350 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



to a tenement and some crofts at the upper end, abutting on the 

 south corner of the church-yard. This was, in old days, the 

 manorial house of the street manor, though now a poor cottage ; 

 and is known at present by the modern name of Elliot's. Sir 

 Adam also did, for the health of his own soul, and that of his 

 wife Constantia, their predecessors and successors, grant to the 

 priors and canons quiet possession of all the tenements and gar- 

 dens, "curtillagia," which they had built and laid out on the 

 lands in Selborne, on which he and his vassals, " homines," had 

 undoubted right of common : and moreover did grant to the 

 convent the full privilege of that right of common ; and empower- 

 ed the religious to build tenements and make gardens along the 

 king's highway in the village of Selborne. 



From circumstances put together it appears that the above 

 were the first grants obtained by the Priory in the village of 

 Selborne, after it had subsisted about thirty-nine years : more- 

 over they explain the nature of the mixed manor still remaining 

 in and about the village, where one field or tenement shall belong 

 to Magdalen-college in the university of Oxford, and the next to 

 Norton Powlet, esq. of Rotherfield house ; and so down the whole 

 street. The case was, that the whole was once the property of 

 Gurdon, till he made his grants to the convent; since which 

 some belongs to the successors of Gurdon in the manor, and some 

 to the college ; and this is the occasion of the strange jumbl of 

 property. It is remarkable that the tenement and crofts which 

 Sir Adam reserved at the time of granting the Plestor should 

 still remain a part of the Gurdon-manor, though so desirable an 

 addition to the vicarage that is not as yet possessed of one inch 

 of glebe at home: but of late, viz. in January 1785, Magdalen- 

 college purchased that little estate, which is life-holding, in re- 

 version, for the generous purpose of bestowing it, and its lands, 

 being twelve acres (three of which abut on the church-yard and 

 vicarage-garden) as an improvement hereafter to the living, and 

 an eligible advantage to future incumbents. 



The year after Gurdon had bestowed the Plestor on the Priory, 

 viz. in 1272, Henry III. king of England died, and was succeeded 

 by his son Edward. This magnanimous prince continued his 

 regard for Sir Adam, whom he esteemed as a brave man, and 

 made him warden, " custos," of the forest of Wolmer.* Though 



* Since the letters respecting Wlmer- forest and Ayles holt, from p. 14 to 26, were printed, the 

 author has been favoured with the following extracts : 



la the "Act of Resumption, 1 Hen. VII." it was provided, that it be not prejudicial to " Harry 



