ANTIQUITIES OF SELRORNE. 317 



Though little emolument might hang to this appointment, yet are 

 there reasons why it might be highly acceptable; and in a few 

 reigns after, it was given to princes of the blood.* In old days 

 gentry resided more at home on their estates, and having fewer 

 resources of elegant indoor amusement, spent most of their leisure 

 hours in the field and the pleasures of the chase. A large domain 

 therefore, at little more than a mile distance, and well stocked with 

 game, must have been a very eligible acquisition, affording him 

 influence as well as entertainment ; and especially as the manorial 

 house of Temple, by its exalted situation, could command a view 

 of near two-thirds of the forest. 



That Gurdon, who had lived some years the life of an outlaw, 

 and at the head of an army of insurgents, was for a considerable 

 time in high rebellion against his sovereign, should have been 

 guilty of some outrages, and should have committed some depre- 

 dations, is by no means matter of wonder. Accordingly we find a 

 distringas against him, ordering him to restore to the Bishop of 

 Winchester some of the temporalities of that see, which he had 

 taken by violence and detained, viz., some lands in Hocheleye, 

 and a mill.t By a breve, or writ, from the king he is also enjoined 

 to readmit the Bishop of Winchester, and his tenants of the parish 

 and town of Farnham, to pasture their horses, and other large 

 cattle, " ' averia? in the forest of Woolmer, as had been the usage 

 from time immemorial. This writ is dated in the tenth year of the 

 reign of Edward, viz., 1282. 



All the king's writs directed to Gurdon are addressed in the 

 following manner" Edwardus Dei gratia, &c., dilecto et fideli suo 

 Ade Gurdon salutem;" and again, "Custodi foreste sue de 

 Wolvemere." 



In the year 1293 a quarrel between the crews of an English and 

 a Norman ship about some trifle, brought on by degrees such 

 serious consequences, that in 1293 a war broke out between the two 

 nations. The French king, Philip the Hardy, gained some advan- 

 tages in Gascony ; and, not content with those, threatened England 

 with an invasion, and by a sudden attempt took and burnt Dover. 



" Bensted and Kingsley; a petition of the parishioners concerning the three parks in 

 Aliceholt Forest." 



" William, first earl of Dartm uth, and paternal grandfather to the present Lord Stawel. 

 was a lessee of the forests of Aliceholt and Wolmer before brigadier-general Emmanuel 

 Scroope Howe." 



* See Letter II. of these Antiquities. 



t Hocheleye, now spelt Hawkley, is in the hundred of Selborne. and has a mill at this 

 day. 



