WINCHESTER. 



cipally of two courts, with a cloiller. The entrance to the 

 flrft court is under a fpacious gateway, having the mutilated 

 bulls of a bifhop and a king, to reprefent the founder and 

 his royal patron, Edward III. The fecond court is alfo 

 entered by a tower gateway. The chapel and hall form 

 the fouth wing of the quadrangle, and are enlightened by 

 lofty windows. The interior of the chapel has a fine and 

 lofty vaulting, ornamented with tracery. In the centre of 

 the cloifter is the hbrary, originally conftrufted for a chantry 

 in 1430, but converted to its prefent ufe in 1627. In the 

 fouth-weft corner of the fecond court is the hall or refeftory, 

 between which and the pafTage to the chapel is the fchool, 

 a plain brick building, erefted by fubfcription in 1687 ; over 

 the door is the ftatue of the founder in bronze, by Cibber. 



Ciiy. — The prefent city of Winchefter confiils chiefly of 

 one main ftreet, extending from the well to the eall, with 

 a number of collateral ftreets and lanes branching off on 

 each fide. Towards the middle of the High-llreet Hands 

 the city crofs, an elegant fpecimen of the llyle of the age of 

 Henry VI., confilling of three llories adorned with open 

 arches, niches, pinnacles, and fmall crolTes. The ecclefiaf- 

 tical buildings in Winchefter, and its fuburbs, were once 

 very numerous, and, according to fome writers, amounted 

 to upwards of ninety. Scarcely twelve now remain. St. 

 Laurence's church, near the crofs, is confidered as the 

 mother-church of the city, and by a folemn entry into it the 

 bilhop takes poireflion of his fee ; but the principal paro- 

 chial church is now that of St. Maurice. The town-hall, or 

 more properly the hall of the guild of merchants of Winchef- 

 ter, rebuilt in 17 13, occupies the place of one erefted about 

 1 1 12. There the city archives, the original Winchefter 

 bulhel of king Edgar, and other meafures of length and 

 capacity fixed as ftandards by fucceeding princes, and 

 various curious memorials of antiquity, are now preferved. 

 The front of the building is ornamented with a ftatue of 

 queen Anne. A neat market-houfe was erefted in 1772. 

 The ancient building on the north fide of the High-ftreet, 

 called St. John's Houfe, was originally founded as an hof- 

 pital, apparently fo early as in the loth century ; but falling 

 into the polTeflion or the adminiltration of the knights tem- 

 plars, or of St. John of Jerufalem, it was on the fuppreflion 

 of their order granted by Edward II. to a citizen of Win- 

 chefter, who refounded the inftitution for the fick and lame 

 foldiers, pilgrims, and wayfaring men, to have their lodging 

 and diet there gratis for one night or longer, as their ina- 

 bility to travel might require. At the general diflblution 

 of hofpitals and monalleries, the revenues and moveable pro- 

 perty were feized by Henry VIII. ; but the corporation of 

 the city refervedthe building itfelf to be ufed for municipal 

 bufinefs. In 1554 it again became a charitable foundation, 

 being endowed by Richard Lamb, cfq. for the fupport of 

 fix widows. The principal chamber or hall, which is 62 

 feet in length, 38 in breadth, and 28 in height, has been 

 handfomely fitted up, chiefly by a donation from the late 

 colonel Brydges of Avington. Among the decorations of 

 this hall, in which public feafts, raufic-raeetings, and aflfem- 

 blies are held, is a whole-length pifture of Charles II. by 

 Lely, prefented to the city by that king liimfelf. In the 

 adjoining council-chamber are fufpended the city tables, as 

 they are called, containing a chronological arrangement of 

 the raoft remarkable occurrences relating to Winchefter. 

