330 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



The solicitude expressed by the donor plainly shows her piety 

 and firm persuasion of the efficacy of prayers for the dead ; for she 

 seems to have made every provision for the payment of the sum 

 stipulated within the appointed time, and to have felt much 

 anxiety lest her death, or the neglect of her executors or assigns, 

 might frustrate her intentions. " Et si contingat me in solucione 

 perdicte pecunie annis predictis in parte aut in toto deficerej quod 

 absit ; concede et obligo pro me et assignatis meis, quod Vice- 

 Comes . . . Oxon et qui pro tempore fuerint, per omnes 



terras et tenementa, et omnia bona mea mobilia et immobilia 

 ubicunque in balliva sua fuerint inventa ad solucionem predictam 

 faciendam possent nos compellere." And again " Et si con- 

 tingat dictos religiosos labores seu expensas facere circa predictam 

 pecuniam, seu circa partem dicte pecunie ; volo quod dictorum 

 religiosorum impense et labores levantur ita quod predicto priori 

 vel uni canonicorum suorum superhiis simplici verbo credatur sine 

 alterius honere probacionis ; et quod utrique predictorum virorum 

 in unam marcam argenti pro cujuslibet distrincione super me 

 facienda tenear. Dat. apud Wareborn die sabati proxima ante 

 festum St. Marci evangeliste, anno regni regis Edwardi tertio 

 decimo."* 



But the reader, perhaps, would wish to be better informed 

 respecting this benefactress, of whom as yet he has heard no 

 particulars. 



The Ela Longspee, therefore, above-mentioned, was a lady of 

 high birth and rank, and became countess to Thomas de New- 

 burgh, the sixth earl of Warwick : she was the second daughter of 

 the famous Ela Longspee, Countess of Salisbury, by William 

 Longspee, natural son of King Edward II., by Rosamond. 



Our lady, following the steps of her illustrious mother,t " was a 



* Ancient deeds are often dated on a Sunday, having been executed in 

 churches and churchyards for the sake of notoriety, and for the conveniency 

 of procuring several witnesses to attest. 



f Ela Longspee, Countess of Salisbury, in 1232, founded a monastery at 

 Lacock, in the county of Wilts, and also another at .Hendon, in the county of 

 Somerset, in her widowhood, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin and 

 St. Bernard. CAMDEN. 



