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 .