ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 369 



towns, where there were shrines of saints, were liable to be in- 

 truded on by travellers, devotees, and pilgrims ; and were sub- 

 ject to the importunity of the poor, who swarmed at their gates 

 to partake of doles and broken victuals. Of these disadvantages 

 some convents used to complain, and especially those at Canter- 

 bury ; but this Priory, from its sequestered situation, could 

 seldom be subject to either of these inconveniences, and therefore 

 we must attribute its frequent debts and embarrassments, well 

 endowed as it was, to the bad conduct of its members, and a 

 general inattention to the interests of the institution. 



LETTER XVI. 



BEAUFORT was bishop of Winchester from 1405 to 1447 ; and 

 yet, notwithstanding this long episcopate, only torn. I. of Beau- 

 fort's Register is to be found. This loss is much to be regretted, 

 as it must unavoidably make a gap in the history of Selborne 

 Priory, and perhaps in the list of its priors. 



In 1410 there was an election for a prior, and again in 1411. 



In vol. I. p. 24, of Beaufort's Register, is the instrument of 

 the election of John Wynchestre to be prior the substance as 

 follows : 



Richard Elstede, senior canon, signifies to the bishop that 

 brother Thomas Weston, the late prior, died October 18th, 1410, 

 and was buried November llth. That the bishop's license to 

 elect having been obtained, he and the whole convent met in the 

 chapter-house, on the same day, about the hour of vespers, to 

 consider of the election : that brother John Wynchestre, then 

 sub-prior, with the general consent, appointed the 12th of No- 

 vember, ad horam ejusdem diei capitularem, for the business : 

 when they met in the chapter-house, post missam de sancto 

 Spiritu, solemnly celebrated in the church; to wit, Richard 

 Elstede ; Thomas Halyborne ; John Lemyngton, sacrista ; John 

 Stepe, cantor ; Walter Ffarnham ; Richard Putworth, celerarius ; 

 Hugh London ; Henry Brampton, alias Brompton ; John Wyn- 

 chestre, senior ; John Wynchestre, junior ; then " Proposito 

 primitus verbo Dei," and then ympno " Veni Creator Spiritus " 

 being solemnly sung, cum " versiculo et oratione," as usual, and 

 his letter of licence, with the appointment of the hour and place 

 of election, being read, alta voce, in valvis of the chapter-house ; 



2 B 



