XXVI.] OF SELBORNE. 243 



acquit himself of the subject without trespassing again on the 

 patience of the reader by adding one supplementary letter. 



No sooner did the Priory (perhaps much out of repair at the 

 time) become an appendage to the college, but it must at once 

 have tended to swift decay. Magdalen College wanted now 

 ouly two chambers for the chantry priest and his assistant ; and 

 therefore had no occasion for the hall, dormitory, and other 

 spacious apartments belonging to so large a foundation. The 

 roofs neglected, would soon become the possession of daws and 

 owls ; and, being rotted and decayed by the weather, would fall 

 in upon the floors; so that all parts must have hastened to 

 speedy dilapidation and a scene of broken ruins. Three full 

 centuries have now passed since the dissolution; a series of 

 years that would craze the stoutest edifices. But, besides the 

 slow hand of time, many circumstances have contributed to 

 level this venerable structure with the ground ; of which nothing 

 now remains but one piece of a wall of about ten feet long, and 

 as many feet high, which probably was part of an out-house. 

 As early as the latter end of the reign of Hen. VII. we find 

 that a farm-house and two barns were built to the south of the 

 Priory, and undoubtedly out of its materials. Avarice, again, 

 has much contributed to the overthrow of this stately pile, as 

 long as the tenants could make money of its stones or timbers. 

 Wantonness, no doubt, has had a share in the demolition ; for 

 boys love to destroy what men venerate and admire. A re- 

 markable instance of this propensity the writer can give from 

 his own knowledge. When a schoolboy, more than fifty years 

 ago, he was eyewitness, perhaps a party concerned, in the un- 

 dermining a portion of that fine old rum at the north end of 

 Basingstoke town, well known by the name of Holy Ghost 

 Chapel. Very providentially the vast fragment, which these 

 thoughtless little engineers endeavoured to sap, did not give 

 way so soon as might have been expected; but it fell the night 

 following, and with such violence that it shook the very ground, 

 and, awakening the inhabitants of the neighbouring cottages, 

 made them start up in their beds as if they had felt an earth- 

 quake. The motive for this dangerous attempt does not so 

 readily appear: perhaps the more danger the more honour, 



