A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



more closely than others. At eight in the morning the bishop, attended 

 by his two chaplains, Matthew and Christopher Wren, came out from 

 the chapel and greeted Captain Richard Smith, who gave to the registrar 

 the instrument praying for the consecration. The following is an 

 extract : 



I present unto you the state of the village of Weston and the hamlets of Itchin, 

 Wolston, Ridgeway, and the part of Bittern manner (being all of the Parish of S. 

 Maries neer Southampton in the Diocese of Winton) as well in his own, as in the 

 name of the Inhabitants of the said village, hamlets, etc., wherein are many Hous- 

 holds, and much people of all sorts who not only dwell far from the Church, but are 

 also divided from the same by the great River of Itchin, where the passage is very 

 broad, and often dangerous ; and very many times on the dayes appointed for Common 

 Prayer and that service of God, so tempestuous, as the River cannot be passed ; and 

 so the people go not over at all ; or if any do, yet they both go and return back in 

 great danger, and sometimes not the same day. Besides, in the fairest weathers at 

 their return from Church, they press so thick into the Boat for haste home, that often 

 it proves dangerous, and even fearful, especially to women with childe, old, impotent, 

 sickly people, and to young children ; many times also they are forced to baptize their 

 Children in private Houses, the water not being passable ; and when they lye sick, 

 they are without comfort to their souls, and dye without any Ghostly advice or 

 counsel ; their own minister not being able to visit them, by reason of the roughness 

 of the water, and other ministers being some miles off remote from them. 1 



After entering the chapel the bishop separately consecrated the font, 

 pulpit, reading desk, altar, the place of matrimony, and the pavement 

 with reference to bodies that might be interred beneath. In the after- 

 noon the chapel yard was consecrated, the instrument presented by 

 Captain Smith stating that through difficulty in crossing the water bodies 

 had often to be buried in the open fields. 



The Hampshire residence that Bishop Andrewes most frequented 

 was Waltham, and it was here that he had a dangerous illness in 1624. 

 It was here too that he had his beautifully appointed chapel adorned 

 with what Prynne terms ' popish furniture.' Laud had inventories made 

 of the fittings of Andrewes' chapels at Ely and in Winchester diocese, 

 and reproduced them at Lambeth. These included silver candlesticks 

 with tapers on the altar, censer and incense boat, cruets for water as well 

 as wine, and ' a Bason and Ewer for the polluted Priests and Prelates to 

 wash in before consecration.' '' The good bishop died in September, 

 1626, at Winchester House, Southwark. One of the earliest panegyrics 

 on him says that he was ' Doctor Andrewes in the schools, Bishop 

 Andrewes in the diocese, and Saint Andrewes in the closet.' a 



These were emphatically the days of bishops moving from one 

 diocese to another, and Winchester, from its income and status, was 

 peculiarly subject to translations. Richard Neile, the successor of 

 Andrewes, who held this see for five years, was a striking example of 



1 This form and particulars were printed in a small 24010 book in 1659. British Museum, press 

 mark G. 2260. It was afterwards reprinted in Bishop Sparrow's Rationale, 



* See Prynne's Canterburies Doome (1646), pp. 121-4, with plan of the chapel and furniture. 



3 Isaacson's Life and Death of Andrewes, first printed in 1659 ; see also life by Rev. A. T. Russell 

 1863. 



88 



