350 THE ANTIQUITIES 



year by year, in court as not ploughed. Why this injunc- 

 tion is still kept up respecting this spot, which is sur- 

 rounded on all sides by arable land, may be a question not 

 easily solved, since the usage has long survived the know- 

 ledge of the intention thereof. We can only suppose that 

 as the prior, besides thurset and pillory, had also furcas, a 

 power of life and death, that he might have reserved this 

 little eminence as the place of execution for delinquents. 

 And there is the more reason to suppose so, since a spot 

 just by is called Gaily [Gallows] hill. 



The lower part of the village next the Grange, in which 

 is a pond and a stream, is well known by the name of 

 Gracious-street, an appellation not at all understood. 

 There is a lake in Surrey, near Chobham, called also 

 Gracious-pond : and another, if we mistake not, near 

 Hedleigh, in the county of Hants. This strange denomi- 

 nation we do not at all comprehend, and conclude that it 

 may be a corruption from some Saxon word, itself perhaps 

 forgotten. 



It has been observed already, that Bishop Tanner 

 was mistaken when he refers to an evidence of Dodsworth, 

 " De mercatu et feria de Seleburne." Selborne never had 

 a chartered fair ; the present fair was set up since the 

 year 1681, by a set of jovial fellows, who had found in an 

 old almanack that there had been a fair here in former 

 days on the first of August ; and were desirous to revive 

 so joyous a festival. Against this innovation the vicar set 

 his face, and persisted in crying it down, as the probable 

 occasion of much intemperance. However the fair pre- 

 vailed ; but was altered to the twenty-ninth of May, 

 because the former day often interfered with wheat-harvest. 

 On that day it still continues to be held, and is become an 

 useful mart for cows and calves. Most of the lower 

 house-keepers brew beer against this holiday, which is 

 dutied by the exciseman ; and their becoming victuallers 

 for the day without a license is overlooked. 



Monasteries enjoyed all sorts of conveniences within 

 themselves. Thus at the priory, a low and moist situation, 

 there were ponds and stews for their fish : at the same 



