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 which to spend the years of her widowhood. The
general plan of the gardens has probably been but little altered since
the days when the nuns paced their shady paths in pious meditation. An
ancient manuscript of prayers, used by the abbess in the ninth century,
is preserved in the British Museum. Ealhswith's son, Edward the Elder,
levied a toll from all merchandise passing under the City Bridge by
water, and beneath the East Gate by land, for the better support of the