Produced by Jeannie Howse, Jonathan Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net * * * * * +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | | been preserved. | | | | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | | | | The carat character marks the letter following as | | superscript. For example: 15^o | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ * * * * * [Illustration: _Photo. D. Gwynne._ TEWKESBURY ABBEY, FROM THE EAST.] THE ABBEY CHURCH OF TEWKESBURY WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE PRIORY CHURCH OF DEERHURST GLOUCESTERSHIRE BY H.J.L.J. MASSÉ, M.A. Author of "Gloucester Cathedral" "Mont S. Michel," "Chartres," etc. WITH XLIV ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1906 First published, April, 1900. Reprinted with corrections, 1901, 1906. PREFACE. My heartiest thanks are here expressed to all who have helped me in any way during the compiling of this book--to Sir Charles Isham, of Lamport, for allowing me the use of his _Registrum Theokusburiæ_ for several months, and for permission to reproduce two pages from it; to Mr. J.T. Micklethwaite for permission to make use of his paper on _Saxon Churches_ published in the Journal of the Archæological Institute, and to the Institute for leave to reproduce the three blocks of Deerhurst; to Mr. W.H. St. John Hope for several suggestions; to Mr. A.H. Hughes, of Llandudno, Dr. Oscar Clark, and Mr. R.W. Dugdale, of Gloucester, for so liberally supplementing my own store of photographs; to Mr. S. Browett, of Tewkesbury, for the loan of the wood block on page 17; and, lastly, to Mr. W.G. Bannister, the sacristan of the Abbey, who placed his thorough knowledge of the building, its records, and its heraldry, together with the whole of his valuable MS. notes on these points, unreservedly at my disposal. H.J.L.J.M. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. History of the Foundation and Fabric of the Abbey Church, and Some Account of its Benefactors 3