قراءة كتاب Winchester
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
when he lay down to die, on September 27, 1404, in his palace of Bishops' Waltham, he could look back to a long life spent in the service of his Maker. The funeral procession moved slowly along the ten miles that separated palace from Cathedral through crowds of people mourning his loss. At the Cathedral door the prior met the procession, and the great bishop-builder was laid to rest in the beautiful chantry he had himself prepared. Four days before his death he made and signed his will, in which he bestowed gifts and legacies with the liberality that was so marked a characteristic of his life. That crowds of poor would attend his obsequies he was probably aware, for to each poor person seeking a bounty he bequeathed fourpence, "for the love of God and his soul's health". To the Cathedral, on which he had expended so much of his genius, he left money for its completion; and bequeathed to it many precious things, including a cross of gold in which was a piece of the "Tree of the Lord". Henry IV was forgiven a debt of five hundred pounds, and was to have a pair of silver-gilt basins, ornamented with double roses, which were probably given to Wykeham by Edward III, as a special mark of his favour. So we take leave of this master builder and munificent bishop, whose motto "Manners makyth man" is known the world over. The inscription on his tomb tells us of his works, but Wykeham needs no inscription so long as the stones of the Cathedral hold together, and his two fair colleges raise their buttressed walls beside the waters of the Isis and the Itchen.
THE CLOISTERS, WINCHESTER COLLEGE
Returning to the Butter Cross, the Piazza adjoining reminds one of the Butter Walk at Dartmouth, and the famous "Rows" of Chester. It was used for many years as a market where the country folk brought their produce, being then known as the "Penthouse". The mints established on the site by Athelstan were noted for the excellence of the coinage made there. In the Westgate Museum an old leaden box is shown which was discovered at Beauworth by a shepherd. It was found to contain some six thousand silver pennies of the coinage of William I and Rufus. In addition to its famous mints Winchester was the chief trading centre of this part of England during mediaeval days. A great woollen trade was carried on with Flanders when the city became one of the "staple" towns, still commemorated by "Staple Gardens", a narrow lane leading out of the north side of High Street, where the great warehouse for the storage of wool once stood. A little below the Queen Anne Guildhall, but on the opposite side of the street, is St. John's Hospital; while another old lane leading off from the main thoroughfare is Royal Oak Passage, at the junction of which with the street is the ancient house known as God-begot House, with some good timberwork and a fine gable. "Jewry" Street recalls to our memory the early settlement of the Jews in Winchester, for the citizens seem to have been more kindly disposed towards this persecuted race than those of the majority of English cities at an early period in their history. Richard of Devizes, in 1189, called Winchester the "Jerusalem of the Jews", and, writing of the massacre and plunder of the Jews in London and other cities, said: "Winchester alone, the people being prudent and circumspect and the city always acting mildly, spared its vermin". The Jews settled in Winchester between the years 1090 and 1290, landing at Southampton and making their way up the Itchen until they came in sight of the old capital of the kingdom. Crossing the river, they entered the city by the East Gate, and finally chose as their abiding-place a site near the north walls, in a thoroughfare then known as "Scowrtenstrete", Shoemakers' Row. The community soon could boast of a synagogue, and were the possessors of several schools. At the bottom of the High Street are the Abbey Gardens, so called from their being on the site of an abbey founded by Ealhswith, King Alfred's queen, in which to spend the years of her widowhood. The general plan of the gardens has probably been but little altered since the days when the nuns paced their shady paths in pious meditation. An ancient manuscript of prayers, used by the abbess in the ninth century, is preserved in the British Museum. Ealhswith's son, Edward the Elder, levied a toll from all merchandise passing under the City Bridge by water, and beneath the East Gate by land, for the better support of the abbey founded by his mother. Before the bridge stood the East Gate, and crossing we are in that part of the city known as the "Soke". In the "Liberty of the Soke" the bishop of the diocese had his court, presided over by the bailiff as his deputy. Thus the bishop's jurisdiction was entirely independent of that of the civic authorities. Wolvesey was his palace, and within its walls, now ivy-clad and crumbling to decay, he held his court, with three tithing men and a constable to assist him. Here also was his exchequer, and here he imprisoned those who offended against his laws. All that now remains of the once celebrated episcopal palace of Wolvesey—said, with no authority, to have been so named from the tribute of wolves' heads levied upon the Welsh by King Edgar—are a few ruined walls, of sufficient extent to give one an idea of the strength of the castle in its original state. At Wolvesey King Alfred brought together the scholars who were to aid him in writing the "Chronicles of the Time"; and on the outer walls he hung the bodies of Danish pirates as a warning to those who made periodical raids up the valley of the Itchen.
In the hands of Bishop de Blois the palace became of great importance, and withstood a siege by David, King of Scotland, and Robert, Earl of Gloucester. De Blois was one of those who assisted at the coronation of Henry II, and pulled down the tower when the bishop was absent from the diocese without the royal permission, on a visit to Clugny. Although shorn of much of its former strength, the palace remained a fortress until the fortifications of Winchester were reduced to a heap of ruins by Cromwell.
RUINS OF WOLVESEY CASTLE
Beyond the City Bridge rises St. Giles's Hill, named after Giles, one of those numerous hermit saints who played so prominent a part in establishing the Christian faith in these islands. The hill is deeply grooved by a railway cutting; on it was held for many centuries a kind of open market or annual fair, which attracted the wealthy merchants of France, Flanders, and Italy. The fair generally lasted a fortnight, during which time all other local business was suspended, the shops closed, and the mayor handed over the keys of the city to the bishop, who claimed large fees from the stall holders. Thirty marks were paid for repairs needed at the Church of St. Swithun, and similar sums were demanded by the abbeys. Bishop Walkelin was granted the tolls of the fair for three days by William Rufus, his kinsman; but in the time of Henry III the privilege was extended to sixteen days. The stalls were arranged in long rows, and named according to the goods sold thereon, or after the nationality of the vendors. Thus one row would be named the Street of Caen, another that of Limoges, while the Drapery and Spicery stalls were held by the monks of St. Swithun, who proved themselves energetic traders at the great annual fair, which lasted until modern times, and was removed in due course from St. Giles's Hill into the city. Dean Kitchin writes: "As the city grew stronger and the fair weaker, it slid down St. Giles's Hill and entered the town, where its noisy ghost still holds revel once a year".
At the present day St.