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NOTICES OF THE PRIORY OF SOUTHWICK, fixes the date of this charter in 1133, because among the names of the witnesses occur those of Nigel, bishop elect of Ely, and Geoffrey, elect of Durham, who, according to Matthew of Westminster, and other chroniclers, were appointed to those sees in that year. This was the year in which Henry took his departure from England, never to return alive. It is remark- able also as being the year in which the bishopric of Carlisle was founded, and Athelwulph, prior of St. Oswald's, conse- crated the first bishop". It is important to be able to fix thus accurately the date of the foundation of the priory, because it enables us to settle with a greater degree of precision the date of the building of the very interesting Norman church, which still exists within the castle of Portchester, and retains much of its original character. The plan was originally cruciform, with the tower at the intersection, but the south arm of the cross has been destroyed. The west front is remarkably good, and affords a very interesting and valuable example, as very few Norman fronts have been preserved entire and unaltered. In the inte- rior, along the walls on both sides of the chancel, and on the remaining transept, is a stone bench-table, and over it a range of rude canopies, or an arcade, evidently unfinished. The Font, Portchester.

• • There is a slight discrepancy between "bishop," in tlie latter, "elect" of Ely.

the charter as given in Ellis and liandi- '^ In the chronicle of John Brompton, nel's edition of Diigdale's Monasticon, and the first bishop of Carlisle is said to have that in the ))ossession of Mr. Thistle- been Arnulph, abbot of St. Botolph's. thwayte; in the Cornier Nigel is styled