324 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE^ 



for farthings at the petty shops. Of those that we saw, the 

 greater part were of Marcus Aurelius, and the Empress Faustina, 

 his wife, the father and mother of Commodus. Some of Faustina 

 were in high relief, and exhibited a very agreeable set of features, 

 which probably resembled that lady, who was more celebrated 

 for her beauty than for her virtues. The medallions in general 

 were of a paler colour than the coins. To pretend to account 

 for the means of their coming to this place would be spending 

 time in conjecture. The spot, I think, could not be a Roman 

 camp, becaiise it is commanded by hills on two sides ; nor does 

 it show the least traces of entrenchments ; nor can I suppose 

 that it was a Roman town, because I have too good an opinion 

 of the taste and judgment of those polished conquerors to imagine 

 that they would settle on so barren and dreary a waste. 



LETTER II. 



THAT Selborne was a place of some distinction and note in the 

 time of the Saxons we can give most undoubted proofs. But, 

 as there are few if any accounts of villages before Domesday, it 

 will be best to begin with that venerable record. " Ipse rex tenet 

 Selesburne, Eddid regina tenuit, et nunquam geldavit. De isto 

 manerio dono dedit rex Radfredo presbytero dimidiam hidam cum 

 ecclesia. Tempore regis Edwardi et post, valuit duodecim solidos 

 et sex deriarios ; modo octo solidos et quatuor denarios." Here 

 we see that Selborne was a royal manor ; and that Editha, the 

 queen of Edward the Confessor, had been lady of that manor ; 

 and was succeeded in it by the Conqueror ; and that it had a 

 church. Beside these, many circumstances concur to prove it to 

 have been a Saxon village ; such as the name of the place itself,* 

 the names of many fields, and some families,f with a variety of 



* Selesburne, Seleburne, Selburn, Selbourn, Selborne, and Selborn, as it has been variously 

 spelt at different periods, is of Saxon derivation ; for Sel signifies great, and burn torrens, a 

 brook or rivulet : so that the name seems to be derived from the great perennial stream that 

 breaks out at the upper end of the village. Sel also signifies bonus, item, fcecundus, fertilis. 

 ' ' Sgl-T3EfiT"~ l CUll foecunda graminis clausura; fertile pascuum : a meadow in the 

 parish of Godalming is still called Sal-gars-ton "Lye's Saxon Dictionary, in the Supplement, 

 by Mr. Manning. 



' f Thus the name of Aldred signifies all-reverend, and that of Kemp means a soldier. Thus we 

 have a church-litton, or enclosure for dead bodies, and not a church-yard : there is also a Culver- 

 >roft near the Grange-farm, being the enclosure where the priory pigeon-house stood, from culvf r 

 a pigeon. Again there are three steep pastures in this parish called the Lithe, from Hlithe, clivu*. 



