675 
WINCH 
partly destroyed the town, but were foiled in another at¬ 
tempt, which, after having burned Rye, they made upon it in 
1377. 
From the rapid succession of the calamitous events which 
followed the foundation of the new town, it may be ques¬ 
tioned whether it was ever completely finished ; but the 
many spacious crypts and vaults which have been discovered, 
afford sufficient evidence that it was numerously, if not fully, 
inhabited. The new town fell to decay, from a cause the 
reverse of that which had occasioned the ruin of the old one; 
the sea deserted its neighbourhood, and left in its place a 
dreary marsh. In 1573, however, Winchelsea retained so 
much of its opulence and importance, that queen Elizabeth, 
by whom it was visited in that year, struck with the general 
appearance of the town, the splendid scarlet robes of the 
mayor and jurats, and the numerous gentry who inhabited 
the place, complimented it with the title of Little London. 
Towards the end of her reign, the.calamity of a retiring sea 
began in earnest to be felt. The channel which led to the 
harbour was first choked, and by insensible degrees the whole 
coast was deserted The town, abandoned of course by the 
merchant and trader, soon declined; its houses and churches 
fell to ruin, and desolation spread over the whole compass of 
the hill on which it stood; so that a town once covering a 
surface of two miles in circumference, is now reduced to a 
few houses, in a corner of its ancient site. 
In the middle of the town was a large square, now on 
most sides open to the country. In the centre of it stands 
the church, dedicated to St. Thomas, which, from its remains, 
appears to have been a beautiful edifice, originally built in 
the form of a cross. The lofty and spacious chancel, used 
by the parishioners for divine worship, and three ailes, are 
all that is now left entire. Within are yet left three of the 
lofty arches which supported the tower, springing from clus¬ 
tered columns. There were formerly two other parish churches 
dedicated to St. Giles and St. Leonard. The three gates which 
defended the approaches to the town, called New Gate, 
Strand Gate, and Land Gate, are yet standing, though in a 
very ruinous condition; and here and there a fragment of the 
walls, with an exterior foss, may still be discovered. The 
north-east, or Land Gate, leading to Rye, has a round tower 
on each side. The arch of the south, or Strand Gate, formed 
of vast rude stones, is almost flat. Near Camber Point, 
which terminates a marshy peninsula, about two miles north¬ 
east of the town, and half a mile from the sea, stands Win¬ 
chelsea or Camber castle. It was built by Henry VIII. 
during his rage for universal fortification in 1539 and 1540, 
and is conjectured by some to have been erected on the site, 
or with the materials, of a more ancient fabric. The cor¬ 
poration consists of a mayor and 12 jurats, and it returns 
two members to parliament, chosen by the corporation and 
freemen; the number of voters about 40, and the returning 
officer the mayor. It has a trifling market on Saturday; and a 
fair on the 14th May ; 8 miles north-east of Hastings, and 67 
south-west of London. Population in 1811, 652: houses 126. 
WINCHELSEA ISLAND, an island in the gulf of Car¬ 
pentaria, near the coast of Groote Eylandt, with which it 
forms a bay called by captain Flinders North-west bay. It 
is about 5 or 6 miles long. 
WINCHELSEA ISLAND, an island in the Pacific ocean; 
30 miles south-east of Sir Charles Hardy’s island. 
WINCHENDON, a post township of the United States, 
in Worcester county, Massachusetts; 60 miles north-west of 
Boston. Population 1173. 
WINCHENDON, Nether, a parish of England, in 
Buckinghamshire; 6 miles west-by-south of Aylesbury. 
WINCHENDON, Upper, another parish in the above 
county; 5 miles west-by-north of Aylesbury. 
