The visitor will not fail to have pointed out to him by the
well-informed vergers the innumerable features of interest, such as the
Lady Chapel, the retro-choir, the Holy Hole where the relics were kept,
the black oak stalls of the choir, the fine pulpit given by Prior
Silkstede, and the magnificent screen begun by Beaufort and completed by
Fox. The monuments, apart from those contained in the chantries, are
many, and include one surmounted by a beautifully wrought cross-legged
effigy, which has not yet been identified. There are memorials or tombs
of James I and Charles I, by le Suer, who wrought the statue of the
latter at Charing Cross; Dr. Warton, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and
headmaster of Winchester; Jane Austen; and William Unwin, the intimate
friend of Cowper. A flat stone, with an inscription by his
brother-in-law, Ken, marks the resting-place of Izaak Walton, "whose
book", a modern writer tells us, "makes the reader forget for the time
the cruelty of his sport".

The curiously carved font, whereon are depicted symbolical figures and
incidents from the legendary life of St. Nicholas of Myra, bears much
similarity to three others found in Hampshire--at St. Michaels',
Southampton; East Meon; and St. Mary Bourne. They are all of the same
era, and possibly the work of the same hand, being among the most
interesting of our Norman fonts. The material of which they are made has
never been settled, some authorities defining it as Tournai marble,
others as basalt, and yet others as nothing more than slate.

The roll of bishops is a remarkable one, and the see has had eleven who
were also Lord Chancellors, the last being Wolsey in 1529.

As we have seen, Winchester continued in favour with the reigning houses