Winchester Cathedral

“ We read that, before the Reformation, the monks of Netley Abbey, twelve miles distant, were wont to keep their brethren at Winchester supplied during Lent with oysters from Southampton Water, they in return receiving forty-two flagons of ale weekly.
Enough has been said above to show that no church in Great Britain, outside of London, is richer in monuments than Winchester Cathedral. It has also the distinction of great size, being 556 feet long, the longest nave in England. But the exterior is heavy, without a suggestion of the symmetry and grace of Salisbury. ”

“ Winchester Cathedral, however, rejoices under the guardianship of a body of divines of whom it may fearlessly be asserted that they neither hoot nor squeak, nor fly on any wings but those of devotion, nor offend the external senses, nor nibble to any extent that is uncapitular. ”

“ Winchester Cathedral has actually realised it.
Unfortunately, the securing of the southern aisle of the nave may demand an addition,—not merely underpinning, but the construction of buttresses. But these, although novel, will be no more foreign to the general design than were the corresponding buttresses which Wykeham added to the north aisle; and these, with the further addition of the great tie-rods inserted at various spots in the transepts and retro-choir, will, it is hoped, give the Cathedral a stability which will ensure its preservation for centuries more. ”

“ In Winchester Cathedral I attended Morning Service, on the feast of St. John Baptist. I am sorry to say that here, too, the service is ill-performed; not that there is nothing to enjoy in it, even now: but that when one reflects what ought to be the daily worship of such a cathedral, and what it might be, if the laws of the cathedral were enforced, and if a holy zeal were more characteristic of its dignitaries: there is nothing to say but—shame on things as they are. When will the conscience of England clamour against such disgraceful poverty of cathedral worship ”

“ Winchester Cathedral is a stately edifice, incorporating every style of English architecture from the Norman to the Perpendicular. It was founded on a more ancient site in 1079. The choir and transepts were finished in 1093. The conversion of the nave from Norman to Perpendicular was begun by Bishop Edington before 1366, and the whole was completed in 1486. The builder of the greater part of the nave was Bishop William of Wickham, the renowned architect and statesman, who occupied the See from 1366 to 1404. The church is the longest in England, measuring 560 feet in all. ”

“ The ground-plan of Winchester Cathedral is in the form of a plain Latin cross, hardly broken in its outline save by the Perpendicular prolongation of the Lady Chapel at the east end. But, simple as is the plan, "the great length of the church" (to use the words of Fergusson) "is pleasingly broken ... by the bold projection of its transepts, which here extend, as usual in England, three bays beyond the aisles, their section being the same width as that of the nave." The width of the nave with the aisles is 88 feet, while the transepts measure, from east to west, 81 feet. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For the architectural student the plan of the cathedral is not the least interesting feature of the building, for although it has an ambulatory which is semicircular internally, the plan is in other respects rather exceptional. It is what architects call a periapsidal plan, meaning that its eastern termination contains a processional aisle or ambulatory, designed mainly for the purpose of allowing a procession to pass round the high altar without entering the presbytery. In the crypt of Winchester Cathedral the plan of the early Norman church may be seen sui generis. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We learn from the English Chronicle that this Christian church was erected not by Kynegils, who died in 643, but by Kenwalh or Kenulphus his son. Here then we have the beginning in a sense of the Winchester Cathedral of to-day. True, successive and more{24} glorious buildings have been erected on the same site, but they have been but the successors in direct line of that primitive church of St. Peter and St. Paul, rudely constructed, and possibly roofed with thatch, which Birinus dedicates ”

“ WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL FROM THE DEANERY GARDENS
Foreign pilgrims coming from Normandy and Brittany, on their way to the shrine of St. Swithun, or to that of St. Thomas of Canterbury, would land, many of them, at Southampton, and journey to Winchester, there to await other bands of pilgrims bound for the great Kentish shrine. This was the route taken by Henry II when he did penance before the tomb of the murdered Becket, in July, 1174. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Winchester Cathedral has the longest nave. The inside is more [p16] superb than the outside. Izaak Walton and Jane Austen are buried here.
He Winchester, May 28,
The White Swan.
As sure as my name is Jack Copley, I saw the prettiest girl in the world to-day—an American, too, or I am greatly mistaken. It was in the cathedral, where I have been sketching for several days. I was sitting at the end of a bench, at afternoon service, when two ladies entered by the side-door. ”

“ Winchester Cathedral, as we need hardly remind our readers, has only been rescued from subsidence and collapse at an immense cost by a lavish use of the resources of modern engineering. The building itself is not without merits, but its site is inconspicuous and the swampy nature of the soil is a constant menace to its durability. The scheme which we venture with all humility to suggest is that it should be removed and re-erected, in the same spirit though in the architectural language of our own day, on the summit of St. ”

“ There is not much left of the abbey. Henry VIII., with characteristic thrift, floated the stone down the river to build Hurst Castle. The refectory, now restored and used as a parish church, is the most perfect remnant of the once magnificent establishment, whose church almost equalled the huge dimensions of Winchester Cathedral. The late lord did much to restore the ruins, which are now surrounded by lawns and shrubbery. ”

