The historical information has been derived from many sources. Among these may especially be mentioned “An Essay descriptive of the Abbey Church of Romsey,” by C. Spence, the first edition of which was published in 1851; the small official guide sold in the church, and “Records of Romsey Abbey, compiled from manuscript and printed records,” by the Rev. Henry G. D. Liveing, M.A., Vicar of Hyde, Winchester, 1906. This last-named work contains all that is at present known, or that is likely to be known, of the history of the abbey from its foundation early in the ninth century up to the year 1558. To this book the reader who desires fuller information and minuter details than could be given in the following pages is referred.

The thanks of the writer are due to the late and present Vicars for kind permission to examine the building, and to take photographs of it from any point of view he desired.

Turnworth Rectory,
Blandford, Dorset.
March, 1907.


CONTENTS

page
Chapter I.[History of the Building]15
II.[The Exterior]27
III.[The Interior]39
IV.[The Abbesses of Romsey]67
[Vicars of Romsey]79
[Index]81
[Dimensions of the Abbey Church]82

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

page
[Romsey Abbey from the east]Frontispiece
[Abbess’s Seal]Title-page
[Apsidal Chapel, South Transept]14
[The Nave, looking west]19
[Junction of Norman and Early English work]21
[View from the north-west]23
[The Abbess’s Door]26
[The West End and South Transept]29
[The South Transept from the west]31
[The Saxon Rood]33
[The Choir, south side]35
[The Nave, north side]38
[Cylindrical Pier: North Nave Arcade]40
[The Clerestory of Nave]41
[Early English Bays of the Nave]43
[The South Side of the Choir]44
[Triforium Arch in the North Transept]45
[The Interior from the west]46
[Base of a Pier in the Nave]47
[Arcading in the Tower]48
[In the Ringers’ Chamber]49
[The West Wall of North Transept]50
[The North Choir Aisle]51
[The Ambulatory]52
[The South Choir Aisle]55
[Saxon Carving, South Aisle]56
[The North-East Angle of the Crossing]57
[Tomb and Effigy in the South Transept]61
[The North Aisle of the Nave]63
[The South Transept]66
[Pier in the North Nave Arcade]73
[Plan]End