Winchester | Page 8

thickness and strength. The present arched and narrow
entrance from High Street leads to the fine avenue of limes that forms
the principal approach to the west front of the Cathedral, begun by
Edington circa 1360, the severe simplicity of which has been much
criticized, Ruskin assailing it furiously in the Stones of Venice. On the
apex of the gable is a canopied niche containing a statue of Wykeham.
The present edifice is thought to stand approximately on the site of the
earlier Saxon church restored by Ethelwold in 980, in which Queen
Emma underwent the "fiery ordeal" by walking blindfold and
barefooted over nine red-hot plough-shares, thus proving her innocence
of the charges brought against her, and furnishing her accusers with an
example of what female chastity is able to accomplish. The main
portion of the structure as seen to-day was begun by Bishop Walkelin
about 1079, and completed some fourteen years later. It is the longest
of English churches, measuring externally 566 feet, and internally
562-1/2 feet, being a few feet longer than St. Alban's, which has the
same plan; although we must remember that when the nave of
Winchester terminated at the west in two large towers the whole mass
was 40 feet longer than at present.
The vista of the whole block of masonry, with its stumpy tower and
heavily buttressed walls, conveys the idea of immense strength rather
than of gracefulness; while its situation at the bottom of a hill, and near
the bank of the river, is one of great charm.
It is when the nave is entered that the full beauty and vast proportions
of the Norman church are revealed, for this is in essence a Norman
building encased with Perpendicular details and additions. As
Wykeham's alterations were merely added to the original piers, the

stateliness of the whole remains. Full credit, of course, must be given to
Wykeham for the wonderful skill he showed in this work of
transformation, and in removing the heavy triforium, although the
grandeur of the nave as a whole is due to the combined work of
Walkelin and Wykeham. This alteration of styles in the nave was begun
by Edington, continued by Wykeham, and completed by his successors
in the see--Cardinal Beaufort and Bishop Waynflete--who built the
stone vaulting of the roof. The tower at the intersection of the transepts
is the second of its kind, the first, built by Walkelin, having fallen in
1107, owing, says tradition, to the wicked Red King having been buried
beneath it. Of its rebuilding there are no records.
So many detailed architectural histories of the building have appeared
that its principal features must be familiar to every lover of our national
architecture. There are, however, one or two features about this
cathedral that should be noted. Apart from its great length, which is
greater than any church in the world, with the exception of St. Peter's at
Rome, it is remarkable for its parclose screens, with the mortuary
chests upon them; and for the beauty and number of its chantries, in
which it is richer than any other English cathedral. They are said to
have been saved from destruction during the Civil War by the
Parliamentary colonel, Fiennes, an old Wykehamist; and certain
historians describe the dramatic incident of the colonel standing with
drawn sword to protect the chantry of the founder of his Alma Mater
from the iconoclastic tendencies of his troopers. The chantries number
seven, and were built as chapels by bishops for their last resting-places.
Within these chantries are the tombs of Edington, Wykeham,
Waynflete, Beaufort, Gardiner, Langton, and Fox, all of whom were
bishops of the diocese. Fox's chantry was carefully restored by Corpus
Christi College, Oxford; and that of Waynflete by Magdalen College,
as a mark of reverence and esteem for the memory of their respective
founders.
The first to be seen on entering the nave from the west is that of
Wykeham, whose faith in the solidity of Norman building was so great
that he did not hesitate to cut away more than a third of the two nave
pillars between which it is placed. Within the chapel, said to have been
built on the site of an altar to the Virgin, is the effigy of the
bishop-builder, with flesh and robes coloured "proper", as the heralds

say; and at his feet are the figures of his three favourite monks, to
whom he left an endowment for the celebration of three masses daily in
his chantry, while each was to receive one penny a day from the prior.
The effigy lies on an altar tomb, in episcopal attire, the head-pillow
supported by two angels. Five bays farther on is Edington's chantry, but
without effigy, as also are those of Fox and Langton. Of the seven
chantries