Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal SeeSergeant, Philip Walsingham
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See
Sergeant, Philip Walsingham
Winchester Cathedral
On Wykeham's charter for the incorporation of his new foundation,
"Seinte Marie College of Wynchestre," is the date October 20, 1382; but
it seems that long before this date and up to the actual completion of
the #College# buildings, the bishop superintended the education of the
boys for whom his institution was founded, housing them in temporary
structures in the meantime--possibly in S. John's parish, on S. Giles'
Hill, it has been suggested. Before Wykeham's time, and indeed before
the Conquest, it appears that the monks of S. Swithun's institution had
a school at Winchester, at which no less celebrated a pupil than Alfred
the Great was brought up. We have already touched on the subject of
Wykeham's ideas on education, and the change which he brought about by
his colleges at Winchester and Oxford, and it is not necessary to go
into the subject again. The College buildings lie beyond the southern
limits of the cathedral close, on the south side of the narrow College
Street, being entered by a gateway with an ancient statue of the Virgin
in the niche over it. This door leads into the quadrangle, about which
are ranged various parts of the college. A further arch under the tower
in this court leads to a larger quadrangle, in which are the Chapel and
the refectory or Hall, a room 63 feet by 30, with a groined oak roof and
a dais at one end for the Warden and Fellows; while at the other is the
audit room, which has some fifteenth-century tapestry and an iron-bound
chest once belonging to William of Wykeham. Beneath the Hall is "Seventh
Chamber," an early schoolroom. Beyond are cloisters and more buildings,
and then the meadows which run down to the Itchen. The niches over the
second gateway contain figures of the Virgin, the Angel Gabriel, and
William of Wykeham; while the room below them is known as the election
chamber, where the annual election of scholars took place. In the inner
quadrangle the carvings over the windows should be noticed. "Over the
hall and kitchen entrance are the psaltery and bagpipe; over kitchen
window, Excess, a head vomiting; opposite a Bursar as Frugality, with
his iron-bound money-chest; over the Masters' windows are the Pedagogue,
the Listless Scholar, etc." In the Chapel, which is 93 feet long by 30
wide and 57 high, the Perpendicular windows should be noticed, and in
particular, the large east window. The glass is declared by Mr Winston
to be, with the exception of a few pieces, modern, dating from 1824,
while the "Jesse" window is "a very good copy of the old design." In the
vault Wykeham's wooden fan-tracery remains, but there has been much
change in the fittings of the chapel. The old screen has gone, and the
reredos is a restoration; the original stalls were removed as early as
1681. The tower had to be rebuilt in 1863, though the old stonework of
1470 was used where possible. At the north-east end are the sacristy and
muniment room, in which the college charters, etc., are kept. Among the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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