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 A CITY OF MEMORIES
 
 A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 BY 
 
 A. R. BRAMSTON AND A. C. LEROY 
 
 AUTHORS OF "HISTORIC WINCHESTER" 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY THE LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER 
 
 ETCHINGS AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY W. B. ROBERTS, S.P.E. 
 
 WINCHESTER: P. & G. WELLS 
 
 LONDON: DAVID NUTT 
 270 STRAND 
 
 1893
 
 All rights reserved
 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 HESE picturesque Sketches have in my humble 
 judgment one fault, a fault which may possibly be 
 thought to indicate their merit — there are not 
 enough of them. 
 
 The mighty Bishop of the last half of the Four- 
 teenth Century almost fills the scanty canvas at the authors' 
 disposal ; and some readers may covet a glimpse of the ill- 
 fated espousals of Philip and Mary ; and of the magnificent 
 obsequies of Gardiner ; and of the good-humoured Stuart King, 
 sauntering with not too sedate a following in the Deanery 
 Garden ; and of the infamous trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, one 
 of England's foremost statesmen ; and of the grim brutality of 
 Jeffreys at the Bloody Assize. 
 
 Of course, too, here and there some of the historical and 
 antiquarian references may be found open to criticism : and 
 yet it need not follow that wisdom is always with the 
 critics. To one person, among others, it is new that Morley 
 
 11CSG42
 
 vi PREFA CE 
 
 ever lived at Wolvesey. Certainly, Sir W. Waller had left it 
 in ruins when Morley came to the See ; and though it was 
 rebuilt (probably by Wren), at Morley's charges, the building 
 was not finished at his death, and he left money for its 
 completion. No doubt he may have inhabited it before it 
 was finished ; but Trelawney was the first Bishop after the 
 Restoration to occupy it in its restored dignity ; also, alas ! 
 the last. 
 
 What has been described, not without a certain pathos, as 
 " The City of Memories " still lives and moves in no ignoble 
 repose. If Winchester may in a very real sense be called 
 "the History of England in stone," she still holds a foremost 
 place in educational activities, in the gracious amenities of 
 her cultured social life, in the capacity and learning of her 
 resident clergy, in her far-reaching influence on the Diocese, 
 It has been said — remarkably said — that " the dead rule the 
 living." Winchester is more than content to be still ruled by 
 William of Wykeham and Lancelot Andrewes. The hills yet 
 stand round our Jerusalem : the hills which have seen so much 
 and said nothing ; the hills over which William of Wykeham's 
 students still gaily roam, and up which Waltheof went to 
 die ; the hills which have looked down on sieges and con- 
 flagrations, and on the Black Death ; on sacred buildings 
 slowly rising, on stately festivities, and on "tragic mockeries" 
 of justice ; the hills which we may still look on as the 
 Psalmist of old looked up at his hills in Judea, as a sort
 
 PRE FA CE vii 
 
 of inspired testimony to the righteous government of God, and 
 the indestructibleness of His Church, at once a symbol of 
 protection, of immovableness, and of endurance for times of 
 trouble that may be very near at hand. 
 
 A. WINTON. 
 
 Farnham Castle, 
 
 St. Peter's Day, 1893.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A CITY OF MEMORIES i 
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 21 
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIAEVAL CITY . . 55
 
 The Illustrations are Etchings and Reproductions of 
 Drawings. The Etching " Evening Chapel" (Winchester 
 College), which forms the Frontispiece, has been selected by 
 F. Seymour Haden, Esq., President of the Society of 
 Painter-Etchers, as one of the representative Etchings to be 
 framed as a wedding present for H.R.H. the Duke of York.
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 evening chapel — (Etching) .... Frontispiece 
 
 CITY FROM ST. GILES' HILL 6 
 
 COLLEGE BUILDINGS 12 
 
 FINIALS IN CHAMBER COORT 14 
 
 BEAUFORT'S TOWER ........ 17 
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 morning chapel — (Etching) 20 
 
 TONBRIDGE 26 
 
 ST. JOHN'S CHURCH ........ 35 
 
 COLLEGE GATE 43 
 
 COLLEGE TOWER 46 
 
 wykeham's EFFIGY 50 
 
 LITTLE MONKS 53 
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIJEVAL CITY 
 
 THE GREAT HALL ... 60 
 
 CRYPT 62 
 
 BUTTER CROSS 68 
 
 KINGSGATE 75 
 
 WOLVESEY PALACE. ........ 8l 
 
 REFECTORY KITCHEN 88 
 
 WINNALL 93
 
 A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 11 Into that old Past we love to look, because in it was life; into it 
 we dare to look, because that life is now in us — and that same gift we do 
 believe we may pass to those beyond us." — Bishop S. Wilberforce. 
 
 T is no small thing to live in a city of memories 
 where, not here and there, but at every turn, 
 the past is brought before us. It seems to give 
 us wider sympathies with the men and women 
 who long ago laboured for the common weal, but 
 who now lie sleeping around us. Besides, it is something of a 
 relief, amidst the stir and bustle of this age, and the ceaseless talk 
 of working for the good of future generations, to transport our- 
 selves back into old Winchester and to mingle with the motley 
 crowd which gathered near the entrance of the castle to see the 
 King go forth, or respectfully waited on my Lord Bishop in his 
 walled palace to petition for some favour, or dashed out in bright- 
 coloured garments to swell the civic procession on its way to the 
 Cathedral, eager for the spectacle of the marriage of a Queen of 
 England or the christening of an heir of the realm. 
 
 Only by thus living in memory with them can we fully appre- 
 ciate the labours of our forefathers, and understand what great 
 ends they achieved with what we should consider in these days 
 
 A
 
 2 A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 very small means. Non nobis nati, not for ourselves are we born, 
 and Winchester, of all the cities of England, owes its greatest 
 debt of gratitude to the Past. 
 
 But where shall we begin ? We see in the dim distance the 
 Gwen or Gwent, the " White Place " of the Celtic Briton, which 
 also found favour in the eyes of the civilised Roman conqueror. 
 Under the latter the place stands out more clearly, for he laid 
 his mark on the White City (as he did on every town and country 
 he added to his empire), making it the capital of the district he 
 called Venta Belgarum, building his villas and carrying on his 
 traffic here ; and though so many centuries have gone by, we still 
 find beneath our streets and gardens his beautiful tessellated 
 pavements, his finely engraved coins, and his figures of winged 
 Hermes ; and we still walk along the six military ways which 
 the greatest road-makers of the world left behind them as trophies 
 of their power. 
 
 But the Roman disappears and our English forefathers take 
 his place. Venta becomes Wintana, and the Saxon, doubtless 
 seeing the old British camp on St. Catherine's Hill, adds the 
 Roman " castra " to the name, which after a time becomes 
 Winchester, the city which for more than a thousand years has 
 proudly handed down her famous names for our love and reverence. 
 
 With Saxon invader the cloud of heathen barbarity falls over 
 the land, and seems at first to blot out the early British Chris- 
 tianity ; yet out of the darkness emerges again the true faith, and 
 by the seventh century we find in our capital of the West Saxons 
 a Cathedral named after St. Peter and St. Paul, and consecrated 
 by St. Birinus the bishop, who, when occasion arises — so says
 
 A CITY OF MEMORIES 3 
 
 tradition — can walk upon the water, and who in any case is 
 associated with that building which the common folk called 
 " Peter's Hus." 
 
 Now comes a time of Saxon kings and bishops ; some noble, 
 some weak, some warlike, and all craving to build strong castles 
 during their life, and to have the honour of burial in the Cathe- 
 dral after their death. 
 
 Wolvesey Castle is said to have been first built by a king for 
 a bishop. Be that as it may, we know it existed in Alfred's 
 time, and we may saunter now about its ruins (twelfth-century 
 though the present ones be), and believe that St. Wilfrid himself 
 walked on that " Island of Wolf," as the name signifies ; aye, 
 and St. Hedda too ; and St. Swithun, who built strong walls 
 round his beloved Cathedral to prevent inroads of the new 
 enemies, the fierce Danes, then striking terror into the heart of 
 every monk and citizen. 
 
 But we must pause longer at Alfred. His name is familiar 
 to every Englishman, and though to many he is known chiefly by 
 somewhat legendary stories, yet at Winchester he is a very real 
 hero ; here where he fought, and meted out justice, and wrote the 
 chronicle of his times, and thought out the best means of educat- 
 ing the young nobles ; here where he, together with his wife, built 
 the " Nunne Mynstre," whither gentlewomen might retire to pray 
 and work. 
 
 Great men could not write books then, but they could write 
 in stone, and they did so ; yet, like David of old, Alfred had to 
 leave one design which was very near his heart to be carried out 
 by his son, for the Newan Mynstre planned by him was built by
 
 4 A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 Edward the Elder. It was close to the Monastery of St. Swithun 
 (on part of the site of which the Deanery now stands), and to it 
 Alfred's bones were moved from the Cathedral, to be thence again 
 translated to Hyde Abbey, of which famous building nothing now 
 remains but a gateway and a (qw stones, though of its inner 
 life from its foundation to its fall we can still read in the Liber 
 de Hyda. 
 
 Troubled times succeed ; Saxon is followed by Dane, Dane 
 by Norman, and to William, fierce and strong, Winchester is 
 given by a woman. It was the Lady Eadgyth's " morning gift " 
 from her husband, but, making a virtue of necessity, she gave to 
 the Conqueror what he with high hand would otherwise have 
 taken. These Normans were famous writers of stone books ; 
 they built and built, and some of the Roman strength is in their 
 stones and cement, so that Norman memorials are still with us. 
 
 William scorning to use the Saxon castle, built another lower 
 down ; yet the very site of his is lost, and it is our own County 
 Hall, work of thirteenth-century date, which marks the place of 
 the earlier stronghold. The Saxon Cathedral, however, as well as 
 the Abbey at Westminster, sees our Conqueror crowned. William 
 has three Legates from the Pope to place that circlet on his head 
 four years after he had crowned himself King of England ! 
 
 But of the many royal visitors to the royal city — and before 
 the nineteenth century not a king or queen but came hither for 
 a longer or a shorter time — we can notice only a few : John 
 kneeling here at Archbishop Langton's feet ; Henry of Winchester 
 dining with the bishop, coercing the monks of St. Swithun's, 
 hanging freebooters, becoming reconciled to his son ; Bluff King
 
 A CITY OF MEMORIES 5 
 
 Hal doing the honours of the city during a week's visit from the 
 great Emperor Charles V., to whom is shown, as to us now, King 
 Arthur's Round Table of disputed date, which may have been 
 used at tournaments, and around which many a warrior, if not 
 " that goodliest fellowship of noble knights," has probably sat in 
 bygone days ; and another royal Spaniard celebrating his loveless 
 marriage with Queen Mary, after which follows the great banquet 
 at Wolvesey, and a ball where English dancing is proved to be 
 more than equal to that of the Spanish grandees. 
 
 And, again, down the line of memories the ill-fated king — is 
 he saint or traitor ? — comes here from Hurst ; not as a proud 
 monarch now, but as a prisoner, to whom the people vainly try 
 to show respect, and thereby get themselves roughly called to 
 order by the Roundhead gaoler. 
 
 Seventeen years later the bells that have tolled can also 
 ring out peals of joy to receive the " Merrie Monarch." More 
 than once he comes and begins to build that palace which is now 
 a fit home for soldiers, a legacy, as it were, from the king who 
 had seen so much of camp life. 
 
 But other names not royal rise before us — those of a long line 
 of bishops who lived and worked at Winchester, wielding the 
 spiritual sword with power, some of them not averse to using 
 even the carnal weapon also : the kind-hearted Swithun ; the 
 ambitious Stigand ; Walkelyn (whose Cathedral would now perhaps 
 be hardly recognised by him, and in whose time Archbishop 
 Lanfranc came hither to preside at a Synod, and boldly laid 
 down the prohibition, " Let no canon have a wife ") ; Henry of 
 Blois, the founder of St. Cross, and the war-loving De Roches ;
 
 6 A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 the great master-builder, William of Wykeham ; Beaufort, the 
 Cardinal Bishop ; Fox, the blind ex-Minister ; the learned and 
 saintly Lancelot Andrewes ; down to Bishop Wilberforce, who 
 was not too witty to be wise. 
 
 And other men of national fame, besides kings and priests, 
 have walked about our streets, and have had to do more or less 
 with the old city, so linking us by something better than mere 
 
 
 \m * ^nFii^te^r- 
 
 CITY r FROM ST. GILES' HILL 
 
 hearsay with the great ever-flowing life, political and literary, of 
 the English people. The half-mythical Guy of Warwick has 
 left a record of his single combat with the Dane in Danemark 
 Mede ; Waltheof, Earl of Kent, died for freedom on St. Giles' 
 Hill, which overlooks the town ; Sir Walter Raleigh stood before 
 his judges here in the great hall of the Castle, and nobly defended 
 his innocence when accused of plotting against King James,
 
 A CITY OF MEMORIES 7 
 
 whilst the ill-fated Arabella Stuart looked on and pitied herself 
 and him ; and at Wolvesey Palace later on good old Izaak Walton 
 came to live with Bishop Morley, here in the Close he died, 
 and we can read his epitaph, probably written by his brother- 
 in-law who bore another name Winchester holds dear — Bishop 
 Ken. 
 
 Here Marlborough remonstrated with his Romanist king ; 
 here the Iron Duke was triumphantly dragged in his carriage to 
 receive the freedom of the city ; and here to the quiet Cathedral 
 town came the boy-poet Keats, who was to win fame only when 
 life was ended. Most likely it was in the Square or Minster 
 Street that he lodged, for he tells us how every day he walks down 
 the Lime Avenue and through the two Closes and out to St. Cross, 
 and finds " every pint of air worth sixpence ! " He is working at 
 upsetting " the drawling of the blue-stocking literary world ; " but 
 better still, he is writing his " Ode to Autumn " and " Lamia," 
 and finds Winchester very suitable for thought. " There is a 
 fine Cathedral," he says; "part of it built 1400 (?) years ago, 
 and the more modern by a magnificent man called William of 
 Wickham." Then he tells his love, Fanny Brawne, that at 
 Winchester he shall get her letters sooner. " It being a Cathedral 
 city, I shall have the pleasure, always a great one to me when 
 near a Cathedral, of reading them during the service up and down 
 the aisle." 
 
 A delightfully original picture this of the young poet whose 
 words glow like richest Italian painting, and on whose brow 
 Death had already laid its mark, walking up and down the great 
 nave, reading his love-letters, whilst the music of prayer and
 
 8 A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 praise is going up within the choir. Winchester gave him 
 what the ignorant and cruel critics denied him, comfort and 
 refreshment. 
 
 And what of Jane Austen, who came in her last illness to 
 die here ? Two epitaphs there are to her memory in the home 
 of the famous dead : one when she was only simple Miss Austen, 
 who had written books that were badly paid for ; the other 
 fifty years later, when all England had agreed that she had 
 become classic. 
 
 And in our own time another poet walked sometimes along 
 that High Street which is the very Roman via of old, not one 
 crushed by criticism, but crowned with laurels ; and a statesman 
 — passionately hated or beloved — of whom posterity will pos- 
 sibly form a juster estimate, has received a welcome in the college 
 quadrangle from many of England's future leaders, and spoken 
 words of encouragement to them ; and the gentle womanly author 
 who gave England a picture of how any man could make himself 
 a gentleman, walked within Wykeham's walls and heard Wykeham's 
 sons sing " their sweet song of home " in the last summer of her 
 life. But Winchester may claim for its own the woman who first 
 wove Daisy Chains of matchless purity for England's maiden- 
 hood. 
 
