de
Redvers mentions the bridge of Eggheite. Among the Corporation records
are three indulgences remitting forty days of penance granted at
Donuhefd by Simon, Archbishop of Canterbury, July 1331, to all who
contributed to the building or repair of the bridge of Christchurch de
Twyneham; by Gervase, Bishop of Bangor, in 1367; and by Geoffrey,
Archbishop of Damascus, 6th December, 1373. These indulgences are
interesting as showing the importance attached to keeping the town's
bridges in good repair.

[Illustration: CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY FROM WICK FERRY

This is one of the finest churches of non-Cathedral rank in the country,
both with regard to size and its value to students of architecture. It
is larger than many a Cathedral.]

On 28th January, 1855, Sir Edmund Lyons, afterwards "Lord Lyons of
Christchurch", received a public welcome in the town, on his return from
his brilliant action before Sebastopol. At Mudeford, near by, lived
William Steward Rose, to whom Sir Walter Scott paid occasional visits.
Scott is said to have corrected the proofs of "Marmion" while at
Mudeford, where, in 1816, Coleridge was staying.

The town once had a leper hospital in Barrack Street, dedicated to St.
Mary Magdalen, but all traces of it have disappeared.

The views around the town, especially perhaps that from the top of the
church tower, are very extensive, from the New Forest on the east to the
hills of Purbeck and Swanage on the west, while the view seawards
includes the sweeping curve of Christchurch Bay, the English Channel,
and the Isle of Wight. The conspicuous eminence seen on the west of the
river is St. Catherine's Hill, where the monks first began to build
their Priory, and on it some traces of a small chapel have been found.
Hengistbury Head is a wild and deserted spot, with remains of an ancient
fosse cut between the Stour and the sea, possibly for defensive
purposes, as there is a rampart on each side of the entrenchment, to
which there are three entrances.

At the end of the long High Street stands the Priory church, with
examples to show of each definite period of our national ecclesiastical
architecture, from an early Norman crypt to Renaissance chantries. The
extreme length of the church is 311 feet, it being in this respect of
greater length than the cathedrals of Rochester, Oxford, Bristol,
Exeter, Carlisle, Ripon, and Southwell.

So vast a building naturally costs a large sum of money every year to
keep in repa