
Hospital of St. Cross, is situated a mile away from the city proper. The
Hospital of St. John, within Winchester, is one of the oldest
foundations of the kind in the country, and a portion of the vaulted
kitchen remaining in the building may not unreasonably be supposed to
have formed part of the almshouse thought to have been founded on the
spot in A.D. 935 by St. Brinstan. The chapel connected with the charity
dates from the time of the third Henry, and contains a piece of
fourteenth-century carving depicting the nimbed head of the Saviour,
which is now built into a wall. Considerable doubt exists as to the
original founder and early re-founders of this hospital, and little is
known concerning it until the time of Edward II, when John Devenish
re-founded it. At that period it seems to have been for the "sole relief
of sick and lame soldiers, poor pilgrims, and necessitated wayfaring
men, to have their lodging and diet there for one night, or longer, as
their inability to travel may require". Many influential citizens left
money or property to this charity. In 1400 Mark le Faire, Mayor of
Winchester, bequeathed to it several houses, including the "great inn
called the George", and the "house under the penthouse where Mr. Hodgson
died". Richard Devenish, in the time of Henry VI, left a sum of money to
provide for a more frequent performance of divine service in the chapel;
but in the reign of Henry VIII these and other funds were confiscated,
although the building itself was subsequently restored to the
Corporation.
[Illustration: BEAUFORT TOWER AND AMBULATORY, ST. CROSS]
After the Reformation, Ralph Lambe re-founded the charity for six
poor and needy persons, who were to have six separate homes or chambers
within the hospital, each furnished with locks and keys. Each person was
to receive ten shillings quarterly, with a gown value ten shillings, and
ten shillings' worth of coal yearly. On the election of a new mayor each
was to receive two shillings, and any funds remaining were to be divided
among the inmates at the discretion of the mayor and aldermen of the
city. This institution is still a flourishing one, and the original
hall, standing to the west of the chapel, is let as a public
dining-hall.
Another old charity was that of St. Mary Magdalene, founded for lepers,
in 1173-88, by Bishop Toclyve, the inmates being known locally as "the
infirm people upon the hill", now Maun Hill. In early times lepers were
required to give up the whole of their personal goods, and one of the
questions asked by the official visitor to the Hospital of St. Mary
Magdalene was whether the goods of the deceased inmates went to the
works of the church after the settlement of debts. The funds of this
foundation were much tampered with at various times, and it lost some of
its property at the Reformation. One of its benefactors left to it four
flitches of bacon yearly, this being an important article of diet. The
original plan of the hospital was quadrangular: on two sides were the
inmates' rooms and the chapel, the remaining sides being occupied by the
Master's House and the common hall. The buildings were much damaged in
the time of Charles I by the troops stationed there, and again in the
reign of Charles II by the Dutch prisoners confined within the hospital.
The chapel was pulled down in 1788, and the materials were used for
building purposes, when the fine Early Norman doorway was used in the
Roman Catholic Church in St. Peter Street, where it may still be seen.
This was the west doorway of the ancient hospital chapel. The site is
now occupied by a hospital of another character, the isolation hospital,
but the old "lepers' well" can still be seen. The charity survives to
some extent in six cottages in Water Lane, built in 1788, wherein are
housed four men and four women.
In Symond's Street stands the picturesque "Christes Hospital", founded in
1586 by James Symonds. It is generally called the "Bluecoat" Hospital,
from the distinctive dress worn by the inmates. A scholastic institution
was attached to this charity for the education of four poor boys, chosen
by the mayor and corporation, who also elected their teacher. The latter
was not to be, in the terms of the founder, either a "Scotchman, an
Irishman, a Welshman, a foreigner, or a North-countryman", lest their
pronunciation of the English language should suffer.
From among the fertile meadows bordering the banks of the Itchen to the
south of Winchester rises the stately grey pile of St. Cross, standing
where it has stood for over seven and a half centuries, a witness alike
to the munificence of its founders, de Blois and Beaufort, and to the
skill of the mediaeval builders.
A good road leads from the city to the pleasing suburb in which the
hospital is situated, though a far pleasanter way is by one of the field
paths through the meadows.
Henry de Blois became bishop when only twenty-eight years old, and in
1136 he founded the hospital for the entire support of "thirteen poor
men, feeble and so reduced in strength that they can hardly or with
difficulty support themselves without another's aid"; and they were to
be supplied with "garments and beds suitable to their infirmities, good
wheate bread daily of the weight of 5 marks, and three dishes at dinner
and one at supper, suitable to the day, and drink of good stuff".
