ROMSEY, a market town in Hampshire, is situated on the river Test or Anton, between Salisbury and Southampton. The principal public buildings are the audit-house, which is a large square building, support ed by pillars, and standing near the centre of the town: the town-hall, which is a small old building; the ab bey church and presbyterian meeting-house. The church is an interesting and spacious Gothic building, in the form of a cross, consisting of a nave, aisles, a north and south transept, a choir or chancel with aisles, three small chapels or oratories at the east end, two small semicircular chapels at the angles of the transepts, with the choir, and a lower tower rising on four lofty arches. On the outer wall of the south tran sept, is a remarkable bas-relief of our Saviour on the cross, near which is a square hole or recess in the wall, the use of which is not known. At a little distance, a finely ornamented Saxon arch connects the church and cloisters. Marks of cannon balls, said to have been fired during the civil wars, are seen on the outside of the north transept. A very particular account of this
church, by Dr. Latham, will be found in the .drehwo logia. The corporation consists of a mayor, recorder, six aldermen, and twelve burgesses. The town is sur rounded by pleasant meadows, which irrigation, by means of the rivers, has rendered very productive.
There was formerly a considerable clothing trade carried on here, but it has almost wholly declined; and the operative inhabitants are employed in some paper works and a manufactory of sacking. They carry on also some trade in beer, and there are some corn mills in the vicinity. Sir William Petty was born here in 1623.
In 1821, the population of the entire parish of Rom sey, including Romsey extra and infra, was 5128, of which the families employed in trade were 532. Sec The Beauties of England and Wales, Vol. VI. p. 224; and the .dreha-ologia, Vols. XIV. and XV.