ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 325 
impense et labores levantur ita quod predicto priori vel uni canoni- 
corum suorum superbiis simplici verbo credatur sine alterius honere 
probacionis ; et quod utrique predictorum virorum in unam marcam 
argenti pro cujuslibet distrincione super me facienda tenear.—Dat. 
apud Wareborn de sabati proxima ante festum St. Marci evange- 
liste, anno regni regis Edwardi tertio decimo.” * 
But the reader, perhaps, would wish to be better informed 
respecting this benefactress, of whom as yet he has heard no 
particulars. 
The Ela Longspee, therefore, above-mentioned, was a lady of 
high birth and rank, and became countess to Thomas de New- 
burgh, the sixth earl of Warwick: she was the second daughter 
of the famous Ela Longspee, Countess of Salisbury, by William 
Longspee, natural son of King Edward II., by Rosamond. 
Our lady, following the steps of her illustrious mother,f “was a 
great benefactress to the University of Oxford, to the canons of 
Oseney, the nuns of Godstow, and other religious houses in 
Oxfordshire. She died very aged, in the year 1300,f and was 
buried before the high altar in the abbey church of Oseney, at the 
head of the tomb of Henry D’Oily, under a flat marble, on which 
was inlaid her portraiture, in the habit of a vowess, engraved on a 
copper-plate.”—“ Edmondson’s History and Genealogical Account 
of the Grevilles,” p. 23. 
* Ancient deeds are often dated on a Sunday, having been executed in churches and 
church-yards for the sake of notoriety, and for the conveniency of procuring several 
witnesses to attest. 
+ Ela Longspee. Countess of Salisbury, in 1232, founded a monastery at Lacock, in the 
county of Wilts, and also another at Hendon, in the county of Somerset, in her widowhood, 
to the honour of the Blessed Virgin and St. Bernard.—CaMDEN. 
+ Thus she survived the foundation of her chantry at Selborne fifteen years. About 
this lady and her mother consult Dugdale’s **‘ Baronage,’’ 1. 72, 175, 177; Dugdale’s 
“‘ Warwickshire,”’ i. 383; Leland’s ‘*Itin.’’ ii. 45. 
