372 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
base of a pillar; both formed out of the soft freestone of this dis- 
trict. These ornaments, from their dimensions, seem to have 
belonged to massive columns; and show that the church of this 
convent was a large and costly edifice. They were found in the 
space which has aiways been supposed to have contained the 
south transept of the priory church. Sonte fragments of large 
pilasters were also found at the same time. The diameter of the 
capital was two feet three inches and an half; and of the column, 
where it had stood on the base, eighteen inches and three quarters. 
Two years ago, some labourers, digging again among the ruins 
sounded a sort of rude thick vase or urn of soft stone, containing 
about two gallons in measure, on the verge of the brook, in the very 
spot which tradition has always pointed out as having been the site 
of the convent kitchen. This clumsy utensil,* whether intended for 
holy water, or whatever purpose, we were going to procure, but 
found that the labourers had just broken it in pieces, and carried 
it out on the highways. 
The priory of Selborne had possessed in this village a grange, an 
usual appendage to manorial estates, where the fruits of their lands 
were stowed and laid up for use, at a time when men took the 
natural produce of their estates in kind. The mansion of this spot 
is still called the Grange, and is the manor-house of the convent 
possessions in this place. The author has conversed with very 
ancient people who remembered the old original Grange; but it 
has long given place to a modern farm-house. Magdalen College 
holds a court-leet and court-baront in the great wheat-barn of the 
said Grange, annually, where the president usually superintends, 
attended by the bursar and steward of the college.f 
The following uncommon presentment at the court is not un- 
worthy of notice. There is on the south side of the king’s field (a 
large common-field, so called), a considerable tumulus, or hillock, 
now covered with thorns and bushes, and known by the name of 
Kite’s Hill, which is presented, year by year, in court as not 
ploughed. Why this injunction is still kept up respecting this 
spot, which is surrounded on all sides by arable land, may be a 
question not easily solved, since the usage has long survived the 
* A judicious antiquary who saw this vase, observed, that it possibly might have been a 
standard measure between the monastery and its tenants. The priory we have mentioned 
claimed the assize of bread and beer in Selborne manor; and probably the adjustment of 
dry measures for grain, &c. 
+ The time when this court is held is the mid-week between Easter and Whitsuntide. 
t Owen Oglethorpe, president, &c., an. Edw. Sexti, primo [viz. 1547.] demised to Robert 
Arden Selborne Grange for twenty years. Rent vili.—Jndex of Leases. 
