Ixviii. WINCHESTER. 



they were delighted. The gatehouse is wonderfully well 

 preserved, and is full of interest both within and without. 



One may observe the grooves in which the portcullis was raised and 

 lowered, the grotesque gargoyle-like heads through the mouths of which 

 ran the chains of the drawbridge, the arrow-slits at the bottom of 

 which circular apertures were later made for musketry, and above all 

 the picturesque machicolation through which missiles and molten lead 

 were poured down on assailants endeavouring to force the doors or 

 gates. In most ancient ruins only the triple corbelling remained to 

 indicate the presence of the machicolation ; but here it is intact. 



Mr. JACOB mentioned that the gatehouse, from the time certainly 

 of Richard II. to that of George III., was used as a prison, kept by the 

 porter of the West gate, who used to board the prisoners and make a 

 profit out of it. On the wide splays of the early windows are many 

 carvings by gentlemen debtors, the best being the arms of Charles I. 

 Since it ceased to be a prison in the reign of George III., the gatehouse 

 had in turn been used as a lecture hall, a muniment room, and a 

 museum. The most notable of many interesting exhibits is a fragment 

 of three planks from one of the four Viking vessels sunk in the Hamble 

 creek in 877 by King Alfred. 



On the way down the High-street the party stopped to 

 inspect God Begot House, an ancient hostel supposed first 

 to have been built in the year 1052, rebuilt in 1558, and res- 

 tored in 1910. It is situated immediately opposite the fine 

 old wooden Town Hall which was pulled down and rebuilt 

 in stone in the reign of Queen Anne, of whom a full-length 

 statue occupies a niche in the new building. " God Begot 

 House " is a good specimen of the old t mber hostel, with 

 its massive and rudely-fashioned beams, and, here and there, 

 its later and more finished oak wainscoting. It was origin- 

 ally " a gift to God and Holy Church by Queen Emma." 



WINCHESTER SCHOOL. 



The visitors were rejoined by Mr. Nisbett, their exception- 

 ally competent guide of the day before, who had promised to 

 conduct them to the school buildings. On the way they passed 

 the house where Jane Austen, known in Dorset as a visitor 



