Bells Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester | Page 5

due some of the work which is attributed loosely to him.
It was during De Lucy's tenure of Winchester that Richard was re-crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury after his return from captivity. He passed the night before at S. Swithun's Priory, and was brought thence in the morning to the Cathedral "clothed in his royal robes, with the crown upon his head, holding in his right hand a royal sceptre which terminated in a cross, and in his left hand a golden wand with a figure of a dove at the top of it, ... being conducted on the right hand by his chancellor, the Bishop of Ely, and on the left by the Bishop of London" (Roger de Hoveden). The Bishop of Winchester himself does not seem to have been present, probably on account of a dispute with the king.
Another period of disturbance follows the comparatively quiet rule of Bishop De Lucy, and it is not until we reach 1346 that we come to a fresh outburst of architectural zeal on the part of the incumbents of Winchester. But Edingdon, and still more his successor Wykeham, left very lasting monuments of their occupancy at Winchester. It must not be forgotten that, while to Wykeham is due the credit of most of the actual transformation of the building, Edingdon must have first conceived, however vaguely, the design. Edingdon's attachment to Winchester is well illustrated by his quaint reason for refusing the offer of Canterbury: "if Canterbury is the higher rack, Winchester is the better manger." He is, indeed, charged with having left a considerable debt on the building, since his successor seems to have recovered a large sum from his executors, who had also to compensate Wykeham for large numbers of cattle which had "disappeared from the various farms of the bishopric." Yet it appears from Edingdon's own will that he began rebuilding the nave and left money for the continuation of the work.
Wykeham, as we shall see, had already a reputation for architectural skill when first introduced to Edward III., and this reputation stood him in good stead in the matter of preferment. When he was elected to Winchester he found the bishop's palaces of Farnham, Wolvesey, Waltham, and Southwark in a very dilapidated condition, and he set these in order before he turned his attention to anything else. New College, Oxford, and Winchester College practically occupied him up to 1393; whilst his work in the cathedral was really the last great undertaking of his life, inasmuch as it was not finished at the time of his death. The actual method of Wykeham's transformation of the interior is described more fully elsewhere, and we will not therefore do more than quote a few words from Willis on the work done. "The old Norman cathedral was cast nearly throughout its length and breadth into a new form; the double tier of arches in its peristyle was turned into one, by the removal of the lower arch, and clothed with Caen casings in the Perpendicular style. The old wooden ceilings were replaced with stone vaultings, enriched with elegant carvings and cognizances. Scarcely less than a total rebuilding is involved in this hazardous and expensive operation, carried on during ten years with a systematic order worthy of remark and imitation.... Judging from the provision of his will of the expenditure for the last year and a half, the cost of this great work to the bishop in present money cannot be estimated at less than ￡200,000."
Wykeham's successor, Beaufort, was far less a bishop of Winchester than an English statesman. His contributions to the architecture of his see are very small. He did indeed so add to the hospital of St Cross as to make it almost a new foundation; but in the cathedral he only left one monument, though this Milner styles the "most elegant and finished chantry in the kingdom," lying on the south side of the retro-choir. Waynflete, who followed him, left another fine chantry in a corresponding position to the north. Under Bishops Peter Courtenay and Thomas Langton, the latter of whom has his chapel at the east end, next the Lady Chapel, considerable additions were made to the architecture of the cathedral, though most of the credit is due to the priors Hunton and Silkstede, who seem to have been chiefly responsible for the new work. This included a prolongation of De Lucy's Lady Chapel, carried out in all probability between the years 1470 and 1524; and the erection of the present side aisles of the presbytery, in place of the original Norman aisles. In the latter year (1524) the side screens of the presbytery were added by Bishop Fox, whose motto can be read on them. The work of Fox, whose chapel is behind the reredos to