Royal Winchester: Wanderings in and about the Ancient Capital of EnglandL'Estrange, A. G. K. (Alfred Guy Kingan)
History
Royal Winchester: Wanderings in and about the Ancient Capital of England
L'Estrange, A. G. K. (Alfred Guy Kingan)
Winchester (England) -- Description and travel
Raleigh sometimes smiled during this tirade. The last accusation was
the only one which moved him, and he said, referring to it, that Coke
was a base slave. “Humble, but not prostrate,” he answered for himself;
“showing love of life rather than fear of death.” The charges against
him were on the authority of only one man, his former friend, Lord
Cobham. Raleigh quoted Scripture, that “in the mouth of two or three
witnesses shall every word be established,” and demanded that Cobham
should be brought face to face with him. This was refused. He said that
in the Tower he got a poor fellow to throw up an apple with a letter
tied to it to Cobham, who said, in reply, that he had wronged him. But
all was of no avail, and Popham condemned Raleigh to be hanged till
half dead, and then cut down, quartered, and disembowelled. He left
the court without showing any signs of dismay. This account is the
more interesting and valuable, as it comes from the pen of Sir Thomas
Overbury, an estimable man, poisoned by Carr, who afterwards married
his wife.
Raleigh, though he remained afterwards thirteen years in the Tower,
until his unfortunate and dishonest expedition, was finally executed
under this sentence passed at Winchester.
[Sidenote: Wolvesey.]
All is now peaceful enough at Wolvesey. Time has gnawed the walls, the
Roundheads destroyed the defences, and Bishop Morley peeled the whole
to erect the new palace which now stands beside these sad remains.
The string courses in the walls seem to be a continuation of Roman
architecture, and we observe two good Norman windows and a couple of
imperfect arches; the outside of the keep can still be recognized and
the refectory. But nearly all the interior is in a confused state of
disintegration, and the man who can call the ruins picturesque must
have a happy imagination. Morley’s palace, now used for school classes,
is uninteresting; so is the chapel, though, as a builder who had to
repair the roof assured me, the wood there, the east window and south
wall existed in the days of the castle.
[Illustration: The Tower of the College Chapel from the Itchen.]
Leaving Wolvesey, we continued by the line of the city wall, and marked
in places the insertion of Roman tiles. There is little here to recall
the conflicts of men, but much, in the dark fruit-laden boughs, to
make us reflect on the generosity of nature and on piping times, when
every man can sit happily beneath his own vine and fig-tree. And now
we continue our walk by the smooth river and by cottage gardens bright
with everlastings and “gipsy roses” (scabious), till we find ourselves
again on the site of the Eastgate from which we started.
FOOTNOTES:
[46] Called of Winchester from having been born there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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