Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See   By: Philip Walsingham Sergeant (1872-1952)

A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See

by

PHILIP W. SERGEANT Late Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford

[Illustration: WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL FROM NORTH WEST END OF CLOSE. S.B. Bolas & Co., Photo. ]

[Illustration]

With Fifty Illustrations

London George Bell & Sons 1899 First Published, Jan. 1898 Second Edition, Revised 1899

W. H. White and Co. Limited

Riverside Press, Edinburgh

GENERAL PREFACE

This series of monographs has been planned to supply visitors to the great English Cathedrals with accurate and well illustrated guide books at a popular price. The aim of each writer has been to produce a work compiled with sufficient knowledge and scholarship to be of value to the student of Archæology and History, and yet not too technical in language for the use of an ordinary visitor or tourist.

To specify all the authorities which have been made use of in each case would be difficult and tedious in this place. But amongst the general sources of information which have been almost invariably found useful are: (1) the great county histories, the value of which, especially in questions of genealogy and local records, is generally recognised; (2) the numerous papers by experts which appear from time to time in the Transactions of the Antiquarian and Archæological Societies; (3) the important documents made accessible in the series issued by the Master of the Rolls; (4) the well known works of Britton and Willis on the English Cathedrals; and (5) the very excellent series of Handbooks to the Cathedrals originated by the late Mr John Murray; to which the reader may in most cases be referred for fuller detail, especially in reference to the histories of the respective sees.

GLEESON WHITE, E.F. STRANGE, Editors of the Series.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

It would be useless to attempt to record all the sources of information to which it has been necessary to have recourse in preparing this short account of Winchester Cathedral and its history; but I should like to acknowledge the main portion of the debt. "The Proceedings of the Archæological Institute of Great Britain in 1845" must, of course, take the first place, for to Willis's paper every one must go who wishes to know the cathedral well. Britton's "Cathedrals," Browne Willis's "Survey of the Cathedrals," and Woodward's "History of Hampshire," with the more recent Diocesan History of Winchester by Canon Benham, and the "Winchester Cathedral Records" of various dates, have been of great service. An article in the Builder of October 1, 1892, and one on St Cross in Architecture for November 1896, must also be mentioned. Above all, I am glad to be able to express my gratitude to one of the editors of this series, Mr Gleeson White, without whose assistance this account would never have been commenced. The engraving of the iron grill work is reproduced from Mr Starkie Gardiner's "Iron work," Vol. I., by permission of the Science and Art Department, South Kensington.

PHILIP WALSINGHAM SERGEANT.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. History of the Cathedral 3

CHAPTER II. The Cathedral Building and Close 16 The Exterior 19 The West Front 20 The North and South Sides 26 The Central Tower 27 The Transepts 27 The East End 28

CHAPTER III. The Interior 33 The Nave 34 The Minstrels' Gallery 40 The Grill work 43 The Norman Font 44 Wykeham's Chantry 46 Edingdon's Chantry 50 The Choir 50 The Tomb of "William Rufus" 52 The Reredos 55 The Transepts 61 North Transept 65 South Transept 65 The Library 71 The Feretory 72 The Holy Hole 72 Gardiner's and Fox's Chantries 74 The Mortuary Chests 76 The Retro choir and its Chantries 79 The Lady Chapel 84 The Guardian Angels and Langton Chapels 90 The Crypts 93 The Stained Glass 94