cit." Another somewhat similar chevron bears the words, "Robert tute
consule x. d. s.", but who Robert was it is impossible to say. Henry I had
a son Robert, Earl of Gloucester, who is spoken of as "Consul"; he it was
who fought for his half-sister Maud against Stephen. He would have been
alive at the time the church was built, but whether he had any part in the
erection of it we cannot say, though he seems to have been interested in
building, for the castles at Bristol and Cardiff and the tower of
Tewkesbury Abbey Church are attributed to him.

[Illustration: IN THE RINGERS' CHAMBER OF THE TOWER]

The tower of Romsey was at one time a lantern, open to the roof, but when
the bells were placed in the wooden cage on the roof, a ringing floor was
inserted below. The arcading running round the interior of the tower is
very beautiful. The ringers' chamber is a spacious room, a good idea of
the plain architectural character of which is given in the accompanying
illustration. In the west wall of the north end of the transept a
perpendicular window has been cut through a group of Norman windows,
showing how little regard mediaeval builders had for the preservation of
earlier work. Opposite to this is one of the two apsidal chantries, which
in its time has served various purposes. Originally it was a chapel or
chantry where mass was said for the repose of the soul of some private
benefactor of the Abbey; then it became the eastern apse of the parish
church of St. Lawrence; still later it was used as a school, and now
serves the purpose of a choir vestry. There are within it two piscinae and
two aumbries at different levels, indicating, no doubt, an alteration of
level in the altar itself during the period that this chantry was in use.
An elaborate monument now stands under the eastern wall.

[Illustration: THE WEST WALL OF NORTH TRANSEPT]

In Mr. Spence's "Essay on the Abbey Church of Romsey" (1851), this tomb is
described as standing in the south ambulatory. It commemorates one Robert
Brackley, who died Aug. 14, 1628.

A man that gave to the poor
Some means out of his little store
Let none therefore this fame deny him,
But rather take example by him
In spight of death in after dayes,
To purchase to himself like prayse.

The tomb, which is of imitation porphyry, takes the form of a sarcophagus,
beneath an arch the soffit of which is adorned with red and white roses.
Corinthian pillars of black ma