of the original
church. How this came to be preserved, and how it came to occupy a
position amidst the latest work in the church, is not recorded. The Lady
Chapel is very beautiful Perpendicular work; it had its own altar and
reredos under the east window. The reredos is much mutilated, but
besides the part that is still attached to the wall, there are many
loose fragments now set up on the altar. This is a slab of Purbeck
stone, 11 ft. in length and 3 ft. 10 ins in breadth. On the north and
south sides of the altar are the tombs of Thomas, Lord West, and Lady
Alice West, his mother. These tombs are of Purbeck marble and of a form
by no means uncommon in the churches of Wessex. The ten shafts
supporting the canopy of the tomb on the north still remain; from the
other tomb such shafts as it had have disappeared. Thomas, Lord West,
died in 1406, his mother in 1395: these dates fix within reasonable
limits the date of the building of the Lady Chapel. Thomas West, in his
will, directs that his body should be buried in the "_New_ Chapel of Our
Lady in the Mynster of Christchurch." It is noteworthy to remark that
the original arcading is cut away to make room for this monument, so
that the chapel had been finished before he died. Both Sir Thomas West
and his mother were benefactors to the church. Besides other bequests of
money towards the building fund and for perpetual masses, each of them
gave about L18 for the singing of 4500 masses within six months of the
day of their deaths. On the south side of the chapel is the original
doorway leading into the canons' burial-ground; a corresponding door is
to be seen on the north side. The splays of the arches of the windows
are elaborately ornamented with panelling. The arcading under the
window, a series of ogee arches, is worthy of notice. The tattered
colours of the "Loyal Christchurch Volunteers," one of the earliest
regiments of volunteers, which was enrolled in 1793, hang at the
entrance to the Lady Chapel. The vaulting is of the same character as
that of the choir, with curious pendants in the form of church lanterns.

[Illustration: THE MIRACULOUS BEAM.]

[Illustration: THE TOMB OF THOMAS, LORD WEST.]

[Illustration: THE LADY CHAPEL.]

[Illustration: ST MICHAEL'S LOFT.]

#St Michael's Loft# is reached by long flights of steps running up the
turrets described in the last chapter. It is a plain, low room with a
low-pitched tie-beam roof of oak. It was once a chapel, as t