And just as
the institution seems in itself wonderful to us in our day, so do the
buildings, which, if one would really understand how gloriously strange
they are, should be carefully compared with the county workhouse.
One enters the Hospital by a gate, and, passing through a small court,
comes to the great gatehouse of Cardinal Beaufort, consisting of
gateway, porter's lodge and great square tower. Here and there we still
see Cardinal Beaufort's arms and devices, while over the gate itself
are three niches, in one of which a kneeling figure of the Cardinal
remains. Within this gatehouse is a large quadrangle, about three sides
of which the hospital is set with the church upon the south, between
which and the gatehouse runs a sixteenth century cloister. The whole is
wonderfully quiet and peaceful, a corner of that old England, England
of my heart, which is so fast vanishing away.
The noblest building of this most noble place, and the only one now
left to us which dates from its foundation by Bishop Henry of Blois is
the church. This is a great Transitional building, one of the finest
examples of that style in England, and dates from about 1160 to 1292.
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