Winchester Part 2

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 inst.i.tutions, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 inst.i.tution 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 inst.i.tution 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 p.r.o.nunciation 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 inst.i.tution 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 n.o.ble 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 st.u.r.dy 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 a.s.sa.s.sinated, 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 ta.s.sels on a silver plate, worn on the left breast.

The Brethren of the older inst.i.tution, 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 pa.s.sers-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 doc.u.ments 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.

Pa.s.sing through this n.o.ble gateway, which, somehow or other, does not 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 a.s.sociations 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 inst.i.tution to be removed.

The general air of peace and quietude, the gra.s.s-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 pa.s.s its threshold without feeling himself landed, as it were, in another age. The ancient features of the building, the n.o.ble gateway, the quadrangle, the common refectory, the cloister, and, rising above all, the lofty and ma.s.sive 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 G.o.d'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 n.o.blest of royal palaces. It seems a place where no worldly thought, no pride, or pa.s.sion, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 a.s.sociations 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.