It continues still, as it was in old times, to be the scene of recreation for the youths and children of the neighbourhood; and impresses an idea on the mind that this village, even in Saxon times, could not be the most abject of places, when the inhabitants thought proper to assign so spacious a spot for the sports and amusements of its young people.1

As soon as the prior became possessed of this piece of ground, he procured a charter for a market from King Henry III., and began to erect houses and stalls, "seldas,' around it. From this period Selborne became a market town, but how long it enjoyed that privilege does not

1 For more circumstances respecting the Plestor, see Letter II. to Mr. Pennant.-G. W.

2 Bishop Tanner, in his Notitia Monastica, has made a mistake respecting the market and fair at Selborne; for, in his references to Dodsworth, cart. 54 Hen. III. m. 3. he says, "De mercatu, et feria de Seleburn." But this reference is wrong; for, instead of Seleburn, it proves that the place there meant was Lekeborne or Legeborn, in the county of Lincoln. This error was copied from the index of the Cat. MSS. Angl. It does not appear that there ever was a chartered fair at Selbone. For several particulars respecting the present fair at Selborne see Letter XXVI. of these Antiquities.-G. W.

appear.

At the same time Gurdon reserved to himself and his heirs a way through the said Plestor to a tenement and some crofts at the upper end, abutting on the south corner of the churchyard. This was, in old days, the manorial house of the street manor, though now a poor cottage; and is known at present by the modern name of Elliot's. Sir Adam also did, for the health of his own soul, and that of his wife Constantia, their predecessors and successors, grant to the prior and canons quiet possession of all the tenements and gardens, "curtillagia," which they had built and laid out on the lands in Selborne, on which he and his vassals, "homines," had undoubted right of common; and moreover did grant to the convent the full privilege of that right of common; and empowered the religious to build tenements and make gardens along the king's highway in the village of Selborne.

From circumstances put together, it appears that the above were the first grants obtained by the Priory in the village of Selborne, after it had subsisted about thirty-nine years: moreover they explain the nature of the mixed manor still remaining in and about the village, where one field or tenement shall belong to Magdalen College in the university of Oxford, and the next to Norton Powlet, Esq., of Rotherfield House; and so down the whole street. The case was, that the whole was once the property of Gurdon, till he made his grants to the convent; since which some belongs to the successors of Gurdon in the manor, and some to the college; and this is the occasion of the strange jumble of property. It is remarkable that the tenement and crofts which Sir Adam reserved at the time of granting the Plestor should still remain a part of the Gurdon manor, though so desirable an addition to the vicarage that is not as yet possessed of one inch of glebe at home: but of late, viz. in January, 1785, Magdalen College purchased that little estate, which is lifeholding, in reversion, for the generous purpose of bestowing it and its lands, being twelve acres (three of which abut on the churchyard and vicarage garden) as an improvement hereafter to the living, and an eligible advantage to future incumbents.

The year after Gurdon had bestowed the Plestor on the Priory, viz. in 1272, Henry III. King of England died, and 'was succeeded by his son Edward. This magnanimous prince continued his regard for Sir Adam, whom he esteemed as a brave man, and made him warden, "custos," of the forest of Wolmer. Though little emolument might hang to this appointment, yet are there reasons why it might be

1 Since the letters respecting Wolmer Forest and Ayles Holt, from pp. 17 to 33, were printed, the author has been favoured with the following extracts:

In the "Act of Resumption, 1 Hen. VII." it was provided, that it be not prejudicial to "Harry at Lode, ranger of our forest of Wolmere, to him by oure letters patents before tyme gevyn."-Rolls of Parl. vol. vi. p. 370.

In the 11 Hen. VII. 1495.-" Warlham [Ward-le-ham] and the office of forest [forester] of Wolmere" were held by Edmund, Duke of Suffolk.-Rolls, ib. 474.

Act of general pardon, 14 Hen. VIII. 1523, not to extend to "Rich. Bp. of Wynton [Bishop Fox] for any seizure or forfeiture of liberties, &c. within the forest of Wolmer, Alysholt, and Newe Forest; nor to any person for waste, &c. within the manor of Wardlam, or parish of Wardlam [Ward-le-ham ;] nor to abusing, &c. of any office or fee, within the said forests of Wolmer or Alysholt, or the said park of Wardlam."-County Suth't.- -Rolls prefixed to first Vol. of Journals of the Lords, p. xciii. b.

To these may be added some other particulars, taken from a book lately published, entitled "An Account of all the Manors, Messuages, Lands, &c. in the different Counties of England and Wales, held by Lease from the Crown; as contained in the Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the State and Condition of the Royal Forests," &c.-London, 1787.

