ir, and in this respect the parishioners of the ancient
borough owe much to Bournemouth, whose visitors, by their fees, provide
more than sufficient funds for this purpose. The wonderful purity of the
air has been a great factor in preserving the crispness of the masonry,
and in keeping the mouldings and carvings almost as sharp in profile as
when they were first cut by the mediaeval masons.

The out-of-the-way position of the Priory no doubt accounts for the
slight and fragmentary references to it in early chronicles, the only
old writer of note to mention it being Knyghton (_temp._ Richard II),
who speaks of it as "the Priory of Twynham, which is now called
Christchurch". Even Camden, many years later, merely says that
"Christchurch had a castle and church founded in the time of the
Saxons". It is mentioned in the Domesday Survey, when its value was put
at _L_8 yearly, an increase of two pounds since the days of Edward the
Confessor. The Cartulary of the Priory is in the British Museum, but it
contains no notes of architectural interest.

According to tradition the first builders began to erect a church on St.
Catherine's Hill, but by some miraculous agency the stones were removed
every night, and deposited on the promontory between the two rivers, at
a spot which became known by the Saxon name of Tweoxneham, or Twynham.
The site for the church having been divinely revealed, the monks began
to build on the sacred spot; but even then there was no cessation of
supernatural intervention. Every day a strange workman came and toiled;
but he never took any food to sustain him, and never demanded any wages.
Once, when a rafter was too short for its allotted place, the stranger
stretched it to the required length with his hands, and this miraculous
beam is still to be seen within the church. When at last the building
was finished, and the workmen were gathered together to see the fruits
of their labour receive the episcopal consecration, the strange workman
was nowhere to be found. The monks came to the conclusion that He was
none other than Christ Himself, and the church which owed so much to His
miraculous help became known as Christchurch, or Christchurch Twynham,
although it had been officially dedicated to the Holy Trinity in the
reign of Edward the Confessor, and the title of Christchurch does not
appear to have been in general use until the twelfth century.

The early history of the foundation is very obscure. King Ae