WINCHESTER CATHE&RAL ha s n ow been thrown open to &i si tors free of charge. with the ex ception of the tower a n d c e rypt, for seeing whi ch guidance is nec ssary a n d a small cha e i a e rg s m d .

Hitherto a fee of Si x pence ha s been charged for admission totheeastern parts of i the bui di n Th ceed om th char e l g . epro s fr s g

1200 13 00 annua a mounte to bet een n d . d w 35 a J£ lly

These have been devoted entirely to the upkeep of Cathe a i e e the dr l an d ts s rvic s .

It is h oped that the voluntary. contribution s made by &i si tors will n ot fall short of this INCHESTER CATHE& RAL is one of the most ’ famous of England s hi storic buildings . It wa s the central shrine of Wessex and of the Anglo- Saxon

kingdom, and here at Easter Norman kings wore the crown . It is associated also with such great names as those of William Wa n flete who of Wykeham, William of y , and Richard Fox ,

endowed education in the country, and with famous regiments , K ’ especially The Royal Hampshire Regiment, The ing s Royal

Rifle Corps , and The Rifle Brigade . Among the monuments

are many of great bishops and great soldiers . And the praises of n n t t t t n God , have bee sung o his spo for nearly hir ee hi hundred years . Arc tecturally as well as historically the

building deserves minute study . But most of all it is a great

House of God where all His children are welcomed , to meditate

and pray .

The Cathedral is associated with many important events

and great persons in English history . Here the earlies t kings

worshipped and were buried . In the church lie the bones of 83 9 o th l Egbert (d . ) the first king f all England of fE e wulf 85 8 (d . ) the friend of Saint Swithun and father of Alfred 9 4 103 5 95 5 . 9 of Edred (d . ) and Canute (b d . ) and Hartha 10 19 1 042 1060 a . cnut (b . d . ) and Willi m Rufus (b d . 1 043 Here Edward the Confessor was crowned in . Here &II 1486 Arthur the eldest son of Hen ry was christened in . 15 5 4 Here Mary I was married to Philip of Spain in . And almost every English kin g and prince down to George & in 1 9 12 and Edward Prince of Wales in 1923 have come here

to pray .

Among the many monuments1 are some of great beauty

and interest , notably those of Richard Weston Earl of Portland 163 5 z f (d . ) with a fine bron e e figy by Le Sueur Dr . Warton , Head Master of the College ( 1 766 1 800) with a charming group by Flaxman ; an expressive figure by Chantry of Bishop Brownlow North (178 1 1 820) and grave- stones of Izaak Walton ( 15 93 1683 ) and Jane Austen ( 1775 In 1923 English and American admirers erected a wooden statue by Mr . J . N . Comper to the memory of Joan of Arc . In the year 63 4 there landed on the coast of Hampshire Bi i a mission from Rome headed by a Bishop names r n us ,

1 S ee in side of ba c k cover. 1410 THE NA&E LOOKING EAST ( 13 60 ) of who set about the conversion the West Saxons . In the z K n e ils K next year he bapti ed y g ing of Wessex . Saint ’ — Augustine s missio n had arrived in Kent thirty seven years r before . In Wales there emained the ancient British Church . 63 5 In the next year, , Aidan entered Northumbria from

Scotland . Christianity had surrounded and was closing in upon pagan England .

’ — Birin us first pla ced his bishop s stool his cathedra —a t Dorchester in Oxfordshire , but some forty years later, Birin us e after the death of , it was remov d to Winchester . Here the King built a church in honour of the Holy Trinity and SS . Peter and Paul . It was served by canons though i Bir n us himself had been a monk . This was the church in 862 ; which Saint Swithun , dying in , thought himself un worthy to be buried . Destroyed by the Danes , it was rebuilt by the reforming bis hopthelwold and dedicated about 980 at the time of a great revival of church life under Archbishop th lwold Dunstan . E e substituted Benedictine monks for the ther f earlier canons . His new church was e oreg a cathedral and a monastic church . It is thought probable that it stood to the north of the present cathedral , which replaced it after e it had continued in use for a littl more than a century .

