s vaulted like the choir, from which it is an eastern
extension, and has a superb reredos dating from the time of Henry VI.
The Chapel contains several tombs and monuments, including that of
Thomas, Lord West, who bequeathed six thousand marks to maintain a
chantry of six priests.

Beneath the tower is the marble monument by Weekes to the memory of the
poet Shelley, who was drowned by the capsizing of a boat in the Gulf of
Spezzia in 1822. Below the name "Percy Bysshe Shelley" are the following
lines from his "Adonais":--

"He has outsoared the shadow of our night;
Envy and calumny and hate and pain,
And that unrest which men miscall delight,
Can touch him not and torture not again:
From the contagion of the world's slow stain
He is secure, and now can never mourn
A heart grown cold, a head grown grey in vain;
Nor, when the spirits' self has ceased to burn,
With sparkless ashes load an unlamented urn".

At the Reformation the domestic buildings were pulled down, and the old
Priory church became the parish church of Christchurch. The last Prior
was John Draper II, vicar of Puddletown, Dorset, and titular Bishop of
Neapolis. He surrendered the Priory on 28th November, 1539, when he
received a pension of _L_133, 6_s._ 8_d._; and was allowed to retain
Somerford Grange during his life. The original document reads:--

"To John Draper, Bishop of Neapolytan, late prior there
(Christchurch), _L_133, 6_s._ 8_d._; also the manor of Somerford,
called the Prior's lodging, parcel of the manor of Somerford, being
part of the said late monastery, for term of life of the said
bishop without anything yielding or paying thereof."

The other inmates of the monastery also received pensions. The debts
owed by the brethren at the Dissolution include such items as:--

"To John Mille, Recorder of Southampton, for wine and ale had of
him, _L_24, 2_s._ 8_d._ William Hawland, of Poole, merchant, for
wine, fish, and beer had of him, _L_8, 13_s._ 2_d._ Guillelmus,
tailor, of Christchurch, as appeareth by his bill, 26_s._ Roger
Thomas, of Southampton, for a pair of organs, _L_4."

Heron Court was the Prior's country house, while Somerford and St.
Austin's, near Lymington, were granges and lodges belonging to the
foundation.

On leaving the Priory a visit should be paid to the ruins of the old
Norman Castle, perched on the top of a hig