Vlli.] OF SELBORNE. 183 



LETTEE VIII. 



OUR forefathers in this village were no doubt as busy and 

 bustling, and as important, as ourselves : yet have their names 

 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 generation. 

 I was led into this train of thinking by finding in my vouchers 

 that Sir Adam Gurdon was an inhabitant of Selborne, 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 accom- 

 plished malcontent 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 sixteenth 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 pro- 

 perty. 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 distin- 

 guished 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 disposition 

 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, intrenching himself in the woods 

 of Hampshire, towards the town of Farnham. After the battle 

 of Evesham, in which Mountfort fell, in the year 1265, Gurdon 

 might not think it safe to return to his house for fear of a 

 surprise ; but cautiously fortified himself amidst the forests and 

 woodlands with which he was so well acquainted. Prince 

 Edward, desirous of putting an end to the troubles which had 