1 1 079 b lk l The present church was begun in y Wa e in , the

first Norman bishop , a relative of the Conqueror . The eastern part was sufficiently far advanced for the monks to 1093 use it by . It was probably finished by Bishop Henry 1 1 7 1 K of Blois (d . ) brother of ing Stephen and builder of 1 927 Farnham Castle , till the palace of the bishop . The church was planned on very generous lines . This was an age of great zeal for the monastic life and of great enthusiasm for building , and the Normans had very large ideas . Everything, therefore , conspired to make the churches built immediately s 1 after the Conquest remarkable for their ze. These have often been altered , but except for some special purpose it has never been necessary to enlarge them . The church at Winchester was the largest except old Saint Paul ’ s—larger than anything that was being built on the Continent . Built partly for the community of monks who lived in the cloister, partly as the church of the bishop of the diocese , partly to

1 la n n a 8 a n d S ee p o pges 9 . Y 1 2TH CENT&RY F ONT AN& WY KEHA& CHANTR a c ontain the relics of departed saints , hardly at all as a dioces n e centre and c rtainly not as a national monument , it was , like the other great Norman churches , the expression of an aspiring and virile race .

’ Wa lkelin s church was in the form of a cross , that is with chancel and nave and transepts . In the centre there was one tower and at the west end another with a small transept on either side . In this arrangement of towers as in several other respects Winchester resembles Ely which was built by Abbot lkeli . Wa n Simeon , formerly Prior of Winchester raised his large presbytery on a vaulted basement, which massive and d imly lighted crypt is very impressive in its gloom and mystery . It is as Wa lkelin left it and shows the original form of the east part of the upper church which has since been rebuilt 5 for the plan of the two must; of course , have been the same . ’ Thus we see from the shape of the crypt that Wa lkelin s great u pper church had an apse at the east end column and arch s weeping round in a half circle across the end of the church , a n d behind them a continuous aisle forming an uninterrupted path for processions .

In the centre of the apse stood the high altar behind it . a lmost under the centre arch and raised high on a flight of ’ s teps , was the bishop s throne , facing westwards and looking o ver the altar towards the monks . On either hand lower benches for the clergy circled round . All of which we know by analogy it was the normal plan in early days and there a re w remains of the actual stone seats at Nor ich and at Ely . The chancel or quire of the monks was separated from the nave by a high and solid stone screen . (The word chancel m means This great screen was called the pulpitu . It consisted of two walls crossing the church and supporting a spacious loft or gallery on which stood the great silver r 1 072 c ucifix , bequeathed in by Archbishop Stigand , with & the figures of the Blessed irgin and Saint John . The nave to the west of this screen formed an almost distinct church for the use of the public and had its own principal and lesser s altar , and its own stalls and other furniture . The font of c b ut black Tournai marble ( . barbaric impressive , is s culptured with scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas , the patron saint of children . SO&TH AISLE LOOKING EAST The cloister and other monastic buildings were placed on the south side of the church so that they would be sheltered from the north , get all the sunshine and be more secluded from the town . They have almost entirely disappeared , but ’ Wa lkeli s the house of Prior Simeon, Bishop n brother, still stands (though much altered) and is now occupied by the

Dean as head of the Chapter . — The Norman was not always a good builder not so good — as the Saxon and there is a story that the great central tower fell fifteen years after its first building . If this was so , it was immediately rebuilt with such slight elevation above the roofs and on piers of such exaggerated massiveness as to t suggest some timidity on the par of the builders . The refined masonry and the thin &oints of the new work are in marked o Wa lkelin c ntrast with the rough work of which ad&oins it .

l When his church was ready to receive them , Wa kelin had trans lated thither the relics of the Blessed Saint Swithun along with those of Saint Birin us and of other early prelates and kings . But the little building at the east end in which the shrine of Saint Swithun stood must have proved quite a in dequate to accommodate the crowds of devotees , and it became necessary to enlarge this pa rt .

