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ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



SELBORNE CHUKCH AND VICAKAGE 



LETTER III. 



FROM the silence of Domesday respecting churches, it has been 

 supposed that few villages had any at the time when that record 

 was taken ; but Selborne, we see, enjoyed the benefit of one : hence, 

 we may conclude, that this place was in no abject state even at 

 that very distant period. How many fabrics have succeeded each 

 other since the days of Radfredrus the presbyter, we cannot pretend 

 to say; our business leads us to a description of the present edifice, 

 in which we shall be circumstantial. 



Our church, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, consists of 

 three aisles, and measures fifty-four feet in length, by forty-seven in 

 breadth, being almost as broad as it is long. The present building 

 has no pretensions to antiquity, and is, as I suppose, of no earlier 

 date than the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. It is perfectly 

 plain and unadorned, without painted glass, carved work, sculpture, 

 or tracery. But when I say it has no claim to antiquity, I would 

 mean to be understood the fabric in general ; for the- pillars, which 



