120 
WINCHESTER—THE OLD CAPITAL OF 
ENGLAND. 
By W. LEWIS GRANT, the President. 6th October, 1903. 
In opening his paper, Mr. Grant quoted from his address on 
Alfred the Great, delivered to the members of the club four years 
before. He then said ‘‘ On this ground,” that is in Wiuchester, 
‘it is decided to raise a memorial statue to the only king whom 
Englishmen have named ‘ The Great,’ in the city where he lived, 
and where his dust has rested for a thousand years.” That 
statue had now been raised. It was the work of Hamo Thorney- 
croft, R.A., and was a magnificent statue, finely placed. It was 
the figure of an Alfred breathing life and radiating energy. The 
National Commemoration, when the statue was unveiled, took 
place in September, 1901, and the occasion was made a striking 
patriotic manifestation, marked by every circumstance and cere- 
mony that could impress the popular mind. It was appropriate 
to turn attention to the royal city—Alfred’s home, and the seat 
of his government—Winchester. It had been said that this 
famous old city ‘‘ yields to none in England for the monuments 
and memories of the past.” To Alfred, the nation was indebted 
for rescuing London from decay, and repeopleing it ; but his own 
capital was Winchester, so that there was a halo of ancient 
importance about Winchester which was even more splendid than 
that which belonged to London. 
The Lecturer described the situation of the city, and the plan 
upon which the Romans constructed it. In its general plan of 
the older streets (and this was illustrated by a diagram), Win- 
chester was to-day almost identical with what it was when the 
Roman cohorts were stationed there. 
Under Alfred, Winchester became the home of all the learning 
and the arts known in those times. It was within her walls 
that he compiled ‘The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,” the first and 
greatest history-book of the English people. 
