OF SELBORNE. 553 



It continues still, as it was in old times, to be the 

 scene of recreation for the youths and children of the 

 neighbourhood ; and impresses an idea on the mind that 

 this village, even in Saxon times, could not be the most 

 abject of places, when the inhabitants thought proper 

 to assign so spacious a spot for the sports ad amuse- 

 ments of its young people 3 . 



As soon as the prior became possessed of this piece 

 of ground, he procured a charter for a market 4 from 

 King Henry III. and began to erect houses and stalls, 

 " seldas," around it. From this period Selborne became 

 a market town : but how long it enjoyed that privilege 

 does not appear. At the same time Gurdon reserved 

 to himself, and his heirs, a way through the said Plestor 

 to a tenement and some crofts at the upper end, abut- 

 ting on the south corner of the churchyard. This was, 

 in old days, the manerial 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 Con- 

 stantia, their predecessors and successors, grant to the 

 prior and canons quiet possession of all the tenements 

 and gardens, " cMrtillagia" 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 privi- 

 lege of that right of common; and empowered the 

 religious to build tenements and make gardens along 

 the king's highway in the village of Selborne. 



3 For more circumstances respecting the Plestor, see Letter II. to 

 Mr. Pennant. 



4 Bishop Tanner, in his Notitia Monastica, has made a mistake respect- 

 ing the market and fair at Selborne: for, in his references to Dodsworth, 

 cart. 54 Hen. III. m. 3. he says, " De mcrcatu, etferia de Seleburn" But 

 this reference is wrong; for, instead of Seleburn, it proves that the place 

 there meant was Lekeborne, or Legeborn, in the county of Lincoln. This 

 error was copied from the index of the Cat. MSS. Angl. It does not 

 appear that there ever was a chartered fair at Selborne. For several 

 particulars respecting the present fair at Selborne see Letter XXVI. 

 of these Antiquities. 



