ANTIQUITIES OF SEL BORNE. 309 



Selborne, " de tota mora [a moor or bog] ubi Beme oritur, usque 

 ad campum vivarii, et de prato voc. Sydenmeade cum abutt : et 

 de cursu aque molendini." And also a grant in reversion " unius 

 virgate terre," (a yard land) in Achangre at the death of Richard 

 Aotedene his sister's husband, who had no child. He was to pre- 

 sent 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 annually to pay to the king, through the hands of his 

 bailiffs of Aulton, ten shillings at four quarterly payments, "pro 

 omnibus serviciis, consuetudinibus, exactionibus, et demandis." 



This Jo. de Venur was a man of property at Oakhanger, and 

 lived probably at the spot now called Chapel-farm. The grant 

 bears date the I7th 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 

 foundation. The religious were not backward in keeping up this 

 pious propensity, which they observed so readily influenced the 

 breasts of men. Thus did the more opulent monasteries add 

 house to house, and field to field, and by degrees manor to manor, 

 till at last "there was" no place left;" but every district around 

 became appropriated to the purposes of their founders, and every 

 precinct was drawn into the vortex. 