WINCHESTER, an eminent and ancient city of England, 
in Hampshire, situated on the eastern declivity of a hill 
gradually sloping to the river Itchin, the chalky cliffs of 
which, combined with the whiteness of the surrounding soil, 
is affirmed by Camden to have occasioned its original name, 
which was Caer Gwent, or the White City. Most of the 
buildings have an appearance of antiquity, and the streets 
ESTER. 
are broad, and remarkably clean. It is about half a mile 
long from east to west, about a mile and a half in compass, 
and contains eight churches, exclusive of St. Bartholomew’s 
at Hyde. Although the early history of Winchester is in¬ 
volved in all the confusion of those distant ages, there can 
be no doubt that it has a fair claim to great antiquity. It 
was known in the time of the Romans, and is supposed to 
have been the site of a Roman encampment. During the 
contests of the Britons and the Saxons, it was well known, 
and became the capital of the West Saxon kingdom. Under 
the rule of Egbert, by whom all the Saxon kingdoms were 
united into one, it became the metropolis of the kingdom. 
In the reign of William the Conqueror, though Winchester 
was still a royal residence, London began to rival it, and 
to acquire the pre-eminence; and about the reign of Edward 
I. the increased importance of London operated greatly to 
the disadvantage of Winchester, as it became in a great 
measure the royal residence, and drew from Winchester all 
the attendants on the court, and others engaged in public af¬ 
fairs, whose expenditure had contributed to the prosperity 
of the city. In the reign of Edward III. Winchester was 
appointed as one of the fixed markets or staples for wool; 
but the growing commerce of the city was interrupted by 
various adverse circumstances, particularly by a most de¬ 
structive plague, which broke out about the year 1348, and 
spent its fury in the neighbourhood; and finally, the wool 
staple having been removed to Calais, the decline of wealth 
and commerce became sensible and uniform. In the reign 
of Henry VIII. it received another blow in the dissolution 
of monasteries, and the consequent destruction of religious 
houses; after which, Winchester contained scarcely any 
thing more than a mere shadow of its former grandeur. Du¬ 
ring the succeeding reigns it still continued to decline ; and 
in the eventful times of Charles I. the city and castle of Win¬ 
chester were secured for the parliament by Sir William 
Waller. In 1643 the castle was seized and garrisoned by 
the royalists. After the battle of Naseby, the place surrender¬ 
ed to Cromwell, after a short siege; and the works of the 
castle were destroyed, together with the fortifications of the 
city, the Bishop’s castle of Wolversey, and several churches 
and public buildings. Winchester was desolated, along with 
the rest of the kingdom, by the great plague of 1665. 
The cathedral of Winchester is one of the most interesting 
buildings in England, whether considered with respect to the 
antiquity of its foundation, the importance of the scenes that 
have been transacted in it, or the characters of the personages 
with whose mortal remains it is enriched and hallowed. It 
is also curious as an instructive example of architecture, whe¬ 
ther of the Saxon, Norman, or English styles, but particular¬ 
ly of the latter, both in its early and improved state. The 
original structure, built by the Saxon kings Kinegils and 
Kenewalch, is entirely destroyed; but of that built by 
Ethel wold, the crypt beneath the high altar is yet remain¬ 
ing. In the 11th century the cathedral was rebuilt, or greatly 
enlarged and improved, by bishop Walkelin, whose build¬ 
ings were completed in the year 1093. The next improve¬ 
ment of the cathedral was undertaken by William de Edyng- 
ton, treasurer to Edward III., and was finished by bishop 
Wickham in 1394. The object of this improvement seems 
to have been rather to adorn the cathedral with the rich 
architecture of the 13th and 14th centuries, than to repair 
any decay in the structure; aud as much, therefore, of the 
Norman building was preserved as could be fashioned into 
the improved style. The west end of the cathedral was now 
complete in its kind; but the eastern part of it, from the 
tower to the low ailes of De Lucy, was far from being con¬ 
formable to the rest, as it consisted of the Norman work of 
Walkelin, repaired and decorated at subsequent periods, 
when that great and good prelate, Fox, at the beginning of 
the 16th century, undertook to rebuild it. This he accord¬ 
ingly performed, with all the finished elegance that the 
English style had at that period acquired. The dimensions 
of the cathedral, as stated in Milner’s and in Gale’s Anti¬ 
quities, are as follow: whole length of the cathedral, 545 
feet; length of the nave, from the west porch to the iron 
dcor 
