The oldest known road in all England is the "Pilgrim's Way" which used
to run along the southern coast from the neighbourhood of Salisbury to
Canterbury. In very early times it started from Stonehenge, but when
that place yielded in importance to the newer settlement of Sarum, and
it in turn to Salisbury, the section from Stonehenge to Alton was
abandoned because of the new demands of traffic from Salisbury to Alton.
Many parts of it are still easily traceable and are worth study by those
interested in historic national highways. Maurice Hewlett, in that
charming book in the mediaeval manner, "New Canterbury Tales," has his
pilgrims proceed not from London, as did Chaucer's people, but along
this very road from Salisbury to Winchester and thence to Canterbury.
Nothing is known of Stonehenge, the earliest starting-point of this
road--it lies hidden behind the veil on the hither side of which history
begins. Likewise, very ancient are the traditions which we shall find at
Winchester. As we wend our way along this time-worn highway toward the
latter town, we are (in the words of Le Gallienne) "now entering on a
region where the names of Saxon kings are still on the lips of peasants,
where the battlefields have been green for a thousand years, and the
Norman Conquest is spoken of as elsewhere we speak of the French
Revolution--a comparatively recent convulsion of politics." To us,
pondering upon these ancient thoughts, there comes forth to meet us from
Royal Winchester a strange array of
"Visions, like Alcestis,
Brought from underlands of memory."
We seem to see Alfred the Great and his tutor St. Swithin; King Canute,
whose imperious sway stopped only at controlling the tide; William of
Wykeham, the great builder of cathedrals, churches and colleges; Jane
Austen, friend of us all; the gentle Isaac Walton, and many another.
Shades and visions of shades! Nay, even the lovely New Forest through
which we are travelling seems peopled with ghosts from homes destroyed
to provide space for it by the ruthless Norman conqueror William--ghosts
that old legends say winged the arrow that here slew his son William
Rufus. And is not Winchester itself the ghost of the kingly capitals it
has been--the Saxon capital of Alfred, who here wrote the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle; the Danish capital of Canute, whose sway extended far out
over Scandinavia; the Norman capital of William ruling both sides of the
Channel? In harmony with this weird ghostliness is a strange story that
has to do with the building of the cathedral. William's Bishop,
Walkelin, received a grant from his royal master of all the wood that he
could cut from the forest of Hannepings during the space of four days.
When William rode forth to see how much had been removed for the
purposes of the new building, he at first thought magic had been
invoked, for lo! the entire forest was gone! The only magic used proved
to be the great energy shown by the Bishop in collecting such a horde of
workmen as to perform this tremendous feat in so short a time.
Stately and impressive as is the long grey cathedral, and pregnant as
are its memories, there are others in Winchester equally potent to
conjure up the distant past, for in the County Hall we shall see
suspended against the wall the Table Round of King Arthur and his
knights. Tennyson, in his description of King Arthur's Hall, shows
himself a stout advocate of how glorious a part stained glass can play
in a scheme of decoration. He says:
"And, brother, had you known our hall within,
Broader and higher than any in all the lands!
Where twelve great windows blazon Arthur's wars
And all the light that falls upon the board
Streams thro' the twelve great battles of our King.
Nay, one there is, and at the eastern end,
Wealthy with wandering lines of mount and mere
Where Arthur finds the brand Excalibur."
The cathedral, although giving the impression of spaciousness, does not
receive full credit for its size--as a matter of fact it is the largest
in England. According to the delightful English custom, it lies within a
charming Close of green lawn and trees, while on one side a narrow
passage called the Slype, quaintly inscribed, gives access to the
Deanery, Library, &c., close by, which buildings add so much to the
picturesque effect of the whole. Within the portal we shall find the
remains of many ancient great ones, some in mortuary chests placed high
aloft, and others interred in the customary manner beneath slabs of the
pavement. Walpole justly says, "How much power and ambition under half a
dozen stones!"
