The Project Gutenberg eBook, Bell's Cathedrals: A Short Account of Romsey Abbey, by Thomas Perkins

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***

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Full page photographs in the original text were sometimes placed so as to split paragraphs. These have been moved to immediately before or after the paragraph that was split.
2. Some page numbers are missing, as there were often blank pages before or after full page photographs.
3. Obvious printer’s errors have been corrected without note.
4. Inconsistencies in hyphenation or the spelling of proper names and dialect or obsolete word spellings have been maintained as in the original.

romsey abbey from the east

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

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

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS