OF SELBORNE 299 



LETTER XII 



THE ladies and daughter of Sir Adam Gurdon were not 

 the only benefactresses to the Priory of Selborne ; for, in 

 the year 1281, Ela Longspee obtained masses to be per- 

 formed for her soul's health ; and the prior entered into 

 an engagement that one of the convent should every day 

 say a special mass for ever for the said benefactress, whether 

 living or dead. She also engaged within five years to pay 

 to the said convent one hundred marks of silver for the 

 support of a chantry and chantry-chaplain, who should 

 perform his masses daily in the parish church of Selborne. 1 

 In the east end of the south aisle there are two sharp- 

 pointed gothic niches ; one of these probably was the 

 place under which these masses were performed ; and 

 there is the more reason to suppose as much, because, 

 till within these thirty years, this space was fenced off with 

 gothic wooden railing, and was known by the name of the 

 south chancel. 2 



sive magisterium presentavit preceptorii sive magisterii patronus. Va- 

 cavit dicta preceptoria seu magisterium ad preceptoriam et regimen 

 dicti hospitalis Te preceptorem sive magistrum prefecimus." 



Where preeeptorium denotes a building or apartment it may probably 

 mean the master's lodgings, or at least the preceptor's apartment, what- 

 soever may have been the office or employment of the said preceptor. 



A preceptor is mentioned in Thoresby's Ducatus Leodinensis, or 

 History of Leeds, p. 225, and a deed witnessed by the preceptor and 

 chaplain before dates were inserted. Du Fresne's Supplement : " Pre- 

 ceptoriae, praedia preceptoribus assignata." Cowell, in his Law 

 Dictionary enumerates sixteen preceptoriae, or preceptories, in England ; 

 but Sudington is not among them. It is remarkable that Gurtlerus, in 

 his Historia Templariorum, Amstel. 1691, never once mentions the 

 words preceptor or preeeptorium. 



1 A chantry was a chapel joined to some cathedral or parish church, 

 and endowed with annual revenues for the maintenance of one or more 

 priests to sing mass daily for the soul of the founder, and others. 



2 For what is said more respecting this chantry see Letter III. of these 

 Antiquities. Mention is made of a Nicholas Langrish, capellanus de 

 Selborne, in the time of Henry VIII. Was he chantry-chaplain to Ela 

 Longspee, whose masses were probably continued to the time of the 

 reformation ? More will be said of this person hereafter. 