Besides this, he provided for a hundred poor men to be supplied daily
with dinner. Bishop Toclyve, de Blois's successor in the see, added to
the charity the feeding of yet another hundred poor men daily; and it
has been said, on somewhat slight evidence, that the poorer scholars of
Winchester College dined without fee in the "Hundred Men's Hall".
In 1137 the management of the institution was given over to the Knights
of St. John of Jerusalem; the cross still worn as a badge by the
Brethren is a link with the ancient Order, being the cross _potent_, or
Jerusalem cross, which was an insignia of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
established by the Crusaders.
[Illustration: ST. CROSS FROM THE MEADOWS]
Shortly after the death of de Blois a dispute arose between the
Hospitallers and the bishop, but after the lapse of many years the
management was restored to the latter, then Peter de Rupibus, who
appointed Alan de Soke as Master. In 1446, Cardinal Beaufort, Wykeham's
successor in the see, added a new foundation to St. Cross, to be called
"The Almshouse of Noble Poverty". De Blois's charity had been intended
to benefit the very needy; this of Beaufort's was designed for those who
had fallen upon evil days after a life of ease and comfort. There were
to be two priests, thirty-five brethren, and three sisters. The brethren
were to be of gentle birth, or old servants of the founder. The scheme,
however, was never completed, owing to the Wars of the Roses
intervening, with the result that the estates with which he had intended
to endow his almshouse were claimed by the Crown on the accession of the
House of York. So it came about that in 1486 Bishop Waynflete was
compelled to reduce the recipients of Beaufort's charity to one priest
and two brethren. Fortunately, St. Cross was spared at the
Reformation, and its endowments were not confiscated. The Vicar-General
reported that there were "certain things requiring reformation", and
that sturdy beggars were to be "driven away with staves"; also that the
Lord's Prayer and the Creed were to be taught in English, and that
relics and images were not to be brought out for the devotion of
pilgrims. In 1632 Archbishop Laud caused a strict enquiry to be made,
with the result that the Master, Dr. Lewis, reported that the fabric was
in a state of great dilapidation. This Master lost his post through his
loyalty to Church and King, and John Lisle, the regicide, became Master
of the Hospital until Cromwell made him a peer, when his place was
filled by John Cooke, the Solicitor-General who drew up the indictment
against Charles I. Both these regicides met with misfortune, for Cooke
was executed and Lisle assassinated, so that at the Restoration Dr.
Lewis was restored to the mastership. Between the years 1848 and 1853,
chancery suits, costing a large sum of money, resulted in an entirely
new scheme being drawn up, under which the two charities were treated as
separate foundations under one head. The differences of qualification
between the two sets of Brethren are carefully laid down, and a portion
of the income is used for the maintenance of fifty out-pensioners, the
modern equivalent for the "Hundred Poor Men" of mediaeval days. The
distinctive dresses of the Brethren are the same with regard to colour
and cut as those worn in the time of Henry VI, those worn by the
recipients of Beaufort's charity being of red cloth, with the badge, a
cardinal's hat and tassels on a silver plate, worn on the left breast.
The Brethren of the older institution, founded by de Blois, wear black
gowns, with the silver cross _potent_ pinned on the left breast. On the
death of a Brother the cross is placed on a red velvet cushion and laid
on his breast in the coffin; but before burial the cross is removed and
fastened by the Master on the breast of the Brother elected in place of
the deceased.
The Hospital buildings consist of an outer courtyard and gateway, to the
right of which are the kitchens, and on the left the old brewhouse and
remains of some of the earlier buildings. Immediately facing us is the
tower gateway, thoroughly restored, if not built originally, by Cardinal
Beaufort, under the groined archway of which is the porter's lodge,
where the "Wayfarers' Dole" is still distributed to all who apply at the
hatchway, an interesting and almost sole survival of the mediaeval
custom by which food and drink were offered to passers-by. The daily
dole at the present day consists of two gallons of ale and two loaves of
bread, divided into thirty-two portions. The apartment over the archway
is the Founder's room, wherein are stored all the ancient documents
relating to the foundation. Beaufort's arms appear in one of the
spandrels above the gateway arch, the corresponding spandrel exhibiting
the ancient regal arms of England. On this side of the entrance are
three niches, one of which contains a figure of the cardinal in a
kneeling posture. The vacant niche in the south front once held a statue
of the Virgin, which fell to the ground more than a century ago, and
nearly killed one of the Brethren in its descent.