X.] OF SELBORNE. 191 



regni nostri classe maxima et bellatorum copiosa multitudine 

 congregatis, cum quibus regnum nostrum et regni ejusdem 

 incolas hostiliter jam invasurus, lingiiam Anglicam, si coricepte 

 iniquitatis proposito detestabili potestas correspondeat, quod 

 Deus avertat, omnino de terra ddere proponit." Dated 30th 

 September, in the year of King Edward's reign xxiii. 1 



The above are the last traces that I can discover of Gnrdon's 

 appearing and acting in public. The first notice that my evi- 

 dences give of him is, that, in 1232, being the sixteenth of 

 Henry III. he was the king's bailiff, with others, for the town 

 of Alton. Now, from 1232 to 1295 is a space of sixty-three 

 years ; a long period for one man to be employed in active life ! 

 Should any one doubt whether all these particulars can relate 

 to one and the same person, I should wish him to attend to 

 the following reasons why they might. In the first place, the 

 documents from the Priory mention but one Sir Adam Gurdon, 

 who had no son lawfully begotten : and in the next, we are to 

 recollect that he must have probably been a man of uncommon 

 vigour both of mind and body; since no one, unsupported by 

 such accomplishments, could have engaged in such adventures, 

 or could have borne up against the difficulties which he some- 

 times must have encountered : and, moreover, we have modern 

 instances of persons that have maintained their abilities for near 

 that period. 



Were we to suppose Gurdon to be only twenty years of age 

 in 1232, in 1295 he would be eighty-three ; after which advanced 

 period it could not be expected that he should live long. From 

 the silence, therefore, of my evidences it seems probable that 

 this extraordinary person finished his life in peace, not long 

 after, at his mansion of Temple. Gurdon's seal had for its device 

 a man with a helmet on his head, drawing a cross-bow ; the 

 legend, " Sigillum Ade de Gurdon ; " his arms were, " Goulis, iii 

 floures argent issant de testes de leopards." 2 



If the stout and unsubmitting spirit of Gurdon could be so 



1 Eeg. Wynton, Stratford, but query Stratford ; for Stratford was not 

 Bishop of Winton till 1323, near thirty years afterwards. 



2 From the collection of Thomas Martin, Esq., in the " Antiquarian Reper- 

 tory," p. 109, No. XXXI. 



