324 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER XII. 



THE ladies and daughter of Sir Adam Gurdon were not the only 

 benefactresses to the priory of Selborne ; for, in the year 1281, Ela 

 Longspee obtained masses to be performed for her soul's health ; 

 and the prior entered into an engagement that one of the convent 

 should every day say a special mass for ever for the said benefac- 

 tress, whether living or dead. She also engaged within five years 

 to pay to the said convent one hundred marks of silver for the 

 support of a chantry and chantry chaplain, who should perform his 

 masses daily in the parish church of Selborne.* In the east end of 

 the south aisle there are two sharp-pointed Gothic niches ; one of 

 these probably was the place under which these masses were per- 

 formed ; and there is the more reason to suppose as much, 

 because, till within these thirty years, this space was fenced off 

 with Gothic wooden railing, and was known by the name of the 

 south chancel.f 



The solicitude expressed by the donor plainly shows her piety 

 and firm persuasion of the efficacy of prayers for the dead ; for she 

 seems to have made every provision for the payment of the sum 

 stipulated within the appointed time, and to have felt much anxiety 

 lest her death, or the neglect of her executors or assigns, might 

 frustrate her intentions. " Et si contingat me in solucione perdicte 

 pecunie annis predictis in parte aut in toto deficere, quod absit ; 

 concedo et obligo pro me et assignatis meis, quod Vice-Comes 



. . . Oxon et qui pro tempore fuerint, per omnes terras 



et tenementa, et omnia bona mea mobilia et immobilia ubicunque 

 in balliva sua fuerint inventa ad solucionem predictam faciendam 

 possent nos compellere." And again u Et si contingat dictos 

 religiosos labores seu expensas facere circa predictam pecuniam, 

 seu circa partem dicte pecunie ; volo qoud dictorum religiosorum 



* A chantry was a chapel joined to some cathedral or parish church, and endowed with 

 annual revenues for the maintenance of one or more priests to sing mass daily for the soul 

 of the founder, and others. 



t For what is said m>re respecting this chantry see Letter III. of these Antiquities. 

 Mention is made of a Nicholas Langrish, capellanus de Selborne, in the time of Henry VIII. 

 Was he chantry-chaplain to Ela Longspee, whose masses were probably continued to the 

 time of the Reformation ? More will be said of this person hereafter. 



