3i 8 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



bespeak great antiquity. This room is only sixteen feet by sixteen 

 feet eight inches ; and full seventeen feet nine inches in height. 

 The ceiling is formed of vast joists, placed only five or six inches 

 apart. Modern delicacy would not much approve of such a place 

 of worship ; for it has at present much more the appearance of 

 a dungeon than of a room fit for the reception of people of con- 

 dition. The field on which this oratory abuts is called Chapel- 

 field. The situation of this house is very particular, for it stands 

 upon the immediate verge of a steep abrupt hill. 



Not many years since this place was used for a hop-kiln, and 

 was divided into two stories by a loft, part of which remains at 

 present, and makes it convenient for peat and turf, with which it 

 is stowed. 



LETTER X. 



THE Priory at times was much obliged to Gurdon and his family. 

 As Sir Adam began to advance in years he found his mind influenced 

 by the prevailing opinion of the reasonableness and efficacy of 

 prayers for the dead ; and therefore, in conjunction with his wife 

 Constantia, in the year 1271, granted to the prior and convent 

 of Selborne all his right and claim to a certain place, placea, called 

 "La Playstow," in the village aforesaid, " in liberam, pur am, et 

 perpetuam elemosinam" This Pleystow,* loais ludorum, or play- 

 place, is a level area near the church of about forty-four yards by 

 thirty-six, and is known now by the name of the Plestor.f 



It continues still, as it was in old times, to be the scene of 

 recreation for the youths and children of the neighbourhood ; and 

 impresses an idea on the mind that this village, even in Saxon 

 times, could not be the most abject of places, when the inhabitants 



* In Saxon Plegestow, or Plegstow. 



f At this juncture probably the vast oak was planted by the prior, as an 

 ornament to his new acquired market-place. According to this supposition 

 the oak was aged 432 years when blown down. 