 Here are some names out of our long list of memories, but 
 from the lives of a few of them let us pick out two or three 
 scenes, for such pictures once impressed on our minds make the 
 dead bones of history live again, and bridging over the inter- 
 vening years we thereby endow the past with the reality of the 
 present.
 
 A CITY OF MEMORIES 9 
 
 (EnnV^ 6rtft 
 
 There must have been very mixed feelings on the day when 
 all Winchester knew that Cnut the Dane was coming for an act 
 of special worship to the Saxon Cathedral — mixed, because the 
 great Dane was one of the dreaded Vikings and a foreigner, and 
 though now King of England, yet that title had not been gained 
 without many a deed hardly in accordance with his religion. 
 And, on their side, the citizens had the sad feast-day of St. Brice 
 to remember, when the massacre of the peaceable Danes had 
 begun in this very town. Since then, often had the gates of the 
 city been hastily closed, because the wild hordes of those Danes 
 had been seen without ; " an army daring and fearless," says the 
 chronicler, passing by on their way to the sea, and everywhere 
 teaching the Saxons that revenge is sweet. But later these same 
 enemies had to be admitted into Winchester, and the proud 
 Saxon had to bow before the prouder Dane ; nay, he had to doff 
 his cap humbly and speak softly to " My Lord Dane," for fear of 
 losing the head which the cap covered. 
 
 But that bad time was over. Cnut, the fair-haired youth of 
 twenty, had conquered the kingdom, and was ruling wisely and 
 well ; he wished to be looked upon as the Saxon's king, and 
 therefore had married Ethelred's widow, and with a kind of simple 
 barbaric splendour he wished his religious actions to match his 
 royal fame, saying to his subjects, " I do you to wit that I will 
 be a kind lord, and unfailing to God's rights and to right secular 
 law."
 
 io A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 Now Cnut was coming on an errand that made all the citizens 
 crowd together ; eorls, thanes, reeves, villeins, mingled with the 
 Danish settlers in the city to witness his arrival from South- 
 ampton, as the news spread that he was come to offer up his 
 crown in the Cathedral ! 
 
 Amidst the flattering acclamations he halts at the Cathedral 
 door, and enters St. Peter's House, the work of Bishop yEthel- 
 wold, already rich with gifts of Saxon benefactors — rich, too, in 
 saintly relics, especially those of the famous St. Swithun. Looking 
 at all this he must think his gift none too great, and yet it is not 
 a small one when we consider the pride of the fierce-natured 
 Dane. He has come in person to place his crown above the 
 Christ whose figure shines resplendent at the east end ; others 
 had given lands and money, but he wishes to leave for ever his 
 chief token of regal power above the silent image. 
 
 And so the courtiers throng up the aisles ; and as bishop, 
 clergy, and monks meet the King and conduct him to the High 
 Altar, the " organs " of which the monk Wolstan speaks so 
 enthusiastically peal forth. 
 
 But as Cnut knelt before the High Altar he must have 
 thought that, though as a king he offered unto a King, yet it was 
 after all but the gift of a blood-stained mortal who had himself 
 ordered the death of his friend, Jarl Ulf, killed when kneeling in a 
 Danish church and before another altar; and bearing about with 
 him such memories even a Cnut could not help learning humility. 
 
 By a strange chance we know the shape of this very crown, 
 for the young King and his Queen Emma offered also a silver 
 cross to the New Minster, and in the register of that monastery
 
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 A CITY OF MEMORIES 13 
 
 we have a picture of the scene. And though years after another 
 king - , far from offering anything to God, only sent rough soldiers to 
 snatch away Cnut's golden crown from its long resting-place, 
 we may perhaps some day see its likeness restored, so that the 
 act which is now read of in history may be spoken of by every 
 citizen when he looks eastward towards the choir of the old 
 Cathedral, and beholds once more a kingly figure crowned though 
 crucified. 
 
 $n tjje College €tuatfrang;le 
 
 One great statesman, architect, and bishop stands out towards 
 the close of the fourteenth century as a bright star in the midst 
 of dark skies. He had known poverty, he remembered poor 
 scholars, and for years he pondered on the plan of building them a 
 fit home, till at last on a March morning, 1387, the first stone of 
 the school was laid, and for six years the work went on, until both 
 great gateways, quadrangle, and chapel rose complete. Think of 
 the joy it must have been to William of Wykeham when the 
 work was so far finished that the scholars, who had lodged just 
 outside the city walls, could come and take possession. 
 
 It is the 28th of March, 1393. There is a joyous concourse 
 in the town ; from every part people in holiday attire are stream- 
 ing at an early hour towards the college. They must arrive in 
 time to see the seventy boys walk down from St. Giles' Hill, 
 headed by their master; and as at nine o'clock they come, bare- 
 headed, with the cross borne aloft in front, they sing psalms of 
 joy.
 
 14 
 
 A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 In the unaltered quadrangle of to-day we can fancy the whole 
 scene. The poor are there in woollen smocks and galligaskins ; 
 the citizens, some in similar garments but of finer fashion, some 
 
 in long blue gowns and yellow stockings ; the knights gorgeous 
 in silks and velvets ; while from out the throng the great bishop 
 stands forth and blesses the building, and the seventy boys chant 
 
 /#^<-<^ 
 
 QJ THt' *V»C*E.t< 
 
 the Amen of the finished work, and dream of future greatness or 
 piety, to equal, if possible, that of their beloved founder. 
 
 Pass on nearly 500 years, and in the year 1887, on the
 
 A CITY OF MEMORIES 15 
 
 anniversary of the first stone-laying, that same quadrangle is 
 filled with scholars ; again prayers rise in that beautiful spot, and 
 a nineteenth-century bishop lifts up his right hand and blesses 
 Wykeham's work, which has brought forth such abundant fruit, 
 and grey-haired Wykehamists bare their heads as the words " O 
 God, our help in ages past," float upward in the spring sunshine. 
 Their chapel cannot hold them all now, and two and two, both 
 old and young, pass down College Street, and through the Close 
 to the Cathedral, where another bishop — also one of Wykeham's 
 sons — preaches on the building lessons of the master-builder, 
 whilst opposite to him Wykeham, the man so practical as well as 
 so spiritual, sleeps in his beautiful chantry. 
 
 & ©arbtaal'si Heatj)=fceb 
 
 The high-born bishop, Cardinal Beaufort, is dying at Wolvesey 
 Palace. His seventy years have been filled with work ; but 
 though he may be a king's grandson, and greater than his 
 predecessor Wykeham by ancestry and riches, yet he cannot be 
 compared to him in true nobility. 
 
 The citizens and common people discuss his life now that he 
 lies there helpless among them. Was he not Chancellor when 
 only twenty-six, and had he not mixed himself up in all the 
 political turmoils of that time ? Had not Prince Hal, when he 
 became king, made his uncle Chancellor for the second time — ■ 
 perhaps because he had been useful to him and had unloosed his 
 purse-strings in the war with France ? The elder citizens well
 
 16 A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 remember the great banquet at Winchester before the King left 
 England, when the Archbishop of Bruges and Monsieur the 
 Ambassador of France had dined in the city, which friendly feast 
 had not, however, prevented Agincourt. 
 
 The people talk also of their bishop's crusade, though his 
 travels had not led him as far as the Holy Sepulchre ; and if 
 until late years he had not been much in his diocese, yet it was a 
 grand thing to have had a bishop so much at court, and who was 
 one of the most powerful men in the Kingdom. At the last king's 
 death had not Beaufort become guardian of the infant monarch, 
 and ruled and quarrelled to his heart's content ? Then had come 
 the offer of the Cardinal's hat and the office of Papal Legate, and 
 envious tongues had tried to depose him from his bishopric. But he 
 had gone off to France, had assisted at the trial of the Maid of 
 Orleans, had again had a hard fight to keep possession of his rich 
 See, and, holding his ground, had for nearly fifty years been the 
 most powerful ruler in England. Latterly, however, the statesman- 
 bishop had been oftener with them in his episcopal city, and 
 had left work there which would make his name remembered. 
 They have his device of a white hart chained high up in the 
 Cathedral, where he continued Wykeham's work, there also is the 
 new altar screen and the beautiful shrine for St. Swithun's relics, 
 and they can see his good work at St. Cross, where the Brother- 
 hood of Noble Poverty, added to De Blois' earlier almshouses, is 
 entirely owing to his munificence. 
 
 Now all the busy, eager, ambitious life is over, and he lies 
 dying at Wolvesey. The clergy and monks, with Prior Aulton 
 of St. Swithun's in full vestments, walk slowly along the streets,
 
 A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 17 
 
 past Wykeham's College, and through the palace gateway ; and 
 round the dying Cardinal's bed they sing the Requiem Mass. 
 Then he listens to his will and corrects it, for all must be left 
 now. He has great possessions to dispose of, far more than will 
 
 BEAUFORT S TOWER 
 
 be needed for his beautiful shrine, which is to be a fitting monument 
 for a king's grandson and a king's uncle. 
 
 The day following he takes leave of his friends, and all through 
 the April night they watch beside him ; the next morning the 
 Cathedral bell tolls mournfully, for the Cardinal Bishop has passed 
 away.
 
 1 8 A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 King Henry VII. and Elizabeth his queen are staying at 
 St. Swithun's Priory so that the expected heir may be born in 
 the old royal city, which, by reason of its being in possession of 
 the Round Table, must ever be linked with King Arthur of 
 pre-historic times. 
 
 The Queen is safely delivered, and amidst ringing bells and 
 blazing bonfires and general rejoicing the preparations for the 
 christening at once begins. 
 
 The " Erie of Oxenforde " is to be godfather, but he has a 
 long journey from Suffolk, and the season is very rainy, to the 
 worsening of the bad roads by which he must travel. 
 
 The Cathedral is full of workmen handling arras and red 
 sarsenet. The old square Norman font of Tournay stone, with 
 its quaint legends of St. Nicholas and its symbolic birds, has a 
 platform made near it with seven steps, so that the royal person- 
 ages may stand in their right degrees ; but the black font is not 
 grand enough for the actual ceremony, so a small gilt one is 
 erected on an iron pedestal shaded by a rich canopy surmounted 
 by a gilt ball. 
 
 Sunday comes ; the chaplain goes to the Priory which adjoins 
 the Cathedral, and with him the treasurer bearing the " Assay of 
 Salt," which is handed to the Earl of Sussex together with a 
 towel, and this he throws around his neck as the most graceful 
 fashion of carrying it.
 
 A CITY OF MEMORIES 19 
 
 Then out of the Priory issues a great number of people — 
 officials, nobles, and ladies of rank ; but the centre of attraction 
 is the little Prince, wrapped in " a mantell of cremesyn cloth of 
 gold furred with ermyn." He is carried by his aunt, Lady Cecil ; 
 but his train is borne by Lady Dorset, and Sir John Cheyne 
 supports it in the middle. The Earl of Lincoln has to help Lady 
 Cecil, and many great ladies are round about. All the christen- 
 ing party enter the nave by the little south door, as it is too cold 
 and wet for the royal infant to be taken round to the great west 
 entrance. 
 
 In the Cathedral the Queen's mother, Elizabeth, having gone 
 on first, is waiting, with a procession of ecclesiastical dignitaries, 
 ready to receive His small Highness. Richard Fox is there, now 
 only Secretary of the King, but his advance to the See of Win- 
 chester is predicted. 
 
 However, there is a delay in the ceremony ; they wait and 
 wait, hoping for the arrival of the Earl of Oxford, who has been 
 heard of not far off ; at last, three hours late, and when the 
 babe has already been dipped in the font by the Bishop of 
 Worcester, the noble godfather arrives, just in time to present 
 King Arthur's namesake for confirmation to the Bishop of 
 Exeter. The administration of this rite is very grand, for 
 the Queen Dowager herself walks up the nave to the choir, 
 and lays the little heir of England upon the altar during the 
 singing of the " Veni Creator." 
 
 Gifts to the shrine of St. Swithun in the retro-choir follow 
 next, after which the anthem of the saint is sung, and censers are 
 swung, and the scent of spices and " ipocras " fills the building. 
 
 B
 
 20 A CITY OF MEMORIES 
 
 Thus ends the ceremony so far as the little prince is concerned, 
 for Lady Cecil takes him home to his " norserye," where his 
 cradle is a thing to wonder at, with its silver and gilt " pomelles," 
 its ermine, and blue velvet, and gold tissue coverings, and above 
 all its three " Lady Rocksters," who on certain occasions are to be 
 dressed in cloth of gold. Cnut had offered his crown, but now 
 it was a king's child that was offered to God. Who can doubt 
 that the gift was accepted, when Prince Arthur at the age of 
 sixteen was taken from the evil to come ? 
 
 ***** 
 
 These are a few of the more ancient pictures one paints in the 
 old city as one walks along the streets, for happily memory 
 cannot be destroyed as some of the venerable gateways and old 
 walls have been — the first for being too narrow, and the second 
 because they interfered with the building of unlovely modern 
 houses. 
 
 And yet even these displaced stones speak at Winchester, for 
 the Past clings tenaciously to its home, and despite the Philistines 
 of the last hundred years, it refuses to be utterly cast out.
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 "Nations and thrones and reverend laws have melted like a dream, 
 Yet Wykeham's zvorks are green and fresh beside the crystal stream." 
 
 Lord Selborne. 
 
 [ERHAPS few travellers who alight at Winchester 
 
 fully realise the long historical story possessed by 
 
 this old town ; still in the minds of most people 
 
 the name of William of Wykeham at once rises, 
 
 with more or less distinctness, when they make 
 
 their way to the Cathedral — bearing on the whole of its long nave 
 
 the impress of his mind — and to the College, which owes its 
 
 existence to him. 
 
 The more we study the life and character of this great English 
 architect, ecclesiastic, and statesman, the more we are amazed, 
 not only at the genius of his intellect, but also at his purity of 
 soul. In him there were no splendid passions to counteract the 
 splendid virtues, no sordid ambition to nullify the Christian 
 humility of one, who, besides being "an overseer" was bound to 
 be an " ensample to the flock." So much is the city of Winchester 
 connected with this master-builder, that it may be well to picture 
 to ourselves his life and times, though five centuries separate him 
 from us. 
 
 The parents of William were poor, the father a yeoman, the
 
 22 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 mother — Sibill Bovvade — somewhat above her husband in rank. 
 They certainly were not proud, their very surname has remained 
 doubtful, probably it was Aas or As, or possibly Longe, and without 
 any noble prefix or broad acres to hand it down to future genera- 
 tions in the quiet little village of Wickham. Indeed, the country 
 folk about there barely know the name of their great William, 
 and certainly are not stirred by its mention ; one old villager 
 when lately " interviewed " by a stranger, bent on collecting 
 traditions, admitted that he had heard of him, but "he'd never 
 zeed the man who could tell 'en anything about 'en, and 'twas 
 funny if he lived there, that nobody seemed to know nothing 
 consarnin' 'en " ! 
 
