322 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



to readmit the Bishop of Winchester, and his tenants of the parish 

 and town of Farnhara, to pasture their horses, and other larger 

 cattle, " averia" in the forest of Wolmer, as had been the usage 

 from time immemorial. This writ is dated in the tenth year of 

 the reign of Edward, viz., 1282. 



All the king's writs directed to Gurdon are addressed in the 

 following manner, " Edwardus Dei gratia, &c., dilecto et fideli 

 suo Ade Gurdon salutem^" and again, " Custodi foreste sue de 

 Wolvemere." 



In the year 1293 a quarrel between the crews of an English 

 and a Norman ship about some trifle, brought on by degrees such 

 serious consequences, that in 1293 a war broke out between the 

 two nations. The French king, Philip the Hardy, gained some 

 advantages in Gascony j and, not content with those, threatened 

 England with an invasion, and by a sudden attempt took and 

 burnt Dover. 



Upon this emergency, Edward sent a writ to Gurdon, ordering 

 him and four others to enlist three thousand soldiers in the 

 counties of Surrey, Dorset, and Wiltshire, able-bodied men, "tarn 

 sagittare quam balistare potentes ; " and to see that they were 

 marched by the feast of All Saints, to Winchelsea, there to be 

 embarked aboard the king's transports. 



The occasion of this armament appears also from a summons 

 to the Bishop of Winchester to Parliament, part of which I shall 

 transcribe on account of the insolent menace which is said therein 

 to have been denounced against the English language : " qualiter 

 rex Franciae de terra nostra Gascon nos fraudulenter et cautelose 



decepit, earn nobis nequiter detinendo vero pre- 



dictis fraude et nequitia non contentus, ad expugnationem regni 

 nostri classe maxima et bellatorum copiosa multitudine congregatis, 

 cum quibus regnum nostrum et regni ejusdem incolas hostiliter 

 jam invasurus, linguam Anglicam si concepte iniquitatis proposito 

 detestabili potestas correspondeat, quod Deus avertat omnino de 

 terra delere proponit" Dated 3oth September, in the year of 

 King Edward's reign xxiii.* 



* Reg. Winton, Stratford, but query Stratford ; for Stratford was not bishop 

 of Winton till 1323, near thirty years afterwards. 



