The town, though pleasant enough in itself, has but one real attraction for the visitor and, judging by the crowds of holiday-makers brought in every day by motor, tram and train from the huge pleasure town on the west, the study of ecclesiastical architecture must be gaining favour with the British public.  Or is it that the uncompromising modernity of Bournemouth, without even the recollection of a Hanoverian princess to give it antiquity, drives its visitors in such swarms to the one-time Priory, and now longest parish church in England.

The old Saxon minster, after passing through many vicissitudes (including a particularly humiliating one at the hands of William Rufus, whose creature, Flambard, made slaves of its clergy and ran the church as a miracle show!), became in the middle of the twelfth century an Augustinian priory and the choir of the new building was finished just before 1300.  At the crossing of nave and transepts the usual low and heavy Norman tower had been built with the usual result—­it collapsed and brought some of the choir down with it.  This was again rebuilt during the fifteenth century, which period also saw the rise of the western tower that graces every distant view of the town.  The transepts have beneath them Norman crypts, though the structure immediately above is of varying date, with a good deal of original work remaining, including an apsidal chapel.  The Lady Chapel was built in the fifteenth century; over it is a room known as “St. Michael’s Loft.”  This served for years as Christchurch grammar school.

[Illustration:  NORMAN TURRET, CHRISTCHURCH.]

Every one will admire the beautiful rood screen, well and carefully restored in the middle of the last century, and the unusual reredos which represents the Tree of Jesse and the Adoration of the Wise Men.  On the left of the altar is the Salisbury chantry and in front a stone slab to Baldwin de Redvers (1216).  There are several fine tombs in other parts of the church including that of the last Prior, who has a chapel to himself at the end of the south choir aisle.  The fine monument to Shelley at the west end of the church is as much admired for its beauty as it is criticized for its “unfitness for a position in a Christian church” (Murray).  The female figure supporting Shelley’s body represents his wife.  Mr. Cox in his Little Guide to Hampshire draws attention to the fact that the conception is “an obvious parody of a Pieta, or the Virgin supporting the Dead Christ” and therefore in the worst possible taste.  The poet had no personal connexion with Christchurch.  His son lived for some years at Boscombe Manor.

The custodian shows, when requested, a visitors’ book where, on one and the same page are the signatures of William II and Louis Raemaekers!

Comparatively few old buildings remain in the vicinity of the great church and the visitor will not need to make an exhaustive exploration of its environs, but before leaving Christchurch the fine collection of local birds brought together and mounted by a resident of the town should not be missed.