A century after the dedication , therefore , Bishop Godfrey Lucy ( 1 189 1 204) took down the small Norman chapel at — the east end and built what we now call the retro choir . It consists of a central space with an aisle on either side , all of about equal width and height , with very slender columns giving the greatest possible floor space . The building is ended towards the east by three chapels that of our Lady in the middle one on the north , called from the paintings on its vault the Guardian Angels Chapel and one on the south , probably dedicated in honour of the Blessed Birin us and other saints . Other cathedrals were being enlarged in like manner at this time .

This retro-choir is strikingly different from anything which had yet existed at Winchester . Hitherto all had been , even

for r . a No man work , excessively massive Only small sp ces ee had b n vaulted , and these in the very plainest manner - ’ windows were round headed and squat . Lucy s work is WINCHE STE R CATHE&RAL HISTORICAL PLAN

SC A L E OF F EET

S ITE. O F CHAPEL OF LA Y F 0 LK‘S C E& ETEKY SAINT SWITH&N

N A & E

W EI-IAN

S IT E OF C L O IS T E KS

- - Early Norman Bishop Wa lkeli n ( 1 0 7 0 1 0 9 8) C rypt x o7 9 1 0 9 3 a n d eas t part of upper church (prob ably including east part of Nave) — n Later Norm an Tower and support i g piers as rro7 c . r1 70 i t n 1 1 0 rebu l after the fall i 7 . and completi on of Nave Earliest Gothic Bishops Godfrey de Lucy ( 1 1 89 1 1 89- 1 2 3 3 1 2 0 a n d d 4) Pet—er es Roches —or de Rt pibus ( 1 2 0 5 1 2 3 8 ) Retro choir a eastern chapels S epulchre n n i n G r n cha pel . Pai ti gs ua dia angels and in S epulchre chapels

- t d C ta s r 0 0 1 60 & id-Gothic Presby ery arca es . hoir s ll 3 3

i Wi i Ed in t 1 6 ‘ ‘ 1 & id-Gothic B shovp ll am g on ( 3 4 3 SS 3 94 x 3 66) Probable completion of west en d of Presbytery Rebui lding of wes t end of Nave and refacing of wes t parts of north and south aisles - Bish ps Willi f Wykeham I 3 67 1 3 94 1 4 5 0 Norman work altered o am o Hen ry Beaufort ( 1 40 4 and Willi am of Wa yn flete ( 1 447 Transformation of Nave an d v l Aisles and construction of au ts . Chapel of William of Wykeha m & O NKS ’ C E& ETERY - Priors Thomas Hun tpn ( 1 4 7 0 1 45 0 1 50 0 Late Gothi c 1 49 8 ) and Thomas S ilks ted e ( 1 49 8 Chapels of Beau n W n flet W nd ws fort a d a y e. i o and vault and screen of G r Lady Chape l . reat S creen o e it Rer dos . Pulp

- ' ' Bishops Th s L gt n 1 5 0 0 1 5 2 ; Gothu w th — oma an o 1 1 0 0 n RICha rd F ox s ome RerIa is ( 49 3 5 ) a d s ce r e t ( 1 5 0 0 1 S outh-east an o nam n t l chapels . Ou er wa ls of Presby & u e t tery . a lts of Pr sby ery

n b t n . a d aisles . Pres y ery scree s ’ F ox s chapel - Bishop S ephen Gardiner 1 5 40 1 640 & ix ed Gothic t - n Cha el 1 ) a d others . p d Renai ssance 5 5 5 an n & w of Gardi er . ault of to er o

& oubtful age

Work destroyed

- S tt e v &c 1 9 0 7 1 9 1 & odern outh bu ress s of Na e ,

Norman Ex tent of original church SO&TH P RESBYTERY AISLE AN& RETRO-CHOIR CHAPEL ’ a lkelin s k remarkable for its lightness and elegance . W wor ’ ha d relied on inert weight Lucy s is a system of balanced forces the Romanesque and Gothic systems of construction a re here brought into sharp contrast . As time went on great men chose this spot as their resting place . and in particular four noteworthy chantry chapels c ommemorate four noteworthy bishops & Cardinal Henry Beaufort ( 1404 1447) the great statesman of the troubled t I a n flete 1447 14 86 imes of Henry & , and William of W y ( ) th f of e ounder of Magdalen College , Oxford , on either side 15 0 1 15 28 S aint Swithun ; and near by , Richard Fox ( ) founder of Corpus Christi College , Oxford , and Stephen Gardiner ( 15 3 1 15 5 5 ) who married &ueen Mary I to Philip II f i ’ o n . Spain , the cathedral Lucy s grave is marked by a very s imple slab in the middle of his own romantic building before th e entrance to the Lady Chapel .

