that which they themselves
feel with regard to those who pulled down the roof of the south transept
and cut out the columns and sub-arches of the triforium in days before
the Gothic revival set in. And the modern restorer has less excuse than
the destroyer of a hundred years ago. If, like the vandals of the
Georgian period, they had been blind to the beauties of architectural
art, they would have had no sin, yet since they profess to see,
therefore their sin will remain and their names will be held in
perpetual reproach and everlasting contempt.

The foregoing historical sketch of the building has perforce been
somewhat vague in dates, for, in the absence of documentary evidence, it
is not easy to fix from architectural considerations alone the date of
any particular piece of work within a limit of some twenty years or so.
The out-of-the-way position of the Priory of Christchurch--for no great
road ran through the town, and though it is near the sea there is no
convenient harbour near it--has brought it to pass that it is scarcely
mentioned in any mediaeval chronicles. Its own fabric rolls and annals
have been lost. Here and there, however, the date of a will or the
inscription on a monument has enabled a more definite date to be arrived
at. The dates also of the dedications of some of the many altars are
known--viz. that of the Holy Saviour, used by the canons as their high
altar, and that of St Stephen, dedicated by the Bishop of Ross in 1199;
that of the altar of the Holy Trinity, which stood in the nave, and was
the high altar of the parish; and those of the altars of SS. Peter and
Paul, SS. Augustine and Gregory and all the Prophets, dedicated by
Walter, Bishop of Whitherne, on November 7, 1214; that of the altar of
St John the Baptist and St Edmund, dedicated on December 7, 1214, by the
same bishop; and that of the altar of SS. Michael and Martin, dedicated
by the Bishop of the Isles in 1221.

CHAPTER II

THE EXTERIOR

The exterior of the church of Christchurch Priory may be well seen from
several points of view. The churchyard lies to the north of the
building, extending beyond it both to the east and west. On the south
side, where all the domestic buildings of the Priory once stood, there
is a modern house and private grounds. All that belongs to the church is
a path running under the walls as far as the east corner of the
transept, where a garden door stops farther progress. Several glimpses
of th