" HILLS " 63 



belfry is recorded to have been blown down. A little 

 later, we learn from a chart ulary of the Cathedral 

 Priory, it was customary to pay to St Swithun's " all 

 oblations coming from the chapell of St Katerine on her 

 feast-day, as well by day as by night, from vespers on 

 the Vigil of the feast to nightfall on the day after." In 

 the monastic rolls there are frequent allusions to this 

 yearly offering or oblation. Moreover the good brethren 

 kept her festival, which occurred on 25th November, 

 with becoming state and good cheer, for did not the hill 

 on which the chapel stood belong to the monastery ? 

 It was fitting, therefore, as the Diet-rolls reveal, that a 

 more generous fare, including wine for the chaplain and 

 a choice entree for the ministrants, should be provided 

 on that day. The chapel, it appears, was suppressed 

 by Cardinal Wolsey during his brief tenure of the see of 

 Winchester, and its revenues sequestered for the benefit 

 of his colleges at Ipswich and Oxford. The antiquary 

 Leland, who visited Winchester a few years later, makes 

 the following observation : " Ther was a very fair 

 chapelle of S. Catarine on an hill scant half a mile with- 

 out Winchester town by south. This chapel was en- 

 dowid with landes. Thomas Wolsey, cardinal, caused 

 it to be suppressed, as I hard say." All traces of the 

 " fair chapelle " have now disappeared, and its actual 

 site can only be conjectured. 



From early days Mons Catharina has been regarded 

 as sacred ground by successive generations of Wyke- 

 hamists, and many are the legends and customs associ- 

 ated with " Hills." One only need be mentioned. 

 There is an " old traditional story," which can be traced 

 back to the latter part of the seventeenth century, that 

 a scholar, who for some flagrant offence was left at 



