Just Under The Altar Lies A Son
Of William The Conqueror, Without Any Monument; And Behind The
Altar, Under A
Very fine and venerable monument, lies the famous
Lord Treasurer Weston, late Earl of Portland, Lord High Treasurer
of England
Under King Charles I. His effigy is in copper armour at
full-length, with his head raised on three cushions of the same,
and is a very magnificent work. There is also a very fine monument
of Cardinal Beaufort in his cardinal's robes and hat.
The monument of Sir John Cloberry is extraordinary, but more
because it puts strangers upon inquiring into his story than for
anything wonderful in the figure, it being cut in a modern dress
(the habit gentlemen wore in those times, which, being now so much
out of fashion, appears mean enough). But this gentleman's story
is particular, being the person solely entrusted with the secret of
the restoration of King Charles II., as the messenger that passed
between General Monk on one hand, and Mr. Montague and others
entrusted by King Charles II. on the other hand; which he managed
so faithfully as to effect that memorable event, to which England
owes the felicity of all her happy days since that time; by which
faithful service Sir John Cloberry, then a private musketeer only,
raised himself to the honour of a knight, with the reward of a good
estate from the bounty of the king.
Everybody that goes into this church, and reads what is to be read
there, will be told that the body of the church was built by the
famous William of Wickham; whose monument, intimating his fame,
lies in the middle of that part which was built at his expense.
He was a courtier before a bishop; and, though he had no great
share of learning, he was a great promoter of it, and a lover of
learned men. His natural genius was much beyond his acquired
parts, and his skill in politics beyond his ecclesiastic knowledge.
He is said to have put his master, King Edward III., to whom he was
Secretary of State, upon the two great projects which made his
reign so glorious, viz.:- First, upon setting up his claim to the
crown of France, and pushing that claim by force of arms, which
brought on the war with France, in which that prince was three
times victorious in battle. (2) Upon setting up, or instituting
the Order of the Garter; in which he (being before that made Bishop
of Winchester) obtained the honour for the Bishops of Winchester of
being always prelates of the Order, as an appendix to the
bishopric; and he himself was the first prelate of the Order, and
the ensigns of that honour are joined with his episcopal ornaments
in the robing of his effigy on the monument above.
To the honour of this bishop, there are other foundations of his,
as much to his fame as that of this church, of which I shall speak
in their order; but particularly the college in this city, which is
a noble foundation indeed. The building consists of two large
courts, in which are the lodgings for the masters and scholars, and
in the centre a very noble chapel; beyond that, in the second
court, are the schools, with a large cloister beyond them, and some
enclosures laid open for the diversion of the scholars. There also
is a great hall, where the scholars dine. The funds for the
support of this college are very considerable; the masters live in
a very good figure, and their maintenance is sufficient to support
it. They have all separate dwellings in the house, and all
possible conveniences appointed them.
The scholars have exhibitions at a certain time of continuance
here, if they please to study in the new college at Oxford, built
by the same noble benefactor, of which I shall speak in its order.
The clergy here live at large, and very handsomely, in the Close
belonging to the cathedral; where, besides the bishop's palace
mentioned above, are very good houses, and very handsomely built,
for the prebendaries, canons, and other dignitaries of this church.
The Deanery is a very pleasant dwelling, the gardens very large,
and the river running through them; but the floods in winter
sometimes incommode the gardens very much.
This school has fully answered the end of the founder, who, though
he was no great scholar, resolved to erect a house for the making
the ages to come more learned than those that went before; and it
has, I say, fully answered the end, for many learned and great men
have been raised here, some of whom we shall have occasion to
mention as we go on.
Among the many private inscriptions in this church, we found one
made by Dr. Over, once an eminent physician in this city, on a
mother and child, who, being his patients, died together and were
buried in the same grave, and which intimate that one died of a
fever, and the other of a dropsy:
"Surrepuit natum Febris, matrem abstulit Hydrops,
Igne Prior Fatis, Altera cepit Aqua."
As the city itself stands in a vale on the bank, and at the
conjunction of two small rivers, so the country rising every way,
but just as the course of the water keeps the valley open, you must
necessarily, as you go out of the gates, go uphill every wry; but
when once ascended, you come to the most charming plains and most
pleasant country of that kind in England; which continues with very
small intersections of rivers and valleys for above fifty miles, as
shall appear in the sequel of this journey.
At the west gate of this city was anciently a castle, known to be
so by the ruins more than by any extraordinary notice taken of it
in history. What they say of it, that the Saxon kings kept their
court here, is doubtful, and must be meant of the West Saxons only.
And as to the tale of King Arthur's Round Table, which they pretend
was kept here for him and his two dozen of knights (which table
hangs up still, as a piece of antiquity to the tune of twelve
hundred years, and has, as they pretend, the names of the said
knights in Saxon characters, and yet such as no man can read), all
this story I see so little ground to give the least credit to that
I look upon it, and it shall please you, to be no better than a
fib.
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