OF SELBORNE. 363 



trees. Tylehouse grove, so distinguished from having a tiled 

 house near it. c Butt-wood dose; here the servants of the 

 Priory and the village-swains exercised themselves with their 

 long bows, and shot at a mark against a butt, or bank. d 

 Cundytli [conduit] wood: the engrosser of the lease not 

 understanding this name has made a strange barbarous word 

 of it. Conduit-wood was and is a steep, rough cow-pasture, 

 lying above the Priory, at about a quarter of a mile to the 

 south-west. In the side of this field there is a spring of water 

 that never fails ; at the head of which a cistern was built 

 which communicated with leaden pipes that conveyed water to 

 the monastery. When this reservoir was first constructed 

 does not appear, we only know that it underwent a repair in 

 the episcopate of bishop Wainfleet, about the year 1462. e 

 Whether these pipes only conveyed the water to the Priory 

 for common and culinary purposes, or contributed to any 

 matters of ornament and elegance, we shall not pretend to 

 say; nor when artists and mechanics first understood any 

 thing of hydraulics, and that water confined in tubes would 

 rise to it's original level. There is a person now living who 

 had been employed formerly in digging for these pipes, and 

 once discovered several yards, which they sold for old lead. 



There was also a plot of ground called Tan-house garden : 

 and " Tannaria sua" a tan-yard of their own, has been men- 

 tioned in Letter XVI. This circumstance I just take notice 

 of, as an instance that monasteries had trades and occupations 

 carried on within themselves/ 



c Men at first heaped soda, or fern, or heath, on their roofs to keep off 

 the inclemencies of the weather : and then by degrees laid straw or haum. 

 The first refinements on roofing were shingles, which are very ancient. 

 Tiles are a very late and imperfect covering, and were not much in use 

 till the beginning of the sixteenth century. The first tiled house at 

 Nottingham was in 1503. 



d There is also a Butt-close just at the back of the village *. 



* [Butt Close, now in the Park, next to Baker's hill. T. B.] 



e N. 381. " Clausure terre abbatie ecclesie parochiali de Seleburne, 

 "ixs. iiiic?. Reparacionibus domorum predicti prioratus iiii. lib. xi*. 

 u Aqite conduct, ibidem, xxiiid." 



f There is still a wood near the Priory called Tanner's wood. 



