THE ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 241 



account of distance, and the badness of the roads, but as 

 a matter of state and distinction. Why the owner should 

 apply to the prior, in preference to the bishop of the diocese, 

 and how the former became competent to such a grant, I 

 cannot say ; but that the priors of Selborne did take that 

 privilege is plain, because some years afterward, in 1280, 

 Prior Richard granted to Henry Waterford and his wife 

 Nicholaa, a license to build an oratory in their court-house, 

 "curia sua de Waterford" in which they might celebrate 

 divine service, saving the rights of the mother church of 

 Basynges. Yet all the while the prior of Selborne grants 

 with such reserve and caution, as if in doubt of his power, 

 and leaves Gurdon and his lady answerable in future to the 

 bishop, or his ordinary, or to the vicar for the time being, 

 in case they should infringe the rights of the mother church 

 of Selborne" 



The manor-house, called Temple, is at present a single 

 building, running in length from south to north, and has 

 been occupied as a common farmhouse from time imme- 

 morial. The south end is modern, and consists of a brew- 

 house, and then a kitchen. The middle part is an hall 

 twenty-seven feet in length, and nineteen feet in breadth ; 

 and has been formerly open to the top ; but there is now 

 a floor above it, and also a chimney in the western wall. 

 The roofing consists of strong massive rafter-work orna- 

 mented with carved roses. I have often looked for the 

 lamb and flag, the arms of the knights templars, without 

 success ; but in one corner found a fox with a goose on 

 his back, so coarsely executed, that it required some atten- 

 tion to make out the device. 



Beyond the hall to the north is a small parlour with a 

 vast heavy stone chimney-piece, and at the end of all the 

 chapel or oratory, whose massive thick walls and narrow 

 windows at once bespeak great antiquity. This room is 

 only sixteen feet by sixteen feet eight inches; and full 

 seventeen feet nine inches in height. The ceiling is formed 

 of vast joists, placed only five or six inches apart. Modern 

 delicacy would not much approve of such a place of 



VOL. II. 2 H 



