Part 17 (2/2)
Not to know who Flaxman was is almost as bad as to admit ignorance of the existence of Michael Angelo.
Winchester
This ancient city on the river Itchen in Hamps.h.i.+re is inseparably bound with William of Wykeham. He it was who rebuilt a great part of the magnificent cathedral now extant, and who founded the great public school of Winchester, at which so many celebrated men have received their education. These form the great attraction of the city, and rescue it from oblivion. It is with sorrow we foresee that the inevitable restoration will take place in the east end of this venerable structure.
For many years past the foundations were known to be in an unsafe condition, but recently great alarm was caused by the appearance of large cracks in the upper masonry and of the bulging in of the groining of the crypt. There was no doubt that the foundations were slowly subsiding, and speculation was rife as to the cause. With a view to ascertaining the state of the foundations, excavations were made. It was discovered that the original builders had rested them on marshy ground, strengthened with oak piles, which have gradually decayed during the lapse of centuries. At the same time the presence of an underground stream, thought to be part of the river Itchen, was seen to be bubbling up through the gravel, saturating the upper soil of peat.
In much the same way as the site of St. Paul's Cathedral in London probably was covered, in the first instance, with buildings for pagan wors.h.i.+p, so we find that the Romans at Winchester erected temples to Apollo and Concord upon the ground that eventually came to be the precincts of the Cathedral. The presence of a Christian church appears to have been in the third century, when the city is said to have become one of the chief centres of the Christian Britons. This first church, however, was destroyed during the persecution of Aurelian and was rebuilt in 293, to be made a wreck in 495 by the Saxons, who fired it.
What with the religious convulsion of England, which, with the exception of Kent, fluctuated with the rise and fall of circ.u.mstances chiefly controlled by the policy of kings either heathen at one time and Christian at another, or the deposition and death of a Christian monarch, caused by one more powerful and deeply imbued with heathenism, the See of Winchester does not appear to have come into existence till about the middle of the seventh century. The establishment of its bishopric in a way marks the commencement of a new epoch in the English Church.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WINCHESTER
THE NORTH AISLE]
The mission of St. Augustine, backed with the royal countenance of Ethelbert, had, though not completed, done much towards conversion; but on their death practically the whole of the Christian territory, excepting Kent, relapsed into heathenism, and to such an extent that Augustine's successor, Laurentius, was on the point of giving up the whole mission and taking refuge in Gaul. Not until 625 did a mission again venture forth from the Kentish kingdom, and then their tentative efforts were rendered abortive by the battle of Hatfield in 633, which for a while seems to have crushed all hope at Rome. But a couple of years later an independent missionary, Birinus, was consecrated in Italy, and was sent by the people to make fresh attempts to break down the barriers of heathenism in England. Through his influence Cynegils became the first Christian king of the West Saxons. To inaugurate his conversion the monarch decided to establish a bishopric, and immediately began to collect materials for building, at his capital of Winchester, a cathedral, which was eventually constructed by his son Cenwahl in 646.
The Danes in 867 broke up the establishment, and the year following, secular priests were subst.i.tuted. They remained till 963, when Ethelwold, by command of King Edgar, expelled them to make room for the monks of the Benedictine Order from Abendon. They enjoyed uninterrupted possession, and were richly endowed with royal donations, as the dissolution revealed the extent of its revenue. Henry VIII. then refounded it for a bishop, dean, chancellor, twelve prebendaries, and other subordinate officers. The Cathedral was first dedicated to St.
Amphibalus, then jointly to St. Peter and St. Paul, and afterwards to St. Swithin, once bishop here. With Henry VIII.'s regime the t.i.tle was altered to the Holy and undivided Trinity. The church of Cynegils having become entirely ruined, a new cathedral was commenced in 1073-98 by Bishop Walkelyn. The two Norman transepts and the low central tower, as also the very early crypt, still exist. The church is a s.p.a.cious, ma.s.sive, and splendid cruciform building of Norman architecture with subsequent additions in the Gothic style. The whole of the Norman nave was demolished and re-erected on a far grander scale by William of Wykeham at the end of the fourteenth century, though not quite completed till after his death. The choir was much restored in the fourteenth century, whilst it underwent considerable alteration by Bishop Fox from 1510 to 1528. Here is the tomb of William II. A great feature is the magnificent reredos behind the altar. It extends the full width of the choir, with two processional entrances pierced through its lofty wall, and covered with tier upon tier of rich canopied niches. They once contained colossal statues. Behind this reredos there is a second stone screen, which enclosed the small chapel in which stood the magnificent gold shrine studded with jewels. It contained the body of St. Swithin, and was the gift of King Edgar. The Cathedral, in fact, received at one time and another great treasures of gold and jewels by many of the early kings of England. Canute is said to have caused his crown of gold and gems to be suspended over the great crucifix above the high altar.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WINCHESTER
FROM ST. CATHERINE'S HILL]
The magnificent chantry of Cardinal Beaufort is of the Later style of English architecture. Bishop Waynfleet's chantry is in the same style, and has been kept in excellent repair by the trustees of his foundation at Magdalene College. Both chantries contain tombs of their founders.
