THE ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 313 



his face, and persisted in crying it down, as the probable 

 occasion of much intemperance. However, the fair pre- 

 vailed, but was altered to the twenty-ninth of May, because 

 the former day often interfered with wheat-harvest. On 

 that day it still continues to be held, and is become an 

 useful mart for cows and calves. Most of the lower 

 house - keepers brew beer against this holiday, which is 

 dutied by the exciseman, and their becoming victuallers 

 for the day without a license is overlooked. 



Monasteries enjoyed all sorts of conveniences within 

 themselves. Thus, at the Priory, a low and moist situa- 

 tion, there were ponds and stews for their fish ; at the 

 same place also, and at the Grange in Culver-croft^- there 

 were dove-houses ; and on the hill opposite to the Grange 

 the prior had a warren, as the names of The Coney-crofts 

 and Coney-croft Hanger plainly testify. 2 



Nothing has been said, as yet, respecting the tenure 

 or holding of the Selbome estates. Temple and Norton 

 are manor farms, and freeholds ; as is the manor of 

 Chapel, near Oakhanger, and also the estate at Oakhanger- 

 house and Black-moor. The Priory and grange are lease- 

 hold under Magdalen -college, for twenty -one years, re- 

 newable every seven : all the smaller estates in and 

 round the village are copyhold of inheritance under the 

 college, except the little remains of the Gurdon - manor , 

 which had been of old leased out upon lives, but have 

 been freed of late by their present lord, as fast as those 

 lives have dropped. 



Selborne seems to have derived much of it's prosperity 

 from the near neighbourhood of the Priory. For monas- 

 teries were of considerable advantage to places where they 

 had their sites and estates, by causing great resort, by pro- 

 curing markets and fairs, by freeing them from the cruel 

 oppression of forest-laws, and by letting their lands at easy 

 rates. But, as soon as the convent was suppressed, the 

 town which it had occasioned began to decline, and the 



1 Culver, as has been observed before, is Saxon for a pigeon. [G. W.] 



2 A warren was a usual appendage to a manor. [G. W.] 



VOL. II. 2 R 



