178 THE MUSIC OF WILD FLOWERS 



where a monument in the south aisle may be seen to his 

 memory. 



It is a matter of much interest that our Wainscot 

 Book enables us to identify the residence of John Mulso, 

 who was prebendary of the Cathedral from 1770 to 

 1791. For Mulso was the intimate and lifelong friend 

 of Gilbert White of Selborne. The great naturalist 

 must have often paid a visit to the Close and have 

 stayed in the mediaeval residence his friend occupied. 

 Its antiquarian associations must surely have rejoiced 

 his heart. For Mulso's residence, into which he moved 

 after a few months' waiting in Dome Alley, and in 

 which he continued to dwell until his death twenty 

 years later, was the house with the vaulted chamber, on 

 the west side of the Close, now known as No. 10. In 

 addition to the vaulted chamber of the time of King 

 Stephen the house possesses a beautifully panelled 

 " parlour above staires," the windows of which contain 

 some fine specimens of early heraldic glass. Among 

 the coats-of-arms there represented are those of Dr 

 White, who was prebendary from 1555 to 1574, thus 

 carrying us back in thought to the years immediately 

 following the Reformation. On the carved oak mantel- 

 piece is the heraldic shield of Abraham Browne, who 

 became prebendary in 1581, and who held the posi- 

 tion for forty-five years. According to tradition this 

 chamber was the resting-place of the body of Stephen 

 Gardiner, the last Roman Catholic bishop of Win- 

 chester, on its arrival from Southwark in February, 

 1555-1556, before it was finally deposited in the Chantry 

 prepared for it in the Cathedral. It is easy to imagine 

 how these historical associations would have appealed 

 to Gilbert White, who was almost as keen an antiquary 



