Near by is an old oak seat used by the monks between the services, and a modern effigy of Bishop Wilberforce which strikes a Victorian note in its general effect.  The cathedral treasury was once the repository of Domesday Book, also known as The Book of Winton.

Just before the Great War commenced, the costly operation of underpinning the cathedral was brought to a successful conclusion.  Much alarm had been felt after the architect’s report was made public.  There is little doubt that a more or less general collapse of the structure would have occurred had this very necessary operation been long deferred.  Large sums were spent in the closing years of the nineteenth century in the repair of the roof and walls.  A tablet recording the particulars is placed at the west end of the nave.

On leaving the cathedral some time may be spent in exploring the interesting precincts and in endeavouring to reconstruct the medieval aspect of this part of the city.  The narrow “Slype,” or public right of way between the south transept and the site of the ancient chapter-house, was probably made to replace a passage through the interior, an intolerable nuisance at all times, but especially during service hours.  The old circuit wall of the monastery is still standing, and the entrance to the deanery should be seen; this dates from about 1220.  The cloisters were destroyed for some unknown reason in 1570.  The ruins of Wolvesley Castle erected by Bishop de Blois about 1150 are close to the cathedral on the south-east.  It was the residence of the Bishops, and part of the buildings formed an angle of the city defences.  The name Wolves ey or island is said to be a survival from early Saxon days when the tributary Welsh here made an offering of wolves’ heads to their masters.

[Illustration:  Gateway, Winchester close.]

There are some very scanty and doubtful remains of the New Minster on the north of the cathedral.  This was pulled down at the dissolution of the monasteries.  Nunnaminster was also swept away during this woeful time.

The College of St. Elizabeth stood near St. Mary’s.  Founded by Bishop John de Pontissara in 1301 it was dedicated to St. Elizabeth of Hungary.  After the Dissolution it was sold to the Warden of St. Mary’s for three hundred and sixty pounds, subject to the condition that the church should become a grammar school for seventy-five students, or that it should be pulled down.  This fate befell the building, which had three altars and a total length of 120 feet as was shown in the dry summer of 1842 when the outline of the walls was distinct in the grass of the meadows on the south-east of Winchester College.

[Illustration:  Winchester college.]

Winton is now as famous for St. Mary’s College as for the cathedral itself, and though not the earliest foundation of all the great schools, it can claim to having taught Eton the rules of good pedagogy.  Henry VI came here to ask advice and obtain experience for his new college on the banks of the Thames.  The school was founded by Wykeham in 1387 for “seventy poor scholars, clerks, to live college wise and study grammar,” and its roll contains a goodly proportion of England’s great men.  Here students were taught rather more than is stated above, and “Manners Makyth Man” became the watchword of the foundation.