ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 317 



In the year 1262 he petitioned the prior of Selborne in his own 

 name, and that of his wife Constantia only, for leave to build him 

 an oratory in his manor-house, " in curia sua." Licenses of this 

 sort were frequently obtained by men of fortune and rank from 

 the bishop of the diocese, the archbishop, and sometimes, as I 

 have seen instances, from the Pope ; not only for convenience' 

 sake, and on account of distance, and the badness of the roads, 

 but as a matter of state and distinction. Why the owner should 

 apply to the prior, in preference to the bishop of the diocese, and 

 how the former became competent to such a grant, I cannot say ; 

 but that the priors of Selborne did take that privilege is plain, 

 because some years afterwards, in 1280, Prior Richard granted to 

 Henry Waterford and his wife Nicholaa, a licence to build an 

 oratory in their court-house, " curia sua de Waterford," in which 

 they might celebrate divine service, saving the rights of the 

 mother church of Basynges. Yet all the while the prior of Sel- 

 borne grants with such reserve and caution, as if in doubt of his 

 power, and leaves Gurdon and his lady answerable in future to 

 the bishop, or his ordinary, or to the vicar for the time being, 

 in case they should infringe the rights of the mother church of 

 Selborne. 



The manor-house, called " Temple," is at present a single 

 building, running in length from south to north, and has been 

 occupied as a common farmhouse from time immemorial. The 

 south end is modern, and consists of a brewhouse, and then a 

 kitchen. The middle part is a hall twenty-seven feet in length, 

 and nineteen feet in breadth ; and has been formerly open to 

 the top, but there is now a floor above it, and also a chimney in 

 the western wall. The roofing consists of strong massive rafter- 

 work ornamented with carved roses. I have often looked for the 

 lamb and flag, the arms of the knights templars, without success ; 

 but in one corner found a fox with a goose on his back, so 

 coarsely executed, that it required some attention to make out 

 the device. 



Beyond the hall to the north is a small parlour with a vast 

 heavy stone chimney-piece, and at the end of all the chapel or 

 oratory, whose massive thick walls and narrow windows at once 



