d years old, it is
remarkable that they should be in such preservation. The chalice and paten
are of pewter,[4] the latter much corroded: a great portion of the linen
alb remains; the maniple is of brown velvet fringed at the extremity, and
lined with silk; portions of the stockings remain, and also all the parts
of the boots, though from the decay of the sewing, they have fallen in
pieces. About 2 ft. from the end of the coffin is a square hole through
the bottom, with channels worked in the stone leading to it. This was
probably a provision to carry off the fluids, which would be caused by the
decomposition of the body. On the sides of the coffin could be traced the
marks of the corpse when it was first deposited, from which it would
appear that the deceased had been stout as well as short of stature. It is
to be regretted that the inscription being stripped from the verge of the
slab, we have no means of knowing whose remains these are. The Purbeck
marble slab has never been disturbed, being found strongly secured by
mortar to the top of the stone coffin. It is curious that the covering
should be so gigantic, and the coffin under it so small: judging by the
size of the slab and the beauty of the large floriated cross, it might
have been supposed to cover some dignified ecclesiastic. This is clearly
not the case.... In the absence of any known date, judging from the
impress on the marble, and the shape of the stone coffin, I should assign
both to the early part of the fourteenth century."

[4] It was common to bury not the real silver vessels used by the dead
priest, but imitations in baser metal.

There are sundry mural tablets of modern date, and near the west end an
altar tomb, with the recumbent effigy by Westmacott of Sir William Petty,
the founder of the Lansdowne family, who was born at Romsey in 1623, and
was buried within the abbey, and on the north side a tomb on which a child
lies on its side as if asleep, with its limbs carelessly stretched out.

[Illustration: THE NORTH AISLE OF THE NAVE]

There is no painted glass of mediaeval date to be seen in the church; such
as we find is modern. The three lancets at the west are the work of
Messrs. Clayton and Bell, and were inserted as a memorial to Lord
Palmerston, who died in 1865. The glass in the windows in the east wall of
the ambulatory commemorating C. B. Footner, who died in 1889, was painted
by the same firm. The two east windows, painted by Messrs. Powe