Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-19

Conqueror and all the Angev1n Kings
From it Rufus set forth one August day
in 1,100 on that famous hunting e1pedi-
tion to New Forest, from which his body
to be buried within the cathedral where it
now lies. The great tower tell upon the
spot in /, 107, and that was the judgment, so
the times said, for burying the royal rufian
within consecrated ground.
Henry L of Scotland and Matilda were
married here. Ceur de Lion was royalty
received here after his sore captivity.
Henry Ill was born in the castle and all
the Edwards held court here. Henry V.
received the French ambassadors here and
in Winchester Henry VI. planned Eaton
College after Wykeham's School which, still
one OF the most interesting of British col
leges, stands here to-day just as it then
stood against the southern edge of the vel
vety Cathedral close. Here Mary received
Philip and their unfortunate nuptials were
concluded; while the great structure now
standing beside the castle and used as the
Royal Barracks, was built by Charles IL,
though he never lived to see it completed,
as sumptuous residence for himself and
s'pretty Nell'' Gwynne. And SO on and on
the grim old story runs
All Aged and Decaying.
You are in the center of Winchester in
High street. You suddenly recall the curl
GUS fact that in all but one of these old
cathedral towns you have found High
street. It mattered not whether it were
high or low. High street it had been ever
since there had been an English tongue.
All about are half-timbered houses, project
ing story over story into the market place;
and you wonder how long from sheer age
they will tumble, red roofs first, over into
the clean, cool space below. Quaint shops
are pinched in between staid old mansions.
Bandboxes of inns speck the gray facades
with gilt and color. Worn steps, scrubbed
and washed with white lead into
tiny vestibules gay with cleaning brass
knockers and rare old colored glass.
just there, to the right, is a wynd or
close, grayer, more a medley of gables, over
hanging roofs and protruding windows than
the narrow street where you are standing.
1t is messy old Minister street. You saunter
into its shadows. At its southern end is an
inviting vista of foliage and light. You
will find more gray heads here than in any
other equal distance in England. 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
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
century houses, its area threaded
and silvered by the vagrant 1tchen stream,
masses of lime rising here and there above,
and the cathedral of royal Winchester,
showing in patches and bits, just limiting of
its grand proportions, through the riffs Of
luxuriant lime tree leaves.
A Cathedral Nearly 1000 Years Old.
Antiquity shrouds the beginning of
at Winchester. The cathedral
existed under Vortigern and Uther PEN
dragon. In nearly every particular as you
will find it to-day, 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 en-
dowed 1853 years ago. Winchester having
been royal Winchester hundreds of years
before London was more than marshy
fishing village, the colossal exterior aud
and architectural splendor of its royal and
ecclesastic sepulchures 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 majestic
study in mellowed and subdued gray. The
proportions of the columns
they are IL feet in diameter, the distance
between them or the intercolumniation be-
ing only about two diametsrs of the COL
umns-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 por-
tion of the east window, above the marble
altar screen. The space is 30 vast, the pro-
portions so perfect, the old Norman work
SO splendid in its massive simplicity, even
where modified by transition and early En-
glish work, the admission of light SO
equabIe, 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
mellowed rose.
Clearly the distinguishing features of
Winchester Cathedral are structural vast
ness, massiveness, simplicity and repose.
Strongest marked in features of detail are
of the Lady Chapel,
in the windows; the bold and
airy flying buttresses that stretch over the
side aisles, supporting the upper walls; the
rich open battlement surmounting these
walls; the unusual chamber or tribune
erected for minstrels in ancient times over
the western extremity of the north aisle;