 Certainly had any one foretold to Sibill that the little son to 
 whom she gave birth in the autumn of 1324 would one day be 
 the most powerful man in the realm after " my lord the king," 
 she would have laughed to scorn the idea ; most likely her 
 highest ambition for him was that he should grow up a God- 
 fearing man, and follow worthily the footsteps of his father. But 
 William was evidently a clever boy, and Sir John Scures, lord 
 of the manor of Wickham, struck by his ability, fancied he 
 would do no discredit to the priory school at Winchester, with 
 which he himself was well acquainted from being also constable 
 of the great castle in that town. This castle, which in 
 Wykeham's time had already stood, at least in part, for over three 
 hundred years, had sustained more than one siege, had been the 
 prison of many important personages, and had lodged many a 
 king within its walls. Something of its grandeur we may 
 imagine when, having walked up the High Street and turned
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 23 
 
 to the left by the west gate, we come upon its only relic — 
 the Great Hall — altered indeed to some extent in Wykeham's 
 time, yet now substantially the same as when he was a boy ; the 
 place where kings have feasted, justice has been administered, and 
 Parliaments of England have sat. 
 
 The site of "the Great Grammar School of Winchester," as 
 William's school was called, was probably about five minutes' walk 
 from the present college, just outside the west wall of the priory 
 inclosure; and his masters, the worthy brethren of St. Swithun's, 
 were prepared to teach him logic, canon law, arithmetic, and 
 geometry, all doubtless in a foreign tongue. That they had 
 " to construe their lessons and their things in French " (probably 
 the French of Stratford-atte-Bow) we learn from a contemporary 
 writer, for not yet was the language of England's former con- 
 querors superseded by the mother tongue. The boy was an apt 
 pupil, and from the versatility of his genius in after life we are 
 inclined to fancy that he soon outdid his teachers. Every day 
 William would repair to the Cathedral to hear Mass, this, most 
 likely, being part of the monks' daily routine for their scholars, and 
 he would enter either by the west front, then very different from 
 the present one, or by the south door, now blocked up. If by 
 the latter, he would, with permission of the prior, have passed 
 through the gate of the Close, and near the pointed arches now 
 seen at the entrance of the Deanery, though possibly they were 
 then hidden by some of the conventual buildings ; he would have 
 looked with respectful awe at the outside of the prior's hall, the 
 predecessor of that now existing, and he would have walked along 
 the cloisters, of which not a stone now remains, before he entered
 
 24 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 the great Norman church. Not far from that entrance Richard 
 Pekis, one of the Benedictine monks of St. Swithun's who served 
 the Cathedral, said Mass daily at an altar placed against a pillar 
 to which was affixed an image of the Blessed Virgin. Little 
 William took a great liking for this spot, and never forgot the 
 youthful fervour of his prayers to the Holy Mother ; here it was 
 that probably he dedicated himself specially to her, calling her 
 his patron saint (as we gather from the names of both his 
 colleges), and here in after years was to be his chantry and his 
 tomb. 
 
 To have an idea of the Cathedral as he saw it when a boy we 
 must not stand where Wykeham prayed, but in the north or south 
 transept where the comparatively rude masonry, round-headed 
 arches arranged in symmetrical triplets, massive piers and flat roof, 
 take us back to the time of William the Conqueror, though not, as 
 some still think, to an earlier period. The whole nave and 
 choir were in this Norman style, and the yeoman's son, coming 
 straight from his village home, must have looked upon it all 
 with wonder and amazement. 
 
 The old foundation of St. Cross, not a mile from Winchester, 
 must also have been well known to William, though the church 
 was then more entirely in the style we have been describing than 
 it is at present. There was no Beaufort Gateway, no long cloister, 
 and the brethren lived probably on the opposite side of the 
 quadrangle to that which they occupy at present. Some of the 
 poorer scholars of the " Great Grammar School " daily took the 
 walk to St. Cross and dined in the " Hundred Men's Hall," but 
 we do not know whether William was one of these.
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 25 
 
 It must have been on rare occasions that the school-boy was 
 allowed to visit the town itself; when he did so, it presented 
 a much more picturesque appearance than in these days of red 
 brick and slated roofs. The five great arched gateways had each 
 its chapel over it or near by ; the city walls were in fairly good 
 preservation, and the low thatched houses were interspersed with 
 many more churches and chapels than even there are now. The 
 High Street was in its present position, indeed, but with a stream 
 of water flowing down the centre of its lower part, whilst the 
 " Brooks " which still give their names to the side streets, were 
 far less hidden than in these days. Where now the Mechanics' 
 Institute stands was the " Guild Hall " or " Woollen Hall ; " there 
 probably the various craft-guilds met, these having superseded 
 the original merchant-guild of early times, and by means of them 
 the ordinance was enforced that each merchant should deal in 
 only one kind of merchandise — a law which seems to us now 
 curiously subversive of individual liberty. 
 
 The Winchester of that day was a very busy trading-place. 
 The great wool-trade carried on with Flanders necessitated the 
 establishment of staples, and this was one of ten favoured staple 
 towns, a fact which is still commemorated by a narrow lane, 
 north of the High Street, rejoicing in the name of " Staple 
 Gardens," where once stood the warehouse for wool, and where all 
 questions of weight were decided by the king's beam. On the 
 great fair days or at the yearly sale of wool, the town must have 
 swarmed with Flemish merchants who, in their quaint garb and 
 high peaked hats, would bargain over the wool sacks, and leave 
 their strange coins in exchange for English commodities — coins
 
 26 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 still sometimes picked up when any digging takes place. On 
 these same fair days would be seen a curious medley of knight 
 and yeoman, citizen and trader, serf and ecclesiastic, the dress of 
 each dividing class from class much more sharply than it does 
 now. 
 
 The natural features of the place were of course much the 
 same. East and west the hills (though then unspoilt by buildings) 
 rose above the town, then, as now, the Itchen divided the low 
 flat water meadows with many a silver thread, and then, as now, 
 
 TONBRIDGE 
 
 St. Catherine's Hill — a spur from the long down — looked like 
 an isolated sentry keeping guard outside the ancient capital lest any 
 foe should come up the valley from Southampton Water ; only, 
 instead of being crowned with a clump of trees, it was then 
 consecrated by a small chapel (the foundations of which can still be 
 discerned on the uneven grass) but which, disendowed by Cardinal 
 Wolsey, was in the seventeenth century allowed to fall into decay. 
 But to return to the youthful scholar, who, on leaving school, 
 became secretary to his patron, and was then — Sir John having 
 found him capable of better things — recommended to the notice of
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 27 
 
 the Bishop of Winchester. Bishop Edingdon was glad enough to 
 avail himself of the talent of young Wykeham, who was known to 
 have a great genius for architecture, and there must have been 
 plenty of work for him to do in a town so full of convents and 
 churches, with its two castles, royal and episcopal ; besides, the 
 bishop was meditating considerable alteration in the west front of 
 the Cathedral. On entering this way we may notice that two 
 windows on the north side, and one on the south, are different to 
 their fellows. This is the first change wrought by Edingdon from 
 the Norman to the Perpendicular ; by-and-by his secretary was 
 to continue his work and transform the whole nave into the 
 building which we now see. 
 
 William was but twenty-three when a great event befell him — 
 his first introduction to royalty, for in October, 1347, the city of 
 Winchester received a visit from Edward III., of famous memory. 
 This was doubtless an honour to his late treasurer, the bishop, and 
 it was certainly also an expense to him, for receiving kings was no 
 small thing in that time of unbounded hospitality ; the banquets 
 to the Sovereign and all the retinue were most sumptuous, and the 
 entertainment lasted for several days. 
 
 At once the youthful secretary seems to have attracted the 
 attention of the King. Perhaps the latter had heard of his 
 engineering powers and was anxious to test them in the many 
 warlike operations which he had on hand against Scotland. Spain, 
 and France. The young architect must have been proud to be 
 personally useful to his Sovereign, though he cannot but have 
 regretted leaving the good old Edingdon who had himself just 
 refused the archbishopric of Canterbury, preferring to remain in the
 
 28 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 ancient royal city and to spend his money on the Cathedral, 
 beautifying, as he deemed, the heavy Norman work by trans- 
 forming it into the lighter style of his own day. 
 
 Money indeed must have been sorely needed, for shortly after 
 Wykeham's departure the dreadful pestilence known as the "Black 
 Death " reached Europe and swept over the whole of that con- 
 tinent. In England the towns suffered terribly, and half the 
 inhabitants of the country died from its effects. Description fails 
 before the reality of this awful plague. Winchester, with its 
 narrow, over-crowded streets, where crows were the only 
 scavengers, was decimated ; moreover its wool trade was ruined, 
 for the mortality extended to the beasts, so that shepherd and 
 sheep alike perished ; and such was the terror engendered that 
 the commonest ties of humanity were snapped by the fear of con- 
 tagion and death. 
 
 King Edward had no lack of employment for Wykeham, or 
 Sir William de Wykeham as he was soon called. He was made 
 surveyor of the royal works, and that his talents became fully 
 appreciated, is seen by such buildings as the Chapel of St. Stephen 
 at the Palace of Westminster, and the castles at Dover and 
 Queenborough. In 1356 he was put in charge of the castle of 
 Windsor, the birthplace of the King, who desired to beautify it by 
 various additions. It was no small labour to be the director of 
 the 300 workmen here employed ; and all being finished, he must 
 have felt relieved no less than satisfied, when, following the custom 
 of the day, he wrote on one of the towers This made Wickatn — 
 words which inverted would have been equally true, as that tower 
 of Windsor certainly made the fortune of the designer. In 1359
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 29 
 
 he became warden of all the king's castles, and soon after sub- 
 dean of St. Martin's le Grand. Though, as a layman, he 
 could not officiate in this church, yet he could repair it, and 
 therefore, at his own expense, he rebuilt a part of it — little 
 guessing that the whole site would be occupied in the future by 
 the General Post Office. 
 
 Wykeham was also taken into council about the most impor- 
 tant events of the time, and once at least he went over to Calais 
 with the king ; we know that he was present in the capacity of 
 public notary at the signing of the Treaty of Bretigny — a treaty 
 which gave some breathing-time to his exhausted country, wearied 
 with long war. 
 
 So much royal favour might have spoilt many a man, but there 
 is not a hint of this having been the case with Wykeham ; on the 
 contrary, we find his mind turned now more definitely towards 
 religious subjects. The desolation of the country after the Black 
 Death was so great that many churches were shut up from the 
 scarcity of priests to minister in them. Whether this made 
 Wykeham feel that he could not only build up God's temples, but 
 that he might also strengthen the souls of His people, we cannot 
 tell, yet surely there is something touching in the fact of this great 
 architect presenting himself to his old master, Bishop Edingdon, 
 and praying for the laying on of hands. In December, 1361, he 
 was therefore made an acolyte, in the following March sub-deacon, 
 and in the June of the same year he was consecrated priest. 
 
 And now a new field of work and honour lay before the king's 
 favourite, who was yet so little elated that he could himself 
 re-echo St. Paul's words, " If I pleased men, I should not be the
 
 3o A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 servant of Christ." Edward III. appointed him Keeper of the 
 Privy Seal, secretary to the King, then chief of the Privy Council, 
 and proceeded to heap benefices upon him, many of which he 
 retained till he was offered a mitre. 
 
 A few more years and Edingdon was laid to rest in his Cathe- 
 dral, where the bishop's figure in his chantry (to the eastward of 
 that of his former secretary) bears marks of the rough usage it 
 received, probably from Parliamentary soldiers in the seventeenth 
 century. Then came the question — who was to succeed him ? This 
 was not so easily settled in those days as it is now, when the 
 Prime Minister may consult his Sovereign, but never consults the 
 Cathedral Chapter, nor seeks the approbation of the Pope ! Then, 
 Kings, monks, and Pope had all to agree, at least if high words 
 were to be avoided, or, as was sometimes the case, rough deeds 
 as well. King Edward desired that his favourite Wykeham should 
 succeed, and for once the monks of St. Swithun's were of the 
 same mind, and had no wish to suggest any other than he who 
 both as boy and man was well known to the town. The Pope, 
 however, whilst not objecting personally to Wykeham, was un- 
 willing to ratify the election, because though (by the Statute of 
 Provisors passed in 1352) he could appoint to no ecclesiastical 
 office below that of a bishop, yet as to this he still had a 
 voice. The right he wished to maintain ; nevertheless it was 
 not safe to offend Edward III., or the powerful priest of whom 
 Froissart writes in these words : " Or en ce teps regnait un Pretre : 
 qu'6 apeloit messire Guillaume de Wican ; Iceluy Messire Guil- 
 laume de Wican etait si bien en la grace du Roy d'Angleterre 
 que par luy estait tout fait ne sanz luy on ne faisait rien." At
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 31 
 
 last, the Duke de Bourbon, who was a hostage for the King of 
 France, was told that if he could obtain Wykeham's nomination 
 from the Pope he should be set free. With this reward in view 
 the Duke hastened to Avignon where the Papal Court still sat, 
 and by fair words, doubtless made fairer by a bribe, he obtained 
 the boon. 
 
 In the year 1367 the new bishop was consecrated at St. Paul's 
 to the See of Winchester, and remembering to what he owed his 
 good fortune, he still kept for his coat of arms — quartered with 
 those of the episcopate — the two chevronels, or carpenters' couples, 
 between two roses, and adopted the motto, " Manners maketh 
 man," dear to every Wykehamist since his time. 
 
 Already before his enthronement the priest had reached the 
 highest office in the State, having been made Chancellor of England; 
 this office he held for four years, and if it must have kept him 
 much occupied away from his See, he was yet not unmindful of the 
 wants of his flock. On his presentation to the bishopric, he said 
 humbly to the King, " Sire, I am unworthy, but wherein I am 
 wanting myself, that will I supply by a brood of more scholars 
 than all the prelates of England ever showed ; " and this idea he 
 soon put into execution, though the entire scheme was many 
 years in being carried out. 
 
 There was a great stir in the old city of Winchester when the 
 day of Wykeham's enthronement arrived. It was the 9th of July, 
 1 368, and the town must have been looking especially beautiful 
 in its bower of trees ; an outrider had announced the bishop 
 before he entered the city, probably by the north gate, and either 
 there or at the entrance of the close he was met by the Arch-
 
 32 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 deacon of Northampton, Willam Askeby by name, who was com- 
 missioned by Cardinal Peter Roger, Archdeacon of Canterbury, to 
 enthrone him ; having saluted, the new bishop alighted from his 
 palfrey, which, according to the custom at that time, was with all 
 its trappings taken possession of by the servant of the Archdeacon 
 of Canterbury. The bishop now made his way towards the 
 Cathedral ; before entering, however, he had to change his riding 
 apparel, and his coat, gloves, hat, and boots fell to the share of 
 the aforesaid Cardinal, who had also a large allowance of wine and 
 wax-candles, wax being a most precious article in those days. 
 
