5) was, at any rate, the first bishop of Winchester,
properly speaking; though he was the fourth successor to S. Birinus. As
his most recent biographer says, Hedda "was a man of much personal
holiness and was zealous in the discharge of his episcopal duties.... He
is reckoned a saint, his day being 30 July. Many miracles were worked at
his tomb." He figures on the reredos as restored in accordance with the
original design.

#Daniel# (705-744) had the misfortune to see his diocese considerably
docked in order to form the see of Sherbourne. He resigned, by reason of
loss of eyesight, in 744. According to some accounts, Ethelwulf,
afterwards king of Wessex, and father of Alfred, succeeded him; but this
story certainly lacks proof, though Ethelwulf seems to have been
educated at Winchester.

#Hunferth# or Humfredus (744-754), like most of the immediately
succeeding bishops, has his place of interment at Winchester recorded by
John of Exeter.

#Cyneheard# became Bishop of Winchester in 754. His successors during
the next century were #Aethelheard#, #Ecbald# (_circ._ 790); #Dudda#
(793); #Cyneberht# (_circ._ 799); #Almund# or Ealhmund (_circ._ 803);
#Wigthegen# (_circ._ 824); #Hereferth# (? 829-833); #Edmund# (833); and
#Helmstan#. Of none of these do we know much, and their dates cannot be
assigned with any certainty.

With #S. Swithun# (852-862), who was first prior and afterwards bishop,
we come upon one of the names especially connected with the history of
the church. It is, however, to be feared that it is not so much because
of his fame in church-building and his acts of humanity that he will be
remembered as for the popular superstition which asserts that the
weather for forty days after his feast-day on July 15 is dry or rainy
according to its state on that day. The legend is said to be based on
the fact that the removal of his body from "a vile and unworthy place
where his grave might be trampled upon by every passenger and received
the droppings from the eaves" to the golden shrine in the cathedral was
delayed by a long continuance of wet weather. Similar legends to explain
a wet summer are found elsewhere in Europe. "The saint was translated,"
says Rudborne, "in the 110th year of his rest. And for his glory, so
great was the concourse of people and so numerous and frequent the
miracles that the like was never witnessed in England." A figure
representing S. Swithun seems once to have stood in a niche at the apex