Philip Walsingham Sergeant

“ The details are varied and graceful, with the design of each pair coupled under a pointed arch with a cinquefoil in its head, which is again surmounted by a high crocketted gable. The oak has turned a superb hue with age, very different from the colour of the modern screen which is banked by the reveals of the old bishop's throne. The misereres below are much earlier in date than the canopies, but do not go quite so far back as those at Exeter, which may be assigned to about 1230. ”

“ The woodwork, which is certainly one of the most striking things in the cathedral, is unfortunately mutilated, as is also part of the heraldic work on the entrance door. At the east end of the chapel above the former altar there is a row of seven tabernacles, under which is a cornice which was originally gilt and painted. The statues which once occupied the tabernacles are no longer extant. The central tomb here is that of Bishop Langton himself. Queen Mary's chair now stands in this chapel; it is in a wonderful state of preservation for its age, and the woodwork is still sound. ”

“ But when once the nave is entered, owing partly to the open and comparatively low choir-screen, the magnificent vault of nearly 400 feet may easily be understood to have few rivals in the world. Certainly neither of the two buildings in England which are practically equal in size to Winchester Cathedral give the peculiarly overwhelming sense of length produced here. ”

“ It is a remarkable fact that these two bishops and Waynflete, the founder of Magdalen College, Oxford, between them occupied the see for no less than 120 years. The history of this period, as far as the cathedral is concerned, is mainly architectural and therefore uneventful in comparison with that of the earlier times. The intervals whose history is less stirring, however, fortunately leave far better marks on the actual buildings than do the more eventful epochs; and the fact that Cardinal Wolsey once was Bishop of Winchester could not be gathered from the cathedral itself. ”

“ In spite of all statistics of its size, the outward appearance of the building hardly impresses the spectator with the fact that Winchester is the largest cathedral in Northern Europe, and it is not until one is within the walls that the great length of the cathedral begins to become real and its majesty is properly appreciated. ”

“ The central doorway is divided by a clustered shaft, where from spring two cinquefoil arches. The recessed portal has a groined roof, with an arcade of cusped arches on the main west wall, broken by the doorways which give admission to the nave. A pierced balcony of simple design crowns the whole of the screen and forms a gallery which is said to have been used for bestowing episcopal benedictions to the people outside the cathedral on festival days. ”

“ On Whitsunday 1162 Henry de Blois consecrated Thomas à Becket as archbishop, and it is said that when King Henry visited him just before his death he was reproved by the bishop for his murder of Becket. Henry de Blois was certainly a militant churchman; but in an age not conspicuous for such virtues, we are told, his private life was pure, and he laboured steadfastly for the good of his diocese. The Winchester annalist says of him, "Never was man more chaste and prudent, more compassionate, or more earnest in transacting ecclesiastical matters, or in beautifying churches." ”

“ There is no parapet above the arcades. At the angles between these chapels and the retro-choir aisles are staircases enclosed in small octagonal turrets rising slightly above the adjoining parts with merely a plain parapet at the top.
The Lady Chapel has at the end and at each side a fine seven-light Perpendicular window, the heads of the lights below the transom being cinquefoiled, while above each window is a cornice supported by small arches resting on corbels; over all is a pierced battlement, which is also crenelated at the actual east end. ”

“ Corniced and battlemented screens fill these arches to mid-height. The figure on the tomb is a modern restoration, very elaborately clad in full pontificals, while the hands are clasped about a heart, representing the sursum corda, or lifting up of the heart. The chantry is kept in repair by Magdalen College, Oxford, which Waynflete founded. Its situation, like that of the companion tomb of Cardinal Beaufort, makes it very impressive. There is no altar now. At the east end is a blank wall surmounted by three empty canopied niches, while at the other are two open gratings. ”

“ Above the plain string-course of the retro-choir there is in each compartment, under a level parapet, an arcade of narrow pointed arches, four in number, the central couple of each set being pierced and glazed, so as to form pairs of lancet windows. The Langton and Guardian Angels' chapels, which project not quite half as far as the Lady Chapel from the old eastern limit of the church, show a triple series of arcades, diminishing in size as they mount. The central arcade is much cut into on the eastern face by the large three-light windows of the lateral chapels. ”