 This robing most likely took place at the Church of St. 
 Laurence close by, from whence the procession, forming under 
 the direction of Hugo de Basyng, Prior of St. Swithun's, would 
 pass through the churchyard to the west door, where it would be 
 joined by the heads of the other monasteries in and near Win- 
 chester — Thomas de Pechy, Abbot of Hyde, holding highest rank 
 amongst them. Next would follow long lines of monks clad in 
 their robes of brown, black, white, or grey, according to their order, 
 and then many a layman, who had ridden in from the country 
 round to do honour to both Church and State on this occasion. 
 The great procession, gorgeous with embroidered cope and many a 
 richvestment.with episcopal staff and crozier both of prior and abbot 
 carried aloft, must have formed an imposing spectacle as it filed up 
 the long nave of the cathedral, thronged, doubtless, to overflowing 
 by many citizens — for unusual interest would be evinced by Win- 
 chester in this enthronement of one long known to them, now 
 Chancellor of England and certainly, next to the King and Arch- 
 bishop, the greatest man in the country.
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 33 
 
 After the ceremony there was a feast in the priory hall : the 
 bishop's table was at the upper end, and the archdeacon with the 
 invited guests (most likely Wykeham's parents among them) had 
 a table spread for them on the right. The new bishop drank to 
 the archdeacon in a cup of silver, which was then put aside 
 as a perquisite for the absent dignitary. Certainly he was 
 amply recompensed for the part in the labours of the day which 
 he did not perform ! The feast on such occasions, if we may 
 judge by a bill of fare at a similar banquet, included delicacies 
 not often seen in these times, such as buzzards, doves, and 
 goats ! 
 
 Now that Wykeham was Bishop of Winchester, he thought it 
 prudent to obtain from the King an assurance that in all his 
 many and various posts he had done his duty, and the King 
 immediately gave him " full acquittance." Most likely this fore- 
 thought saved the statesman from greater disgrace than that 
 which afterwards befell him. At present, royal favour still shone 
 on Wykeham, and lands and benefices were heaped upon him ; in 
 1366 we know that he held, at least, twenty ecclesiastical offices, 
 and the custom of the time must be pleaded as the only excuse 
 for the undoubted fact of Wykeham's having been such a great 
 pluralist ! His advice was taken in the wars that followed 
 against France and Scotland ; but after four years of office, the 
 anti-clerical spirit of the day prompted a petition from the 
 Commons that the chief State offices might be given to able lay- 
 men, and not to ecclesiastics, whom it was, they said, " difficult to 
 bring to account." Upon this, Wykeham, with great good sense, 
 tendered his resignation, and by his presence at the inauguration
 
 34 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 of his successor, Sir Robert Thorpe, showed that he was not 
 offended at the tone which the Commons had taken. 
 
 The bishop had now time to devote to his diocese, and dis- 
 missing his commissary-general he turned his whole attention to 
 it. His various palaces and manor-houses had to be repaired, 
 money had to be expended on the Cathedral (though not yet was 
 Edingdon's work in the nave to be continued), and the prede- 
 cessors of the Winchester scholars had to be settled in the little 
 house on St. Giles' Hill. 
 
 If we walk down Winchester High Street, and over the bridge 
 before which once stood the east gate, into that part of the town 
 formerly known as the " Soke," we shall come into the parish of 
 St. John, and in a somewhat steep and winding street, where 
 centuries ago Roman conquerors had their burial-grounds, we shall 
 find one of the most interesting churches of the town. It was on 
 the hill in St. John's parish that Wykeham lodged certain poor 
 scholars, and on every Sunday and festival, if not also daily, 
 they attended service at the same St. John's Church, until such 
 time as he could give them fitting buildings and a chapel of 
 their own. 
 
 Besides all this, there was need of the bishop's searching eye 
 and wise judgment as visitor of the many religious houses with 
 which his episcopal city abounded. Alas ! the Church had much 
 need of reform ; the extortions of Rome raised everywhere a feel- 
 ing of bitterness ; the mendicant friars, though once a blessing to 
 the land, had become its curse ; whilst they and the monks were 
 many of them ignorant and vicious. The ballad poetry of the time 
 is full of invectives against the friars, and if half of what they are
 
 X 
 o 
 
 OS 
 O 
 X 
 u 
 
 X 
 o 
 

 
 A MASTER BUILDER 37 
 
 accused was true, they must have been a very plague spot on the 
 face of the land. Jack Upland exclaims : 
 
 " Frier, what charity is this, 
 To the people to lie, 
 
 And say that ye follow Christ in povertie 
 More than other men done ? 
 And yet in curious and costly housing, 
 And fine and precious clothing, 
 And delicious and likely feeding, 
 And in treasure and jewels, 
 And rich ornaments, 
 Freers passen lords 
 And other rich worldly men." 
 
 No wonder that the voice of the people was beginning to 
 make itself heard against them, that Wicliff, who by " Friar 
 Daw Topias " is called that wickede worme, was trying to urge 
 a holier life, a life where none need interfere between the soul 
 and God, and that Geoffrey Chaucer and others were soon with 
 their eagerly read poems to assist a much needed reformation. 
 The reform movement was, however, mixed — we find it so in most 
 cases — with political aspirations towards greater liberty. Many 
 peasant labourers, serfs, or villeins, as they were called, were 
 struggling to gain their freedom, by manumission, by payment, 
 or by flight, from bondage to the land on which and to which 
 they had been born. The Black Death had disorganised labour 
 still more, and caused a class of " landless men " to wander over 
 the country in search of work. Then was passed the Statute of 
 Labourers — a law which to us in this independent age seems 
 even more amazing than unjust. A fierce spirit of resistance 
 
 c
 
 38 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 was now aroused, and through town and country it spread — 
 forerunner of all chartist and socialist movements yet to come — 
 setting workman against master, low born against high, poor 
 against rich, lollard against priest. 
 
 There is no doubt that Wykeham must have seen all this 
 plainly enough, and with many of the social grievances and many 
 of Wicliff' s criticisms he must have sympathised, for though on 
 the one hand we find him condemning the reformer's doctrine 
 at Black Friars, yet on the other he pleads boldly on behalf of 
 some friend of Wicliff' s who was likely to get hard usage from 
 the archbishop. It was evidently also from a feeling of dis- 
 satisfaction with the priests and religious orders of his day that 
 he wished to found a college for the purpose of rearing up men 
 not professing ignorance as did the friars, not given up to 
 seclusion as were some of the monks, or merely luxurious land- 
 owners as were others, but learned and pure-minded youths who 
 should take a noble view of the clerical profession. From this 
 arose the colleges of Winchester and Oxford ; Winchester, though 
 founded last, being intended as the stepping-stone to Oxford. 
 
 But before the master builder began his work, he was to 
 experience disgrace and loss of kingly favour. The Black Prince, 
 whom Wykeham had loved and been loved by, was dying from 
 a wasting illness contracted in Spain, his father King Edward 
 was also failing both in body and mind, and his ambitious 
 brother, John of Gaunt, secretly wishing for the crown, took the 
 lead in public affairs, and helped his father's mistress, the 
 notorious Alice Perrers, to tyrannise over the old king in his 
 dotage.
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 39 
 
 In August of the year 1376 Parliament met, and the Black 
 Prince was carried into Westminster Palace to give his coun- 
 tenance to the reforms now to be attempted. Wykeham was 
 there also, and they both joined in the attack on the king's officials 
 for having mismanaged the revenue, and for having allowed Alice 
 Perrers to obtain such great influence over the Sovereign. The 
 "good" Parliament triumphed, and a council of reform was 
 appointed, Wykeham being on it, but immediately afterwards the 
 Black Prince died, and John of Gaunt, who cared for nothing 
 but power, was now able to avenge himself upon the council, 
 and especially upon Wykeham. Eight articles were brought 
 forward against the ex-chancellor, chiefly on the ground of his 
 having misappropriated moneys ; only in a matter of 40/. (and 
 that a perfectly open arrangement on his part) was any excuse 
 found for convicting him, but by the judgment given all the 
 temporalities of the See of Winchester were seized, and Wykeham 
 was forbidden to come within twenty miles of the court. 
 
 The good bishop now retired to Waverley Abbey, the 
 picturesque ruins of which can still be seen near Farnham, over- 
 looked by heath-clad hills and woods of fir and oak. Here in 
 monastic seclusion Wykeham must have meditated much on the 
 fickleness of fortune and on his educational schemes which now 
 seemed indefinitely postponed, yet for him there was no bitter 
 cr y — as for Wolsey in after years — that his service to his king 
 had come before that due to his God. 
 
 The King's jubilee came, and pardon was held out to all 
 offenders, but special exception was made to " Sire William de 
 Wykeham." The Church, however, was not going to allow her
 
 40 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 most respected bishop to suffer unjustly, and when at the next 
 meeting of Convocation the King asked the clergy for money, 
 Courtenay, Bishop of London, stood up and declared that unless 
 Wykeham were restored to favour, they would give none. No 
 answer came to this, and consequently no money from the clergy ; 
 but before a month had passed the pressing need of funds made 
 the King send off a messenger to Waverley to beg the bishop to 
 return to his house at Southwark. Very soon after this the 
 dignified figure of Wykeham entered the Chapter House of 
 St. Paul's, and amid the welcome of his friends he joined in the 
 vote for a subsidy. 
 
 This did not mean a return of the temporalities however, as 
 they had been settled on the little heir-apparent, Richard, whom 
 the nation looked to as their future king. But the populace now 
 took up Wykeham's cause. John of Gaunt's life was threatened, 
 and he received this peremptory message, " Tell my lord the duke 
 that we will have the Bishop of Winton and Sir Peter de la Mare 
 judged before their peers according to the laws of England." 
 This settled matters, and on June 18, 1377, in the presence of 
 the boy Richard, his uncle, and the King's Council, Wykeham 
 promised to fit out three galleys for sea, in return for which 
 his temporalities were given back to him. Two days later 
 Edward III. died at Shene, forsaken by his unworthy mistress 
 and his servants, having estranged from him the one man who 
 had served him faithfully for so long. 
 
 Le roy est mort, vive le roy ! But there was little time for 
 mourning, and a month later the bishop was attending the new 
 King's coronation, where trumpeters, men-at-arms, heralds with
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 41 
 
 embroidered coats, abbots and bishops in full canonicals, assembled 
 at Westminster to do honour to Edward's grandson. Wykeham, 
 now again one of the greatest at court, had learnt too much of 
 life's uncertainties to be elated by his present position, though he 
 was doubtless glad when, a few days later, his fines were remitted 
 and he was declared innocent of every charge that had been laid 
 at his door. 
 
 It must have been a relief to the bishop to turn from the 
 increasing troubles of Richard's reign, which even he could not 
 counteract, to the realisation of the wish of his life. By the 
 foundation of " St. Marie's College of Winchester at Oxenford," 
 as was its full title, soon to become in common parlance " New 
 College," he had provided a place where his scholars should finish 
 their education ; and now he could carry out his scheme for 
 Winchester, a scheme that was in reality the foundation of the 
 public school system of which England is justly proud. Hitherto 
 schools had been under, or in connection with, some monastery, 
 and probably these had been only day-schools ; now they were to 
 be foundations of their own, with priests indeed as masters, but 
 secular priests, not monks. 
 
 The bishop, with no small trouble, sought for suitable ground 
 for his buildings in Winchester. At last he either bought or had 
 granted to him the present site, with a road on the northern side, 
 a stream guarding it on the east, and a wall on the west and 
 south. On the 26th March, 1387, he laid the first stone of the 
 chapel, and for six years the citizens could watch the busy work- 
 men raising chapel, hall, and chambers in the massive style and 
 beautiful proportion which exist to our own day. But during that
 
 42 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 time many political events called the bishop's attention elsewhere. 
 In 1389 Richard took the reins of government, and after much 
 persuasion prevailed upon Wykeham once more to accept the 
 chancellorship, and to his advice is due the comparative quiet of the 
 next seven years, though he only actually retained office for two. 
 
 And now the great day arrived when Wykeham's work was 
 sufficiently completed to allow of the first " seventy faithful boys " 
 to be received within its walls. On March 28th, 1393, all the 
 good folk of Winchester, both lay and clerical, assembled to 
 witness the opening of the college and to see the little band of 
 scholars, headed by their master, come down from St. Giles' 
 Hill, chanting psalms as they entered into possession of their 
 promised land. 
 
 Since that time both dress and fashion have changed more 
 than the stone walls, but standing in the almost unaltered quad- 
 rangle we can picture to ourselves the fourteenth-century crowd 
 who, partly from curiosity, partly from admiration of their 
 bishop's work, would be pressing forward on that spring day to 
 share in the proceedings — the poor in their rough untanned 
 shoes, leathern breeches (galligaskins as they were called), and 
 their smockfrocks of russet or undyed wool ; the richer citizens, 
 though clad much in the same fashion, affected finer material, whilst 
 those in longer dresses looked much like the Blue-coat scholars 
 of our own day. Somewhat apart from the villeins and trades- 
 people stood the knights and nobles, decked in silk and velvet, 
 their cotte hardie or tight- fitting vests (from the sleeves of which 
 hung long strips of cloth) partly hidden by a bright coloured 
 mantle fastened jauntily at the shoulder. A few had hats with
 
 vte, 
 
 COLLEGE GATE 
 
 43
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 45 
 
 feathers in them, that fashion having just come in ; others wore 
 small hoods tied under the chin and ornamented with jewels or 
 gold. Below their parti-coloured hose their very conspicuous 
 long shoes were noticeable, some with toes like the claws of a bird, 
 bending upward and looped with chains of gold or silver to 
 the knees, sadly impeding the movement of their owners. The 
 ballad poetry of the day did not spare these extravagant nobles, 
 and laughed at the way they enlarged their shoulders artificially 
 and made themselves look broader " than God made them," and 
 at their wide collars which caused their necks to appear as if 
 prepared for the axe ! Probably during the prayers offered up 
 at the opening of the college, there were some who, when others 
 knelt, were forced to " stand on their heels not able to bend 
 their legs " for the tightness of their hose. It was the knowledge 
 of these follies in dress which made Wykeham lay down such 
 strict rules for his boys, and especially mention that they were to 
 have no peaked shoes or knotted hoods ; their education, both 
 spiritual and intellectual, was to fit them to teach God's word to 
 others, and in no way to render them luxurious, like — 
 
 " Ye prowd galonttes hertless 
 With your liyghe cappes ivitlesse 
 And youre schort gownys thriftlesse 
 Have brought this londe in gret hevynesse. 
 
 " With youre longe peked shone, 
 Therefor youre thrifte is almost don, 
 And with youre long here into your eyen 
 Has brought this londe to gret pyne." 
 
 We must now turn to the building inside which the crowd was 
 gathered.
 
 4 6 
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 Through the archway we enter the first or outer court of the 
 college ; here the brew-house is just the same, but on the left, 
 where formerly there was an open space, is the warden's house, 
 having absorbed into itself the old bakehouse, slaughterhouse and 
 butcher's room, which all bordered the stream — for such an 
 establishment could not then be dependent on outside assistance 
 for obtaining the necessaries of life. Over the second archway 
 stand on either side three figures : the Virgin Mother in the centre, 
 
 COLLEGE TOWER 
 
 with Gabriel the angel of the Annunciation on her right, and 
 Wykeham kneeling on her left. Here used to be rooms appropri- 
 ated to the warden, who could thence obtain a good view of all who 
 came in and out. To the right were the chambers for the masters 
 (there being originally only two), which have since been heightened, 
 and form the second master's house : the scholars, the chaplains, 
 and the choristers lived within the inner quadrangle, the northern 
 side of which is formed by the chapel and the refectory. 
 
