OF SELBORNE. 309 



ing, running in length from south to north, and has been oc- 

 cupied as a common farm house from time immemorial. The 

 south end is modern, and consists of a brew-house, and then a 

 kitchen. The middle part is an hall twenty-seven feet in 

 length, and nineteen feet in breadth ; and has been formerly 

 open to the top, but there is now a floor above it, and also a 

 chimney in the western wall. The roofing consists of strong 

 massive rafter-work ornamented with carved roses. I have 

 often looked for the lamb and flag, the arms of the knights 

 templars, without success; but in one corner found a fox 

 with a goose on his back, so coarsely executed, that it required 

 some attention to make out the device. 



Beyond the hall to the north is a small parlour with a vast 

 heavy stone chimney-piece ; and, at the end of all, the chapel 

 or oratory, whose massive thick walls and narrow windows at 

 once bespeak great antiquity. This room is only sixteen feet 

 by sixteen feet eight inches ; and full seventeen feet nine 

 inches in height. The ceiling is formed of vast joists, placed 

 only five or six inches apart. Modern delicacy would not 

 much approve of such a place of worship : for it has at pre- 

 sent much more the appearance of a dungeon than of a room 

 fit for the reception of people of condition. For the outside 

 I refer the reader to the plate, in which Mr. Grimm has repre- 

 sensed it with his usual accuracy. The field on which this 

 oratory abuts is still called Chapel-field. The situation of this 

 house is very particular, for it stands upon the immediate verge 

 of a steep abrupt hill.* 



Not many years since this place was used for an hop-kiln, 

 and was divided into two stories by a loft, part of which re- 

 mains at present, and makes it convenient for peat and turf, 

 with which it is stowed. 



* [This reference is to the plate in the quarto editions. I regret to say 

 that the house as it stood in Gilbert White's time no longer exists. It 

 has long been pulled down, giving place to as uninteresting ard ugly a 

 building as can be imagined. The old -wall, however, still remains, and 

 probably without any important change. T. B.] 



