Winchester: things Austen and Arthur

I'm crazy (I certainly don't have to write two 3,500 word essays and have massive amounts of studying to do for exams or anything) I decided to go to Winchester on Monday since I don't have Monday classes. See the lengths I'll go to to use up my remaining britrail pass days before June? Actually, I had been thinking about going to Winchester and figured it was an excellent way to procrastinate and completely blow off work. Who are we kidding, us visiting students aren't actually here to study anyway. :) So, at 8:20 on a Monday I was off to Winchester, the most complex and longest train trip I have taken by myself yet (because other people actually do have classes Monday, who'd thunk it). What attracted me to Winchester in the first place were two things: Jane Austen and the Rounds table. So, first thing in Winchester, I headed to the Cathedral to visit Jane Austen. Well, her bones anyway. Austen wrote most f her work at Chawton and lived there for the final years of her life (1809-1817). When she her illness confined her to her bed in May 1817, she and her sister Cassandra moved to Winchester and rented just the first floor of a house it town. They moved in order to be close to a doctor in the area so that Jane could take the cure everyday. The doctor apparently wasn't that great though because not long after in July, Jane Austen died. It is still not clear what she died from but it may have been Addison's disease or tuberculosis. Through some clerical connections, Austen was subsequently buried in Winchester Cathedral. Her marker in the cathedral floor notably makes no mention of her as a novelist. Nearby however are a plaque and a stained glass window which commemorate her.

Jane Austen window

plaque

actual marker

Winchester Cathedral itself is lovely. The Norman Cathedral was begun in 1079 to replace the nearby original Cathedral, Old Minster (founded 648). The shrine of Saint Swithun and a number of mortuary chests were moved from Old Minster to Winchester Cathedral. St. Swithun (800-862) was a bishop of Winchester and now is the patron saint of the Cathedral. My favorite fact about him courtesy of the BBC website is that there is a legend that if it rains on Saint Swithin's feast day, the rain will continue for 40 more days (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/saints/swithin.shtml). The Saint's shrine includes what the Winchester Cathedral brochure refers to as a "Holy Hole" which pilgrims used to crawl through to be close to the bones of Saint Swithun. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be done today and it was blocked off. So, I did not get to huddle as close to St. Swithun as possible. The mortuary chests moved from Old Mister contain:

Cynegils, King of Wessex (611-643)
Cenwalh, King of Wessex (643-672)
Egbert of Wessex, King of Wessex (802-839)
Ethelwulf, King of Wessex (839-856)
Eadred, King of England (946-955)
Eadwig, King of England and later Wessex (955-959)
Cnut, King of England (1016–1035) and also of Denmark and Norway
Emma of Normandy, Wife of Cnut and also Ethelred II of England
William II 'Rufus', King of England (1087–1100)

big historical events at the Cathedral include
Coronation of Henry the Young King and his queen, Marguerite (1172)
Second coronation of Richard I of England (1194) --don't ask me why this is the second
Marriage of King Henry IV of England and Joanna of Navarre (1403) --remember them from Canterbury?
Marriage of Queen Mary I of England and King Philip II of Spain (1554)
The quire in the Cathedral is also pretty awesome. Its one of the oldest medieval quires in England to survive substantially unaltered and the carvings are wonderful. Also I sat in it, but more about that later.

mortuary chests



Holy Hole

Medieval tiles

cool stained glass rebuilt in 1660 after the English Civil War, made up of broken bits of medieval glass

After the cathedral and a nice cream tea at the Cathedral Cafe, I headed off to the Great Hall. The great hall is all that's left of Winchester Castle besides some ruined foundation-y bits. This isn't that surprising given that Winchester Castle is really quite old. William the Conqueror began to build it in 1067 just 6 months after the Battle of Hastings. That's right, it goes right back to the first Normans. The great hall of course is newer, built by Henry III between 1222 and 1235. at the time it was one of the largest and finest Halls in England and was much more open and bright than the previous style. The Great Hall has mainly served as a legal and administrative center and so had been host to all kinds of administrative center-y historical doing including the trail of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603. I learned at the Tower that Raleigh was arrested and imprisoned several times. In the 1603 incident he was tried for treason for for his alleged involvement in the Main Plot against King James I. This resulted in him being held in the tower until 1616. The Great Hall is also cool because of the Round table. The Table his been dated to the 13th or early 14th century which in case this is unclear is not at all Arthurian times. It is 18 feet in diameter (why does the English brochure list this in feet?) and was originally a standing table with 12 legs and a center support. It was first hung on the wall around 1348 which makes no sense to me because it was not painted until 1516 n Henry VIII's time. Indeed the picture of King Arthur on the table is said to look suspiciously like the young Henry VIII.

Great Hall

heraldic windows put in in the 19th century

the tree thing on the wall has the names of the parliamentary representatives of Hampshire from the earliest times. Added in the 19th century

Round Table

Great Hall garden

descending to bits of old ruined Castle. OMG!

medieval west gate

After the Great Hall, I caught an afternoon walking tour of Winchester. We went by some old mills and the river (the river Itchen), old bits of Roman wall, less old bits of 13th century wall, and Winchester College (founded in 1382 by the ten bishop of Winchester and today on par with schools like Eton). We also went by Wolvesey Castle, which is now ruined but was erected by the Bishop, Henry of Blois (younger brother of King Stephen) around 1130. Bits from the Castle were used to build the newer bishop's palace next door in 1684, most of which has been subsequently knocked down due to poor foundations.

Guildhall

Wolvesey

Then we went by Jane Austen's house. For a couple months. Just the first floor. Its a private residence now so there's not much to see but I feel sorry for the owners who must have people look in or knock o the door pretty frequently. I was with tour group so no, I did not try to creepily peek in the windows. But i might have otherwise. The tour was great and it was good to get some information about the history of the town. which of course is very very old since Winchester was the capital Wessex (basically Saxon England) and Norman England too for a bit.

In front of Jane Austen's house

Winchester Pilgrim's school headmaster's house on the Cathedral grounds. It's great because the left has three floor, the center two and the right has four.

The tour went by the two places that were left on my list to see, so at first I was at a loss for what to do with the couple hours or so that I had left in Winchester. However one of the women on the tour mentioned that there was an evensong service at the Catherdral that evening. So, I had a bite to eat and poked around a couple little churches nearby. One was on top of oe of the old city gates which I just thoguht was cool and one, St. Lawrence, either was or is on the sit of the chapel of William the Conquerors Royal palcae.

St. Lawrence

These people were playing bluegrass. I heard them singing something about the bayou.
King Alfred the Great

After this, I headed to evensong at Winchester cathedral. Just the 12 men of the choir were singing but it was amazing. There was hardly anyone there, maybe 10 to 14 people and we sat in the completely awesome old quire. and listened to the choir. It was so worth just barely missing the 6:25 train and having to wait for the 7:18 one. it was just super cool. But after evensong it was time to head bac back to Brighton and my gaint pile of work. And thanks to certin perosn, whose name starts with J and ends with -an, I had a silly Winchester Catherdral song stuck in my head for half of the good 2.5 hour trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2AwpuBF89E&feature=related