 Of the original character of the chapel, except as to proportion,
 
 A MASTER BUILDER 47 
 
 and the beautiful fan-groining of its roof, we can hardly judge, 
 defaced as it was in the 17 th century, and restored as it has been 
 in the 19th with a new reredos, and destitute of that warmth 
 of colour which once probably relieved the blank whiteness of its 
 walls. The refectory has been almost untouched, except for the 
 addition of panelling ; the roof enriched with carved woodwork, the 
 coloured heads of kings and bishops, and the great stone mullioned 
 windows all show how strength and beauty were combined by the 
 master builder. Over the buttery, reached by a winding stone 
 staircase, we come to the audit-room hung with ancient tapestry, 
 where formerly the rents were paid, and where in a corner stands 
 a huge chest, shown as Wykeham's money-box ! The original 
 schoolroom at the basement (now a reading-room) is somewhat 
 dark according to our modern ideas, but those were not days 
 when personal comfort was much considered. The chantry, the 
 beautiful cloisters around it, and the chapel tower were all built 
 after Wykeham's death. He only provided a wooden bell- 
 tower, which stood separate from the chapel, so that the vibration 
 of the bells should not injure the main building. 
 
 It was several years before the whole scheme both as to its 
 building and its organisation was complete, and pending this the 
 bishop was not idle, for he made a special visitation of St. 
 Swithun's Monastery, where the monks, now reduced from sixty 
 to forty-six, complained of their scanty provisions, caused by 
 their priors having of late appropriated the funds. 
 
 Then in 1393 he turned his attention to the Cathedral, where 
 Edingdon's west end must have looked very incongruous with the 
 rest, and threescore years and ten though he was, the old
 
 48 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 architect determined at once to use all his engineering skill in 
 changing the flat-roofed Norman nave into what we now possess. 
 The prior seems to have been of one mind with the bishop about 
 the work, for he gladly promised to help with materials from the 
 convent property. Perfect as was the transformation from the 
 one style into another, there is yet stonework remaining which 
 tells plainly of the change, for near the choir-screen are two 
 short massive pillars unaltered from Norman time. In 
 Wykeham's day these pillars were hidden by a wide vestibule 
 extending from north to south at the entrance of the choir, 
 over which probably stood the cross of Stigand, the Saxon 
 archbishop, and paintings of Bible scenes. Outside the Cathe- 
 dral the contrast is great between the plain bare wall of the 
 south side and the buttresses and pinnacles of the north — 
 but here too we must remember that along the former ran the 
 cloister, the absolute destruction of which Wykeham could never 
 have imagined possible. 
 
 During the early part of this time the country was much 
 agitated by the troubles which beset Richard, who could no 
 longer hold his own against his powerful cousin, Henry of 
 Bolingbroke. Wykeham was present, when, before the as- 
 sembled Parliament, the deposed King read his own resignation, 
 which was greeted by shouts of joy ; and six days later 
 the Bishop of Winchester took part in the ceremony when 
 Henry IV. was proclaimed Sovereign. Wykeham's name, how- 
 ever, does not appear amongst those who sentenced Richard 
 to perpetual imprisonment, for though he could not but acknow- 
 ledge the bad use which the last king had made of his power,
 
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 A MASTER BUILDER 51 
 
 yet was he not the son of his former friend, and grandson of 
 his early patron and benefactor ? What lay in his power the 
 kind-hearted bishop did, for he sheltered in Waverley Abbey 
 Richard's confessor, who, ruined and driven away from court, 
 had no other refuge. 
 
 Wykeham's attendance at the coronation banquet was the last 
 act of his political career, except the celebration of the King's 
 marriage with Joan of Navarre in the nearly completed Cathedral 
 where the aged bishop may have pointed out his own beautiful 
 chantry, feeling that before long he would there be laid to 
 rest. 
 
 And the end soon came, for the next sight which the people 
 of Winchester witnessed was the funeral of their great master 
 builder. It was in his palace at Bishop's Waltham, where of late 
 years he had chiefly lived, that he lay down to die. Though 
 his body was weak, yet his mind was clear; until four days 
 before his death he received his stewards and his clergy ; and he 
 made and signed his will, leaving out of those riches " which the 
 mercy of the Saviour had bestowed upon him" innumerable gifts 
 and legacies to all manner of persons. His debts were to be 
 discharged in full, "without let or hindrance, controversy or 
 delay." He must even have pictured the crowds of poor who 
 would flock to his funeral, for every one seeking a bounty that 
 day was to have four pence " for the love of God and his soul's 
 health." Especially he provided money for the completion of 
 the Cathedral, giving to it also many rich vestments and other 
 precious things, amongst them a golden cross, within which 
 was encased a piece of the " Tree of the Lord." Even the king
 
 52 A MASTER BUILDER 
 
 was not forgotten, and Henry IV. was forgiven a debt of 500/. 
 and was to receive a pair of silver-gilt basins engraved with 
 double roses — a present which Wykeham had possibly received 
 from Edward III. when his favourite was building and repairing 
 his castles and palaces. 
 
 But to return to the upper chamber where the bishop lay. At 
 eight o'clock in the morning of Sept. 27th, a change passed over 
 the noble features ; very quietly the eyes closed, having given 
 their last look upon the crucifix held up by a chaplain ; the 
 hand, once so skilful, relaxed, but there was a smile on the lips 
 which, as far as was possible to man, had known no guile. 
 Then very gently the great soul departed from the earthly 
 temple, and all the bells in the city tolled, for the master 
 builder's spirit had gone to a mansion prepared for him by 
 Divine Hands. 
 
 The funeral procession along the ten miles from Bishop's 
 Waltham to Winchester moved through crowds of people 
 sorrowing as for the loss of a father, and at his own episcopal 
 town all the citizens thronged towards the Cathedral, where the 
 prior was waiting at the entrance to receive the procession into 
 the building. Here the prelate was laid in the beautiful chantry 
 which he had made ready for himself. The inscription on the tomb 
 tells us of his works, but Wykeham will want no epitaph as 
 long as his " two fair colleges " stand, and as long as the 
 Cathedral which owes so much to him still towers above the 
 watered valley of the Itchen.
 
 
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 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 
 
 ll The world exists for the education of each man. There is no age or 
 state of society or mode of action in history, to which there is not 
 somewhat corresponding in his life." R. W. Emerson. 
 
 OWHERE in England do the stones speak more 
 eloquently of past times than in Winchester, the 
 city of kings and of priests, the city where religion 
 ^ flourished and ecclesiastics fought with greater 
 warmth than in any other of England's fair cities. 
 Philistines there have been in the shape of Puritan soldiers who 
 destroyed carving and effigies ; way wardens who mended the roads 
 with stones taken from the massive city gates ; modern builders 
 whj run up cheap red brick tenements on the site of seventeenth- 
 century houses or of time honoured city walls, and all these 
 have between them left England's first capital with but a small 
 proportion of its ancient glory. 
 
 And yet though the bishop's castle and the King's castle no 
 longer tower over the surrounding houses, though the many 
 convents and churches remain only in traditional sites — even 
 with what is left we can, helped by history and imagination, 
 build up the past again, still hear the discord between King and
 
 56 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIJEVAL CITY 
 
 bishop, bishop and prior. If some of these quarrels, so 
 earnestly undertaken, now look puerile to modern ideas, and the 
 rivalries of Franciscans and Dominicans call up a smile on our 
 lips as we read in what petty ways those champions of religion 
 degraded their Christianity, may we not ask ourselves whether 
 the ecclesiastical disputes which now embitter men's minds will 
 seem to our posterity five centuries hence of any more vital im- 
 portance ? 
 
 If we confine ourselves to the reign of that King whose young 
 forehead was so early circled by the crown, and who only laid it 
 down after long years of sorrow and conflict, brought about 
 chiefly by himself and his advisers, we shall have a good picture 
 of the feuds and feasts of a city in the Middle Ages. For at 
 Winchester Henry III. was born, and that city was doubtless 
 his most peaceful home when, after the death of the good Earl 
 of Pembroke, the guardianship of His little Majesty fell to the 
 powerful and strife-loving Bishop of Winchester, Peter des Roches, 
 who did not object to the boy-king enjoying himself, playing 
 at quintain perhaps, or riding out along the Itchen valley, if he — 
 the bishop — were left to his own devices and allowed to interfere 
 as much as he liked in the affairs of the long-suffering realm. 
 
 We need only give a glance at the city in the thirteenth 
 century to see how many, and how suggestive of discord, were the 
 rival interests gathered together within and hard by its enclosing 
 walls. First, there were the townsfolk, keen about their trade 
 and their charters, on which, to a great extent, their trade de- 
 pended, anxious to walk circumspectly and avoid offending 
 His Majesty who was so often in their midst, or the King's
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 57 
 
 powerful lords who came in his retinue, and who, while lodging 
 in the castle or town, had to be propitiated with humble 
 demeanour and with presents. 
 
 Then there were the various Benedictine monasteries : the old 
 Minster of St. Swithun, where the prior held sway over a black- 
 robed company of some sixty monks ; just outside the town was 
 a rival body, priding themselves, and apparently with justice, on 
 their superior learning and intellectual attainments — the new 
 Abbey, of Alfred's foundation and Henry I.'s translation, to the 
 importance of which the Liber de Hyda testifies ; and in the town 
 there was the Convent of St. Mary, with its large grounds ad- 
 joining the High Street. 
 
 The bishop, too, had his home — one of his homes at least — 
 here in the lordly castle of Wolvesey, now only a picturesque 
 ruin, but then a large and important stronghold, where the King, 
 when he did not care to go to his own castle at the top of the 
 town, would often accept right royal entertainment as a visible 
 proof of his goodwill towards his spiritual father, and where from 
 within the massive walls, abbot, prior, mayor, or turbulent baron 
 could safely be defied. Besides these elements — lay and ecclesi- 
 astical — there were of course the priests, secular and regular, 
 who served the many churches and chapels in the city, and 
 attended to or neglected the spiritual wants of the parishioners. 
 
 And in this reign we have to take into account an altogether 
 new body of men, who came with such humility and goodness 
 that it would have been impossible to foretell how in after years 
 the whole fury of the people and of the religious houses was to be 
 turned against these followers of St. Francis of Assisi and of
 
 58 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 
 
 St. Dominic. With neither wordly goods nor retinue they arrived, 
 these wandering friars, but intent only on preaching the Gospel 
 to the poor they lifted up an earnest soul-stirring cry of " Repent 
 ye," which put to shame the over-fed monks and easy-going 
 parish priests. It was not until the Pope began to use these 
 great bodies of Franciscans and Dominicans for his own ends, 
 that we find them lifted up with pride and becoming worse than 
 those whom they came to awaken and reprove, thus showing how 
 good things may corrupt themselves, and turn their sweets to 
 bitter. 
 
 We may thus realise what were some of the varied interests 
 which existed during the 13th century in one place of no great 
 size, and these we must bear in mind if we would understand the 
 stirring events enacted there during the reign of Henry III. 
 
 This old city, known well to Roman, Saxon, and Dane, nestling 
 in the valley of the Itchen, had its principal street in the same 
 position then as now, and most of the others were either parallel 
 or at right angles to it. The king's castle overlooked the town, 
 the Cathedral, and the adjoining priory, and enclosing all rose the 
 grey battlemented walls, with their five massive gates and the 
 smaller postern by the river — the west gate hard by the castle, 
 the King's gate near St. Swithun's monastery, the north and 
 south gates on the road which leads from London to 
 Southampton, and the east gate at the end of the long High 
 Street, at the foot of St. Giles' Hill, where the great yearly fair 
 was held. 
 
 This, then, was the outward state of things which Henry, when 
 he came of age and took the reins of government into his own
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIJEVAL CITY 59 
 
 hands, found in the old town where he passed so many a 
 Christmas festival. After his second coronation — with the crown 
 of St. Edward now, for a little circlet of gold had served for the 
 child's head — there was a writ sent out to prepare rooms for 
 him in Winchester Castle. Two years later he was here again for 
 Christmas, when, as Roger of Wendover tells us, " Peter, Bishop 
 of that place, provided the necessary entertainment for him." 
 
 Des Roches was bent on making the young king favour 
 the foreigners of whom he was the centre, as against Hubert de 
 Burgh and the national party, and Henry, naturally weak, was 
 guided sometimes by the former, sometimes by wiser advice. 
 Finding that the latter was now the case — De Burgh being in the 
 ascendant — the bishop went off to a Crusade, leaving Henry to 
 get on without him for a while ; but the Holy War, owing to 
 the defection of the Emperor Frederick II., came to an abrupt 
 conclusion, and Winchester turned out with processions of wel- 
 come to receive her bishop back to more peaceful pursuits again. 
 
 The mediaeval mind loved these processions, and nowhere could 
 one longer or more interesting be seen than that which followed 
 behind abbot and prior with the shrine of St. Swithun carried 
 alofc. The citizens on these occasions came out in their best 
 garments, somewhat more picturesque than the frock coat and 
 tall hat of the present day, in tunics, many with the edges all 
 indented or " slyttered," as Chaucer called it later on, with sleeves 
 tight to the wrist, tight breeches, long and pointed shoes, quaint 
 caps and coifs of various shapes, for dress was much thought of 
 during the reign of the pleasure-loving Henry, making worthy 
 Matthew Paris fling several disparaging remarks at its foppery 
 
 n
 
 6o 
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 
 
 and extravagance. Indeed, the bishop does not seem to have 
 been above paying attention to this mundane subject, for when 
 Henry came here again for Christmas the former himself gave 
 his servants their " festive dresses," that there might be no fear 
 of their appearing shabbily attired before His Majesty. 
 
 The same year, 1232, was a memorable one for Winchester, 
 not only ecclesiastically on account of the settlement of the friars 
 here, and a visitation of all the religious houses by order of Pope 
 
 THE GREAT HALL 
 
 Gregory IX., but also because of extensive preparations made for 
 the re-building of the Great Hall of the Castle. Probably the 
 latter is the only domestic building of that date now extant, and 
 certainly it is the only part of the castle above ground which 
 remains to give an idea of what the whole pile must have been. 
 
 That the King concerned himself, both with questions of struc- 
 ture and ornamentation, plainly appears from the many interesting 
 details relating to alterations and repairs in the castle. A good
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIMVAL CITY 61 
 
 deal of architectural work was now going on in England, and 
 Henry evidently encouraged it, as is proved by this great 
 hall. Master Elias Dereham was its architect, and he must 
 have been satisfied with his work, when, after some years' 
 labour, the massive oak roof was put on, the windows glazed, and 
 painting and whitewash added. The plans of Master Elias for 
 the castle were not always approved of by the king, at any rate 
 he does not seem to have been allowed a monopoly, for the 
 Sheriff of Southampton is ordered to have windows made in the 
 king's painted chamber, because it was too dark, and the wains- 
 cot was to be painted green. 
 
 Another time the sheriff is told to place a rood-loft in the 
 chapel of the castle, which was dedicated to St. Thomas the Martyr 
 {i.e., to Thomas-a-Becket), whose bones had been carried to 
 Canterbury with great pomp just after the King's coronation. 
 The screen was to " touch both walls of the seat of us and our 
 Queen," and images of " Mary, John, and two angels " were 
 to be added. There was an order also about Purbeck stone 
 for the works at the castle, which stone is to be conveyed and 
 kept safely till the King has further commands on the subject. 
 
