228 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



qui" et "ibidem" should have been ibi ; ibidem necessarily having 

 reference to two or more persons ; but it will hardly be thought fair to 

 apply the niceties of classic rules to the Latinity of the thirteenth 

 century, the writers of which seem to have aimed at nothing farther 

 than to render themselves intelligible. 



There is another remark that we have made, which, I think, corro- 

 borates what has been advanced ; and that is, that Eichard Carpenter, 

 preceptor of Sudington, at the time of the transactions between the 

 Templars and Selborne Priory, did .'always sign last as a witness in 

 the three deeds ; he calls himself frater, it is true, among many other 

 brothers, but subscribes with a kind of deference, as if, for the time 

 being, his office rendered him an inferior in the community.* 



LETTEE XII. 



THE ladies and daughter of Sir Adam Gurdon were not the only 

 benefactresses to the Priory of Selborne; for, in the year 1281, Ela 

 Longspee obtained masses to be performed for her soul's health ; and 

 the prior entered into an engagement that one of the convent should 

 every day say a special mass for ever for the said benefactress, whether 

 living or dead. She also engaged within five years to pay to the said 

 convent one hundred marks of silver for the support of a chantry and 

 chantry chaplain, who should perform his masses daily in the parish 

 church of Selborne. *h In the east end of the south aisle there are two 

 sharp-pointed Gothic niches; one of these probably was the place 

 under which these masses were performed; and there is the more 

 reason to suppose as much, because, till within these thirty years, this 

 space was fenced off with Gothic wooden railing, and was known by the 

 name of the south chancel.* 



* In two or three ancient records relating to St. Oswald's Hospital in the city 

 of Worcester, printed by Dr. Nash. pp. 227, 228, of his collections for the history of 

 Worcestershire, the words preceptorium and preceptoria signify the mastership of 

 the said hospital : " ad preceptorium sive magisterium presentavit preceptorii 

 sive magisterii patrpnas. Vacavit dicta preceptoria sen magisterium ad precep- 

 toriam et regimen dicti hospitalis Te preceptorem sive magistrum prefecimus." 



Where preceptorium denotes a building or apartment it may probably mean 

 the master's lodgings, or at least the preceptor's apartment, whatsoever may have 

 been the office or employment of the said preceptor. 



A preceptor is mentioned in Thoresby's "Ducatus Leodiensis," or History of 

 Leeds, p. 225, and a deed witnessed by the preceptor and chaplain before dates 

 were inserted. Du Fresne's Supplement: " Preceptoriae, prsedia preceptoribus 

 assignata." Cowel, in his "Law Dictionary," enumerates sixteen preceptoria}, 

 or preceptories, in England ; but Sudington is not among them. It is remarkable 

 that Gurtlerus, in his "Historia Templariorum, " Amstel. 1691, never once 

 mentions the words preceptor or preceptorium. 



t A chantry was a chapel joined to some cathedral or parish church, and 

 endowed with annual revenues for the maintenance of one. or more priests to sing 

 mass daily for the soul of the founder, and others. 



t For what is said more respecting this chantry see Letter III. of these 

 Antiquities. Mention is made of a Nicholas Langrish, capellanus de Selborne, in 

 the time of Henry VIII. Was he chantry-chaplain to Ela Longspee, whose masses 

 were probably continued to the time of the Reformation ? More will be said of 

 this person hereafter. 



