waterways, the Itchen was crowded with barges making their way from the
maritime port to the inland city; for, like so many of our old British
settlements, the site of Winchester was determined by the natural
conditions of the land which could be utilized for the purposes of
defence. Although every lock on the Itchen is now in ruins or choked by
weeds, and the last of its fleet of brown-sailed barges is derelict,
this is essentially a city whose origin goes back to the days when those
who, coming cautiously up from Southampton Water, reached at length the
practical part of the valley, where they built their stronghold under
the shelter of the downs, yet within easy reach of the sea. It was by
means of barges that much of the stone was brought for the building of
the numerous churches and monastic buildings. This was brought from the
Binstead Quarries in the Isle of Wight, from the Purbeck Quarries in
Dorset, and possibly from Portland as well.

There is ample evidence that Winchester was a British city (Caer-Gwent),
and the Venta Belgarum of Roman days, when it was connected by roads
with the other Roman cities of Andover, Silchester, Porchester, and
Salisbury. With the taking of the town by the Saxons in 495 it became
known as Wintanceastre, and here, after the final subjection of the
Britons, the capital of Wessex was established. If the claim of
Canterbury to be the "Mother City" of the Anglo-Saxon race be granted,
few will deny to Winchester the honour of being her eldest and her
fairest daughter. A royal city was this when Birinus, the apostle of
Wessex, came hither in 634, on his way to the Oxfordshire Dorchester, to
baptize the King of the West Saxons; and in 679 the episcopal see was
established, a cathedral built, and a monastic house attached to it. It
was from Wintanceastre that Egbert sent forth the decree which gave the
name of Anglia to his kingdom; and here, by the tranquil waters of the
Itchen, Alfred (with his friend, adviser, and tutor, St. Swithun),