Beyond the tower-piers in the presbytery a plain tomb of Purbeck marble was once the resting-place of William Rufus, killed in the New Forest in 1100 and first buried, as we have seen, under the Tower. His bones were removed in the Twelfth Century by his nephew Bishop Henry de Blois and are now mingled with those of Canute, Queen Emma and two Saxon bishops in one of the mortuary chests on the screen of the Presbytery.
The piers and arches of the Presbytery are Decorated, dating from 1320 and 1350.
At the High Altar of the Choir Queen Mary was married to Philip of Spain in July, 1554, by Bishop Gardiner. In Philip’s train were Alva, the future scourge of the Low Countries, and Egmont, his famous victim. The chair in which the bride sat is preserved in the Chapel of the Guardian Angels.
At the back of the altar rises the magnificent Reredos, dating from the latter end of the Fifteenth Century. In 1899 the final restoration of the screen was completed by filling a niche that had been vacant for three centuries. The altar-rails are of the time of Charles I. A representation of the Incarnation hangs over the altar placed there in 1899, when Benjamin West’s Raising of Lazarus was removed to the South Transept.
“The Reredos is said to have been commenced by Cardinal Beaufort and completed by Bishop Fox and Prior Silkstede. It is an excellent specimen of Perpendicular work, executed in a fine, white soft stone; its elaborately canopied niches, pierced and crocketted pinnacles, pilaster buttresses, and centre projecting canopy, are surmounted at a height reaching nearly to the corbels, with a triple frieze of running leaves, Tudor flowers and quatrefoils. This Reredos is of the same type as those at Christ Church Priory and St. Alban’s, but its dimensions are greater and better proportioned. Its restoration is carried out with remarkable fidelity to the original work. The back is closely panelled in the upper part, and the lower part is richly decorated. No description could do justice to the beauty and effect of the whole work. Milner describes its exquisite workmanship as being as magnificent as this or any other nation can exhibit. The central part was restored as a memorial to the late Archdeacon Jacob.”—(G. W. K.)
On either side of the altar a door opens to the space behind the Reredos, which in early days was the Feretory, a place for the feretra, or shrines of the patron saints.
“The Feretory, or Capitular Chapel, is immediately behind the altar and communicates with the sanctuary. Here the magnificent shrine of St. Swithun, of solid silver gilt and garnished with precious stones, the gift of King Edgar, used to be kept except on the festivals of the saint, when it was exposed to view on the Altar, or before it.
“Many portions of statuary formerly belonging to the Great Screen and other parts of the building are here carefully preserved. From the platform behind the reredos may be observed the admirable connection of Fox’s new with De Lucy’s earlier work.”—(G. W. K.)
The old statue of the bishop, taken from the west front, may also be seen here.
Back of the Reredos again stands the famous Edwardian Arcade, with nine canopies (or tabernacles). Beneath it is the ancient entrance, the “Holy Hole,” leading into the Crypt.