Winchester

by Sidney Heath

Henry de Blois became bishop when only twenty-eight years old, and in 1136 he founded the hospital for the entire support of "thirteen poor men, feeble and so reduced in strength that they can hardly or with difficulty support themselves without another's aid"; and they were to be supplied with "garments and beds suitable to their infirmities, good wheate bread daily of the weight of 5 marks, and three dishes at dinner and one at supper, suitable to the day, and drink of good stuff".

Besides this, he provided for a hundred poor men to be supplied daily with dinner. Bishop Toclyve, de Blois's successor in the see, added to the charity the feeding of yet another hundred poor men daily; and it has been said, on somewhat slight evidence, that the poorer scholars of Winchester College dined without fee in the "Hundred Men's Hall".

In 1137 the management of the institution was given over to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem; the cross still worn as a badge by the Brethren is a link with the ancient Order, being the cross potent, or Jerusalem cross, which was an insignia of the Kingdom of Jerusalem established by the Crusaders.

ST. CROSS FROM THE MEADOWS

Shortly after the death of de Blois a dispute arose between the Hospitallers and the bishop, but after the lapse of many years the management was restored to the latter, then Peter de Rupibus, who appointed Alan de Soke as Master. In 1446, Cardinal Beaufort, Wykeham's successor in the see, added a new foundation to St. Cross, to be called "The Almshouse of Noble Poverty". De Blois's charity had been intended to benefit the very needy; this of Beaufort's was designed for those who had fallen upon evil days after a life of ease and comfort. There were to be two priests, thirty-five brethren, and three sisters. The brethren were to be of gentle birth, or old servants of the founder. The scheme, however, was never completed, owing to the Wars of the Roses intervening, with the result that the estates with which he had intended to endow his almshouse were claimed by the Crown on the accession of the House of York. So it came about that in 1486 Bishop Waynflete was compelled to reduce the recipients of Beaufort's charity to one priest and two brethren. Fortunately, St. Cross was spared at the Reformation, and its endowments were not confiscated. The Vicar-General reported that there were "certain things requiring reformation", and that sturdy beggars were to be "driven away with staves"; also that the Lord's Prayer and the Creed were to be taught in English, and that relics and images were not to be brought out for the devotion of pilgrims. In 1632 Archbishop Laud caused a strict enquiry to be made, with the result that the Master, Dr. Lewis, reported that the fabric was in a state of great dilapidation. This Master lost his post through his loyalty to Church and King, and John Lisle, the regicide, became Master of the Hospital until Cromwell made him a peer, when his place was filled by John Cooke, the Solicitor-General who drew up the indictment against Charles I. Both these regicides met with misfortune, for Cooke was executed and Lisle assassinated, so that at the Restoration Dr. Lewis was restored to the mastership. Between the years 1848 and 1853, chancery suits, costing a large sum of money, resulted in an entirely new scheme being drawn up, under which the two charities were treated as separate foundations under one head. The differences of qualification between the two sets of Brethren are carefully laid down, and a portion of the income is used for the maintenance of fifty out-pensioners, the modern equivalent for the "Hundred Poor Men" of mediaeval days. The distinctive dresses of the Brethren are the same with regard to colour and cut as those worn in the time of Henry VI, those worn by the recipients of Beaufort's charity being of red cloth, with the badge, a cardinal's hat and tassels on a silver plate, worn on the left breast. The Brethren of the older institution, founded by de Blois, wear black gowns, with the silver cross potent pinned on the left breast. On the death of a Brother the cross is placed on a red velvet cushion and laid on his breast in the coffin; but before burial the cross is removed and fastened by the Master on the breast of the Brother elected in place of the deceased.

The Hospital buildings consist of an outer courtyard and gateway, to the right of which are the kitchens, and on the left the old brewhouse and remains of some of the earlier buildings. Immediately facing us is the tower gateway, thoroughly restored, if not built originally, by Cardinal Beaufort, under the groined archway of which is the porter's lodge, where the "Wayfarers' Dole" is still distributed to all who apply at the hatchway, an interesting and almost sole survival of the mediaeval custom by which food and drink were offered to passers-by. The daily dole at the present day consists of two gallons of ale and two loaves of bread, divided into thirty-two portions. The apartment over the archway is the Founder's room, wherein are stored all the ancient documents relating to the foundation. Beaufort's arms appear in one of the spandrels above the gateway arch, the corresponding spandrel exhibiting the ancient regal arms of England. On this side of the entrance are three niches, one of which contains a figure of the cardinal in a kneeling posture. The vacant niche in the south front once held a statue of the Virgin, which fell to the ground more than a century ago, and nearly killed one of the Brethren in its descent.

Passing through this noble gateway, which, somehow or other, does not look as old as we know it to be, we enter the great quadrangle, around which the various buildings are grouped. On the eastern side is the Infirmary, with the Ambulatory beneath it, a long, low cloister of sixteenth-century date, which extends along the whole side to the church. In one of the rooms above, a window opens into the church, where there may once have been a gallery to enable the infirm to hear the services. In 1763 Bishop Hoadley granted a license to the Master to pull down the cloister and use the materials for other purposes, but fortunately this was never done. On the opposite side of the quadrangle are the houses of the Brethren. Each dwelling consists of two rooms and a pantry, and has a garden attached.

The Brethren's Hall stands on the north side of the quadrangle, and is a portion only of the old "Hundred Mennes Hall"; but enough is left to enable one to form a good idea of the original apartment, which measured 36 feet by 24 feet, until a portion was cut off to provide rooms for the Master, who is now lodged in a modern dwelling outside the gates. At the east end of the hall is a table where the officials sat, those for the Brethren being ranged along the sides. Some black-leather jacks, candlesticks, salt-cellars, pewter dishes, and a dinner bell, all dating from Beaufort's time, are still carefully preserved. At the opposite end of the hall is a screen with the minstrels' gallery above, whence, on high days and holidays, the Brethren were enlivened with music during their feastings. The chief festivals of the year were All Saints' Day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Twelfth Day, and Candlemas Day, on which occasions the Brethren had "extraordinary commons, and on the eve of which days they had a fire of charcoal in the Common Hall, and one jack of six quarts and one pint of beer extraordinary, to drink together by the fire. And on the said feast-day they had a fire at dinner, and another at supper in the said hall, and they had a sirloin of beef roasted, weighing forty-six pounds and a half, and three large mince-pies, and plum broth, and three joints of mutton for their supper, and six quarts and one pint of beer extraordinary at dinner, and six quarts and one pint of beer after dinner, by the fireside; six quarts and a pint at supper, and the like after supper." During Lent, each brother had eight shillings paid to him instead of commons, and on Palm Sunday the Brethren had a "green fish, of the value of three shillings and fourpence, and their pot of milk pottage with three pounds of rice boiled in it, and three pies with twenty-four herrings baked in them, and six quarts and one pint of beer extraordinary". On Good Fridays they had at dinner "in their pot of beer a cast of bread sliced, and three pounds of honey, boiled together, which they call honey sop". Beneath the hall is a fine vaulted cellar, of ample proportions, a worthy resting-place for the stock of St. Cross ale.