ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 315 



to men remarkable and famous in their generation. I was led 

 into this train of thinking by finding in my vouchers that Sir Adam 

 Gurdon was an inhabitant of Selborne, and a man of the first 

 rank and property in the parish. By Sir Adam Gurdon I would 

 be understood to mean that leading and accomplished malcontent 

 in the Mountfort faction, who distinguished himself by his daring 

 conduct in the reign of Henry III. The first that we hear of this 

 person in my papers is, that with two others he was bailiff of Alton 

 before the sixteenth of Henry III., viz., about 1231, and then not 

 knighted. Who Gurdon was, and whence he came, does not 

 appear: yet there is reason to suspect that he was originally a 

 mere soldier of fortune, who had raised himself by marrying 

 women of property. The name of Gurdon does not seem to be 

 known in the south ; but there is a name so like it in an adjoining 

 kingdom, and which belongs to two or three noble families, that 

 it is probable this remarkable person was a North Briton ; and 

 the more so, since the Christian name of Adam is a distinguished 

 one to this day among the family of the Gordons. But, be this 

 as it may, Sir Adam Gurdon has been noticed by all the writers ot 

 English history for his bold disposition and disaffected spirit, in 

 that he not only figured during the successful rebellion of Leicester 

 but kept up the war after the defeat and death of that baron, 

 entrenching himself in the woods of Hampshire, towards the town 

 of Farnham. After the battle of Evesham, in which Mountfort 

 fell, in the year 1265, Gurdon might not think it safe to return to 

 his house for fear of a surprise ; but cautiously fortified himself 

 amidst the forests and woodlands with which he was so well 

 acquainted. Prince Edward, desirous of putting an end to the 

 troubles which had so long harassed the kingdom, pursued the 

 arch-rebel into his fastnesses, attacked his camp, leaped over the 

 entrenchments, and, singling out Gurdon, ran him down, wounded 

 him, and took him prisoner.* 



There is not perhaps in all history a more remarkable instance 



of command of temper, and magnanimity, than this before us : 



that a young prince, in the moment of victory, when he had the 



fell adversary of the crown and royal family at his mercy, should 



* M. Paris, p. 675, and Triveti Annale. 