“ Perhaps it is not quite fair to the later architects to attribute all the excellence of the work to the earlier builders, for the graceful columns of the nave's eleven bays which rise unbroken to where the roof-groining springs from their capitals are made by Wykeham to fulfil a new duty which entirely alters their whole aspect. ”

“ Tombs were defaced, relics scattered, statues mutilated, stained glass smashed, and the more portable objects carried out into the streets. It is difficult to estimate with any exactitude what was the whole extent of the damage done; but we have sufficient testimony in the broken figures, empty niches, etc., to see that it was great. One highly creditable incident in the midst of the general disgrace has been recorded—namely, the preservation from insult of Wykeham's chantry. This was the work of a Colonel Fiennes, who had been educated at Wykeham's College at Winchester. ”

“ The building has been said to prove that the Normans of the period were "still bad masons and imperfectly acquainted with the principles of construction," the masses of masonry employed showing an enormous waste of both labour and materials. But the architects at any rate gained their end, since the tower has stood to the present day. The strength of the original Norman work, indeed, is so great that for all the 250 feet of nave no flying-buttresses were required to support the later vaulting. ”

“ In Wykeham's work, on the contrary, we find above the lofty pier-arch what at first sight appears to be a clerestory window divided at mid-height by a transom, and recessed under a deeply-pointed archway. But it is above the transom only that the real window is formed by glazing the spaces between the monials. Below the transom these spaces are filled with panels, and two narrow openings cut through the latter give access from the roof to a kind of balcony which projects over the pier-arches. In each compartment this balcony exists, but there is no free passage from one to the other. ”

“ A little arcade runs all round the tomb, with a series of shields in the spaces, containing his arms and motto "Manners Makyth Man" and the arms of the see of Winchester. His epitaph, on a slip of red enamelled brass in a chamfer round the edge of the tomb, has been thus translated:—
As one proceeds along the nave toward the east, the choir is reached by two flights of four steps each with a landing between, over which formerly there extended a rood-loft from 50pillar to pillar, bearing on it Stigand's great cross. ”

“ THE WEST FRONT, WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL.
The West Front, the work of Bishop Edingdon, has been roughly handled by its critics, though Britton calls it a fine specimen of Perpendicular architecture. The original Norman work demolished by Edingdon was, as excavations have proved, forty feet in advance of the present façade. To judge by 23accounts of the destroyed portions, the west front in its earlier state must have been far more imposing than it is at present, for not only is it now commonplace in mass, but even the detail has no particular charm to atone for the change. ”

“ Great confidence was reposed in him by Henry VII., who chose him as godfather of the future Henry VIII. To Fox is attributed the introduction of Wolsey to the king. Yet this appears to have failed to win him the cardinal's gratitude, for, according to Fuller: "All thought Bishop Fox to die too soon, only one excepted who conceived him to live too long, Thomas Wolsey, who gaped for his bishopric." With Hugh Oldham, bishop of Exeter, Fox was joint-founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the pelican in her piety, which appears on the college arms, being borne by the bishop. ”

“ This century's work in the cathedral is not very formidable in its extent. All of it is mentioned elsewhere in this book, and it is sufficient here to say that the erection of Sir G. Scott's choir-screen and the restoration of the reredos are the most noticeable "modern" features, though the latter was carried out on the old lines as nearly as was thought advisable. Sir G. Scott's additions to Winchester have by no means given universal satisfaction, severe language having been applied to them by more than one expert. ”

“ The #Hospital of St Cross#, the oldest almshouse in England, lies one mile to the south of the town on the Southampton Road, and may be reached from Winchester across the fields for part of the way. Situated in the hamlet of Sparkford, it was founded originally by Bishop Henry de Blois in 1136, on the site of a small monastery destroyed by the Danes. The founder's wish was to give refuge to "thirteen poor men, feeble and so reduced in strength that they can hardly or with difficulty support themselves with another's aid"; while a meal was daily to be provided for another hundred poor men. ”

