No great halls of costly care,
No rich feasts of meat and drink
Neither did they heed or think
Of such jewels then unknown
As our lordlings long to own.
Nor did seamen e’er behold
Nor had heard of gems or gold.”
We may picture Alfred living in his palace here, surrounded by this rude magnificence, but with a mind far above its allurements. His life corroborated the saying that religion is best for both worlds. Perhaps his devotional tendencies came from his father, who had been a monk. He ever consorted with learned men, and made great improvements, among others rendering his fleet more efficient. There was great joy in Winchester in 899 when, after a sea fight between the Saxons and Danes, two of the marauders’ ships were captured, and the crews brought here to the King, and hanged on the gallows.
A copy of an ancient charter giving property to the church of Evesham is interesting, as it shows Rufus here in 1100, surrounded by the bishops of London, Lincoln, and Durham, the abbots of Westminster and St. Albans, the Chancellor, and many other barons of the whole of England, at the solemn feast of Easter.[37] It was from this that Rufus started on his unfortunate expedition into the New Forest.
It is supposed that somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Conqueror’s palace were the mint and treasury. It is said that the six mints established by Athelstan were under the site of the Penthouse.[38] As I had heard of some vaults remaining which I could not find, I went into one of the shops there to inquire.