 The ancient chapel of the hofpital is now ufed as a free- 

 fchool. The celebrated monaftery founded by the great 

 Alfred, called the ' Newen Mynftre,' and afterwards Hyde 

 abbey, occupied nearly the whole fpace between the cathe- 

 dral and the High-ftreet. Completed under his fon Edward, 

 it was firft filled by canons regular, who, in 953, gave place 



to Benediftine monks. Alwyn, the eighth abbot, with 

 twelve of his monks, fell in the battle of Haftings, in fup- 

 porting the caufe of his nephew, Harold, which drew upon 

 the abbey the vengeance of WiUiam of Normandy. But the 

 pofition being unhealthy and inconvenient, a new and mag- 

 nificent church and monaftery were erefted juft without the 

 north wall of the city, on the fpot called Hyde-meadow, to 

 which the monks removed in mo, carrying with them the 

 remains of feveral illuftrious perfonages who had been buried 

 in the former abbey, among which were thofe of Alfred 

 himfelf and fome of his defcendants. The annual revenues of 

 Hyde abbey, of which the abbot fat in parliament, were at 

 the diflblution valued at 865/. iSs. The church and mo- 

 naftery were foon afterwards demolilhed, and even the tombs 

 of Alfred and other eminent perfons were defpoiled. What 

 now remains of this inftitution is the fmall and mutilated 

 parilh-church of St. Bartholomew. Precifely on the fpace 

 occupied by the abbey-church was fome time ago erefted a , 

 bridewell, or houfe of correftion, on the plan of the bene- ' 

 volent Howard. In digging the foundations, ftone coffins, 1 

 rings, and veftels for the fervice of the church, were dif- 

 covered, together with fragments of architeftural fculpture. ' 

 But between fifty and fixty years ago, among the remains 

 of the buildings, was found a ftone with this infcription in 

 Saxon charafters, ' Alfred Rex DCCCLXXXI.' An- 

 other remarkable religious eftabhlhment in Winchefter was 

 the Nunna Mynftre, or abbey of St. Mary, founded by 

 Alfred's queen, Alfwitha, and the place of her retirement 

 after his death. Scarcely any vellige of the conventual build- ! 

 ings now remain, excepting in a modern manfion built out 

 of the ancient materials, and the name of the abbey ftill ap- 

 plied to the inclofure where it ftood. 



Winchefter, befides the numerous churches of the efta- 

 bhlhment, contains meeting-houfes for diflenters of various ' 

 denominations, among which the principal building is the Ro- I 

 man Cathohc chapel, rebuilt by Dr. Milner in 1792, on the '■■ 

 foundations of one more ancient. A large and commodious 

 county-gaol, from the defigns of Mr. Moneypenny, has been 

 lately erefted on the north fide of the city. 



Many privileges have at various times been beftowed on i 

 Winchefter by Enghlh fovereigns. Its chief magiftrate, as ' 

 was before noticed, received the title of mayor in 1 184, fome 

 years before the title was granted to the chief magiftrate of 

 London. The firft charter was conferred by king John ; 

 but that under which the city is now governed was the gift 

 of Elizabeth, " in confideration," as it is ftated, " of the city 

 of Winchefter having been moft famous for the celebration ; 

 of the nativities, coronations, fepulchres, and for the pre- I 

 fervation of other famous monuments of the queen's pro- 

 genitors." By this charter, the government is veiled in a 

 mayor, recorder, fix aldermen, a town-clerk, two coroners, 

 two conftables, and a council of twenty-four of the " better, 

 difcreeter, and more honeft fort" of inhabitants. The firft 

 return of reprefentatives to parliament for Winchefter took 

 place in the twenty-third year of Edward I. The right of 

 cleftion is vefted in the corporation. 



Winchefter poflefles very little trade but what arifes from 

 its fituation in the centre of an extenfive and populous 

 county. An ancient wool-conibing manufaftory, however, 

 is ftill in exillence, and of late years the filk manufafture 

 has been introduced. All the public bufinefs of Hamp- 

 Ihire is tranfafted in Winchefter, which occafior.s a fre- 

 quent and ample influx of ftrangers from all quarters. The 

 cathedral and the college fecure to the city the refidence of 

 a number of fuperior clergy. When in the height of its 

 profperity, and pofieffing the benefit of the wool-llaple, the 

 wealth of the inhabitants was greatly increafed by the multi- 

 tudes 





