[Illustration: THE CLOISTERS, WINCHESTER COLLEGE]

Returning to the Butter Cross, the Piazza adjoining reminds one of the
Butter Walk at Dartmouth, and the famous "Rows" of Chester. It was used
for many years as a market where the country folk brought their produce,
being then known as the "Penthouse". The mints established on the site
by Athelstan were noted for the excellence of the coinage made there. In
the Westgate Museum an old leaden box is shown which was discovered at
Beauworth by a shepherd. It was found to contain some six thousand
silver pennies of the coinage of William I and Rufus. In addition to its
famous mints Winchester was the chief trading centre of this part of
England during mediaeval days. A great woollen trade was carried on with
Flanders when the city became one of the "staple" towns, still
commemorated by "Staple Gardens", a narrow lane leading out of the north
side of High Street, where the great warehouse for the storage of wool
once stood. A little below the Queen Anne Guildhall, but on the opposite
side of the street, is St. John's Hospital; while another old lane
leading off from the main thoroughfare is Royal Oak Passage, at the
junction of which with the street is the ancient house known as
God-begot House, with some good timberwork and a fine gable. "Jewry"
Street recalls to our memory the early settlement of the Jews in
Winchester, for the citizens seem to have been more kindly disposed
towards this persecuted race than those of the majority of English
cities at an early period in their history. Richard of Devizes, in 1189,
called Winchester the "Jerusalem of the Jews", and, writing of the
massacre and plunder of the Jews in London and other cities, said:
"Winchester alone, the people being prudent and circumspect and the city
always acting mildly, spared its vermin". The Jews settled in Winchester
between the years 1090 and 1290, landing at Southampton and making
their way up the Itchen until they came in sight of the old capital of
the kingdom. Crossing the river, they entered the city by the East Gate,
and finally chose as their abiding-place a site near the north walls, in
a thoroughfare then known as "Scowrtenstrete", Shoemakers' Row. The
community soon could boast of a synagogue, and were the possessors of
several schools. At the bottom of the High Street are the Abbey Gardens,
so called from their being on the site of an abbey founded by Ealhswith,
King Alfred's queen, in whi