ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 309 
Selborne,—“ de tota mora [a moor or bog] ubi Beme oritur, usque 
ad campum vivarii, et de prato voc. Sydenmeade cum abutt: et 
de cursu aque molendini.” And also a grant in reversion ‘‘ unius 
virgate terre,” (a yard land) in Achangre at the death of Richard 
Actedene his sister’s husband, who had no child. He was to pre- 
sent a pair of gloves of one penny value to the prior and canons, 
to be given annually by the said Richard ; and to quit all claim to 
the said lands in reversion, provided the prior and canons would 
engage annually to pay to the king, through the hands of his 
bailiffs of Aulton, ten shillings at four quarterly payments, “ pro 
omnibus serviciis, consuetudinibus, exactionibus, et demandis.” 
This Jo. de Venur was aman of property at Oakhanger, and 
lived probably at the spot now called Chapel-farm. The grant 
bears date the 17th year of the reign of Henry III. (viz. 1233). 
It would be tedious to enumerate every little grant for lands or 
tenements that might be produced from my vouchers. I shall 
therefore pass over all such for the present, and conclude this 
letter with a remark that must strike every thinking person with 
some degree of wonder. No sooner had a monastic institution 
got a footing, but the neighbourhood began to be touched with a 
secret and religious awe. Every person round was desirous to 
promote so good a work; and either by sale, by grant, or by gift 
in reversion, was ambitious of appearing a benefactor. They who 
had not lands to spare gave roads to accommodate the infant 
foundation. The religious were not backward in keeping up this 
pious propensity, which they observed so readily influenced the 
breasts of men. Thus did the more opulent monasteries add 
house to house, and field to field, and by degrees manor to manor, 
till at last ‘‘there was no place left ;” but every district around 
became appropriated to the purposes of their founders, and every 
precinct was drawn into the vortex. 
