ys, founded in 1124 by Henry I., a Priory of Austin Canons,
his "chapels" of St Michael, the Holy Rood, St Laurence and All Saints,
that is all the churches save St John's already granted to the Abbey of
St Mary of Lire, in Southampton. But that these chapels had some
relation to the mother church of St Mary might seem certain. Indeed the
rector of St Mary's was continually in controversy with the canons as
to his rights, and eventually, in the thirteenth century, he won the
day. In any case the mother church of Southampton was St Mary's,
outside the walls of the town. That a Saxon church stood upon this site
is certain, and this was possibly represented in Leland's time by the
chapel of St Nicholas, "a poor and small thing," which then stood to
the East of "the great church of Our Lady," which he saw and which
probably dated from the time of Henry I. This church was, alas,
destroyed by the town only a few years later because its spire was said
to guide the French cruisers into Southampton Water, and the stones
were used to mend the roads. It may be that the chancel escaped, or it
may be that a new and much smaller church was erected in 1579. This,
whichever it was, was much neglected till in 1711 a nave was built on
to it. Then in 1723 the chancel was destroyed, and a new one built. In
1833 this was rebuilt, and then in 1878 a new church was built, in
place of the old which was pulled down, by Street. Thus in St Mary's
church, the mother church of Southampton to-day, we have only a
lifeless modern building.

Much the same fate has befallen the churches within the walls of
Southampton. The oldest, that of St John, was pulled down in the
seventeenth century, that of Holy Rood, in the High Street, was rebuilt
about fifty years ago, so was St Laurence, while All Saints was
destroyed in the eighteenth century. The only ancient church remaining
is that of St Michael, which, though not destroyed, was ruined in 1826.
It remains, however, in part, a Norman building, with an interesting
font of the twelfth century, a lectern of the fifteenth century, and a
fine tomb with the effigy of a priest in mass vestments.

The same fate which has so brutally overtaken the churches of
Southampton has, with perhaps more excuse, fallen upon the old
religious houses. The Priory of St Denys, founded by Henry I., upon
which all these churches within the walls were in a sense dependent,
has been totally destroyed, a piece of ruined wall alone r