372 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



base of a pillar ; both formed out of the soft freestone of this dis- 

 trict. These ornaments, from their dimensions, seem to have 

 belonged to massive columns ; and show that the church of this 

 convent was a large and costly edifice. They were found in the 

 space which has always been supposed to have contained the 

 south transept of the priory church. Some fragments of large 

 pilasters were also found at the same time. Th diameter of the 

 capital was two feet three inches and an half ; and of the column, 

 where it had stood on the base, eighteen inches and three quarters. 



Two years ago, some labourers, digging again among the ruins 

 sounded a sort of rude thick vase or urn of soft stone, containing 

 about two gallons in measure, on the verge of the brook, in the very 

 spot which tradition has always pointed out as having been the site 

 of the convent kitchen. This clumsy utensil,* whether intended for 

 holy water, or whatever purpose, we were going to procure, but 

 found that the labourers had just broken it in pieces, and carried 

 it out on the highways. 



The priory of Selborne had possessed in this village a grange, an 

 usual appendage to manorial estates, where the fruits of their lands 

 were stowed and laid up for use, at a time when men took the 

 natural produce of their estates in kind. The mansion of this spot 

 is still called the Grange, and is the manor-house of the convent 

 possessions in this place. The author has conversed with very 

 ancient people who remembered the old original Grange ; but it 

 has long given place to a modern farm-house. Magdalen College 

 holds a court-leet and court-baronf in the great wheat-barn of the 

 said Grange, annually, where the president usually superintends, 

 attended by the bursar and steward of the college.^ 



The following uncommon presentment at the court is not un- 

 worthy of notice. There is on the south side of the king's field (a 

 large common- field, so called), a considerable tumulus, or hillock, 

 now covered with thorns and bushes, and known by the name of 

 Kite's Hill, which is presented, year by year, in court as not 

 ploughed. Why this injunction is still kept up respecting this 

 spot, which is surrounded on all sides by arable land, may be a 

 question not easily solved, since the usage has long survived the 



* A judicious antiquary who saw this vase, observed, that it possibly might have been a 

 standard measure between the monastery and its tenants. The priory we have mentioned 

 claimed the assize of bread and beer in Selborne manor; and probably the adjustment of 

 dry measures for grain, &c. 



t The time when this court is held i-; the mid-week between Easter and Whitsuntide. 



i Owen Oglethorpe, president, c., an. Kdw. Sexti, primo [viz. 1547.] demised to Robert 

 Arden Selborne Grange for twenty years. Rent \\ Y> .Incfe.r of Leases. 



