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
abbey founded by his mother. Before the bridge stood the East Gate, and
crossing we are in that part of the city known as the "Soke". In the
"Liberty of the Soke" the bishop of the diocese had his court, presided
over by the bailiff as his deputy. Thus the bishop's jurisdiction was
entirely independent of that of the civic authorities. Wolvesey was his
palace, and within its walls, now ivy-clad and crumbling to decay, he
held his court, with three tithing men and a constable to assist him.
Here also was his exchequer, and here he imprisoned those who offended
against his laws. All that now remains of the once celebrated episcopal
palace of Wolvesey--said, with no authority, to have been so named from
the tribute of wolves' heads levied upon the Welsh by King Edgar--are a
few ruined walls, of sufficient extent to give one an idea of the
strength of the castle in its original state.
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