The remains of old glass in this church are more interesting than
numerous. Cromwell's ruffians here outdid themselves. Not content with
their usual method of smashing the windows as high up as they could
thrust their pikes, they broke open the ancient mortuary chests
containing the remains of early kings and ecclesiastics, and hurled
through the upper window panes the bones of Canute, William Rufus, and
many another long dead ruler--a gruesome destruction indeed! The most
important examples of stained glass date from just after the death of
William of Wykeham (1404). So interested was this great man in our
gentle art that he placed in his will minute instructions covering the
glazing of the windows of his beloved cathedral. He ordains that it be
commenced in the nave at the first embrasure west of the new work done
by him and then proceed "bene et honeste et decenter" easterly along the
south aisle and south clerestory, then, provided any money remains
unexpended, the north aisle and the north clerestory. There are more
remains of his beneficence on the north side than on the south. Four of
his canopied figures have been moved to the first embrasure from the
east in the choir clerestory. All of this glass is quite similar to that
which he installed in the antechapel of New College at Oxford. There are
earlier Perpendicular remains in the great west window, in those at the
west end of the nave aisles, and in the first of the south aisle. If it
were not for the west window with its deliciously mellow effect,
Winchester would hardly have been included in this tour, for the
remainder of the glass, though of interest, is not important. One should
proceed eastward as far as the transept before turning to look at the
west window, for thus he will be able to enjoy its effect without having
first learned that it is really only a jumble of old glass put together
every which way, another example of colour outlasting design. Strangely
enough, its soft grey-greenish tones remind one of the Five Sisters at
York, earlier by two centuries. A nearer approach not only reveals the
disordered array of fragments but also permits one to remark a few of
the original figures and canopies in the upper left-hand corner. The
nine lofty lights are subdivided into three groups of three each by
means of two of the mullions which are thicker than the others; these
two swerve off to the left and right when nearing the top in the usual
Perpendicular manner. An unusual feature is the fact that the mullions
of the window have been carried down over the face of the stone wall
below, thus agreeably tying together the wall of glass and the
supporting one of stone. In this window there are two circles of
geometric patterns, made up of early Decorated fragments. Glass dating
from the end of the reign of Henry VI. is to be seen in the three most
westerly embrasures of the clerestory on the north, and the two most
easterly on the south. These latter are from six to ten inches too short
for the embrasures, thus indicating that they have been transferred from
elsewhere.
[Illustration: NAVE, WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL
The excellent effect produced by the Fifteenth Century fragments
with which this window is glazed proves that colour is more
important than design in glass. Note swerving to right and left
of two principal mullions, thus relieving a monotony of upright
lines]
Our first glance toward the east makes one inclined to quarrel with what
seems to be the excessive height of the gracefully carved reredos,
which appears to encroach upon the east window and to leave only so much
of it visible as to make it too wide for its height. A closer view
exculpates the reredos, for it turns out that the window is placed so
unusually high in the wall that none of it is concealed by the great
altar. Its seven lights separate into a central group of three and two
side ones of two each. The original glazing has been replaced by some
given about 1525 by Bishop Fox, which, however, is now much restored;
there appear upon it his arms and motto, "Est deo Gracia." The top
central light has some of the earlier Wykeham glass. The manufacture of
glass had much improved by the time of Bishop Fox, but the effect of
this window cannot be compared with the larger one to the west. From
fragments observable in some side windows, and also in the traceries of
both the north and south aisles of the choir, it seems that the Fox
glass was also used there. It is to be regretted that there is not on
view the contents of two boxes in the cloisters of Winchester School,
where are stored the Wykeham panels taken from the west embrasures of
New College antechapel to make room for Sir Joshua Reynolds' "Virtues."
Before leaving Winchester one should take time to see the ancient church
of St. Cross. In 1136 Henry de Blois commanded that every one who
demanded a piece of bread and a draught of beer at the gate of this
church should receive it, a quaint echo of mediaeval hospitality.