X.] OF SELBORNE. 187 



It continues still, as it was in old times, to be the scene of 

 recreation for the youths and children of the neighbourhood ; 

 and impresses an idea on the mind that this village, even in 

 Saxon times, could not be the most abject of places, when the 

 inhabitants thought proper to assign so spacious a spot for the 

 sports and amusements of its young people. 1 



As soon as the prior became possessed of this piece of 

 ground, he procured a charter for a market 2 from King 

 Henry III. and began to erect houses and stalls, " seldas," 

 around it. From this period Selborne became a market town : 

 but how long it enjoyed that privilege does not appear. At the 

 same time Gurdon reserved to himself and his heirs a way 

 through the said Plestor to a tenement and some crofts at 

 the upper end, abutting on the south corner of the church- 

 yard. This was, in old days, the manorial house of the street 

 manor, though now a poor cottage ; and is known at present by 

 the modern name of Elliot's. Sir Adam also did, for the health 

 of his own soul, and that of his wife Constantia, their pre- 

 decessors and successors, grant to the prior and canons quiet 

 possession of all the tenements and gardens, " curtillagia," which 

 they had built and laid out on the lands in Selborne, on which 

 he and his vassals, " homines," had undoubted right of common : 

 and moreover did grant to the convent the full privilege of that 

 right of common ; and empowered the religious to build tene- 

 ments and make gardens along the king's highway in the village 

 of Selborne. 



From circumstances put together it appears that the above 



this supposition the oak was aged four hundred and thirty-two years when 

 blown down. 



1 For more circumstances respecting the Plestor, see Letter II. to Mr. 

 Pennant. 



2 Bishop Tanner, in his " Notitia Monastica," has made a mistake respecting 

 'the market and fair at Selborne : for in his references to Dodsworth, cart. 

 54 Hen. III. m. 3, he says, " De mercatu, et feria de Seleburn." But this 

 reference is wrong ; for instead of Seleburn, it proves that the place there 

 meant was Lekeborne, or Legeborn, in the county of Lincoln. This error 

 was copied from the index of the Cat. MSS. Angl. It does not appear that 

 there ever was a chartered fair at Selborne. For several particulars respect- 

 ing the present fair at Selborne see Letter XXVI. of these Antiquities. 



