emaining,
the present church of St Denys dating from 1868.
Nor does much remain of the Hospital of St Julian or God's House,
founded for the poor in the town, by Gervase le Riche, in 1197. It was
one of the most important hospitals in the diocese of Winchester, and
in 1343 the King, its protector, gave it to Queen's College, Oxford,
just founded by Queen Philippa. As the possession of this college it
survived the suppression, and was still carrying on its good work in
1560. About 1567, however, certain Walloons, refugees from the Low
Countries, settled in Southampton, and these were granted the use of St
Julian's Chapel by Queen's College.
The house should have remained to us, but that in 1861, by as black an
act of vandalism as was ever perpetrated, this seat of learning swept
away all the old domestic buildings of the hospital, which dated from
its foundation, and in their place erected what we might expect, at the
same time "restoring" the chapel of St Julian, of course, out of all
recognition. May St Julian forget Queen's College, Oxford, for ever and
ever.
[Illustration: THE TUDOR HOUSE, OPPOSITE ST MICHAEL'S CHURCH, SOUTHAMPTON]
Not far from this hospital for the poor the Grey Friars built their
house in 1237, or rather the burgesses of Southampton built it for
them, including a cloister of stone, but nothing remains at all of this
house.
For the most part, too, the great houses that of old filled
Southampton, and helped to glorify it, are gone. "The chiefest house,"
writes Leland, "is the house that Huttoft, late customer of
Southampton, builded on the west side of the town. The house that
Master Lightster, chief baron of the King's exchequer, dwelleth in, is
very fair; the house that Master Mylles, the recorder, dwelleth in, is
fair, and so be the houses of Niccotine and Guidote, Italians." Of
these, what remains? Nothing. The only noble dwelling is that called
Tudor House, in St Michael's Square, a fine half-timbered building,
and of this nothing is known.
No, the only thing to be enjoyed in Southampton to-day is the old wall
with its gateways, that upon the west still valiantly outfaces the
modern world and recalls for us all that noble great past out of which
we are come. And yet I suppose Southampton is fulfilling its purpose
to-day more wonderfully than ever before. It was once the port of
England for those dominions oversea we held in France. They are gone,
but others we have since acquired,
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