ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 401 



LETTER XXVI. 



THOUGH the evidences and documents of the Priory and parish 

 of Selborne are now at an end, as yet, the author has still several 

 things to say respecting the present state of that convent and its 

 Grange, and other matters, he does not see how he can acquit 

 himself of the subject without trespassing again on the patience 

 of the reader by adding one supplementary letter. 



No sooner did the Priory (perhaps much out of repair at the 

 time) become an appendage to the cottage, but it must at once 

 have tended to swift decay. Magdalene College wanted now 

 only two chambers for the chantry priest and his assistant ; and 

 therefore had no occasion for the hall, dormitory, and other 

 spacious apartments belonging to so large a foundation. The 

 roofs neglected, would soon become the possession of daws and 

 owls ; and, being rotted and decayed by the weather, would fall 

 in upon the floors ; so that all parts must have hastened to speedy 

 dilapidation and a scene of broken ruins. Three full centuries 

 have now passed since the dissolution ; a series of years that 

 would craze the stoutest edifices. But, besides the slow hand of 

 time, many circumstances have contributed to level this vener- 

 able structure with the ground ; of which nothing now remains 

 but one piece of a wall of about tea feet long,* and as many feet 

 high, which probably was part of an out-house. As early as the 

 latter end of the reign of Hen. VII. we find that a farm-house 

 and two barns were built to the south of the Priory, and un- 

 doubtedly out of its materials. Avarice again has much con- 

 tributed to the overthrow of this stately pile, as long as the 

 tenants could make money of its stones or timbers. Wanton- 

 ness, no doubt, has had a share in the demolition ; for boys love 

 to destroy what men venerate and admire. A remarkable instance 

 of this propensity the writer can give from his own knowledge. 

 When a schoolboy, more than fifty years ago, he was eye-wit- 

 ness, perhaps a party concerned, in the undermining of a portion 

 of that fine old ruin at the north end of Basingstoke town, well 



* This wall has at last shared the fate of the other portions of the Priory. The farmer who 

 rents the place wanted a few stones, and down went the wall. The site of the Priory is still 

 covered with fragments of the building, amongst which I observed some fine specimens of tes- 

 selated pavements, fragments of pilasters, &c. In digging amongst the foundations, a few years 

 ago, two stone-coffins were discovered, in one of which was a skeleton tolerably perfect. The 

 coffins are now in the farm-yard, but have nothing about them to distinguish them from other 

 similar memorials of mortality. D. 



2 D 



