ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 301 



in use. They might also be placed as a shelter to the congregation 

 assembling before the church doors were opened, and as an emblem 

 of mortality by their funereal appearance. In the south of England 

 every churchyard almost has its tree, and some two ; but in the 

 north, we understand, few are to be found. 



The idea of R. C. that the yew-tree afforded its branches instead 

 of palms for the processions on Palm Sunday, is a good one, and 

 deserves attention. See "Gent. Mag." vol. 1. p. 128. 



LETTER VI. 



THE living of Selborne was a very small vicarage; but being in 

 the patronage of Magdalen College, in the university of Oxford, 

 that society endowed it with the great tithes of Selborne, more than 

 a century ago ; and since the year 1758 again with the great tithes 

 of Oakhanger, called Bene's parsonage ; so that, together, it is 

 become a respectable piece of preferment, to which one of the 

 fellows is always presented. The vicar holds the great tithes, by 

 lease, under the college. The great disadvantage of this living is, 

 that it has not one foot of glebe near home.* 



ITS PAYMENTS ARE- 



s. d. 



King's books 821 



Yearly tenths .0162* 



Yearly procurations for Blackm ..re and Oakhanger Chap. X z 7 



with acquit .... J 



Selborne procurations and acquit 090 



I am unable to give a complete list of the vicars of this parish 

 till towards the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; from which 

 period the registers furnish a regular series. 



In Domesday we find thus " De isto manerio dono dedit Rex 

 Radfredo presbytero dimidiam hidam cum ecclesia." So that before 

 Domesday, which was compiled between the years 1081 and 1086, 

 here was an officiating minister at this place. 



After this, among my documents, I find occasional mention of a 

 vicar here and there ; the first is 



* At Bene's, or Bin's, parsonage there is a house and stout barn, and seven acres of 

 glebe ; Bene's parsonage is three miles from the church. 



