OF SELBORNE. 557 



shire, 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 Franciae de terra nostra Gascon nos fraud ulenter 

 et cautelose decepit, earn nobis nequiter detinendo . . . 

 vero predictis fraude et nequitia non contentus, ad 

 expugnationem regni nostri classe maxima et bella- 

 torum copiosa multitudine congregatis, cum quibus 

 regnum nostrum et regni ejusdem incolas hostiliter jam 

 invasurus, linguam Anglicam, si concepte iniquitatis 

 proposito detestabili potestas correspondeat, quod Deus 

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

 September, in the year of King Edward's reign xxiii 8 . 



The above are the last traces that I can discover of 

 Gurdon's appearing and acting in public. The first 

 notice that my evidences give of him is, that, in 1232, 

 being the sixteenth of Henry III. he was the king's 

 bailiff, with others, for the town of Alton. Now, from 

 1232 to 1295 is a space of sixty-three years ; a long 

 period for one man to be employed in active life ! 

 Should any one doubt whether all these particulars can 

 relate to one and the same person, I should wish him 

 to attend to the following reasons why they might. In 

 the first place, the documents from the Priory mention 

 but one Sir Adam Gurdon, who had no son lawfully 

 begotten : and in the next, we are to recollect that he 

 must have probably been a man of uncommon vigour 

 both of mind and body ; since no one, unsupported by 

 such accomplishments, could have engaged in such 



8 Reg. Wynton, Stratford, but query Stratford ; for Stratford was not 

 Bishop of Winton till 1323, near thirty years afterwards. 