 But before Henry was married to Eleanor of Provence, and 
 could send orders for her comfort and her religious needs in the 
 castle, much trouble was to be experienced in the kingdom. Peter 
 des Roches, who headed the papal and anti-nationalist party, after 
 ten years of constant opposition, brought about the fall of the 
 patriotic Hubert de Burgh ; he was disgraced, and deprived of 
 his various offices, these being immediately filled by friends and 
 relations of the bishop, while the king dismissed all his former
 
 62 
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIAEVAL CITY 
 
 counsellors, replacing them by the hated foreigners. Naturally 
 this conduct was most unpopular, civil war broke out, and Henry, 
 not gaining much advantage, was forced to retreat to Winchester 
 in company with the bishop. Here the latter was not idle ; having 
 the King at hand, he could obtain the sanction of the royal seal to 
 anything he wished, and it was by this means that he procured the 
 
 CRYPT OF CATHEDRAL 
 
 assassination of Richard Marshall, a friend and supporter of De 
 Burgh. This murder, and the strong words of reproof used by the 
 archbishop, now roused the weak monarch ; he suddenly changed 
 his policy, turned against Peter des Roches and all his foreign 
 advisers, and summoned them to give an account of their evil 
 deeds, and the use they had made of his seal. 
 
 The crafty bishop, who cared little for his cathedral town, now
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIAEVAL CITY 63 
 
 fled there for refuge, hiding himself with his son in some part of the 
 Cathedral itself, as he had not the courage to appear before the King. 
 This son, Peter de Rivaux, at last did so, and after a most un- 
 friendly reception, and a short sojourn in the Tower, he was sent 
 back to keep the bishop company. For some reason, his presence 
 amongst the Winchester people seems to have much displeased 
 them, and caused a regular tumult, during which both Wolvesey 
 Palace and the Priory were seized by the insurgents. Upon 
 this, the bishop used the only weapon left to him — his power 
 of excommunication ; he cut off all his opponents from the minis- 
 trations of the church, and laid both city and Cathedral under 
 an interdict. Why the latter — his own harbour of refuge — should 
 have been thus treated, seems strange ; but perhaps the prior 
 just then was inclined to favour the King. However, Des 
 Roches, finding things too hot for him at present, left the country 
 for a two years' sojourn in Rome. 
 
 The citizens of Winchester probably possessed decided views 
 in this national dispute, having personal knowledge of both king 
 and bishop ; but doubtless they were glad to turn their thoughts 
 to the more festive subject of the royal wedding, and were all 
 proud of the right, which they alone could claim and exercise, of 
 superintending the cooking of the marriage feast at Westminster. 
 The Provencal bride, was, alas ! to bring in another set of 
 foreigners and fresh difficulties for England, but no forebodings for 
 the future interfered with the magnificence of the festivities, or with 
 the adornment of London, where, as it is specially stated, " all the 
 roads were cleansed from mud, dirt, sticks, and everything offen- 
 sive." Matthew Paris tells, in profuse words, all about the
 
 64 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 
 
 wonderful event, ending with, " Why describe the abundance of 
 meats and dishes on the table, the quality of venison, the variety 
 of fish, the joyous sound of gleemen, and the gaiety of waiters ? " 
 In June, 1236, the King came to Winchester, and met his 
 Lords in a great council. Peter de Rivaux was here, and not 
 now as a prisoner ; indeed, Henry seemed already turning round 
 again, for he tried to take away some grants he had made to the 
 Church, using the Pope's name to help him. The truth was, that 
 the new wife was an expensive addition, and how to get money 
 was a difficult problem. His many houses and castles were a 
 drain upon the King's resources, his favourites had always been 
 able to get what they liked out of him, and yet the country could 
 ill afford him gifts. 
 
 In spite, however, of the scarcity of money, the Queen must 
 have in Winchester Castle, without delay, an aisle from her 
 chamber to the chapel ; used, doubtless, as she was to a warmer 
 climate, she did not care to step out of doors for her daily 
 attendance at Mass. The glass also in the windows of the 
 hall must be repaired by the Sheriff of Southampton, for it was 
 December, and glass, though probably as yet only in movable 
 frames, had become a necessity for kings, as a protection 
 against the outer air, which hitherto had had free access, 
 except when the heavy wooden shutters were closed at night. 
 Moreover, Her Majesty apparently liked pretty colours, for the 
 dais is to be painted green with gold stars on it, and " histories " 
 of the Old and New Testament in circles. 
 
 The frequent mention of chimneys in the orders to the poor 
 Sheriff of Southampton, shows plainly that architects did not
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIAEVAL CITY 65 
 
 always then, any more than they do at present, fathom the per- 
 versity of smoke, and that the Queen objected to being stifled, for 
 especial care is to be taken to repair her chimney. Now that 
 the King is married, there is more attention paid to the outside 
 beauty of religion ; he writes — still to the sheriff — to " make also 
 a small Mary with a great tabernacle for the chapel of our afore- 
 said Queen, and a certain painted tablet to be placed before the 
 altar of the same chapel." It is to be hoped that the sheriff had 
 artistic tastes, or otherwise " the small Mary " must have been 
 but a poor image. Perhaps, however, the sheriff's taste was 
 deficient, for the next " images " had to be provided by " the 
 keepers of the Bishoprick of Winchester," who had to make, 
 among other things, " a certain house of deal, running upon six 
 wheels, and covered with lead." 
 
 Then the Queen's chapel had to be wainscoted, and the passage 
 to the chapel of St. Thomas ; moreover a " herbary " was to 
 be made, and a wall here and there, and four more images to 
 be bought for the porch of the Hall. For the Hall itself, a map 
 of the world was to be painted, somewhat similar, perhaps, to the 
 one at Hereford, and it is rather curious that, among the Cotton 
 MSS., there exists a cosmographical "scheme," purporting to be 
 after the design of the before-named architect of this very Hall : 
 " secundum magistrum Elya de Derham." When the present 
 ornament of the Hall, the so-called " round table of Arthur," was 
 made, it is impossible to say ; perhaps in the following reign, to 
 commemorate Edward's creation of so many knights, perhaps not 
 till much later, for there seems to be no authentic mention of it 
 before the sixteenth century, when, however, it was old enough to
 
 66 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 
 
 need considerable repair. More glass too, was needed for the Hall 
 windows, and a cellar under the Queen's chamber, perhaps to keep 
 out the damp, for the great ditch, often full of water, ran close 
 by, and many a time, doubtless, must Eleanor have sighed for 
 the drier air and bluer skies of her sunny Provencal home. The 
 next time the King sends an order, it is for " a drawbridge with a 
 bretache over it ; " then another of the castle chapels — that of St. 
 Judoc (for there were four) — is to have a porch, and St. Thomas's 
 Chapel a bell ; then more orders concerning wainscoting and 
 chimneys, this time in the King's chamber, and two furnaces 
 are to be placed in the kitchen. 
 
 But though Henry may have had a turn for improving 
 castles, he certainly had none for ruling men, and Winchester 
 endured many evil days in connection with the quarrels of its 
 Sovereign. The restless bishop had returned, and in 1237 he 
 was once more received into favour by his King, who, to prove 
 his affection, appointed him one of his representatives at a great 
 meeting of all the princes of Christendom, summoned by the 
 German Emperor. Des Roches, however, remonstrated, and 
 indeed positively refused to go, not having forgotten all the 
 " heavy complaints " the King had made against him, and 
 pretending that, if he went as his representative, their previous 
 disagreements might cause him to be doubtfully received ; but 
 considering how often the two had quarrelled and made it up, it 
 seems more likely that the bishop wanted to escape the journey 
 to Vaucouleurs, for he was now an old man, and his earthly 
 warfare was drawing to an end. 
 
 He was leaving his Cathedral town and diocese in a bad way.
 
 Y& 
 
 68 
 
 THE BUTTER CROSS
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 69 
 
 Everywhere was poverty and discontent, both nobles and 
 commons disapproving strongly of the King's conduct, of the 
 papal tyranny, and generally of the foreign influences which were 
 unduly exerted in this country. The famous shrine of St. Swithun 
 behind the High Altar had been broken by the falling of a trap- 
 door — an evil omen doubtless in the eyes of the citizens ; the town 
 was getting more crowded with monks and friars, whilst Peter 
 des Roches, like the Pope, patronised the new orders — probably 
 wishing to play off one order against another. His own place was 
 being taken by the queen's relations, for Henry was turning 
 towards his wife's uncle, William, Bishop of Valence, and it was 
 time for Des Roches to leave the See over which he had ruled for 
 thirty-two years. Though he could not have been regarded at all 
 as an ideal bishop, yet Winchester opened its Cathedral to him, 
 and the old man was laid to rest within its peaceful walls. 
 Perhaps it is his recumbent figure which may be seen in the 
 retro-choir, but tradition has not handed down his resting-place 
 with much certainty, only — according to Matthew Paris — he had, 
 during his life, chosen for himself a humble tomb. 
 
 Great trouble and confusion now befell the monastery of 
 St. Swithun, for the monks had the right of electing the new 
 bishop, but the King had to agree in their choice, and the Pope 
 had to consent to it. Henry wished William of Valence, 
 before mentioned, to have the bishopric, but the monks were 
 weary of a foreigner, and demanded, first, Ralph de Neville, 
 Bishop of Chichester (the chancellor of the kingdom), and then 
 William de Ralegh. A long struggle began. Henry was 
 determined to get his way, he had an interview with the monks,
 
 70 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIAEVAL CITY 
 
 prayed and entreated, made technical objections to their election, 
 and " kicked against it for a long time," the only result being that 
 no bishop at all was appointed. He then appropriated to himself 
 the money of the See, and lived in its manors with a large retinue. 
 
 At last, when by all this he had failed to obtain the 
 election of his nominee, he came one day to Winchester, 
 entered the Chapter House, and demanded, with threats, that 
 William de Valence should be elected. The monks now 
 dropped the name of the last favourite, and again declared their 
 wish for Ralph de Neville. This turned the king's wrath still more 
 against the unfortunate chancellor, and though he was " a man 
 faithful and discreet, and almost the only pillar of truth among 
 the courtiers," yet his chancellor's seal was taken from him, and, by 
 means of " Rome-footed " lawyers, his election was declared void. 
 Still, however, the struggle continued, and Henry bethought 
 him of corrupting the monks, as he could not compel them to 
 have De Valence, who was longing to get possession of the rich 
 See. He therefore put into the monastery a new prior, one 
 Andrew of Brittany, who turned the hearts of many, and 
 inclined them to the foreigner ; but after all it was not to be, for 
 De Valence suddenly died (poison of course being the supposed 
 cause), to the great grief of the King, who not only in the 
 Biblical fashion tore his clothes, but also threw them into the 
 fire ! The " spurious Prior " was, however, still in office, and 
 though some of the elder monks, who had come back from Rome 
 with power to elect an Englishman as bishop, again mentioned 
 De Ralegh, yet the task was by no means easy. 
 
 On all sides there seemed trouble, for besides the tyranny of the
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 71 
 
 King there was the Pope's legate squeezing money from every 
 one. Otho, or Ottoboni, had been here three years, and Henry 
 had heaped favours upon him. During that time he had paid a 
 visit to Winchester and demanded to see the treasure of the 
 Cathedral (doubtless with a view of transferring some of it to 
 Rome), and when his demand was refused he had laid the 
 Cathedral under an interdict, thereby putting a stop to the 
 services. This was, however, but of short duration, for happily 
 the Pope now recalled him, and he departed receiving many kisses 
 from the King, but regrets from no one else. 
 
 Yet this did not relieve Winchester of the difficulty of their 
 choice. The monks of St. Swithun's were still in a state of 
 suspense, when suddenly some court " satellites " descended on 
 the unfortunate monastery and demanded the names of those 
 brethren who had so " saucily " desired the election of Ralegh. 
 Prior Andrew, who was perhaps at the bottom of this disturbance, 
 handed over some of the monks, and they, without respect of 
 age, were imprisoned, starved, and subjected to every kind of 
 reproach and insult. But not yet would the monks give in, and 
 the prior determined on still more severe measures. Having 
 sent again for more of the King's agents, he told them to seize 
 the rebels. The monks fled to the High Altar in the Cathedral ; 
 but the King's men cared nothing about sanctuary ; rushing up 
 the steps, they dragged the poor monks away and out into the 
 town, where the citizens, who dared not rescue them, were yet 
 grieved at the sight and loudly proclaimed their indignation. 
 But this did not, however, save the monks from being led off to 
 the castle at " Husvetrey," and there, tied two and two together,
 
 72 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 
 
 they were thrown into dark dungeons, where, in spite of all their 
 hunger and cold, they never dreamt of giving in, but endured 
 suffering for the sake of upholding justice and the privileges of 
 their order. 
 
 Henry must have nearly wearied out the patience of his " loyal 
 subjects," still, when he came home from a visit to Gascony, he 
 expected a grand reception. Having landed at Portsmouth, he 
 sent word that not only all the nobles, but also four burgesses 
 from every borough, were to meet him at Winchester, much to 
 the annoyance of those who had to come long distances. The 
 city was ordered to put on festive garb, the old streets, many of 
 them picturesquely — though also inconveniently — narrow, were 
 hung with curtains and tapestry ; autumn flowers were wreathed 
 across, and intermingled with them were lighted tapers. The bells 
 of the Cathedral and of all the churches were set ringing, whilst 
 lords of high degree, burgesses from other towns dressed in their 
 best and their horses richly caparisoned, vied with the citizens, 
 themselves in gayest holiday attire, to show at least in outward sign 
 tokens of welcome to their King. After this he passed on towards 
 London, where more processions and festivities, " as pompous as 
 they were sumptuous," were to signal his return. 
 
 Winchester was not, however, for all its loyal demonstration, to 
 be free of trouble. The election of the new bishop was to be per- 
 sonally felt by the peaceable inhabitants, and the story of Bishop 
 Ralegh's difficulty in getting possession of his See is most curious, 
 as showing how strained and complicated was the whole question of 
 Roman influence. The Pope's demands for money did not suit with 
 the King's eagerness to fill his own coffers, and therefore Henry,
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 73 
 
 feeling the latter to be of the greatest importance, and having made 
 up his mind that Ralegh should not be Bishop of Winchester, 
 began a most strenuous persecution of the monks' nominee. The 
 Pope's consent had now been obtained to the latter, and all the 
 right formularies had been gone through, except the King's ac- 
 ceptance of him and the kiss which was the sign of it ; but though 
 the poor man's own See of Norwich was given away, he was not 
 yet allowed to come to Winchester. Ralegh, however, meaning 
 to do without the King's consent, called himself Bishop of 
 Winchester, and acted as such ; but Henry, who could be very 
 firm in a wrong cause, refused to give in, and prohibited any 
 dealing with De Ralegh, even to the "supplying him with 
 necessary victuals " — clearly a case of boycotting even in those 
 early days. 
 
 The citizens of Winchester must have been very ignorant of 
 all the ins and outs of this ; they could, however, see for them- 
 selves that their prior within the walls was a more powerful man 
 than the bishop without. In 1243 Andrew died, but his suc- 
 cessor John de Caux, another foreigner, as his name shows, was 
 quite ready to follow in his footsteps. When messengers came 
 from the King with orders that all the city gates were to be closed 
 against the bishop, the prior spoke strongly to his monks, and also 
 gave it out in the city that no one must offer any help to De 
 Ralegh, under pain of the King's displeasure. This meant loss 
 of money, and had to be weighed against the bishop's wrath, 
 which was suggestive merely of spiritual loss, and the thought of 
 the money won the day. 
 
 The bishop arrived and found all the gates shut ; he came in
 
 74 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIJEVAL CITY 
 
 humble guise and barefooted, and petitioned to enter the city — 
 probably by the King's gate — and to proceed to the Cathedral. 
 He then went to the other gates, but in vain, all were equally 
 barred against him ; the mayor, having the King's message in his 
 mind, " saucily refused him admittance," adding insult to insult. 
 
