122 
After allusion to the Great Screen, which had in recent vears 
been restored, there followed a description of the Hospital of 
St. Cross, founded in the year 1186—‘‘ the almshouse of noble 
poverty "’—a place of old world beauty and repose, a place which 
alone would make a visit to Winchester profitable and attractive, 
Something was said about the city's trade in former times, and 
St. Giles’s Mair, which had even a Huropean reputation. It was 
stated that the Charter of the City was granted in 1184, though 
it possessed its ‘Town Reeve, the predecessor of our Mayor, so 
far back as 897—1000 years ago. 
The fascinating features of the venerable city were pictured, 
and the words of the late Dean of Winchester quoted, ‘ ‘lo have 
been the capital of Wessex, to have welcomed, in her early days, 
the arrival of every prince and prelate of great name, for a while 
to have been the cuief city of Kngland, the heme of the great 
Alfred, the refuge of letters, the mother of Knglish public school 
life—these are the titles on which the city rests her high renown, 
and these the memories amidst which she lives.” 
Many photographs were exhibited, and interesting speeches 
were subsequently delivered. 

