of one of which is carved with a number
of heads said to represent the twelve apostles, should be noticed; the
vaulting ribs are also interesting, especially the joggled ribs seen
over the window. A stone altar stood in one of these chantries until
1780. These chapels are sadly disfigured by a mean staircase which leads
into the transept gallery; it is devoutly to be hoped that before long
this may be removed, and the exquisite beauty of the chapels seen
without any inharmonious and irritating feature such as this staircase
undoubtedly is. Below the transept is an Early Norman crypt; it is
thought by some, from the rudeness of the work, that it may be of
earlier date than the existing church, and that it belonged to the
original church which Flambard destroyed to make room for his more
splendid edifice. In it were discovered a number of human bones, which
were reinterred in the churchyard. It has a plain barrel roof, divided
by broad flat arches rising from pilasters.

[Illustration: THE NORTH AISLE OF NAVE.]

It has often been debated whether or not the church ever possessed a
central tower. There is no documentary evidence bearing on the question.
It may be said that if a tower existed and fell, or was pulled down for
any reason, some record would have remained; but the records connected
with the building are fragmentary, and it by no means follows that the
absence of record proves the non-existence of such a tower. In the case
of Wimborne Minster the churchwarden's accounts contain no record of the
building or of the fall of the spire, yet we know from outside testimony
that such a spire did fall in 1600, and that a representation of it
occurs on a seal. So here at Christchurch a seal is in existence on
which the church is represented with a central tower of two storeys, the
lower plain, the upper lighted by two round-headed windows and capped by
a low pyramidal spire or roof with a tall cross on the summit. This is
exactly what one would expect to find: a central tower is almost always
found in Norman churches, especially collegiate churches; and the
pyramidal roof was almost certainly the usual form in which these early
towers were finished. The battlemented parapets which we so often meet
with in Norman towers are in all cases more recent additions. Moreover,
the massive arches and piers at the corners indicate that a tower was
contemplated, even if it were never built. In the east gable of the nave
as it at pres