 Bishop Ralegh now altered his tone, and pronounced an inter- 
 dict against the whole city, the Cathedral, and all the other 
 churches ; as to the rebellious monks, a fearful anathema was 
 hurled against them. One cannot help wondering whether this 
 really interfered in any way with the life of the city, whether the 
 bells ceased either to chime or toll, and whether all religious 
 rites were stopped. Certainly the prior would take no notice of 
 episcopal wrath, and the monks must have dreaded the King's 
 prisons more than the bishop's curses ; still, the Church at large 
 was scandalised at the fact, and three bishops set out to find the 
 king in order to bring him to a better mind. 
 
 Henry had laid hands on the manors and the moneys of the 
 bishop ; further, he had chosen some more " Rome-footed " 
 messengers to try and turn the Pope, and by bribes he had hoped 
 to attach them more surely to his side. His Majesty was not 
 anxious, therefore, to be reproved by the bishops of Lincoln, 
 Worcester, and Hereford, he gave them the slip — " declining their 
 salutary admonition," as Matthew Paris quaintly puts it. At last 
 the three bishops found Henry at Westminster, but he refused to 
 discuss the subject, and asked for time till his messengers should 
 return, to which their lordships agreed. 
 
 Ralegh, after a short stay in London, where he could not 
 have been very comfortable, as the London citizens also were
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIMVAL CITY 77 
 
 forbidden to supply him with food, fled to France, knowing well 
 that Henry would especially dislike any interference which the 
 French king might be induced to make. Louis was extremely 
 civil to the unfortunate bishop, and said : " Look you there at 
 the King of England, idle and ignorant with regard to all the 
 enemies of the kingdom, he persecutes and proscribes all his 
 holy Bishops." 
 
 This holy bishop now determined to bring his influence also to 
 bear upon the Papal Court. He evidently understood that the 
 only key to unlock difficulties was one of gold, and he found that 
 a sum of 8000 marks stirred very much the affection of the Pope 
 towards him. The latter wrote a letter to Henry, saying that 
 " as we have determined in our own mind to hold you in special 
 favour above all the other princes of the earth, you will of 
 necessity act honourably towards " the bishop, and return to him 
 his See and all his manors. He even wrote to the Queen, telling 
 her that she was a relation of his, and making a Latin pun on 
 the power of women to soften men. At last Henry gave way, 
 after making Ralegh promise not to insist on his refunding any 
 of the money belonging to the See, to forgive every one who 
 had offended him, and specially to take away the ex- 
 communication from the people of Winchester ; this condition 
 showing that in some way it did press heavily upon them. 
 
 On the strength of this, Bishop Ralegh returned from France, 
 and was met by a goodly number of friends at Dover — though 
 certain, we are told, whose consciences were too much disturbed 
 with their share in his trouble, kept away — after which, coming 
 to the king, he was received with a " smiling and pleased look."
 
 78 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 
 
 When the bishop at last entered Winchester, there were many 
 who, in spite of their consciences, assembled there to do him 
 honour. Prior John de Caux and all the monks made a virtue 
 of necessity, and humbled themselves ; the clergy, too, who had 
 sided with them, now made atonement ; the mayor also received 
 the bishop civilly, but one cannot help rather pitying him, for 
 Ralegh only deposed the prior, whilst the mayor, who was less to 
 blame, was subjected to heavier punishment. What a difficult 
 matter it must have been to keep in those days on good terms 
 with both secular and ecclesiastical authorities ! 
 
 King Henry had not much to congratulate himself upon in 
 the present state of his kingdom, which the contemporary 
 chronicler describes as in a most desolate condition, as was the 
 Church also. The nobles were hard pressed for money, and the 
 Pope was draining the English people more and more. In 
 1246 a great Council took place in the new hall of Winchester 
 Castle, and the king could, from the Solar Chamber, hear the 
 various discussions, even when not present. The Council was 
 angered by a message from the Pope which Master William de 
 Poweris and Master Henry de la Mare now delivered. The Pope 
 distinctly refused to remit his tithes, and said : " The King of 
 England, who is now kicking against me, and following the 
 example of Frederick, has his own plans, and I have mine, which 
 I will follow." 
 
 The English are not a people who can stand threats, and even 
 Henry, who — pendulum like — sided with the Pope, or against 
 him, according to the freak of the moment, then sanctioned a 
 proclamation to be made in all market towns and villages, that
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIMVAL CITY 79 
 
 no more contributions were to go to the Pope. When this was 
 heard, many a Winchester citizen must have smiled, knowing well 
 that the weak King would not keep in the same mind very long. 
 This was indeed the case, and all the fine talking in the 
 Winchester assembly soon proved to be so much wasted breath. 
 Soon the Pope again wanted money and a rumour got afloat of 
 a possible interdict in case of its not being forthcoming ; then of 
 course the king gave in — influenced by those who cared less for 
 anathemas than for the loss of benefices and manors. 
 
 To understand how distant Rome could make England 
 tremble, we must remember that Innocent was not slow in using 
 for his own ends the new orders before mentioned, those of the 
 Franciscans and Dominicans — the Minorites and Preachers. He 
 gave them power to collect money for him, to interfere in the 
 matter of wills, and to take possession of the property of those 
 who died intestate. No wonder that these orders of poverty 
 attracted many, and that a certain Bishop of Carlisle "renounced 
 the world he had so long clung to," in order to be invested with 
 the habit of the Preachers. They could now gain the ear 
 of those in high places, and were becoming powerful, not only by 
 means of money gained for themselves, but by inquisitorial 
 inquiries made into the lives of the rich as well as of the poor. Of 
 course much of this was right on the face of it, but when we 
 notice how easily they acquiesced in the rapacity of Rome, we 
 are led to doubt whether their anxiety for the soul of an ungodly 
 landowner was altogether unconnected with the seizure of his 
 manors after he had been excommunicated. Anyhow, the court 
 was indignant when the news came that Ralegh was, according 
 
 E
 
 80 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 
 
 to the advice of the friars, inquiring about the " morals of the 
 noble as well as ignoble," and the King wrote at once to stop 
 these inquisitions. 
 
 Still, Henry's pleasure or displeasure was not a thing of long 
 continuance, and at Christmas Winchester once more put on 
 festive garb to receive its royal visitor. Bishop Ralegh went 
 out to meet the King with a goodly retinue of picked nobles, 
 and earnestly invited His Majesty to a banquet with him on 
 the Christmas festival, so that every one might see that peace 
 was established between them. Accordingly the next day the 
 King was seen going in procession to Wolvesey Palace to break 
 bread with the very bishop whom he had so cruelly persecuted. 
 
 If Winchester rejoiced, as it most likely did, to think that it 
 should not again be called on to side with either my Lord Bishop 
 or my Lord King, it certainly rejoiced too soon ; but the town 
 was at least to have a change from ecclesiastical to more secular 
 troubles. For two years later, in 1 249, we find Henry acting quite 
 a new role in Winchester, that of meting out justice — an occupa- 
 tion not hitherto much affected by him. But importunity could do a 
 great deal with this King, and as he was spending Lent in his castle, 
 he had time to listen to two Brabant merchants who complained 
 bitterly of having been robbed of 200 marks by some English 
 freebooters, whom they now recognised at Henry's court, being 
 quite willing by single combat to prove the truth of their accusa- 
 tion. Of course there were false witnesses ready to declare on 
 oath the innocence of the freebooters. But the merchants were 
 not to be put off by false oaths, and Henry, still more importuned, 
 really took the matter up, and, collecting all the responsible
 
 
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 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 83 
 
 persons, he gave them most severe reproof with " a scowling look " 
 in the Great Hall. 
 
 The bishop was there, and of course the nobles. The King's 
 opening speech ended with these words : " I was born in 
 this city, and never was disgrace brought on me anywhere as 
 here. It is probable, and I must believe — nay, it is now quite 
 clear — that you, the citizens and inhabitants of the province, are 
 infamous accomplices and confederates. I shall convoke all the 
 counties of England that they may try you as traitors to me, and 
 may detect your crimes ; nor will the arguments of cunning profit 
 you any longer." Then he added : " Shut the gates of the castle 
 immediately." At this up rose the bishop and suggested to the 
 King that he was shutting in some very blameless strangers, and 
 turning to the multitude, who had gathered together to behold 
 these unusual proceedings, he excommunicated all who either by 
 act or by concealment of the evil-doers belonged to this band of 
 robbers. Twelve Winchester citizens were thereupon selected, 
 and being removed to a private place, were bidden to deliver up 
 the names of the transgressors ; but they refused — not because of 
 any great desire to shield the guilty, but because a list of names 
 would have included several of the King's special attendants, and 
 Henry's justice was of new birth. Their refusal, however, only 
 gained them a deep dungeon and condemnation to be hung ! 
 
 Twelve more were then chosen, and these, taking warning by 
 the fate of their fellows, disclosed all they knew of this system of 
 brigandage and the names of the guilty freebooters. Among them 
 were nobles, rich citizens, officers of the royal household, as well 
 as some of the bailiffs and guardians of the peace, whose duty it
 
 84 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDJMVAL CITY 
 
 was to drive away robbers ! Thirty were hung, and as many more 
 imprisoned ; but the King had to suffer for his fit of justice, as 
 his own officers, when about to die, sent him a message to say 
 that their past actions were owing to his having so long with- 
 held their rightful pay from them. Henry's conscience must 
 have pleaded guilty to this charge, for we are told he gave vent to 
 his sorrow in protracted sighs, though he does not seem to have 
 spared the lives of the truth-tellers. 
 
 Winchester incurred an indelible stain from these events, and 
 the King did not allow the city to forget its sins when, on Bishop 
 Ralegh's death shortly after, all the troubles of a new election 
 began over again. Ralegh had spent so much money at the time 
 of his exile in his heavy douceurs to the Pope, who only, " on being 
 richly remunerated, opened the bosom of consolation to him," that 
 he was forced to leave his city home and retrench at Tours, and 
 there, after nearly a year's sojourn, he died. 
 
 On the whole the bishop had come out well in the various 
 troubles of his episcopate ; but doubtless as shepherd of his large 
 diocese he had many shortcomings to remember on his death-bed. 
 We are told how when the Viaticum was being brought to him, 
 seeing the priest approaching, he cried, " Wait a while, my friend, 
 it is proper that I, who am a traitor to and disparager of my God, 
 should be carried before Him," and the dying bishop was then 
 carried to the Host, which he received with tears of contrition, and 
 shortly after passed away. When the King heard of the event 
 he gave utterances, says the chronicler quaintly, to " brief sorrow 
 with dry tears." 
 
 Henry now fixed upon his half-brother, yEthelmar de Lusignan,
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIAEVAL CITY 85 
 
 as successor to De Ralegh. He was a young man of twenty- 
 three, only in deacon's orders, and neither in age nor knowledge 
 fitted for a bishop. He wanted money, therefore the king, with 
 his usual mixture of weakness and obstinacy, was bent upon 
 forcing him at once on the unhappy brethren of St. Swithun's. 
 Two persuasive clerks were sent down to Winchester, and for 
 fifteen days they talked to the monks and threatened them, urging 
 them to demand ^Ethelmar. This they reluctantly agreed to do, 
 whereupon the king hastened to his native town, entered the 
 Chapter House unannounced, and taking the bishop's seat, gave the 
 astonished monks a regular sermon, choosing the somewhat inap- 
 propriate text of " Righteousness and Peace have kissed each 
 other.'' In this long discourse he said he was glad they had de- 
 manded vEthelmar, and that it was indeed well for them they had 
 done so, and while allowing that he had before done them injury 
 in wishing to force the queen's uncle upon them, he would now, 
 on their choosing his own brother, encircle them with the arms of 
 heartfelt affection. They were to remember also (and this was 
 one of Henry's old and well-worked arguments) that he was born 
 in the city and baptised in the Cathedral, and that therefore they 
 ought not to oppose his wishes in any way, but should complete 
 the election at once. 
 
 The monks were again in an unenviable position ; they re- 
 membered former persecutions ; they knew that even if they 
 appealed to Rome there was " no place of refuge open to them 
 in the bosom of our father the Pope," and so they gave in and 
 unanimously declared ^-Ethelmar to be their nominee, on the 
 condition that by a papal dispensation he could be qualified to
 
 86 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIAEVAL CITY 
 
 become a bishop. Alas ! they knew well enough that with 
 Rome, money could obtain anything, and so it was that Aylmar 
 or Ethelmarvs (as his name stands in his Cathedral) became 
 nominally bishop, though he was not consecrated either then or 
 afterwards ! 
 
 Henry, never an ideal Sovereign, was now going from bad to 
 worse. He had condemned robbery at Winchester, but was 
 not ashamed himself to rob merchants in order to send presents 
 to the Friars Minor or Franciscans, who — more honest than 
 their king — returned the stolen property. Everything seemed 
 wrong. Simon de Montfort was being accused falsely for 
 serving his king too well in Gascony, and ^Ethelmar, about 
 whose appointment the king had taken so much trouble, almost 
 immediately turned against him. 
 
 As usual, Henry was hard up for money, so much so that in 
 his Christmas feast at Winchester in 125 1, both the richness and 
 hospitality of the royal table were visibly diminished, and no 
 festive dresses were given to his retainers as had been always 
 the custom. He often attempted to squeeze money out of the 
 Church, and sometimes he succeeded ; but the clergy — no less 
 than the barons and citizens — tried to resist. With short- 
 sighted obstinacy, the king now made another attempt. He 
 pretended that he had taken the Cross, and would go on a 
 crusade if only his " pressing state of necessity " might be assisted. 
 Even this plea, however, did not cause the bishops to give in, 
 and through John, Bishop of Ely, they reminded their exacting 
 and extravagant king that " if we prelates yielded to your 
 unrestrained will, the Church would be impoverished and, to
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIAEVAL CITY 87 
 
 the injury of your pledge and oath, would be subject to perpetual 
 tribute and perpetual slavery." 
 
 The king next turned to yEthelmar, thinking that surely he 
 would yield ; but curiously enough, the bishop-elect would not go 
 against his brethren. " My Lord, I am young in years, but do you 
 wish, because you have made me what I am, that I should act as a 
 child ? " Yet after all he did not show much maturity of wisdom, 
 for he directly afterwards engaged in a foolish quarrel with the 
 Archbishop, which made great scandal in the Church. He also 
 disagreed with the prior at Winchester and deposed him, and it 
 was only after the latter had employed " Rome-footed " men that 
 he was able to get himself re-instated. 
 
 Henry meanwhile went on as usual, regarding no charters, 
 having foreign favourites who trampled on the English, and for 
 any slight offence taking his usual revenge of making the 
 offenders pay largely, yet, now when it suited him, he forgot his 
 poverty sufficiently to keep his Christmas again at Winchester 
 with great magnificence. His advancing age, instead of bringing 
 wisdom, seemed to make him more mean and grasping, and the 
 dear town of his birth suffered equally with others. In this 
 Christmas week (1253) the citizens collected a large present of 
 good things for His Majesty, and sent it up to the castle. All 
 beholders applauded the gift, and the king graciously accepted 
 it ; but before his departure he had forgotten this, and made the 
 city give him 200 marks, thereby turning joy into mourning for 
 the loyal folk, who groaned under the arbitrary demands of rulers, 
 both civil and ecclesiastical. 
 
