IN this history I propose to follow the same plan which I adopted with respect to Canterbury Cathedral, namely, to bring together all the recorded evidence that belongs to the building, excluding historical matter that relates only to the see or district; to examine the building itself for the purpose of investigating the mode of its construction, and the successive changes and additions that have been made to it; and lastly, to compare the recorded evidence with the structural evidence as much as possible. A complete delineation and description of the building must not be expected, any more than a complete history of the see. The first have been most admirably supplied in the plates and text of Mr. Britton's well known volume, and the able and copious work of Milner contains every particular that can be required for the second. But still it appeared to me that the history of the building might be disentangled with advantage from the mass of local information In which it is enveloped in these works, and that the present advanced state of archaeological knowledge in architecture called for a closer investigation of the structure than had hitherto been attempted. Unfortunately, no Gervase has recorded this history of the cathedral, and we can only pick out detached fragments of written evidence.
The principal sources are, Rudborne's " Historia Major," and the " Annales Ecclesiae Wintoniensis," both printed by Wharton. There exists also in the Library of All Souls College, Oxford, a manuscript chronicle of the church of St. Swithun at Winchester, by John of Exeter. By the kindness of the Rev. Lewis Sneyd, M.A., Warden of All Souls College, the Institute has been furnished with a transcript of this chronicle, of which I have availed myself lit the following pages. The title of the manuscript sets forth (a) that John of Exeter wrote it with his own hands in the year of our Lord 1531. But at the end of it is a list of kings of England, with the dates of their coronations, deaths, and places of burial. This list concludes with the coronation of Henry the Sixth in 1421, and with a prayer for his prosperity. Also our author's list of the bishops terminates with the succession of Cardinal Beaufort. As he died in 1447, during the reign of Henry the Sixth, we may conclude the manuscript to have been written between 1421 and 1447, and, therefore, that the date at the beginning must be read 1431 instead of 1531.
The manuscript which Wharton calls an Epitome of Rudborne, and which in his time existed in the Cottonian Library, (Galba A 15), but was unhappily burnt, appears to have been the same with this work of John of Exeter. It begins with the same words footnote b , and contains the list of bishops, of which Wharton has printed the latter part at the end of his copy of Rudborne (p. 285). But it is ill described as an epitome, for, although in common with Rudborne, the early part of the history is made up of extracts from the lost works of Moracius, Vigilantius, &c., yet these extracts are often more copious than Rudborne's, and many particulars are thus supplied, as well as in the latter periods, which especially relate to the burial places of the bishops and kings.
Other sources of information are contained in the Life of Ethelwold, by Wolstan (c) , and similar works. And for William of Wykeham, the admirable biography by Bishop Louth supplies every kind of documental information.
In conclusion, I beg to express my thanks to the dean and chapter of the cathedral, for the kind and hospitable facilities which enabled me to carry on the investigations which form the subject of the following pages.