A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



of Sir Richard Lyster 4M was removed from an incon- 

 venient position between this and the central chancel 

 to the west end of the north aisle, where at least the 

 recumbent effigy lies in the usual direction, which it 

 did not before. The walls throughout the church 

 are still in their rugged state, so that every change in 

 the history of the fabric may be detected. Mediaeval 

 architects never intended their surfaces to be left in 

 this condition, but in the present instance it can 

 hardly be regretted. 



The chancel is 2 2 ft. 6 in. by 2 1 ft. long, and has 

 a five-light east window with late thirteenth-century 

 rear arch and fifteenth-century tracery. Its walls are 

 in substance of early twelfth-century date, and the 

 external south-east angle retains its wide jointed ashlar 

 masonry, with an engaged shaft, and a billet moulded 

 string. The north and south walls were heightened, 

 probably when the arches to the chapels were added, 

 towards the end of the thirteenth century. At the 

 east end of the south wall is a piscina, and in the 

 north wall a locker. 



The north chapel has a four-light east window with 

 renewed fifteenth-century tracery, and a three-light 

 window of the same date in the north wall towards 

 the west, its west jamb being on the line of the de- 

 stroyed north-east angle of the twelfth-century north 

 transept. This chapel is known as the mayor's or 

 corporation chapel, the mayors of Southampton having 

 formerly been sworn here. At the east end of its 

 south wall is a piscina. Of the north transept only 

 part of the masonry of the north wall remains, refaced 

 externally, but within the church the straight joint 

 where the north aisle abuts against it is visible. The 

 three-light window in this wall is of good detail 

 of the end of the fourteenth century, being set to the 

 west of the centre line of the transept, perhaps on 

 account of the small doorway to the east of it, which 

 falls just within the lines of the transept, and though 

 now of the fifteenth century with a four-centred arch 

 under a square head, probably takes the place of an 

 older doorway. It is now blocked up, and cannot be 

 seen on the inside. A thirteenth-century piscina in 

 the south-east angle of the transept is evidence of an 

 altar here. 



The south chapel has a four-light east window with 

 modern tracery like that in the north, and in its south 

 wall is the blocked arch 1 5 ft. wide, which opened to 

 the sixteenth-century chapel formerly standing at the 

 south-east angle of the church, but destroyed in the 

 last century. The south chapel is now used as a 

 vestry, and inclosed by screens made of fifteenth-cen- 

 tury woodwork brought from other parts of the church. 

 The south transept is filled by the organ, and inclosed 

 by a wooden screen on the west. The wooden stair 

 to the upper stages of the tower occupies its north- 

 east angle. The south wall is in part original, 

 and contains a three-light window like that in the 

 north transept. The tower is 1 5 ft. 6 in. square 

 within the walls, which are 4 ft. thick, and opens 

 to the chancel, transepts, and nave, with semi- 

 circular arches of a single square order, irregularly 

 planned ; none of the arches being in the centre of 

 their respective sides, or exactly opposite to each 

 other. It is built of wide-jointed ashlar, and is 

 of the plainest description on the ground stage, the 



only projecting feature, a soffit string at the springing 

 of the arches, having been cut away. The second 

 stage is plain externally, except that on the west ; 

 facing the nave is a blank arcade of three round- 

 headed arches, whose sills are carved with early looking 

 diaper patterns. It is possible that this arcade may 

 have been designed to contain the rood between 

 our Lady and St. John if so it is an interesting 

 early instance. The interior of the stage, now hidden 

 from below by the floor of the ringing chamber, has 

 triple blank arcades on each face, and was probably 

 meant to be seen from below, though as it never had 

 any windows, and was masked on all sides by the 

 roofs of chancel, nave, and transepts, traces of which are 

 still clearly to be seen, it would have been very dark, 

 unless top-lighted from the third stage. 



The third stage contains the bells, and is of later 

 date than the other two, having perhaps been rebuilt 

 in the fifteenth century, but it is now much altered 

 by later patchings, the single-light windows in each 

 face being inserted in 1877, and the tall stone spire 

 which covers it rebuilt and altered as before noted. 



The nave arcades are of four bays, wretched thin 

 pseudo-Gothic of 1828, with a flat-pitched roof of 

 the same date, and no clearstory, but the west wall 

 is in part that of the twelfth-century church, and 

 contains a fifteenth-century west doorway, and over 

 it a modern five-light tracery window of fifteenth- 

 century style. 



The north aisle has a blocked fifteenth-century 

 north doorway, with a recess for a holy water stone 

 inside the church to the east, and two late fourteenth- 

 century two-light north windows with sharply pointed 

 arched heads. The west end of the aisle, with the 

 three-light window in the west wall, dates from 1828, 

 but the three-light window at the west end of the north 

 wall may be the old west window of the aisle re-set. 



The south aisle contains towards the east a blocked 

 doorway with a four-centred arch under a square 

 head, of the fifteenth or sixteenth century, but its 

 two south and one west window are modern, probably 

 of 1828. Both aisle walls were at that time heightened 

 and the present roofs put on. 



Beyond the woodwork in the south chapel the 

 church has no ancient fittings except the lectern and the 

 font. The former is of brass of the fifteenth century, 

 with an eagle on a globe carried on a circular shaft 

 with moulded capital, annulet, and base ; the feet are 

 three lions. The font belongs to the type of which 

 the finest example is in Winchester Cathedral. It is 

 of black marble, with a bowl 3 ft. 4 in. square at the 

 top, carried on a thick central shaft, and four of less 

 diameter, set close against the central shaft, but having 

 separate bases. It is described and illustrated at 

 pp. 2456 of volume two of this history. 



In the south chapel, now the vestry, is a press with 

 an inscription, dated 1646, formerly in the north 

 chapel, also a chest of the same period, and another 

 of 1 74 1 . At the west end of the north aisle is a 

 desk with four chained books ; two volumes of Foxe's 

 Book of Martyrs and two of Annotations on the 

 books of the Old and New Testaments printed by 

 John Leggatt, 1651. 



There is no ancient glass. 



On the east jamb of the north window in the north 



464 The tomb is in an imperfect con- 

 dition, though not more so than in 1719. 

 It was erected some years after Sir 

 Richard's death by his widow, as we 



gather from what is left of the inscription 

 on the frieze ; ' et dicta Elizabeth hoc 

 in viduetate sua curavit 18 die Marcie 

 1567.' At the back of the monument, 



532 



below the canopy and over the recum- 

 bent figure, is a shield of arms with the 

 date 1567 over, and the initials R. L. 

 beneath it. 



