E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Anne Storer, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://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: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/8/8/22880/22880-h/22880-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/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