st have
been written before this date. The capital letters are painted either red
or blue, and besides these there are eight illuminated initial letters,
seven of which occupy a space equivalent to eight manuscript lines, and
the other a space equal to nine lines. Connected with these illuminated
letters are floral borders on the left-hand side of the page, and in most
cases at the top or bottom also. The first and last pages of the book are
soiled, probably from the book for some long period of its existence
having been left lying about without covers. The present binding is of
much more recent date.

There are reasons for supposing that the book was the private property of
some abbess or nun, or, at any rate, of some one connected with the
nunnery, and not a public service book.

It is also thought that the book was written by a Franciscan friar for the
use of some one in a Benedictine house. For in the invocation of saints in
the Litany which the book contains, the names of the monastic saints are
arranged in the following order: Benedict, Francis, Anthony, Dominic
(Bernard being omitted), instead of the usual order: Anthony, Benedict,
Bernard, Dominic, Francis.

The fact that the death days added to the Kalendar in the sixteenth
century are chiefly those of the abbesses of St. Mary's nunnery,
Winchester, seems to indicate that the book somehow before that date had
passed from Romsey to the nunnery at Winchester. Of its further history
nothing is known save that at one time it belonged to a certain T. H.
Lloyd, whose name is written in it, until at last it was advertised for
sale by Quaritch in his catalogue of old books in 1900. The Dean of
Winchester happened to see this list, and called the attention of the
Vicar of Romsey to the fact that a book of such interest might, provided
the money to purchase it could be found, once more pass back into the
possession of the church, where it had been used in its early days. There
was little difficulty in collecting the money, and the book may now be
seen preserved in a glass case in the ambulatory at Romsey.

[Illustration: THE SOUTH CHOIR AISLE]

It is worth notice that in this book the Psalms are so divided that the
first 109 would be recited at Mattins in the course of a week, the others
being used at Vespers during the same time.

There are certain hymns appointed for use on Sundays, canticles from the
Old and New Testament, the Te Deum, Benedicite, and Quicunque