n twenty-three
Gothic trefoils, are as many carved faces. They are evidently portraits
very tolerably executed, and on this account curious and interesting. One
of them is crowned, and all of them have their heads covered with flowing
hair, or wigs, or caps; the last on the right hand is a head thrusting out
its tongue, perhaps a sportive essay of the carver." When the restoration
was begun about the middle of the nineteenth century, this screen was
removed, treated as useless lumber, and stowed away in the triforium,
which at that time, as already described, was separated from the church by
a wall. Here in 1880 the vicar, the Rev. E. L. Berthon, found, to use his
own words, "the ancient oak-carvings of heads in trefoils with a curious
cresting above." He resolved to utilize it in the construction of the
chancel screen. The lower part is modern, designed to match the old work.
The seats in the choir were designed by Mr. Berthon, and the heads
intended to represent various kings, saints, and abbesses, were carved in
the town. The pulpit was erected in 1891, the figures being carved by
Harry Hems of Exeter, who has done so much wood and stone carving in
restored reredoses and screens in various churches.

The #Organ# stands under the westernmost arch of the choir on the north
side.

[Illustration: TOMB AND EFFIGY IN THE SOUTH TRANSEPT]

The mediaeval #Monuments# remaining at Romsey are not numerous, being for
the most part the graves and coffins of former abbesses, many of them
incapable of identification. The Old English chronicle states that Eadward
the Elder, his son AElfred, his daughter Eadburh, St. AEthelflaed, Eadmund,
brother of King AEthelred, were all buried here, but their graves are
unknown, and not a stone remains to commemorate them. There is one very
beautiful effigy of Purbeck marble now placed under an ogee canopy at the
south-east corner of the transept, but whom it represents we cannot say.
The slab is about 7 ft. long. A small piece at the left-hand upper corner
is broken off: were this replaced the stone would be 2 ft. 3 in. wide at
the head, tapering downwards to about 1 ft. 3 in. at the foot. The
recumbent figure is itself about 6 ft. in length. The lady is dressed in a
tight-sleeved loose robe, which falls in folds to the feet, but is girt
about the waist with band and buckle; the right hand holds a fold of the
robe; the left hand, lying on the bosom, is in the position seen in so
many of the fig