246 THE ANTIQUITIES [LETT, 



strauge denomination we do not at all comprehend, and con- 

 clude that it may' be a corruption from some Saxon word, 

 itself perhaps forgotten. 



It has been observed already, that Bishop Tanner was mis- 

 taken when he refers to an evidence of Dodsworth, " De mercatu 

 et FERIA de Seleburne." Selborne never had a chartered fair ; 

 the present fair was set up since the year 1681, by a set of 

 jovial fellows, who had found in an old almanac that there had 

 been a fair here in former days on the 1st of August ; and were 

 desirous to revive so joyous a festival. Against this innovation 

 the vicar set his face, and persisted in crying it down, as the 

 probable occasion of much intemperance. However the fair 

 prevailed; but was altered to the 29th of May, because the 

 former day often interfered with wheat harvest. On that day it 

 still continues to be held, and is become a useful mart for cows 

 and calves. Most of the lower housekeepers brew beer against 

 this holiday, which is dutied by the exciseman ; and their be- 

 coming victuallers for the day without a licence is overlooked. 



Monasteries enjoyed all sorts of conveniences within them- 

 selves. Thus at the Priory, a low and moist situation, there 

 were ponds and stews for their fish : at the same place also, and 

 at the Grange in Culver Croft, 1 there were dove-houses ; and on 

 the hill opposite to the Grange the prior had a warren, as the 

 names of The Coney Crofts and Coney Croft Hanger plainly 

 testify. 2 



Nothing has been said as yet respecting the tenure or holding 

 of the Selborue estates. Temple and Norton are manor farms 

 and freehold ; as is the manor of Chapel near Oakhanger, and 

 also the estate at Oakhanger House and Blackinoor. The 

 Priory and Grange are leasehold under Magdalen College, for 

 twenty-one years, renewable every seven : all the smaller 

 estates in and round the village are copyhold of inheritance 

 under the college, except the little remains of the Gurdon 

 manor, which had been of old leased out upon lives, but have 

 been freed of late by their present lord, as fast as those lives 

 have dropped. 



J Culver, as has been observed before, is Saxon for a pigeon. 

 - A warren was a usual appendage to a manor. 



