ldermen with gold keys on
cushions, and then to the grand cathedral, which impressed the Spaniards
with wonder, and above all to find that 'Mass was as solemnly sung there
as at Toledo.' A little crowd of mitred bishops stood at the great west
door, crosses raised and censers swinging, and in solemn procession to
the high altar, under a velvet canopy, they led the man whom they looked
upon as God's chosen instrument to permanently restore their faith in
England." Two days after the wedding took place. Great attention is paid
to the clothes by both English and Spanish narrators, and the ceremony
and dresses were very magnificent; the Queen's ladies "looked more like
celestial angels than mortal creatures." The Queen, we are told, blazed
with jewels to such an extent that the eye was blinded as it looked upon
her; her dress was of black velvet flashing with gems, and a splendid
mantle of cloth of gold fell from her shoulders; but through the Mass
that followed the marriage service she never took her eyes off the
crucifix upon which they were devoutly fixed. The marriage took place in
the July of 1554, and the chair used by Queen Mary is now standing in
Bishop Langton's chapel.

[Illustration: OLD VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL (LOOKING SOUTHWARDS).]

Some stormy years at the end of Gardiner's interrupted episcopacy and
during the rule of his immediate successors did not much affect
Winchester externally; but under Robert Horne the whole diocese suffered
terribly through the "Puritanical" views of its bishop. The Norman
chapter-house was pulled down, part of the lead on the cathedral roof
was stripped off, and stained glass, architectural decorations, etc.,
throughout the neighbourhood were ruthlessly destroyed. However, after a
short period of comparative peace, far worse had yet to come. Under
James I. and during the early part of the reign of Charles I., little
happened to the building beyond the institution of Curle's passage
through the buttress at the southern end of the cathedral, with its
quaint inscription on the western wall. The Great Rebellion, as was only
to be expected, brought Winchester into the utmost peril. The important
situation of the town in the south of England caused it to become the
centre of much hard fighting. Sir William Waller, whom Winchester has no
cause to remember with affection, came very near to destroying the
interior of the cathedral entirely. His troops marched right up the nave
in full war eq