THE NEW ZEALANDER IN EUROPE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue XVII, 26 October 1895, Page 516

THE NEW ZEALANDER IN EUROPE.

AT WINCHESTER. IF there is one ancient city which the colonist shoui.’ visit before any other when in England it is th ancient city of Winchester, for was it not once th historic capital of England? Winchester, delightful! situated on a sloping valley of the Downs, and watered by the river Itchen, recalls memories of King Alfred tinGreat, of Canute, and of Rufus, all of whom repose her in their last long sleep ; of Wykeham, Cardinal Beaufort, of Wolsey, and Bishop Kenn ; and, in short, of nearly every name, civil and religious, who have been famous in the past history of our country. It is impossible to follow the traditions which assert that the city wa. founded nearly 900 years before the birth of Christ, but there is evidence to prove that it was a city of some kind even before the Roman invasion. The Romans seemed to have been very much attached to the city, and tohav built temples and villas to remind them of their distant homes. In a.d. 519 Cerdic the Saxon captured the citv. and from that date it became the capital of the kingdom of the West Saxons, until the whole Government of the kingdom was merged in one monarch, and it was here - in the church commenced by Kynegils, under the instructions of St. Birinus—that Egbert was crowned ; and from that time, though rent with wars and disturbing factions, Winchester continued to be the capital of the kingdom, and witnessed many Royal and State ceremonies.

At Winchester Richard Cceur de Lion was crowned a second time on his return from the Holy Land ; here, too his brother John submitted to the arrogant pretensions of the Pope’s legate, Pandulph, and it was in the chapter house of the Cathedral that the degraded monarch was reconciled to the Church. At Winchester Henry 111. was born, and at Winchester Henry IV. was wedded to Joan of Brittany ; another wedding celebrated in the Cathedral was that of Philip of Spain and Mary ; but to recount the many famous scenes which Winchester has witnessed would require more space than I have at my command.

‘The decay of Winchester,’ writes a local historian, ‘ has been gradual. Its prosperity was at its height when the “great fair” on the hill of St. Giles attracted thither the traders of Genoa, Ghent, Antwerp, Limoges, and Lyons, and the opulent merchants of London. Guards were then stationed at suitable points in the surrounding country for their protection. In 1285 a Parliament was held within its walls, and issued the statutes of Winchester. Edward 111. made it the “ wool mart ”of the kingdom, and then, indeed, the old city could ruffle it bravely, and its burghers were as princes ; but, thirty years afterwards, the mart was removed to Calais, and from that date to this it has been principally supported by its cathedral establishment and college.’ It is time, however, I described more particularly the various objects of interest which our artist has sketched for us, and which appear on page 512, and the first of these is the general view of the city from St. Giles' Hill—that hill whereon the ‘ great fair ’ just mentioned was held, and which lasted for sixteen days. Here we have a sight not easily rivalled ; the grand old Cathedral rising above the surrounding houses like a monument of Gothic art ; the tower of William of Wykeham’s fame is college, the modem structure of the Town Hall, each making epochs in the history of the city, and the whole scene backed in by the gentle swelling hills completes the beauty of the whole. We next turn to the Cathedral, which is one of the largest in England, and which, like the majority of such structures, is the work of many builders. The original structure was destroyed by Cerdic, and Kynegils commenced a new edifice. The pres- it structure, although said to retain some of the walls and pillars of th e building erected by St. Ethelwood, Bishop of Winchester in 980, by whom it was dedicated to St. Swithin, is generally acknowledged to be the work in a great measure of Bishop Walkelin, who built the pres it tower and part of the nave, and in 1093 rededicated the church to St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Swithin. The

western front, with ‘ its great central doorway, with its two smaller side doors, the fretted gallery over it, where the Bishop in his pontificals was wont to stand and bless the people, or absolve them from the censures of '.he church ; its noble window, rich with perpendici nr tracery ; its two slender lantern turrets ; its crowning tabernacle, with its statue of the builder ; and its pa> nacled side aisles,’ was the grand conception of Bishop Edyngton, and was completed by William of Wykeh ni in 1357 1404. The eastern end was rebuilt in 15 0( ’ Bishon Fox ; the Lady Chapel by Prior Silkstede ; au<l Cardinal Beaufort and Waynflete made many additions. From the west entrance of the Cathedral to the choir is 356 feet, the length of the choir is 135 feet, and the L ulv Chapel at the east end is 54 feet, which makes the t<'lal length 545 feet. As a distinct part the nave is 25° long, 86 feet wide, including the aisles, and 78 feet hn