There are several other chapels, all deserving close study of their beautiful architecture. The most notable of the many examples of mediaeval rec.u.mbent effigies are those of the monuments to Bishops Edingdon, Wykeham, Langton, and Fox. The famous auth.o.r.ess, Jane Austen, is buried here.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WINCHESTER
FROM THE DEANERY GARDEN]
The black marble font is an interesting relic of eleventh-century skill.
The sides are composed of scenes taken from the life of St. Nicholas.
The Cathedral, situated in an open s.p.a.ce near the centre of the city towards the south-east, is a marvellous combination of beauty and dignity, surpa.s.sed, if at all, by few. It is the central feature of Winchester, and will always command the greatest admiration. One of England's great public schools is that founded by William of Wykeham and built between 1387 and 1393. The foundation originally consisted of a warden, ten fellows, three chaplains, seventy scholars, and sixteen choristers. The prelate had previously established a school here in 1373. Thus the oldest of England's great schools was called ”Seinte Marie College of Wynchester,” the charter of which was dated October 1382. The ancient statutes were revived in 1855, and were still further influenced by the Public Schools Act of 1868. The establishment has a fine chapel, hall, cloister, and other necessary buildings, all in excellent preservation. Another interesting structure is that afforded by the hospital of St. Cross, founded in 1136 by Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester. It lies about a mile out of town. Its general plan can be readily seen by a glance at Mr. Collins' drawing. Henry de Blois intended it to provide board and lodging for thirteen poor men, and a daily dinner for one hundred others. It was mostly rebuilt by Cardinal Beaufort between 1405 and 1447. The whole has undergone much restoration, which was not entirely happy, though it has certainly kept the buildings in a good state of preservation. On the precincts is also the very stately cruciform chapel, dating roughly from the year 1180.
The city of Winchester was at one time proverbial for its splendour, which was owing to the many kings that preferred to reside within its walls than elsewhere.
Mainly owing to its central position on the high roads in the south of England, Winchester was from early times a town of great importance.
This Hamps.h.i.+re city is first ascribed to the Celtic Britons, who settled here in 392 B. c., having emigrated from the coasts of Armorica in Gaul.
They remained in undisturbed possession till within a century prior to the Christian era, when they were expelled by the Belgae, who advanced from their settlements on the southern coasts into the interior. Soon after it had become the capital of the Belgae, the settlement pa.s.sed into Roman occupation. The Cr Gwent (White City) of the Britons became the Venta Belgarum of the Romans. The Roman word Venta eventually became transformed to ”Winte,” ”Winte-ceaster,” from which was derived Winchester. Under Cedric, about 520 A.D., it became the capital of the West Saxons, and of England in 827 by Egbert. He had obtained the sovereignty of all the other kingdoms of the Octarchy, and was crowned sole monarch in the Cathedral of Winchester. On this occasion the monarch published an edict commanding all his subjects throughout his dominions to be called English. The union of the kingdoms gave that importance to Winchester which it had never had previously, and the fact of being not only the capital of Wess.e.x, but the metropolis of England, caused it to leap into great prominence. This state, however, suffered a severe check when London, in the reign of William the Conqueror, began to rival it, and was brought almost to the verge of ruin through the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. However, at different periods, Winchester received much unwelcome discomfiture. It was seized by the Danes in 871; whilst in 1013 it was ravaged by Sweyn on his path of vengeance. In 1100 the body of William Rufus was solemnly interred in the Cathedral. During the parliamentary war the city was taken and retaken by Cromwell, and the castle dismantled. Here it was that Charles I. commissioned Wren to build a palace in 1683, which was only begun.
Previous to this the plague of 1666 greatly reduced the number of inhabitants, and it was possibly to help the city recover itself that Charles thought of building a palace.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WINCHESTER
ST. CROSS]
Though the great regal prosperity has long since departed, the many old houses and the great extent of the city still bear testimony to the once great importance of Winchester.
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