gels,
etc.--occupy the splays between. The pinnacles are pierced and
crocketted, and there is a central projecting canopy over the place of
the original crucifix. On either side of the high altar is a door
leading to the feretory at the back of the reredos, and these have in
their four spandrels interesting groups of fifteenth-century sculpture,
representing various scenes in the life of the Virgin, the Annunciation,
and the Visitation of S. Elizabeth, still showing traces of colour. The
fact that these carvings have escaped destruction, just as the lower
tier at Christchurch escaped, is only to be explained on the assumption
that they were hidden behind some panelling since removed, for of all
images which provoked iconoclastic fury those representing the Virgin
were the most certain to be attacked. The whole is crowned by a triple
frieze of leaves, Tudor roses, and quatrefoils, at a height little short
of the corbels which support the arches of the roof.

[Illustration: THE ALTAR AND REREDOS. _H.W. Salmon, Photo._]

The eighteen larger statues were, and are now, since the restoration of
the reredos, arranged in the following order. In the uppermost tier, to
the left and right of the head of cross, were S. Peter and S. Paul, who
were the patron saints of the church. Two on either side of these were
the four Latin Doctors, SS. Augustine, Gregory, Jerome, and Ambrose.
"Below these, on the middle tier, we had two great local bishops, S.
Birinus, first occupant of the see, standing beside the figure of the
Virgin, and on the other side S. Swithun, the benevolent bishop,
patron-saint of the church: beyond them, over the two doors, were SS.
Benedict and Giles,[3] the one founder of the Order to which the Priory
belonged, the other the Hermit Saint, who always pitched his tabernacle
just outside the walls of medieval cities; he is here set in honour to
commemorate S. Giles' Hill, and especially S. Giles' Fair, from which
the Convent reaped great benefit" (Dean Kitchin: "Great Screen of
Winchester Cathedral"). Outermost on this tier stand the statues of the
two deacons, SS. Stephen and Lawrence. In the lowest tier, on either
side of the altar, stand SS. Hedda and Ethelwolf, two of the most famous
Anglo-Saxon bishops of the see of Winchester. Next these saints there is
the doorway on either side and beyond these doors are statues of King
Edward the Confessor, and S. Edmund the King. Between the figures of SS.
Swithun and Birin