Bells Cathedrals: A Short Account of Romsey Abbey

Bell's Cathedrals: A Short
Account of Romsey
by Thomas
Perkins

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Bell's Cathedrals: A Short Account of
Romsey
Abbey, by Thomas Perkins
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Bell's Cathedrals: A Short Account of Romsey Abbey A
Description of the Fabric and Notes on the History of the Convent of Ss.
Mary & Ethelfleda
Author: Thomas Perkins

Release Date: October 3, 2007 [eBook #22880]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BELL'S

CATHEDRALS: A SHORT ACCOUNT OF ROMSEY ABBEY***
E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Anne Storer, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which
includes the original illustrations. See 22880-h.htm or 22880-h.zip:
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/2/8/8/22880/22880-h/22880-h.htm) or
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/2/8/8/22880/22880-h.zip)
Transcriber's Notes:
Words and phrases which were italicized in the original have been
surrounded by underscores ('') in this version. Words or phrases which
were bolded have been surrounded by pound signs ('#').
Obvious printer's errors have been corrected without note.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation or the spelling of proper names and
dialect or obsolete word spellings have been maintained as in the
original.

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF ROMSEY ABBEY
A Description of the Fabric and Notes on the History of the Convent of
Ss. Mary & Ethelfleda
by
THE REV. T. PERKINS Rector of Turnworth, Dorset Author of
"Amiens," "Rouen," "Wimborne and Christchurch," Etc.
With XXXII Illustrations

[Illustration: ROMSEY ABBEY FROM THE EAST]
[Illustration: Abbess's Seal]

London George Bell and Sons 1907
Chiswick Press: Charles Whittingham and Co. Tooks Court, Chancery
Lane, London.

PREFACE
The architectural and descriptive part of this book is the result of
careful personal examination of the fabric, made when the author has
visited the abbey at various times during the last twenty years. The
illustrations are reproduced from photographs taken by him on the
occasions of these visits.
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
[Illustration: APSIDAL CHAPEL, SOUTH TRANSEPT]

ROMSEY ABBEY
CHAPTER I
HISTORY OF THE BUILDING
The etymology of the name Romsey has been much disputed. There
can be no doubt about the meaning of the termination
"ey"--island--which we meet with under different spellings in many
place-names, such as Athelney, Ely, Lundy, Mersea and others, for
Romsey stands upon an island, or rather group of islands, formed by