ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 329 



LETTER XII. 



THE ladies and daughter of Sir Adam Gurdon were not the only 

 benefactresses to the Priory of Selborne; for, in the year 1281, 

 Ela Longspee obtained masses to be performed for her soul's 

 health ; and the prior entered into an engagement that one of the 

 convent should every day say a special mass for ever for the said 

 benefactress, whether living or dead. She also engaged within 

 five years to pay to the said convent one hundred marks of silver 

 for the support of a chantry and chantry chaplain, who should 

 perform his masses daily in the parish church of Selborne.* In 

 the east end of the south aisle there are two sharp-pointed Gothic 

 niches ; one of these probably was the place under which these 

 masses were performed ; and there is the more reason to suppose 

 as much, because, till within these thirty years, this space was 

 fenced off with Gothic wooden railing, and was known by the 

 name of the south chancel, t 



preceptorii sive magisterii patronas. Vacavit dicta preceptoria seu magis- 

 terium ad preceptoriam et regimen dicti hospitalis Te preceptorem sive 

 magistrum prefecimus." 



Where preceptorium denotes a building or apartment it may probably mean 

 the master's lodgings, or at least the preceptor's apartment, whatsoever may 

 have been the office or employment of the said preceptor. 



A preceptor is mentioned in Thoresby's "Ducatus Leodiensis," or History 

 of Leeds, p. 225, and a deed witnessed by the preceptor and chaplain before 

 dates were inserted. Du Fresne's Supplement : " Preceptorise, praedia pre- 

 ceptoribus assignata." Cowel, in his " Law Dictionary," enumerates sixteen 

 preceptoriae, or preceptories, in England ; but Sudington is not among them. 

 It is remarkable that Gurtlerus, in his "Historia Templariorum, " Amstel. 

 1691, never once mentions the words preceptor or preceptorium. 



* A chantry was a chapel joined to some cathedral or parish church, and 

 endowed with annual revenues for the maintenance of one or more priests to 

 sing mass daily for the soul of the founder, and others. 



f For what is said more respecting this chantry see Letter III. of these 

 Antiquities. Mention is made of a Nicholas Langrish, capellanus de Selborne, 

 in the time of Henry VIII. Was he chantry-chaplain to Ela Longspee, whose 

 masses were probably continued to the time of the Reformation ? More will 

 be said of this person hereafter. 