“ King Alfred lived here and King Canute lived here and William the Conqueror built a castle here, on the very spot, we will let ourselves believe, where King Arthur's castle stood."
If the first thing to be done in a town newly visited is to walk about the streets, the second is to go to the cathedral, if there is one. So the next thing that we did was to go to Winchester Cathedral. It is not much to look at from the outside, though it is pretty enough, with the trees and grass around it. It has only the lowest of towers. ”

“ Several vestiges of ancient fresco wall-paintings, more or less obliterated, are still preserved in Winchester Cathedral. The walls of our churches were even in the Anglo-Saxon era embellished with paintings; and such are described as decorating the walls of the church of Hexham in the seventh century. By the synod of Calcuith, held A. D. 816, a representation of the saint to whom a church was dedicated was required to be painted either on the wall of the church or on a tablet suspended in the church.
Ancient Stone Reliquary or Shrine, Brixworth Church, Northamptonshire. ”

“ I feared to be disappointed in the Cathedral, so soon after exquisite Wells and the Abbey at Bath, which I loved. But as soon as I got inside it was quite otherwise, especially as I had Sir Lionel to show me things, and he knew Gloucester of old. To me, the interior was almost as interesting as Winchester itself (which, so far, has outranked all) , for the transition from one period to another is so clearly and strangely marked, and it's the actual birthplace of Perpendicular architecture. The Cloisters must be among the loveliest in the world ”

“ A great quadrangle of buildings and an elaborate church, all for “thirteen poor men decayed and past their strength,” seems a great means for a small achievement. Much has fallen into disuse, but the church is still in good condition and in many respects a remarkable piece of architecture. But after all, Winchester’s greatest charm is not in her college or her cathedral, but in her old-world streets and odd corners. Nor should one forget the shops in which antiques of merit in furniture, books and other articles may be found. ”

“ Over the remaining monuments, and there are many of very great interest, we cannot linger. Flaxman is represented by a bas-relief of Dr. Warton, famous in his day as headmaster of the College, seated in his magisterial chair, with a group of college boys ‘up to books.’ The details of schoolboy attire are curious and interesting. Appealing to a wider circle are two flat slabs of stone, one in Prior Silkstede’s Chapel, one in the north aisle. The former bears the name Izaak Walton, the latter Jane Austen. Truly Winchester Cathedral is a city of the mighty dead. ”

“ On 4 June 1613 he was installed prebendary of Winchester on the death of Dr. George Ryves (Hyde and Gale, Hist. and Antiq. of Winchester Cathedral) . Here he was frequently involved in controversies with Bishop Neile on account of certain ceremonies which he had introduced into the cathedral. He is said to have been adorned in his youth with variety of learning, and in his later life to have been celebrated as an eloquent preacher and learned divine. He died 20 Feb. ”

“ Close to Edingdon's chantry is the Nave Pulpit, which is in itself a good piece of Jacobean work, though not happily situated in the nave of Winchester. It stood formerly in the chapel at New College, Oxford, and did not appear at Winchester until 1884, when it was presented by members of the Mayo family. If one stands facing east in the aisle to the right of this pulpit, one of the most picturesque views in the cathedral lies before one, through part of the south transept and up the southern ambulatory of the retro-choir to the bright colours of Langton's chapel window at the end. ”

“ In England, the chapter-house and the varied groupings of semi-ecclesiastical buildings constituting the close, which seem to form a connecting link between town and cathedral, do no more, in reality, than enlarge the skirts of the monument about which they are clustered; and even at Winchester, which has its college and hospital to oppose to the predominance of the central pile, there is, after all, very little dispersal of interest: so prodigious, so unparalleled, as mere feats of human will-power, are these vast achievements of the Middle Ages. ”

“ We shall sail for home next week, and we haven’t half done justice to the cathedrals. After the first two, we saw nothing but each other on a general background of architecture. I hope my mind is improved, but oh, I am so hazy about all the facts I have read since I knew Jack! Winchester and Salisbury stand out superbly in my memory. They acquired their ground before it was occupied with other matters. I shall never forget, for instance, that Winchester has the longest spire and Salisbury the highest nave of all the English cathedrals. ”

“ There is a much greater emphasis of line than in the nave, and there is less delicacy of detail; but the vaulting shafts are no more important, and the window tracery still plays a considerable part in the design. Hence the choir lacks that air of decision, that extreme lucidity, to be found in the design of the nave at Winchester. If it were not for the choir furniture, the stalls, the throne and pulpit, and the altar, this want of decision in the design would be much more evident than it is. But the builders of this choir are not therefore to be blamed. ”

“ 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. ”

“ London [p 61] was deprived of its Cathedral by fire probably about 1088, and the work of restoration was at once undertaken by Maurice, its Norman bishop. In 1079 Bishop Walkelyn began the erection of a cathedral church at Winchester, in the place of the old Saxon building which had first been founded on the conversion of King Cynegils, about 635. In all parts of the land, east and west, north and south, the builders were at work, rearing massive temples to the glory and honour of God. The chink of chisel and the blow of hammer rang everywhere in the ears of the eleventh century in England. ”