"Southampton."

P. 64. "A fee-farm rent of £31 2s. 11d. out of the manors of East and West Wardleham; and also the office of lieutenant or keeper of the forest or chase of Aliceholt and Wolmer, with all offices, fees, commodities, and privileges thereto belonging.

"Names of lessees, William, Earl of Dartmouth and others (in trust). "Date of the last lease, March 23, 1780; granted for such term as would fill up the subsisting term to thirty-one years.

"Expiration March 23, 1811."

"Appendix, No. III."

"Southampton."

"Hundreds-Selborne and Finchdeane."

"Honours and manors," &c.

"Aliceholt Forest, three parks there.

highly acceptable; and, in a few reigns after, it was given to princes of the blood.1 In old days gentry resided more at home on their estates, and, having fewer resources of elegant in-door amusement, spent most of their leisure hours in the field and the pleasures of the chase. A large domain, therefore, at a little more than a mile distance, and well-stocked with game, must have been a very eligible acquisition, affording him influence as well as entertainment; and especially as the manorial house of Temple, by its exalted situation, could command a view of near two-thirds of the forest.

That Gurdon, who had lived some years the life of an outlaw, and, at the head of an army of insurgents, was for a considerable time in high rebellion against his sovereign, should have been guilty of some outrages, and should have committed some depredations, is by no means matter of wonder. Accordingly we find a distringas against him, ordering him to restore to the Bishop of Winchester some of the temporalities of that see, which he had taken by violence and detained, viz., some lands in Hocheleye, and a mill. By a breve, or writ, from the king, he is also enjoined to readmit the Bishop of Winchester, and his tenants of the parish and town of Farnham, to pasture their horses, and other larger cattle, "averia," in the Forest of Wolmer, as had been the usage from time immemorial. This writ is dated in the tenth year of the reign of Edward, viz., 1282.

All the king's writs directed to Gurdon are addressed in the following manner: "Edwardus, Dei gratia, &c. dilecto et fideli suo Ade Gurdon salutem ;" and again, " Custodi foreste sue de Wolvemere."3

In the year 1293 a quarrel between the crews of an

"Bensted and Kingsley; a petition of the parishioners concerning the three parks in Aliceholt Forest."

William, first Earl of Dartmouth, and paternal grandfather to the present Lord Stawel, was a lessee of the forests of Aliceholt and Wolmer, before Brigadier-General Emanuel Scroope Howe.-G. W.

1 See Letter II. of these Antiquities.-G. W.

2 Hocheleye, now spelt Hawkley, is in the hundred of Selborne, and has a mill at this day.-G. W.

3 See

P. 27, note 4.-Ed.

English and a Norman ship, about some trifle, brought on by degrees such serious consequences, that in 1295 a war broke out between the two nations. The French king, Philip the Hardy, gained some advantages in Gascony; and, not content with those, threatened England with an invasion, and, by a sudden attempt, took and burnt Dover.

Upon this emergency Edward sent a writ to Gurdon, ordering him and four others to enlist three thousand soldiers in the counties of Surrey, Dorset, and Wiltshire, ablebodied men, "tam saggitare quam balistare potentes: " and to see that they were marched, by the feast of All Saints, to Winchelsea, there to be embarked aboard the king's transports.

The occasion of this armament appears also from a summons to the Bishop of Winchester to parliament, part of which I shall transcribe on account of the insolent menace which is said therein to have been denounced against the English language:-"qualiter rex Francia de terra nostra Gascon nos fraudulenter et cautelose decepit, eam nobis nequiter detinendo. . . vero predictis fraude et nequitia non contentus, ad expugnationem regni nostri classe maxima et bellatorum copiosa multitudine congregatis, cum quibus regnum nostrum et regni ejusdem incolas hostiliter jam invasurus, linguam Anglicam, si concepte iniquitatis proposito detestabili potestas correspondeat, quod Deus avertat, omnino de terra delere proponit." Dated 30th September, in the year of King Edward's reign xxiii.'

The above are the last traces that I can discover of Gurdon's appearing and acting in public. The first notice that my evidences give of him is, that, in 1232, being the sixteenth of Henry III., he was the king's bailiff, with others, for the town of Alton. Now, from 1232 to 1295 is a space of sixty-three years; a long period for one man to be employed in active life! Should any one doubt whether all these particulars can relate to one and the same person, I should wish him to attend to the following reasons why

1 Reg. Wynton, Stratford, but query Stratford; for Stratford was not Bishop of Winton till 1323, near thirty years afterwards.-G. W.