The eastern chapels were altered in the fifteenth century . New windows were made and new vaults in the Lady Chapel ’ a n d Langton s Chapel , new screens and stalls were also made for these chapels . These changes will be more particularly d escribed presently .

>l=

Let us try for a moment to accompany a pilgrim visiting the shrine of Saint Swithun in the last years before the m Refor ation .

Entering the north transept by the door now blocked but v isible outside , he beheld fair white walls and paintings and H storied windows and altars seen through fretted screens . e fi — — would turn rst we can almost trace his steps to the left, to e wards the north end of the transept , to place a taper befor the painting which was there of Saint Christopher through whose i ntercession he had won through the dangers of his ioum ey and then to his right to look at the exquisi te little chapel of the Holy Sepulchre with its admirable and forceful ’ a i pntings done shortly after Bishop Lucy s time . Then he would ascend a noble flight of steps and pass through a gate wa y canopied over by a wide spreading wooden vault , traceried a n d coloured , of which we can still see the imprint on the ie see prs on either side . Passing along the aisle he would , 1 1 15 2 through the screen which Bishop Fox had put up in 5 , the wonders of the high altar and Of the great reredos behin d ‘ it with its figures richly coloured and gilt and on the top ’ of Fox s screens the coffers contain i ng the bones of ancien t

kings and bishops and further on to the place of the shrines .

The floor, not then broken and dim, glowed with red a n d g old (a single tile bears the legend Have myn de the light from the lancet windows was softened by coloured glass the marble panels under them were painted with pattern s , t he vault above with angels . And in the very middle the s hrine of Saint Swithun .

This digression has bi oken the chronological treatment of the cathedral history and we must return to the fourteen th

century .

The third great building period at Winchester begins 1 15 a bout 3 . The work then started consisted of the gradua l re-modelling of the Norman church and it continued with little interruption for the next hundred years .

The first thing to be dealt with was the presbytery . Thi s was rebuilt gradually (13 15 the work being begun a t The the east and continued westwards somewhat roughly . w vault , the outer walls , and the stone screens bet een the

Purbeck marble columns , were built at a later time , as will be

related below . To this period belong the beautiful stone s creens in the south transept .

A little before the rebuilding of the presbytery new sta lls

had been made for the monks . These are a very good example a n d of Gothic woodwork . The figure carving is full of life interest 5 it shows how the medieval workman lavished (on e the might say wasted) his labour, for two tiny heads under l ere misericordes have tongues made to move . The sta ls w much repaired in the latter part of the seventeenth century a n d were stained a dark brown .

The remodelling of the nave is the most famous episode the in the history of the cathedral . It is associated with n ames of two men Bishops William Edington ( 13 46- 13 66) a n d William of Wykeham ( 13 67 Edington rebuilt the 1 2 west front in a rather ugly manner and altered the western

ba ys of the north and south aisles . His modest chantry chapel

is on the south side of the dais . Wykeham became Bishop 1 3 67 in . He was busy with the foundations of his Colleges a t Winchester and Oxford till 13 94 but he then began at his

own cost the work at the Cathedral . By chiselling the surface of the ancient Norman columns or refacing them with new

s tones he gave them a new form . He greatly increa sed their

height by obliterating the triforium gallery . He rebuilt the a i isle vaults at a h gher level and made new windows . Finally he threw across the nave a splendid stone vault in place of

the flat wooden ceiling . By this process he transformed the ? church bay by bay without actually taking it down and re

s ff buildin g it and without taking O the roof. Indeed nothing

that was out of sight was altered, and in the large and well lighted space above the vault some untouched Norman features

ma y still be seen .

