546 ANTIQUITIES 



their priors little more than bailiffs, removeable at will: 

 whereas the priory of Selborne possessed the valuable 

 estates and manors of Selborne, Achangre, Norton, 

 Brompden, Bassinges, Basingstoke, and Natele; and 

 the prior challenged the right of Pillory, Thurcet, and 

 Furcas, and every manerial privilege. 



I find next a grant from Jo. de Venur, or Venuz, to 

 the prior of Selborne " de tota mora [a moor or bog] 

 ubi Bene oritur, usque ad campum vivarii, et de prato 

 voc. Sydenrneade cum abutt: et de cursu aque molen- 

 dini." And also a grant in reversion " unius virgate 

 terre," [a yard land] in Achangre at the death of Richard 

 Actedene his sister's husband, who had no child. He 

 was to present a pair of gloves of one penny value to 

 the prior and canons, to be given annually by the said 

 Richard: and to quit all claim to the said lands in 

 reversion, provided the prior and canons would engage 

 anually to pay to the king, through the hands of his 

 bailiffs of Aulton, ten shillings at four quarterly pay- 

 ments, " pro omnibus serviciis, consuetudinibus, exac- 

 tionibus, et demandis." 



This Jo. de Venur was a man of property at Oak- 

 hanger, and lived probably at the spot now called 

 Chapel Farm. The grant bears date the seventeenth 

 year of the reign of Henry III. [viz. 1233.] 



It would be tedious to enumerate every little grant 

 for lands or tenements that might be produced from my 

 vouchers. I shall therefore pass over all such for the 

 present, and conclude this letter with a remark that 

 must strike every thinking person with some degree of 

 wonder. No sooner had a monastic institution got a 

 footing, but the neighbourhood began to be touched 

 with a secret and religious awe. Every person round 

 was desirous to promote so good a work; and either by 

 sale, by grant, or by gift in reversion, was ambitious of 

 appearing a benefactor. They who had not lands to 

 spare gave roads to accommodate the infant founda- 

 tion. The religious were not backward in keeping up 



