A Winchester Walk 8
which partly collapsed as early as 1431 . Rising damp and occasional flooding have been challenges since the College was founded ; in 2014 the water level was so high that boys were able to take a boat and row across Meads , the adjacent sports field .
Fromond ’ s Chantry is often open ; step inside and look up at the magnificent lierne vault , the bosses decorated with the coats of arms of leading 15th-century families , many the relatives of Cardinal Beaufort ( grandson of Edward III and Bishop of Winchester after Wykeham ’ s death in 1404 ). Beaufort appears in his striking red cardinal ’ s hat as the boss second from the altar wall . The east window displays some of the medieval glass that was originally in Chapel ; it gives an impression of what was lost when , in the 1820s , Chapel glass was taken out and
soft medieval colours replaced with bolder substitutes .
Just behind Beaufort ’ s boss is that of Henry VI ( 1421 – 71 ), who visited Winchester College eight times in the 1440s . He must have been impressed by what he saw , taking Winchester ’ s Headmaster , Waynflete , as the second Provost of his new school at Eton , modelling the Eton statutes on Winchester ’ s , bringing a number of Scholars from Winchester to Eton , as well as at least a cartload of earth ( to give scholarly soil in which Etonians might thrive ). Henry even insisted that the cloth of his Scholars ’ gowns at Eton should be from Winchester , recognition of the authority of the older foundation .
Leave now the sheltered calm of Cloisters by the same gate as you entered . Outside this medieval core , later buildings sprung : School , to the
Cloisters . Fromond ’ s Chantry .