220 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



common farmhouse from time immemorial. The south end is modern, 

 and consists of a brewhouse, 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 ornamented with carved roses. I have often 

 looked for the lamb and flag, the arms of the knights templars, with- 

 out success ; but in one corner found a fox with a goose on his back, 

 so coarsely executed, that it required some attention 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 worship ; for it has at present 

 much more the appearance of a dungeon than of a room fit for the 

 reception of people of condition. The field on which his oratory abuts 

 is called Chapel-field. The situation of this house is very particular, 

 for it stands upon the immediate verge of a steep abrupt hill. 



Not many years since this place was used for a hop-kiln, and was 

 divided into two stories by a loft, part of which remains at present, and 

 makes it convenient for peat and turf, with which it is stowed. 



LETTEE X. 



THE Priory at times was much obliged to Gurdon and his family. As 

 Sir Adam began to advance in years he found his mind influenced by 

 the prevailing opinion of the reasonableness and eflicacy of prayers for 

 the dead ; and therefore, in conjunction with his wife Constantia, in 

 the year 1271, granted to the prior and convent of Selborne all his 

 right and claim to a certain place, placea, called " La Play stow," in the 

 village aforesaid, "in liberam, puram, et perpetuam elemosinam." 

 This Pleystow,* locus ludorum, or play-place, is a level area near the 

 church of about forty -four yards by thirty-six, and is known now by the 

 name of the Plestor.f 



It continues still, as it was in old times, to be the scene of recreation 

 for the youths and children of the neighbourhood ; and impresses an 

 idea on the mind that this village, even in Saxon times, could not be 

 the most abject of places, when the inhabitants thought proper to 



* In Saxon Pie^ertOp, or Plegrtrop ; viz., Plegestow, or Plegstow. 



t At this juncture probably the vast oak, mentioned p. 6, was planted by the 

 prior, as an ornament to his new acquired market-place. According to this 

 supposition the oak was aged 432 years when blown down. 



