The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-08-20


color Worn steps, scrubbed mercilessly
and washed with white lead into tiny yes
tIbnles CAV with cleaning brass knockers
and rare old colored glass.
Inst there to the right is wynd. or
close erayer more medley Of gables,
overbancing roofs and protruding windows
than the narrow street where you are
standing. IL Is messy old Minister street.
Won sannter into its shadows. AT is south
ern end Is an inviting vista Of foliage and
LIGHT. You will find more gray heads here
than in any other equal distance in Eng
land. Gray old men and gray old women
silently sit musing over gray old wares in
their gray old shops.
1t is all so startlingly suggestive of age
and decay that you hasten on. Suddenly
one side Of the shadowy passageway stops
short, and there before you is one Of the
sweetest sights in England. 1t is the great
cathedral close. surrounded by ivy hung
Fourteenth century houses. its area thread
ed and silvered by the vagrant ltchen
stream. masses Of lines rising here and
there above and the cathedral Of royal
Winchester, showing in patches and bits,
lust limiting Of its grand proportions
through the riffs OF luxuriant lime tree
leaves.
From where you stand storing the scene
In your memory nm avenue Of lines, rival
ing the famous walk in Trinity gar
dens. Cambridge, leads diagonally across
the close to the cathedraPs entrance be-
meath its great west window. To the left,
across the wide reach of sward, are few
struggling graves. To the right fewer
still rise white against the green The
foliage Of the exchanging lines is so dense
that you cannot see the sky. Among the
leaves at this time Of the year is a wealth
of sweet smelling yellow green flowers. 1t
is wonderfully still here. Now and again
a withered blossom Auttering TO the stone
walk, or a robin OF biackbird hopping So
berly in and out among the olden graves,
almost startles you.
As you proceed down the tagged avenue
the gray breaks through the green The
north transept is first partially unveiled.
Then the wide, low tower, the entire vast
west front, the long range Of pinnacled
buttresses 10 the north of the nave and
the roofs Of the bishops palace and dean
cry to the south are gradually disclosed,
and ut the right is most ancient wall,
penetrated by low arched entrance which
In former times gave subterranenn passage
20 the royal palace Study it all so little
or long as you may, your whole being is
filed and thrilled by its majesty, beauty
and repose.
Antiquity shrouds the beginning OF
Christianity at Winchester. The caths-
dral existed under Vortigern and Uthel
Pendragon. In nearly every particular IS
you will find it today this cathedral has
stood since $50, or upward of 1000 years,
while the earlier cathedral church on the
site Of the present structure was founded
and endowed 1858 years ago. Winchester
having been royal Winchester hundreds Of
years before London was more than
marshy fishing village, the colossal ex-
terror and royal interior. as well as the vast
number and architectural splendor Of its
royal and ecclesiastic sepulcbers and
monuments, are at once accounted for.
On entering this cathedral and taking
position under the great west window, You
find nave, choir and vault simply males
tic study In mellowed and subdued gray.
The tremendous proportions Of the col
umns-they are twelve feet in diameter,
the distance between them or the interco-
Illumination being only about two diameters
of the columns-are so great that there is
not break in their line on either side
save midway along the southern tier,
where stands Bishop Wykeham's noble
chantry and tomb through the entire
length of nave and choir, the greatest OF
any cathedral in England.
The nave columns and vault and the
choir seem to focus in one far, high, trem-
ulous film of light in the upper visible
portion Of the east window, above the mar
Bile altar screen. The space is so vast, the
proportions so perfect, the old Norman
work so splendid in its massive simplicity,
even where modified by transition and
early English work, the admission Of light
so equable, that even the dark oaken choir
screen sinks into place and depth of color
only in lower fitting shadow, even serving
TO strengthen the effect of the marvellous
altar white bathed in the east windows
meIowed rose.
Clearly the distinguishing features of
Winchester cathedral are structural vast
ness, massiveness, simplicity and repose
Strongest marked in features Of detail are
accommodation Of the Lady Chapel,
particularly in the windows; the bold and
airy flying buttresses that stretch over the
side aisles supporting the upper walls; the
rich open battlement surrounding these
walls; the unusual chamber or tribune
erected for MINISTRIES in ancient times over
the western extremity Of the north aisle;
the shortness, vastness and solidity Of the
great tower, and the location of the latter
Immediately over the choir instead of over
the space approaching il, as in most other
cathedrals.
The cathedral Is the richest in chantries
and chapels Of any have ever seen. Their
great number and marvellous richness of
Ornamentation are accentuated from the
massiveness and simplicity of their struc-
tural surroundings Historically no sacred
edifce in England can boast such wealth
of treasure, if it may be so regarded, in
the mortuary remains of ancient kings
and preiates The tomb of William Rufus
Is in the center of the choir. Upon the top
Of the huge sanctuary screens are six
nortuary chests. In one lie the bones Of
Kynegils and Adulphus la another rest
Kings Egbert and Kenulph. A third holds
the bones of Rufus, Canute, Queen Emma,
who trod the niue heated plowshares un-
scatbed, and Of Bishops Wilma and Alwyn.
A fourth Is 'promiscuous" collection
of what was left Of the remains of kings,
princes and prelates after the sacrilegious
barbarism OF the year 1879. In a fifth re-
poses King Edmund, and in the sixth lies
Edred, who admirably governed the coun-
try Of the Bntons," Hosts more there are
Of later greatness and glory; but amid all
tombs there is just one spot in Winchester
cathedral where love TO sit and muse and
dream. That is In Prior Silkstede's chapel
There the southern sunlight, filtering
fhrnnph The tinr cnlnrad nnnns of the