altar rails, and an ancient chest.

Like most of our cathedral cities, Winchester is well supplied with
charitable institutions, although the best known of them all, the famous
Hospital of St. Cross, is situated a mile away from the city proper. The
Hospital of St. John, within Winchester, is one of the oldest
foundations of the kind in the country, and a portion of the vaulted
kitchen remaining in the building may not unreasonably be supposed to
have formed part of the almshouse thought to have been founded on the
spot in A.D. 935 by St. Brinstan. The chapel connected with the charity
dates from the time of the third Henry, and contains a piece of
fourteenth-century carving depicting the nimbed head of the Saviour,
which is now built into a wall. Considerable doubt exists as to the
original founder and early re-founders of this hospital, and little is
known concerning it until the time of Edward II, when John Devenish
re-founded it. At that period it seems to have been for the "sole relief
of sick and lame soldiers, poor pilgrims, and necessitated wayfaring
men, to have their lodging and diet there for one night, or longer, as
their inability to travel may require". Many influential citizens left
money or property to this charity. In 1400 Mark le Faire, Mayor of
Winchester, bequeathed to it several houses, including the "great inn
called the George", and the "house under the penthouse where Mr. Hodgson
died". Richard Devenish, in the time of Henry VI, left a sum of money to
provide for a more frequent performance of divine service in the chapel;
but in the reign of Henry VIII these and other funds were confiscated,
although the building itself was subsequently restored to the
Corporation.

[Illustration: BEAUFORT TOWER AND AMBULATORY, ST. CROSS]