Winchester

by Sidney Heath

THE CITY BRIDGE

This singular combat, which was to decide the fate of the city, commenced by Guy breaking his spear on the giant's shield, and the Dane cutting the head off the Earl's horse. Guy then fought on foot, and, beating the club out of his opponent's hand, cut off his arm. So the duel waged until night, when the Dane, faint from loss of blood, fell to the ground, and his head was cut off by the English champion. Having settled the affair to the honour of his country and his own satisfaction, the Earl made himself known to the King, under an oath of secrecy, and returned thanks in the cathedral for his victory. He then retired to a hermitage beside the Avon, and passed the remainder of his life in the cave which still bears his name, and probably contains his bones.

Several modern antiquaries are very sceptical about the whole story, and labour hard to prove that Guy was a mythical figure, and his deeds nothing but legendary lore. There is always some truth in these old legends, in spite of the frills and embellishments added by the later chroniclers, and the history of our land would be poor reading indeed if we banished the romantic legends merely because they are not confirmed by such dry-as-dust evidence as alone will satisfy a certain section of scientific compilers, whose minds can perceive neither truth nor beauty underlying ancient legends and traditions. The fact that they cannot be proved to have happened is more than half their charm, and our garden of romance, with its beautiful flowers of chivalry, is infinitely better to live with than the dry and parched fields given over to the cultivation of nothing but facts.

The defeat of the Danish giant is said to have been achieved in a meadow to the north of the city, named from that occurrence "Danemark Mead"; and we are told also that the Dane's sword was to be seen in the Cathedral treasury down to the reign of James I. Be this as it may, we do know that in the eighth year of Edward I a writ of right was brought by the King against the Abbot of Hyde, to recover land usurped in the north suburb of the city, called "Denemarche", and judgment was given for the crown.

The appearance of the city in Saxon days has been described thus by Dean Kitchin: "The three Minsters, which filled up the south-eastern corner of the city, were for long the finest group of churches and dwellings in all England. Wolvesey Palace, at once the school, the court of justice, and the royal dwelling place, formed the bulwark against the dreaded invasions of the Dane; inwards from Wolvesey precincts came the strong enclosure of St. Swithun's Convent, a second fortress, which protected the church, and behind both, sheltered by their strong walls and by the river and the marshlands to the north, were the growing buildings of the Nuns' Minster, and the new Minster. And up the rising towards the west, on either side of the ancient Roman road from the eastward gate of the city, the houses of the citizens began to cluster into a street, with here and there a stone-built dwelling, and the rest made of that 'wattle and dab' construction, of which from time to time examples are still laid bare in the city."

Although many historical persons flit across the scene throughout the centuries, the personal associations of Winchester are dominated by the outstanding figures of Alfred, St. Swithun, and the great clerical craftsman, William of Wykeham, the builder of much of the cathedral, and the founder of St. Mary's College, Winchester, and New College, Oxford—the former of which, although of later foundation, was intended as a stepping-stone for the latter.

With the Norman Conquest, and the rapid rise of Westminster, the days of Winchester as the seat of government were numbered, although it was much favoured by the early Norman kings, possibly owing to its proximity to such hunting grounds as the New Forest Cranborne Chase (where King John's hunting lodge still stands), and the Royal Warren of Purbeck.

William I had his great palace near the cathedral, and it was to Winchester that the body of William Rufus was brought on a cart, after his ill-fated death in the New Forest.

Then the Domesday Book—if not compiled at Winchester—was kept there for many years, when it was called "The Book of Winton". In the seventh year of Henry II a charge appears in the Pipe Roll for conveying the "arca", in which the book was kept, from Winchester to London.

There is naturally much in the life-history of St. Swithun that is incapable of proof. He was possibly born in the neighbourhood of Winchester about the year 800. He became a monk of the old abbey, and rose to be head of the community, when he gained the favour of King Egbert, who entrusted him with the education of his son Ethelwolf. There is an authentic charter granted by Egbert in 838, and bearing the signatures of Elmstan, episcopus, and Swithunus, diaconus. On the death of Elmstan, in 852, Swithun was appointed his successor in the see, when, in addition to erecting several churches, and building a stone bridge over the Itchen, he appears to have enlarged and beautified the Saxon cathedral built by Kynewalch when Winchester became the seat of a bishopric in 679. The site of this Saxon church is considered to have been a little to the north of the present cathedral, which is a Norman building commenced by Walkelin a few years after the Conquest.