THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY &> NATURALIST. 



books appear to have nothing to say, for the reason, 

 doubtless to them sufficient, that there is now nothing 

 to be seen of it. Yet, founded as it was by royalty, 

 having two of its lady superiors canonized, and 

 achieving the unique distinction of staving off for a 

 time the fate of dissolution in which its fellow institu- 

 tions were involved in the reign of Henry 

 VIII, is it not a place deserving of passing 

 notice ? We must go back nearly a thousand 

 years for the time of its foundation, when the 

 good King Alfred sat upon the English throne. To 

 his queen Elswitha its inception was due ; she de- 

 sired to build a monastery for her own sex, with a 

 view to making it a place of retreat for herself in case 

 she should survive her royal consort. Alfred willingly 

 seconded her efforts, but neither lived to see the 

 building completed. However, the work was taken 

 up by their son, King Edward the Elder, and the 

 church of the abbey was duly consecrated by Arch- 

 bishop Plegmund, in honour of the Virgin Mary. Of 

 the character of this building, which became known 

 as the Nunna Minster, we know nothing, except that 

 it had a high tower. Elswitha outljved King Alfred 

 by some three or four years, and immediately on his 

 death she betook herself to the monastery. She be- 

 haved in so exemplary a manner whilst living in the 

 world (we are told), and devoted herself with so much 

 ardour to the exercises of a religious life after she had 

 embraced the latter, that upon her death, which 

 occurred in the year 904, her name was inserted in 

 thecalendarof English saints. Her body, however, was 

 not laid to rest in her abbey, but with that of Alfred, 

 in the New Minster (afterwards better known as 

 Hyde Abbey). The person who conferred the 

 greatest distinction upon this royal foundation was 

 Edburga, daughter of Edward the Elder and grand- 

 daughter of Elswitha. From her very infancy she 

 gave signs of her preference for a retired and devout 

 life to all the pomp and pleasures of the world. 

 Being permitted by her father to follow her pious 

 calling in this abbey, she become (we are told) a 

 model of every Christian virtue, particularly of 

 humility, insomuch that it was her custom to rise 

 privately from her bed during the night in order to 

 p2rform the most menial offices of the house, and par- 

 ticularly to wash the clothes of the other nuns, who 

 for a long time were unable to discover by what 

 means this was effected. She was afterwards chosen 

 abbess of her monastery, in which office she continued 

 till her death in 960. Her body was interred in the 

 church of her abbey, though a portion of it was after- 

 wards translated to Pershore, and she herself was 

 honoured as a saint, and as the second patroness of 

 the convent. For the better support of the abbey, 

 which does not appear to have been originally well 

 endowed, King Edmund, brother of Edburga, settled 

 upon it a toll to be collected of all merchandise 

 passing by water under the city bridge or by land 

 under the east gate. This toll was still enforced in 

 the i4th century, as we may find by the charter of 



Edward III for the St. Giles's Fair, recently 

 edited by Dean Kitchin. In 992, when Romsey 

 Abbey was exposed to the fury of the Danes, 

 under Sweyn, the inhabitants fled to Winchester 

 and sought shelter at the Nunnaminster. Here also 

 Matilda, daughter of St. Margaret, queen of Scotland, 

 was educated and here put on the religious veil, 

 though without making the usual solemn vows, when 

 at length she was reluctantly forced by her father 

 Malcolm to give her hand in marriage to Henry I. 

 During the war between Stephen and the Empress 

 Matilda, the abbey was entirely destroyed by the fire 

 from Wolvesey Castle. It was, however, rebuilt. At 

 the Dissolution of monasteries in 1536, it was in- 

 cluded amongst those which were to be suppressed, 

 for its income was only ^179 73. ad., the decree being 

 against all those having less than .200 a year. But 

 its abbess at this time, Lady Elizabeth Shelley, seems 

 to have had considerable influence at Court, for she 

 was enabled to obtain a respite of her convent's fate 

 with the sacrifice of two manors in Wiltshire, and a 

 royal charter founding it anew was granted on Aug. 

 27 of that year. But it was not for long, and the nuns 

 were obliged to yield to their fate and give up their 

 convent and possessions in 1540, four years after 

 obtaining their charter. At that time its inmates were 

 an abbess and 21 nuns. Passing into secular hands the 

 building followed the fate of others, and by the be- 

 ginning of the i6th century much of it was pulled 

 down, and the materials used in building the present 

 house ; though Camden says in his " Britannia "that 

 the remains of this venerable fabric testified 

 to its extent and magnificence. By the following 

 century nothing was left of it but its 

 name and a heap of stones in the garden where the 

 church seems to have stood. Have these been pre- 

 served to the present day ? Any one desiring to learn 

 somewhat more about the old Abbey should turn to 

 Milner's " History of Winchester." Looking at 

 Woodward's " History of Hampshire " for any further 

 information, I was disappointed to find that the index 

 contained no reference to it. But a very in- 

 adequate index is only one of the faults of this work. 

 By dint of search a casual reference or two was found, 

 and hidden away in an appendix is a list of abbesses 

 and of the possessions of the Abbey. Its consecra- 

 tion by Plegmund is given by Woodward as taking 

 place more than half a century after the Archbishop 

 was in his grave. A correspondent of a Winchester 

 contemporary has suggested that the grounds should 

 be purchased and preserved as an open space for the 

 city. F.A.E. 



THE HAMPSHIRE INDEPENDENT, November z, 1889. 



CORHAMPTON CHURCHYARD (HANTS). 



The ancient yew tree here it is said to be a 

 thousand years old is about 22ft. round, is almost all 

 as fresh as ever, and nearly half fills, by its head, 



