This opens upon the Round Church of 1185 (fifty-eight feet in diameter),
built in recollection of the Round Church of the Holy Sepulcher, one of
the only four remaining round churches in England; the others being at
Cambridge, Northampton, and Maplestead in Essex. Hence, between graceful
groups of Purbeck marble columns, we look into the later church of 1240;
these two churches, built only at a distance of fifty-five years from each
other, forming one of the most interesting examples we possess of the
transition from Norman to Early English architecture. The Round Church is
surrounded by an arcade of narrow Early English arches, separated by a
series of heads, which are chiefly restorations. On the pavement lie two
groups of restored effigies of "associates" of the Temple (not Knights
Templars), carved in freestone, being probably the "eight images of armed
knights" mentioned by Stow in 1598....

Against the wall, behind the Marshalls, is the effigy of Robert Ros,
Governor of Carlisle in the reign of John. He was one of the great Magna
Charta barons, and married the daughter of a king of Scotland, but he was
not a Templar, for he wears flowing hair, which is forbidden by the rites
of the Order; at the close of his life, however, he took the Templars'
habit as an associate, and was buried here in 1227. On the opposite side
is a Purbeck marble sarcophagus, said to be that of Queen Eleanor of
Aquitaine, but her effigy is at Fontevrault, where the monastic annals
prove that she took the veil after the murder of Prince Arthur. Henry II.
left five hundred marks by his will for his burial in the Temple Church,
but was also buried at Fontevrault. Gough considers that the tomb here may
be that of William Plantagenet, fifth son of Henry III., who died in
infancy, and (according to Weaver) was buried in the Temple in 1256.

A staircase in the walls leads to the triforium of the Round Church, which
is now filled with the tombs, foolishly removed from the chancel beneath.