 The land cried out that its laws should not be broken, every
 
 ss 
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIAEVAL CITY 
 
 city trembled for its liberties ; but what was the use when Henry 
 respected neither justice nor oath. Even the solemn assembly of 
 bishops, with lighted tapers in their hands, was nothing to him ; 
 he himself joined with them in throwing down the tapers, and 
 when, as the unsavoury odour arose from the extinguished heap, 
 the Archbishop exclaimed, " Thus then perish and stink the 
 condemned souls of those who shall either violate or wrong- 
 
 Mmm 
 
 KITCHEN OF MONKS REFECTORY 
 
 fully interpret the said Charter," the king more eagerly and 
 more frequently than the others loudly responded, " Amen, 
 Amen." 
 
 And yet he cannot have been altogether satisfied with his last 
 episcopal appointment, when the monks of St. Swithun's 
 appealed to him against his brother ^thelmar, who was 
 working great havoc in Winchester. His one act of opposition
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIMVAL CITY 89 
 
 to the King seems to have been the only good deed of this 
 bishop, so that one fears it must somehow have been from 
 interested motives ; and the monks must have felt amply 
 punished for their former weakness in nominating him when, 
 offended with them for some cause, he shut them up in the 
 Cathedral for three days before Michaelmas ! A sojourn in the 
 great cold Cathedral was no slight penance, even in those less 
 luxurious days, and the health of some of the poor brethren was 
 so injured by it that they never recovered, whilst those who could 
 do so fled to other houses, until ^Ethelmar called them back again 
 to their convent, into which he put new monks " rogues and 
 unworthy persons." 
 
 All this time the deposed prior was hoping for justice from 
 Rome, but was unable to get it owing to the influence of /Ethel- 
 mar's gold, and a flatterer, another Prior Andrew, of London, 
 reigned in his place. To crown his misdeeds, the bishop knew 
 not English or the rudiments of the arts, worst of all, " not 
 even grammar " ; by this must be meant the Latin Delectus, 
 in which probably some of the monks themselves were not deeply 
 versed. Yet these seem but small offences in comparison with 
 those of the king, who was pledging his kingdom to the Pope in 
 order to raise money for the war which the latter had undertaken 
 against Germany. 
 
 It was always the same with Henry — this constant lack of 
 money and the question of how to pay ever-increasing debts. 
 The Christmas season, however, generally found him in his native 
 city, and now it is, as in former years, the bishop who entertains 
 him and gives him rich presents out of the episcopal funds.
 
 9o THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 
 
 The King feebly urged that justice should be done to the monks 
 of St. Swithun's, for even his conscience could not be altogether 
 silenced in face of the desolation which reigned within the great 
 priory ; but the bishop only jeered, and assured his brother of 
 his determination to work his own will there, for Rome would 
 always be on his side, because he could fill her insatiable mouth 
 with gold. 
 
 Yet, after all, Henry was certainly his own worst enemy. 
 There were patriots who would have helped him to govern 
 rightly, men whom he might have trusted, and Prince Edward 
 earnestly demanded justice for Gascony, which country his 
 father had given to him ; but Henry only bemoaned his own 
 likeness to the first Plantagenet, whose children turned against 
 him, and the prince, taking the hint, rode out in public with two 
 hundred retainers. There was no knowing what the king might 
 or might not do, whilst all the while Simon de Montfort was 
 making ready to avenge his wrongs and those of the country. 
 
 We cannot wonder at the groans of the chronicler. Even the 
 elements seemed to have turned against England ; the autumn 
 inundations destroyed the fruits of the earth, the scarcity of 
 money caused a famine, and wheat was at 10s. a measure ; 
 pestilence and fever were rife, and men died by hundreds. 
 
 And the following year matters in no way improved. The 
 barons under Earl Simon were forced to take up arms in order 
 to obtain redress from a King too weak and faithless to keep 
 promises save through fear, and at the Mad Parliament at Oxford 
 they were firm in demanding the dismissal of the hated foreigners. 
 Thus it came to pass that Winchester was once more to be a
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDI/EVAL CITY 91 
 
 temporary refuge for the unworthy Poitevins. At that Oxford 
 Parliament they were at last convinced that their day was over 
 and they fled, frequently looking behind them to see if the 
 barons were following, and did not spare their horses until they 
 could demand entrance at the north gate of Winchester. Here 
 ^Ethelmar's strong castle of Wolvesey was a safe refuge for a 
 little while ; but he himself must fly, for the barons were now in 
 full pursuit, and soon presented themselves at Winchester, some say 
 under the leadership of Earl Simon himself. 
 
 Winchester could not have had a spark of feeling left for its 
 unworthy bishop, one of whose latest acts had been to eject a priest 
 from a church of which he claimed the patronage, the unfortunate 
 man, who resisted the illegal proceedings, being killed without 
 scruple by the bishop's messengers. There must indeed have been 
 great rejoicing when ^Ethelmar and his brothers were forced to fly, 
 and reaching a sea-port as soon as possible, made their way to 
 France. One cannot help smiling at the bishop-elect of 
 Winchester humbly asking leave of Louis to remain in Paris as a 
 scholar. Had the persecuted monks made him ashamed of his 
 ignorance of grammar ? 
 
 Again, the brethren of St. Swithun's, with their reinstated 
 prior, now raised to the rank of an abbot by the ring, mitre, and 
 crozier which the Pope had bestowed upon him, met to elect a 
 bishop, for ./Ethelmar's banishment left the flock without one. 
 The King's chancellor, Henry of Wengham, was chosen ; but, 
 remembering the hardships endured by Ralegh, he demurred, 
 and only accepted the office at last on the condition that he 
 should retire if the Pope were found to be willing to consecrate
 
 92 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIAEVAL CITY 
 
 yEthelmar, and he were willing to return ! The Pope had, how- 
 ever, chosen John of Exeter, who was able to pour 6000 marks 
 into the treasury of the Holy Father, and thus to gain the See of 
 Winchester and to oust Wengham. 
 
 Vows could not have appeared of much consequence then, 
 when the Pope could bind and loose so easily, and Henry now 
 obtained release from his promises at Oxford. On hearing this, 
 however, his son Edward was extremely angry, and at once 
 returned from the Continent, objecting strongly to his father's 
 unconstitutional government; and at one time (in 1258) the 
 breach became wide enough to necessitate a public reconciliation 
 in the Chapter House at Winchester. 
 
 Edward's remonstrances seem, however, to have been of little 
 use, and now began the great struggle with the barons, into the 
 details of which we cannot enter except when they touch the 
 fortunes of Winchester. King Henry taking-refuge sometimes in 
 one castle, sometimes in another, came again (1261) to his old 
 native city ; but shortly after a well-armed force of barons 
 approached the gates, and the weak King, not having strength of 
 mind (or possibly strength of men or money) to resist, took the 
 advice of John Mansell, and fled back to the Tower of London, 
 where his foreign favourites gathered round him. 
 
 For three years war continued — open and concealed — while 
 royal promises were repeated and broken. By that time several 
 of the barons had left Simon, and in 1264 Louis of France was 
 asked to decide between him and the King, and this he did 
 almost entirely in favour of the latter. But the main body of the 
 people were still with De Montfort, and that same year Henry's
 
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 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIAEVAL CITY 95 
 
 cause was lost, and his person and that of his son taken possession 
 of in the battle of Lewes. For several months the earl now 
 really ruled England, and during that time he summoned the 
 famous Parliament, in which sat representatives from borough 
 towns, though it is doubtful whether any member represented 
 Winchester until eighteen years later. 
 
 The city seems to have been in a very unsettled state, and the 
 relations between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities were in 
 what would now be called a very strained condition — the former 
 taking the side of the King, the latter that of De Montfort. 
 Their antagonism soon took shape in action. A number of 
 citizens collected near the gate of the priory enclosure and 
 stormed it, and great must have been the excitement in the 
 motley throng attacking, and the black robed monks defending, 
 supported by all those connected with the monastery. At last 
 fire was resorted to, the massive door gave way with a crash, and 
 a free fight ensued, during which some of the monastic buildings 
 were burnt, as well as the King's gate, with the Church of 
 St. Swithun's over it, and many people were killed. 
 
 During this time dissensions had sprung up in De Montfort's 
 party, and Edward, now at liberty, was marching westward against 
 him. The younger Simon was summoned to his father's assistance, 
 and on his way he is said to have come to Winchester, but to have 
 been refused entrance by the still loyal city. The monks of 
 St. Swithun's, who do not, however, appear to have been troubled 
 by such scruples, treacherously admitted him, upon which he let 
 loose his force upon the city, and sacked it horribly, especially 
 that quarter in the north-east part of the town inhabited by Jews.
 
 96 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 
 
 In the following month the battle of Evesham took place, when 
 the great earl was killed, and Henry felt himself once more free 
 to call his Parliament of Magnates at Winchester. It was now 
 in the King's power to deal out punishments, and in this he was not 
 sparing — "ex-heredation" being the sentence of all the followers 
 of De Montfort ; and Bishop John, who, in company with the 
 monks, had taken the popular side, was deposed. That the 
 King's sentence was not meekly acquiesced in, we learn from the 
 chronicler's statement that " the disinherited parties thereupon 
 assembled together, and indulged in pillage and incendiarism in 
 all directions." 
 
 There was now great distress and poverty in Winchester, and 
 it was in consequence of this that its fee-farm rent was reduced 
 from £80 to ioo marks. But the political troubles of the king- 
 dom were at an end, and Henry and his people went on together 
 peaceably for the next seven years. 
 
 The Papal Legate Ottoboni had come again to England, and 
 was diligently wielding his weapon of excommunication against 
 all the clergy who had taken the popular side ; bishops had fallen 
 under the ban, one being John of Winchester, who was succeeded 
 by Nicholas, translated hither from Worcester. Whether the 
 Abbot of Hyde held different political views from his brother of 
 St. Swithun's, or whether he merely wished to conciliate the 
 higher powers, does not appear ; but we know that the Legate 
 was his guest at Hyde Abbey, which was just outside Winchester. 
 Great festivities seem to have taken place ; but the visit was the 
 occasion also of considerable trouble, as a quarrel arose between 
 Ottoboni's servants and those of the Abbey, which became so
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 97 
 
 serious that the powerful guest thought it his duty to lay the 
 whole establishment under an interdict. 
 
 And so the King's reign drew to a close ; stormy and tem- 
 pestuous it had been, but it was to end in more peaceful times, 
 and with a few years of fairly constitutional government. William 
 de Valence was at Winchester Castle, repairing its damages, and 
 fortifying it in case the barons might again prove troublesome at 
 some future day. When he was absent his wife seems to have 
 kept guard, for he writes her word that he is sending Sir A. 
 Immer to provision the castle, and to be under her orders. She 
 would not be without amusement in this city, at any rate in 
 the autumn, for here at the further end of the town on the 
 summit of the steep green hill, where 200 years before Earl Wal- 
 theof had suffered death, was held the great fair, now by royal 
 favour allowed to continue for sixteen instead of fourteen days. 
 
 For many years it was only rivalled in Europe by the fair of 
 Beaucaire, in Languedoc, and none but those who have seen one of 
 the great continental fairs can at all realise in these modern days 
 how gay must have been the scene on the green down where all 
 nationalities mingled together, and where king's messengers jostled 
 against ordinary burghers in order to secure the best wax, pepper 
 and cummin ; but the pepper had to be carefully scrutinised, for 
 a few years back there had been a great outcry from the supposi- 
 tion that the vile Saracens had poisoned it in order to destroy 
 the Christians ! 
 
 This St. Giles' fair was, indeed, no common event. On the 
 previous evening — the last day of August — the Mayor of Win- 
 chester went sadly to one of the city gates — either the King's
 
 98 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 
 
 gate or the south gate — and there handed to the bishop's officers 
 (" justiciarii pavilionis," as they are styled) the keys of the city ; 
 for during the fair time the bishop received the toll levied on all 
 merchandise that passed through for sale, except some small sums 
 allotted to Hyde Abbey, St. Swithun's Priory, &c. 
 
 No wonder there were disputes between the various authorities, 
 their retainers, the merchants, and the townsfolk, for all the city 
 shops had to be shut, and every trade was stopped within seven 
 leagues, this including Southampton, where no buying or selling 
 was allowed except of victuals, and to the bishop belonged "all 
 weyfs and strays" within the seven leagues. It is to be hoped that 
 the amusement of the fair made up for some of the sorrows of the 
 ordinary shopkeepers. The summit of the hill was covered with 
 stalls arranged in regular streets ; some were of wood, some of 
 stone not roofed in, and the streets were called after the various 
 countries whose merchants had come, often at the risk of their 
 lives, to sell their wares. There was the street of the Flemmyns, 
 of Caen, Limoges, Bristol, Exeter, Cornwall. There, too, was 
 Spice Street, Wool Street, Wheeler's Street, as well as the 
 Goldsmithry, the Drapery, St. Swithun's Spicery. 
 
 There was a regular code of rules and bye-laws, and a special 
 court on the summit of the hill, where the bishop's officers sat to 
 see that the rules were kept ; also fire — that worst enemy of all — 
 had to be rigidly guarded against, for once St. Giles' Church 
 hard by had been burnt down during fair time, and the citizens 
 would not soon forget that conflagration. 
 
 One more scene and we have done — it is a peaceful one. The 
 old King had held another Parliament at Winchester in I 268, when
 
 THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 99 
 
 Prince Edward was made Seneschal of England, and two years 
 later a council was summoned to consider the well-worn subject 
 of money ; this time it was not wanted for a sham Crusade, but 
 for the brave prince who was really going to take the Cross. In 
 the castle the King and his son took their last leave of each other, 
 for Henry was to see his firstborn no more. Prince Edward bade 
 farewell also to the monks of St. Swithun's as in full chapter 
 they were assembled in the old Chapter House, which had 
 during the present reign been so often the scene of perplexed 
 consultations and angry disputes relative to the elections of bishop 
 and prior. 
 
 Two years after this, the old King was taken ill on his way from 
 Norwich to London, and stopping at St. Edmund's Abbey he 
 " confessed his sins with humility, beating his heart with grief 
 remitted ill-will to all, and promised an amended state of life." 
 But, having broken so many promises in past times, Henry was 
 not allowed the opportunity of keeping this one, for in a few days 
 he died, after a reign of fifty-six years. During this time his 
 native town had certainly passed through as many turmoils as 
 the King, and the words in which a chronicler describes him — " he 
 possessed robust strength, and was inconsiderate in his acts " — 
 might perhaps not unfitly be applied to the city whose name he 
 bore. 
 
 We shall not uselessly have recalled to modern readers these 
 troublous times — troublous both to the country at large and to indi- 
 vidual cities as well — if the story should invest with somewhat more 
 of general interest several of those men whom six centuries divide 
 from us, especially the great monk-historian to whose chronicle 
 
 F
 
 ioo THE TURMOILS OF A MEDIEVAL CITY 
 
 we owe so much. We have at least shown that England has 
 much to be thankful for at the present time and under the rule 
 of Queen Victoria. Englishmen of to-day can also look back 
 upon a reign as long as was that of Henry of Winchester, but 
 with very different memories than those over which Matthew 
 Paris mourned so quaintly. These old memories we have tried 
 to revive by a sketch of the life of that city which must ever 
 dispute with London the title of England's first Capital. 
 
 Printed by Ballantyne Hanson & Co. 
 London <Sf Edinburgh
 
 v*
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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