WINCHESTER. Ixvii. 



he said, was, with the exception of the foundations of a demolished 

 drum tower, the sole remnant remaining of the great fortress built by 

 the Conqueror after Senlac to dominate the Saxon population in and 

 around that city, the capital of the Saxon kingdom. The fortress was 

 a fine stone building with an outer and an inner bailey, two chapels, 

 the great keep and the royal hall of the fortress and palace. In those 

 valuable sources of information, the Liberate, Close, and Pipe Rolls, 

 were found details of the alterations, repairs, and decorations carried 

 out at the Castle from the time of Henry I. onward, a great amount of 

 work being done in the reigns of Henry II., John, and Henry III. 

 William, son of Henry I., and Henry III. were both born in the Castle ; 

 and there Henry II. entertained his daughter, who married the Lion 

 of Saxony. After the castle had been besieged and taken by Cromwell 

 it was " slighted," but the hall was spared, because it was here that 

 the Assizes were held a purpose for which the building had now been 

 in use for about 700 years. Indeed, when the judges came on circuit, 

 the King himself, Henry III., used to move out of the Castle in order 

 that he might not overawe the judges. With the possible exception of 

 Westminster Hall, Winchester Castle was the most notable hall in 

 England in respect of important incidents that had happened within 

 it, including one or two of the first Parliaments and the trial of Sir 

 Walter Raleigh. 



The hall of the club perceived to be a spacious building with massive 

 Norman walls, pierced with Norman circular windows, since filled up, 

 and converted into an Early English building by fine windows of that 

 period and clustered shafts of Purbeck marble. The visitors were 

 shown what remains of the stone royal dais, with a slanting acoustic 

 hole in the wall, communicating with a chamber in which, it is said, the 

 monarch sat to listen to the proceedings ; but there is no grille. Mr. 

 Jacob pointed to the so-called " round table of King Arthur," fastened 

 high up on the wall. As a piece of carpentry, he said, experts pro- 

 nounced it to be as old as the time of Edward I., if not of King Stephen, 

 but obviously painted or repainted at a much later date, since the 

 middle is adorned with the double rose, white and red, of Henry VII., 

 symbolising the happy union of the Houses of York and Lancaster 

 after the wars of the Roses. The Rev. C. R. BASKETT : Some say that 

 the table was used for gaming. Captain ELWES : Yes, as a roulette 

 table ; and we find in the records an account of a gaming table. 



THE WEST GATE. 



To the West Gate the club next jogged their way, and 

 with this fine bit of the 14th Century defences of the city 



