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Page 9
The mortuary chests are certainly among the most interesting things
possessed by any English cathedral. They are supposed to contain the
bones of Kings Eadulph, Kinegils, Kenulf, Egbert, Canute, Rufus, Edmund,
Edred, Queen Emma, and Bishops Wina and Alwyn. They no doubt got much
mixed up when removed from the crypt by Henry de Blois, and again when
the chests were broken open by the Parliamentarians, so that a detailed
identification has been made impossible. It is now generally
acknowledged that the bones of Rufus are in one of these chests, and
that the so-called Rufus tomb in the retro-choir is the burial place of
some great ecclesiastic. Such at any rate is the opinion of Dean
Kitchin, who has done so much to elucidate the past history of the city
and its Cathedral.
When one of these boxes was taken recently out of its enclosing chest
and examined, it was found to have a roof something like a low gable,
which was decorated with painting about a century later than the time of
de Blois. On the outside appeared the words in Latin: "Here are together
the bones of King Kinegils and of Ethelwolf". Four of the Italian
chests that held the inner boxes were the gift of Bishop Fox. The
other chests have revealed five complete sets of human bones, and among
the remains in another were the bones of a female, possibly those of
Queen Emma.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE DEANERY]
The visitor will not fail to have pointed out to him by the
well-informed vergers the innumerable features of interest, such as the
Lady Chapel, the retro-choir, the Holy Hole where the relics were kept,
the black oak stalls of the choir, the fine pulpit given by Prior
Silkstede, and the magnificent screen begun by Beaufort and completed by
Fox. The monuments, apart from those contained in the chantries, are
many, and include one surmounted by a beautifully wrought cross-legged
effigy, which has not yet been identified. There are memorials or tombs
of James I and Charles I, by le Suer, who wrought the statue of the
latter at Charing Cross; Dr. Warton, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and
headmaster of Winchester; Jane Austen; and William Unwin, the intimate
friend of Cowper. A flat stone, with an inscription by his
brother-in-law, Ken, marks the resting-place of Izaak Walton, "whose
book", a modern writer tells us, "makes the reader forget for the time
the cruelty of his sport".
The curiously carved font, whereon are depicted symbolical figures and
incidents from the legendary life of St. Nicholas of Myra, bears much
similarity to three others found in Hampshire--at St. Michaels',
Southampton; East Meon; and St. Mary Bourne. They are all of the same
era, and possibly the work of the same hand, being among the most
interesting of our Norman fonts. The material of which they are made has
never been settled, some authorities defining it as Tournai marble,
others as basalt, and yet others as nothing more than slate.
The roll of bishops is a remarkable one, and the see has had eleven who
were also Lord Chancellors, the last being Wolsey in 1529.
As we have seen, Winchester continued in favour with the reigning houses
long after it had ceased to be a royal residence. Here Henry I was
married to the Saxon Matilda, and here in the closing years of his life
the aged Wykeham married Henry IV and Joan of Navarre; and here, too,
came Philip of Spain and Henry VIII's sad daughter, Mary of England, to
be wedded before the high altar, the chair on which the royal bride sat
being still shown to visitors.
For the architectural student the plan of the cathedral is not the least
interesting feature of the building, for although it has an ambulatory
which is semicircular internally, the plan is in other respects rather
exceptional. It is what architects call a periapsidal plan, meaning that
its eastern termination contains a processional aisle or ambulatory,
designed mainly for the purpose of allowing a procession to pass round
the high altar without entering the presbytery. In the crypt of
Winchester Cathedral the plan of the early Norman church may be seen
_sui generis_. A rather exceptional feature is that the eastern
ambulatory is semicircular within but rectangular without, although the
long chapel that projects from this ambulatory has an apsidal, not a
rectangular, termination.
To the receptive mind all our ancient cathedrals, and a few of our
modern ones, possess a subtle atmosphere of their own, indescribable but
plainly felt, both within and without their walls. In such an atmosphere
we lose sight of the Winchester of to-day. It becomes ancient,
ecclesiastical, historical, learned, and romantic. Here we return in
imagination to the scenes of the Middle Ages, when love was attested by
chivalrous deeds of arms done in honour of bright eyes, and poetry
sounded its lyre in praise of him who had been most devoted to his
Church, most faithful to his mistress, and most loyal to his king. As a
whole, this Cathedral of Winchester is a vast building, simple almost to
a fault, yet one that possesses a solemn repose unspeakably restful to
mind and spirit--a sense of undisturbed harmony and refined yet massive
simplicity. Towards eventide the shadows of the turrets and pinnacles
creep, day by day, over the surrounding bands of greensward, their cool
greys advancing inch by inch until they reach the spacious pavements,
whereon they cast the symbols of our Christian faith in ruddy
trefoil-headed slants of glory.
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