The choir is 40 feet wide. The length of the transepts is 186 feet. The square of the tower is 48 feet by 50 feet, and the height is 138 >4 feet, which is only about 26 feet above the roof. The ancient font which stands within the middle arch of Wykeham, part of the church in the north aisle, has long been a puzzle to antiquarians ; it is said to be about eight hundred years old. It is composed of blue lias stone, and has rudely and quaintly sculptured figures recording the various acts of St. Nicholas of Myra ; another object of interest here sketched is Queen Mary’s chair, said to have been used by that sovereign on the occasion of her marriage with I’hilip of Spain.

The college founded by William of Wykeham, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is outside the city boundary on the south-east. It was commenced in 1387 on the site of the ’Great Grammar School of Winchester,’ where Wykeham was educated, and it was solemnly opened in March, 1393. The college was founded and endowed by Wykeham as a preparatory school to New College, Oxford, which he had founded a short time before. The buildings are spacious, and comprise a chapel, a hall of Gothic architecture, and a library, a schoolroom erected by the Wykehamists in 1687, and a hall in which the commoners dine. The list of names of Wykehamists who have become famous is too long to quote here, but it is one which attests the efficiency of the old foundation, and of which all Englishmen may well be proud.

The City Cross stands in the High street, and is supposed to have been erected in the reign of Henry VI. It is a square structure on an octagonal base of five steps. The circumference of the lowest step is 49 feet, and the height is 44 feet. The cross consists of three tiers of Gothic archwork, with ornamented niches and canopies.

The Hospital of St. Cross is situated about a mile south of Winchester : it was founded and endowed in 1136 by Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester, as a permanent retreat for 13 poor men past their strength, and for 100 other poor men who were to be provided with a dinner. Among many other charities bequeathed by Blois one still remains, and that is that two gallons of ale and two loaves of bread are daily distributed at the porter’s lodge to travellers and wayfarers. Unfortunately, the endowments of this institution have been grossly misused, and an enquiry ordered by Parliament some years ago revealed a state of thines which is now altered. The great point of interest at St. Cross is the fine old cruciform church, partly Norman and partly Early English. It hasrecently undergone some judicious restorations and improvements. Beloved St. Cross! where all the charms combine. That warm the canvass or that grace the line; Thou kind retreat from sorrow and from care. With sparkling waters and a balmy air; Amid thy meadows, green and peaceful shades. Thy crowning hills, and long, deep bowery glades; What troubled heart can fail in thee to find Health for the body, solace to the mind I is the very just encomium passed on this mediaeval retreat by a well-known poet. In concluding this brief note on Winchester it may not be out of place to echo the words of a former writer : —' It has been remarked that the Winchester of to-day is the Winchester of centuries ; that in threading its narrow streets, in contemplating the remains of its ancient fortifications, in viewing the ruins of the works of the early kings of England, and in beholding, in all its splendour, the erections of those high-minded and magnificent prelates Walkelin, Edyngton, and Wykeham, the visitor is reminded of the days of Winchester’s greatness which were, but are not. But the Winchester of to-day is not the Winchester that was. Where now are its native kings, its regal pageants, its Alfred, its Edgar, its Williams, its Edwards, and its Henrys, who delighted to do honour to the place of their nativity, or the seat of their ancestors ? Where are its princely prelates, its noble palaces ? Winchester of to-day is not the Winchester of yesterday ; but in the sombreness of its streets, in the sobriety of its buildings, and in the absence of all that gaiety which distinguishes an old from a modern town—only in this is Winchester as it was. But Winchester is as it should be, as its situation in reference to the rest of the kingdom destined it to be; and no effort of its population can cause it to be other than the steadily progressing capital of a large agricultural district.

* During the reign of the third George, Winchester was occasionally visited by that monarch ; it has also been the residence of some of the royal family for short periods, who resided in one Or other of the prebendal houses in the Close. But with Charles 11. all hopes of Winchester again becoming a regal city ceased ; and, indeed, it may be said, in all its historical consequence also. Battles fought near its walls, its sieges, the deeds of its knightly mayors and warlike citizens, have not now to be recorded ; and Winchester’s—“old Winchester’s” —tale, since the time of Charles, is told almost in as few words as it has, since that time, numbered years.’