What Wykeham accomplished may be réa lized by a glance a t the rude and low Norman columns in the eastern part of the n a ve preserved from alteration because the pulpitum abutted

a gainst them . He destroyed a nave no better than those of Ely and Norwich and far inferior to Durham and he gave us I what is probably the finest nave in the country . f his work is t f Of n o very refined , it is bold, masculine , unaf ected , and noble

proportions . It must not be supposed that in these qualities m it necessarily irrors the mind of the great Chancellor .

Though somewhat advanced, the character of the work is ra ther that of the time and is shared by buildings with which

Wykeham had nothing to do . But we may probably give him c e redit for at l ast a share in evolving the method of procedure . A lofty chapel marks the place of his burial on a spot which the great man had chosen because he had there been o a ccustomed as a boy t hear mass at the altar of our Lady . There may you see his effigy cut in alabaster three monks a t his feet raise their hands in prayer at his head angels

s mooth his pillow . g

After the completion of the nave several important works ,

s ome of which have been already mentioned , were done at 1470 1498 the eastern part of the church . Priors Hunton ( ) a n d Silkstede ( 1498 1 15 24) made large traceried windows 1 3 G&AR&IAN ANGEL CHAP EL AN& STAT&E OF SAINT JOAN u n derpinning by Sir Thomas Jackson and Sir Francis Fox ’ between the years 1905 and 19 12 at a cost of will er be rememb ed by many . &uite suddenly the retro choir o a n d then other parts had sh wn signs of collapse . It was found that the wooden piles which had been driven into the f d pea ty subsoil as a foundation had given way . A new oun a o h d ti n a to be formed, but a firm bottom was only found o f bel w the water level . The work had there ore to be done by a diver who dug away the ground below the walls and pla ced in position sacks filled with concrete which were lowered down to him through the water . While this laborious work was in progress a large part of the building was i s urrounded by great masses of timber shor ng . Since then no ma f m ov ment has tak n place, and we y feel airly confident e , e that the building is safe many generations to come . RIN I & N&& E P C PAL O NTS .

Rifle m an d f o o . Brigade Monu ents Roll o H n ur. 1 77 1 1 Miss Austen, 5 8 7 167 1 Bis hop Hoa dly, 6 761 of of r Roll Honour Hampshi e Men . & r 1 722 1800 r. Wa ton , . ’ The King s Royal Rifle Corps Monuments l o o Rol f H nour . s lli a m of 13 24 1404 Bi hopWi Wykeham, . ll 1664 1 73 4 BishopWi is , . i 18 1 1 -189 1 s r w . B hop, Edwa d Harold Bro ne, sh 13 66 Bi opWilliam Edington, d . .

n s 183 9 1908 Ge eral Sir Redver Buller, . & P SO TH TRANSE T . o l l f 1 805 1873 Bish p Samue Wi ber orce, . ’ zaa & 15 93 -1683 I k Walton (in irgers &estry) ,

CHOIR . u 1060 1 100 William Rufus (repted) , .

BY Y PRES TER . 1497 15 5 5 North Bishop Gardiner, P . o 1448 15 28 Bis h p Fox, - RETRO CHOIR. 1 790 874 BishopSumn er, 1 . a n flete 13 95 1486 BishopW y , .

. 123 8. Bishop Peter des, Roches , d o N 1741 1820 Bishop Br wnlow; orth, . a 1260 BishopAymer de & lence, d . .

r a Ga veston . 13 02 Sir A n ld de , d . ’ f s r Site o Sa int Swithun Sh ine . 1 04 i f . B shopGod rey de Lucy, d 2 .

ll a . 1295 Prior Wi iam B sing, d . 1447 l f . Cardina Bea u ort, d o 1624 - 16 7 Sir J hn Clobery, 8 .

’ &A & GELs C AP L G R IAN AN H E .

. 163 Earl of Portla nd, 6 . 5 .

’ AP LANOTON s CH EL.