I have said that there was undoubtedly a great Saxon church here, where the Norman Abbey of Romsey now stands, and part of the foundations of this great building were discovered in 1900.  That building, founded by Edward the Elder, rebuilt by Edgar and restored by Canute, stood till the building of the present church in 1125.  The older part of this building (1125-1150) is to the east of the nave, and consists of sanctuary and transepts:  the nave was begun towards the end of the twelfth century, the church being finished in the beginning of the thirteenth.  The church is cruciform, two hundred and sixty-three feet long and one hundred and thirty-one wide; it consists of a great sanctuary with aisles ending in chapels, square without, apsidal within, wide transepts each having an eastern apsidal chapel, nave with aisles, and over the crossing a low tower which was once higher, having now a seventeenth century polygonal belfry.  To the east of the sanctuary stood two long chapels destroyed since the Suppression.  We have here, as I have said, one of the most glorious Norman buildings in the world, Norman work which at the western end passes into the most delightful Early English.  The cloister stood to the south of the nave, to the north stood of old the parish church, growing out of the north aisle as it were, built so in 1403.  This has been destroyed and the north aisle wall has been rebuilt as in 1150.

The church possesses more than one thing of great interest.  The old high-altar stone is still in existence, and is now used as the communion table.  In the south transept is a fine thirteenth century effigy of a lady, carved in purbeck.  At the end of the south aisle of the choir is a remarkable stone Crucifix that evidently belonged to the old Saxon church; about the Cross stand Our Lady, St John and the Roman soldiers, above are angels.  A later Rood is to be seen in the eastern wall of the old cloister which abutted on to the transept; this dates from the twelfth century.  In the north aisle of the choir is a very fine painting which used to stand above the high altar in Catholic times.  There we see still the Resurrection of Our Lord with two angels, above are ten saints, among them St Benedict and St Scholastica, St Gregory, St Augustine of Canterbury, St Francis and St Clare.  This fine work, which of old showed, above, Christ in Glory, is of the end of the fourteenth century.

Now when you have seen Romsey Abbey thus as it were with the head; then is the time to begin to get it by heart.  In all South England you may find no greater glory than this, nor one more entirely our very own, at least our own as we were but yesterday.  It may be that such a place as Romsey Abbey means nothing to us and can never mean anything again.  But I’ll not believe it.  For to think so is to despair of England, to realise that England of my heart has really passed away.