306 ANTIQUITIES 



and transactions been forgotten from century to century, and 

 have sunk into oblivion ; nor has this happened only to the 

 vulgar, but even to men remarkable and famous in their gene- 

 ration. 1 was led into this train of thinking by finding in my 

 vouchers that Sir Adam Gurdon was an inhabitant of Sel- 

 borne, and a man of the first rank and property in the parish. 

 By Sir Adam Gurdon I would be understood to mean that 

 leading and accomplished malecontent in the Mountfort faction, 

 who distinguished himself by his daring conduct in the reign of 

 Henry III. The first that we hear of this person in my papers 

 is, that with two others he was bailiff of Alton before the six- 

 teenth of Henry III. viz. about 1231, and then not knighted. 

 Who Gurdon was, and whence he came, does not appear : yet 

 there is reason to suspect that he was originally a mere soldier 

 of fortune, who had raised himself by marrying women of 

 property. The name of Gurdon does not seem to be known 

 in the south ; but there is a name so like it in an adjoining 

 kingdom, and which belongs to two or three noble families, 

 that it is probable this remarkable person was a North 

 Briton ; and the more so, since the Christian name of Adam 

 is a distinguished one to this day among the family of the 

 Gordons. But, be this as it may, Sir Adam Gurdon has been 

 noticed by all the writers of English history for his bold dis- 

 position and disaffected spirit, in that he not only figured 

 during the successful rebellion of Leicester, but kept up the 

 war after the defeat and death of that baron, entrenching him- 

 self in the woods of Hampshire, towards the town of Farnham. 



Temple and The Temple. This manor, which is very considerable, and 

 TITHE-FREE, has on it a manor-house which bespeaks great antiquity, 

 from the thickness of the stone walls and the smallness of the windows. 

 In the middle was an hall, which formerly reached up to the roof, as may 

 plainly be seen in the chambers ; and at the N.W. end is a chapel. Now 

 as Tanner mentions no such preceptory of that order here, it was probably 

 no more than an estate belonging to the Templars. 



" I hear with pleasure that you are writing the Nat. Hist, and Antiqui- 

 ties of Worcestershire. Your work will one day, I trust, make as great a 

 figure as Plot's Hist, of Staff., which lies at my elbow. In some respects 

 you will, I am sure, excel the Dr. ; for he is often, I think, trifling and 

 credulous, and sometimes, if I mistake not, superstitious."] 



