218 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBOKNE. 



LETTEE VIII. 



OUR forefathers in this village were no doubt as busy and bustling, 

 and as important, as ourselves : yet have their names and transactions 

 been forgotten from century to century, and have sunk into oblivion ; 

 nor has this happened only to the vulgar, but even to men remarkable 

 and famous in their generation. I was led into this train of thinking 

 by finding in my vouchers that Sir Adam Gurdon was an inhabitant of 

 Selborne, and a man of the first rank and property in the parish. By 

 Sir Adam Gurdon I would be understood to mean that leading and 

 accomplished malcontent in the Mountfort faction, who distinguished 

 himself by his daring conduct in the reign of Henry III. The first 

 that we hear of this person in my papers is, that with two others he 

 was bailiff of Alton before the sixteenth of Henry III., viz., about 1231, 

 and then not knighted. Who Gurdon was, and whence he came, does 

 not appear : yet there is reason to suspect that he was originally a 

 mere soldier of fortune, who had raised himself by marrying women of 

 property. The name of Gurdon does not seem to be known in the 

 south ; but there is a name so like it in an adjoining kingdom, and 

 which belongs to two or three noble families, that it is probable this 

 remarkable person was a North Briton ; and the more so, since the 

 Christian name of Adam is a distinguished one to this day among the 

 family of the Gordons. But, be this as it may, Sir Adam Gurdon has 

 been noticed by all the writers of English history for his bold disposi- 

 tion and disaffected spirit, in that he not only figured during the 

 successful rebellion of Leicester, but kept up the war after the defeat 

 and death of that baron, entrenching himself in the woods of Hamp- 

 shire, towards the town of Farnham. After the battle of Evesham, in 

 which Mountfort fell, in the year 1265, Gurdon might not think it safe 

 to return to his house for fear of a surprise ; but cautiously fortified 

 himself amidst the forests and woodlands with which he was so well 

 acquainted. Prince Edward, desirous of putting an end to the troubles 

 which had so long harassed the kingdom, pursued the arch-rebel into 

 his fastnesses, attacked his camp, leaped over the entrenchments, and, 

 singling out Gurdon, ran him down, wounded him, and took him 

 prisoner.* 



There is not perhaps in all history a more remarkable instance of 

 command of temper, and magnanimity, than this before us : that a 

 young prince, in the moment of victory, when he had the fell adversary 

 of the crown and royal family at his mercy, should be able to withhold 

 his hand from that vengeance which the vanquished so well deserved. 

 A cowardly disposition would have been blinded by resentment ; but 

 this gallant heir-apparent saw at once a method of converting a most 

 desperate foe into a lasting friend. He raised the fallen veteran from 

 the ground, he pardoned him, he admitted him into his confidence, and 

 introduced him to the queen, then lying at Guildford, that very 



* M. Paris, p. 675, and Triveti Annale 



