look as old as we know it to be, we enter the great quadrangle, around
which the various buildings are grouped. On the eastern side is the
Infirmary, with the Ambulatory beneath it, a long, low cloister of
sixteenth-century date, which extends along the whole side to the
church. In one of the rooms above, a window opens into the church, where
there may once have been a gallery to enable the infirm to hear the
services. In 1763 Bishop Hoadley granted a license to the Master to pull
down the cloister and use the materials for other purposes, but
fortunately this was never done. On the opposite side of the quadrangle
are the houses of the Brethren. Each dwelling consists of two rooms and
a pantry, and has a garden attached.
The Brethren's Hall stands on the north side of the quadrangle, and is
a portion only of the old "Hundred Mennes Hall"; but enough is left to
enable one to form a good idea of the original apartment, which measured
36 feet by 24 feet, until a portion was cut off to provide rooms for the
Master, who is now lodged in a modern dwelling outside the gates. At the
east end of the hall is a table where the officials sat, those for the
Brethren being ranged along the sides. Some black-leather jacks,
candlesticks, salt-cellars, pewter dishes, and a dinner bell, all dating
from Beaufort's time, are still carefully preserved. At the opposite end
of the hall is a screen with the minstrels' gallery above, whence, on
high days and holidays, the Brethren were enlivened with music during
their feastings. The chief festivals of the year were All Saints' Day,
Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Twelfth Day, and Candlemas Day, on which
occasions the Brethren had "extraordinary commons, and on the eve of
which days they had a fire of charcoal in the Common Hall, and one jack
of six quarts and one pint of beer extraordinary, to drink together by
the fire. And on the said feast-day they had a fire at dinner, and
another at supper in the said hall, and they had a sirloin of beef
roasted, weighing forty-six pounds and a half, and three large
mince-pies, and plum broth, and three joints of mutton for their supper,
and six quarts and one pint of beer extraordinary at dinner, and six
quarts and one pint of beer after dinner, by the fireside; six quarts
and a pint at supper, and the like after supper." During Lent, each
brother had eight shillings paid to him instead of commons, and on Palm
Sunday the Brethren had a "green fish, of the value of three shillings
and fourpence, and their pot of milk pottage with three pounds of rice
boiled in it, and three pies with twenty-four herrings baked in them,
and six quarts and one pint of beer extraordinary". On Good Fridays they
had at dinner "in their pot of beer a cast of bread sliced, and three
pounds of honey, boiled together, which they call honey sop". Beneath
the hall is a fine vaulted cellar, of ample proportions, a worthy
resting-place for the stock of St. Cross ale.
[Illustration: THE BRETHREN'S HALL, ST. CROSS]
But, interesting as are all these portions of the Hospital of St. Cross,
it is the church which has the greatest attraction for architect and
antiquary alike, for it contains good examples of every style. From
Romanesque, through Norman and Early English, to Later Decorated, and to
Transition Norman, the church is considered to be the best example in
existence. This building, unfinished after nearly two hundred years, was
roofed with lead, in place of the thatch which originally covered it, by
William of Edyndon, the famous Wiltshireman who became Master of St.
Cross in the fourteenth century, and who restored the fabric from the
ruinous state in which he found it to a condition of beauty and
strength. The windows of the clerestory were erected by him; he
re-roofed the "Hundred Menne's Hall", and built a new chamber for the
Master.
On entering the church, through the north porch, one is struck by its
loftiness and dignity, the vaulting throughout being of stone, while
almost every ornamental feature of the Norman style can be seen.
Proceeding to the western end of the church, and looking down the nave,
the gradual development of its architecture can be well seen. The east
end is Norman, the bay next the transepts Transition Norman, while the
west end is Early English. The windows vary from Norman and Transition
Norman to Early English, while those of the clerestory are Decorated.
Mention must be made of the fine stone screens and tabernacle-work on
either side of the altar, the altar slab of Purbeck marble, the
triforium of intersecting arches in the choir, and the roof pendants.
The western portion of the church was built during the mastership of
Peter de Sancto Mario, and his fine canopied tomb is a striking object
on the north side of the nave. Interesting, too, are the beautiful
fourteenth-century tiles, some bearing the appropriate motto "Have
Mynde"; and a very human note is struck in the mason's marks, still to
be seen in various parts of the building, especially around the
staircase door in the south transept. What these signs actually mean is
unknown, but some authorities, notably Leader Scott in her work on
_Cathedral Builders_, trace them through the Comacine Guild to the Roman
_Collegia_.
In the south-east corner of the south transept, on the exterior of the
church, is a "triple-arch", which is thought to have been a doorway, and
may have led to the "clerken-house", the original habitation of the
seven choristers and their master, but which was pulled down by de
Cloune, Master of St. Cross in the fourteenth century, who also allowed
other parts of the fabric to fall into a state of great dilapidation.
Here also, on the south side of the quadrangle, stood the original
houses of Beaufort's foundation, which were not pulled down until 1789.
No groups of buildings are in their way more charming or more
impregnated with human associations than the famous episcopal foundation
of St. Cross--an asylum of peace and rest, comfort and repose, to those
who find shelter within its ancient walls, and a standing monument to
the memory of the pious Henry de Blois and the princely churchman,
Cardinal Beaufort. Winchester, like many an English city, would be shorn
of much of its interest were this benevolent institution to be removed.
The general air of peace and quietude, the grass-bordered walks, the
stately church, all contribute to convey an appeal which is almost
sacred in its simple eloquence. In the words of one who loved it well:
"No one can pass its threshold without feeling himself landed, as it
were, in another age. The ancient features of the building, the noble
gateway, the quadrangle, the common refectory, the cloister, and, rising
above all, the lofty and massive pile of the venerable church, the
uniform garb and reverend mien of the aged brethren, the common
provision for their declining years, the dole at the gatehouse, all lead
back our thoughts to days when men gave their best to God's honour, and
looked on what was done to His poor as done to Himself, and were as
lavish of architectural beauty on what modern habits might deem a
receptacle for beggars, as on the noblest of royal palaces. It seems a
place where no worldly thought, no pride, or passion, or irreverence
could enter; a spot where, as a modern writer has beautifully expressed
it, a good man, might he make his choice, would wish to die."
The country around this beautiful city by the Itchen is full of quiet
charm, for life's ever-changing drama has but one and the same
background. The actors come and go, but the stage remains much the same,
and the devotions, the meditations, and the acts of men who lived
centuries ago were set in the amphitheatre of the same green hills, and
took place beside the same winding river as those we gaze upon to-day.
[Illustration: PLAN OF WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL]
Literature, too, has worthy names here in Izaak Walton and Jane Austen,
both of whom lie buried in the cathedral; while the house at Winchester
in which the author of _Persuasion_ lived, for a brief period before
her death, stands beyond the college gate. Above the door is a wooden
tablet recording that here Jane Austen spent her last days, dying July
18, 1817. She had previously resided at Chawton for some eight years,
but her house in the village is now a Workmen's Club. At the same time,
Chawton is a pretty little spot, watered by land springs, known locally
as "lavants"; while some few miles away is Farrington, where Gilbert
White, of "Selborne" fame, was curate.
Other literary associations of the Winchester country are those
furnished by Hursley, where John Keble was vicar; by Otterbourne, the
home for many years of Charlotte Yonge; and by Eversley, where
Winchester's immortal son, Charles Kingsley, lies buried.
Each succeeding visit to Winchester can only strengthen one's love for
the city, and one's reverence for the Cathedral in its midst. Our
pilgrimage of Winchester the beautiful is over.
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
_At the Villafield Press, Glasgow, Scotland_