“ It will not be out of place to quote a short criticism which sums up the external qualities of the cathedral in a concise way:—"With the exception of portions of the late work in the presbytery, the exterior of Winchester is severe in treatment, and plain wall-space plays an important part in the design. Plain parapets and simply treated pinnacles characterise the work of the nave. ”

“ If we take first the North Transept, there will be found at the southern end, against the side wall of the choir, and between the two great tower-piers, the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, a small compartment which contains some interesting and still distinct mural paintings on the roof and walls, representing scenes of the Passion, etc. The most striking is a large head and bust of Christ on the easternmost division of the vaulting. One hand holds the Gospels, with the inscription Salus Populi Ego Sum. ”

“ It will perhaps be most convenient to deal at this point with the Transepts, of which the western walls are almost level with the choir-screen. Having been but little injured by the fall of the tower in 1107, they still remain to a great extent what they were when originally built by Walkelin. We therefore get the massive and rugged early Norman walls still divided into the three nearly equal storeys which in the nave have given place to two. Where the fall of the central tower necessitated a partial rebuilding, the difference between the Early and the Late masonry is very evident. ”

“ In 1529 he became archdeacon of Norwich, and, owing to his services to Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII., was appointed to Winchester. On the whole, he managed to keep on good terms with the king; but his famous six articles in support of the Real Presence sent so many to the stake that the title of "the bloody statute" has clung to them. During the reign of Edward VI. he was kept prisoner in the Tower, and in 1550 was deprived of his bishopric, which was restored to him on the accession of Mary, whom he crowned at Westminster. ”

“ The general effect has been said to be as if a Norman architect had expressed himself in the more refined idiom of the early fifteenth century. Yet the work of Edingdon and Wykeham was ruthless in its way. The original Norman nave of Walkelin consisted of the normal three storeys, of equal height in this case—the main arches, triforium, and clerestory. ”

“ That of the transepts generally is coarse and very thick, as is the case with all Early Norman stonework. The new masonry, on the other hand, recalls what William of Malmesbury says of the Later Norman masonry at Salisbury, when he speaks of "the courses of stone so correctly laid that the joint deceives the eye, and leads it to imagine that the whole wall is composed of a single block." The juncture of the two works at Winchester can be easily traced. Of the general style of the transepts, Willis says: "The architecture is of the plainest description. ”

“ The north and south walls exhibit De Lucy's Early English arcades and lancets, while they become Perpendicular at the eastern end, and the east window is of the same period. This large seven-light window shows "transom and tracery of a peculiar kind of subordination, or rather inter-penetration of patterns, well worth a careful study" (Willis) . The stone work of the interior is quite plain, but a large portion of the wall space is concealed by some richly-carved wooden panelling added by Bishop Fox. Seats, desks, and screen are also of fine workmanship. ”

“ The glass in the window proper is, for the most part, very old, and, as is pointed out elsewhere (see p. 94) , is arranged in patterns after the fashion of a kaleidoscope. This arises from the fact that the fragments of which it is composed are entirely disjointed, and probably incapable of being pieced together.
The monuments and objects of interest in the nave are numerous, but chief perhaps are, on the north side, the Minstrels' Gallery, the old grill-work, and the font; and, on the south side, the chantries of Bishops Wykeham and Edingdon. ”

“ Montagu's tomb is in Bath Abbey.
Lancelot Andrewes (1619-1626) is the most celebrated of the post-Reformation bishops who have held the see. He was made Bishop of Chichester in 1605, Bishop of Ely in 1609, and moved to Winchester nine years later. As a pious and austere man, a powerful preacher (an "angel in the pulpit," he was called) , a scholar versed in patristic literature, and a polemical writer, he is well known. Milton's elegy suffices to prove the great respect and admiration which he inspired in his contemporaries, and he held a considerable influence over James I. ”

“ From the commencement of the choir to the high altar are eleven steps, making nineteen in all from the level of the nave. This elevation, of course, much enhances the imposing effect of the altar and reredos as seen from the lower plane. It is due to the existence of the Norman crypt beneath, and can be paralleled both at Canterbury and at Rochester. The raised platform includes the presbytery with its aisles and the retro-choir, and extends under the central tower to the second pillar beyond. The nave and transepts are thus on a lower level. ”