The Cathedral Towns and Intervening Places of England, Ireland and Scotland:: A Description of Cities, Cathedrals, Lakes, Mountains, Ruins, and Watering-places.Silloway, Thomas W. (Thomas William)
History
The Cathedral Towns and Intervening Places of England, Ireland and Scotland:: A Description of Cities, Cathedrals, Lakes, Mountains, Ruins, and Watering-places.
Silloway, Thomas W. (Thomas William)
Great Britain -- Description and travel
where we arrived at four. This is historically of remarkable interest,
and may be named as one of the few places the tourist cannot afford to
miss. It is built mostly of brick, contains 16,336 inhabitants, and
is pleasantly situated on the River Itchen, which, though not itself
navigable, is used as a canal to the sea. While the buildings have
a modern look, and especially the shop windows, one cannot walk far
before he feels that he is in one of the old places of England. This
was an important place in the days of the Britons, and the Romans are
supposed to have built its walls. In the year 519 Cerdic, the Saxon
chief, captured and made it the seat of government. Under the Danes it
became the capital of England, and so remained till after the reign
of Henry II., who died in 1189. It was at the height of its glory in
the reign of Henry I., who died in 1135, but in the time of Henry VI.
it had materially declined. He is believed to have been killed in the
Tower at London, A. D. 1471.
Winchester was the principal residence of the sovereigns till the
accession of George I., A. D. 1714. Henry III. was born here
in 1207, and here Henry VIII. sumptuously entertained Charles V. In
this place also Isaac Walton--author of the Complete Angler, and of
celebrated biographies--was born Dec. 15, 1683. The atmosphere is
surcharged with great events. Every foot of ground is classic, and
in nearly every street may be found mementoes of something famous.
We Americans, born and educated under new conditions, are poorly
calculated to measure these ancient historic remains; yet by kindred
and historic associations we are the very people to best get large and
just impressions of England's worth.
At Worcester, Gloucester, Bath, Salisbury, we were richly entertained.
At the mention of either place, memory is immediately roused to
incidents crowding into reconsideration! Either of these places might
take its position as chief! So now of grand old Winchester. How hard it
is to write and not be intensely eulogistic. It has enough antiquity
for a whole country. On one street is a monument commemorative of the
plague of 1669. In the distance, a mile or so from the city, may be
seen the hospital of St. Cross, founded in the reign of St. Stephen,
who was crowned in 1135, and died 1154, nearly eight centuries ago. We
come to the venerable St. Lawrence, the mother church of all in the
city, into which each new bishop has, for a thousand years, made solemn
entry when he took charge of the See.
At the time of the Reformation, there were ninety churches and chapels,
besides monasteries where thousands, under a blind religious policy,
were being supported at public expense; but the Reformation drove these
drones from their seclusion, reduced the churches to but nine, broke up
abbeys, and true progress began.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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