352 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



and a mill.* By a breve, or writ, from the king he is also en- 

 joined to readmit the bishop of Winchester, and his tenants of 

 the parish and town of Farnham, to pasture their horses, and 

 other larger cattle, "averia," in the forest of Wolmer, as had 

 been the usage from time immemorial. This writ is dated in the 

 tenth year of the reign of Edward, viz. 1282. 



All the king's writs directed to Gurdon are addressed in the 

 following manner : " Edwardus, Dei gratia, &c. dilecto et fideli 

 suo Ade Gurdon salutem ;" and again, " Custodi foreste sue -de 

 Wolvemere." 



In the year 1293 a quarrel between the crews of an English 

 and a Norman ship, about some trifle, brought on by degrees 

 such serious consequences, that in 1295 a war broke out between 

 the two nations. The French king, Philip the Hardy, gained 

 some advantages in Gascony ; and, not content with those, threat- 

 ened England with an invasion, and, by a sudden attempt, took 

 and burnt Dover. 



Upon this emergency Edward sent a writ to Gurdon, ordering 

 him and four others to enlist three thousand soldiers in the coun- 

 ties of Surrey, Dorset, and Wiltshire, able-bodied men, " tarn 

 sagittare quam balistare potentes :" and to see that they were 

 marched, by the feast of All Saints, to Winchelsea, there to be 

 embarked aboard the king's transports. 



The occasion of this armament appears also from a summons 

 to the bishop of Winchester to parliament, part of which I shall 

 transcribe on account of the insolent menace which is said 

 therein to have been denounced against the English language : 

 " qualiter rex Francise de terra nostra Gascon nos fraudulenter 

 et cautelose decepit, earn nobis nequiter detinendo . . . vero 

 predictis fraude et nequitia non contentus, ad expugnationem 

 regni nostri classe maxima et bellatorum copiosa multitudine con- 

 gregatis, cum quibus regnum nostrum et regni ejusdem incolas 

 hostiliter jam invasurus, linguam Anglicam, si concepte iniqui- 

 tatis proposito detestabili potestas correspondeat, quod Deus 

 avertat, omnino de terra delere proponit." Dated 30th Septem- 

 ber, in the year of king Edward's reign xxiii.f 



The above are the last traces that I can discover of Gurdon' s 

 appearing and acting in public. The first notice that my evi- 

 dences give of hirn is, that, in 1232, being the 16th of Henry III. 



* Hooheleye, now spelt Hawkley, is in the hundred of Selborne, and has a mill at this day. 

 t Rep. Wynton, Stratford, but query Stratford; for Stratford was not bishop of Winton till 

 1323, near thirty years afterwards. 



