ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 225 



The solicitude expressed by the donor plainly shows her piety and 

 firm persuasion of the efficacy of prayers for the dead ; for she seems to 

 have made every provision for the payment of the sum stipulated within 

 the appointed time, and to have felt much anxiety lest her death, or 

 the neglect of her executors or assigns, might frustrate her intentions. 

 " Et si contingat me in solucione perdicte pecunie annis predictis in 

 parte aut in toto deficere, quod absit ; concede et obligo pro me et 



assignatis meis, quod Vice-Comes . . . Oxon et qui pro 



tempore fuerint, per omnes terras et tenementa, et omnia bona mea 

 mobilia et immobilia ubicunque in balliva sua fuerint inventa ad 

 solucionem predictam faciendam possent nos compellere." And again 

 "Et si contingat dictos religiosos labores seu expensas facere circa 

 predictam pecuniam, seu circa partem dicte pecunie; volo quod 

 dictorum religiosorum impense et labores levantur ita quod predicto 

 priori vel uni canonicorum suorum superhiis simplici verbo credatur 

 sine alterius honere probacionis ; et quod utrique predictorum virorum 

 in unam marcam argenti pro cujuslibet distrincione super me facienda 

 tenear. Dat. apud Wareborn die sabati proxima ante festum St. JVlarci 

 evangeliste, anno regni regis Edwardi tertio decimo."* 



But the reader, perhaps, would wish to be better informed respecting 

 this benefactress, of whom as yet he has heard no particulars. 



The Ela Longspee, therefore, above-mentioned, was a lady of high 

 birth and rank, and became countess to Thomas de Newburgh, the 

 sixth earl of Warwick : she was the second daughter of the famous 

 Ela Longspee, Countess of Salisbury, by William Longspee, natural son 

 of King Edward II., by Eosamond. 



Our lady, following the steps of her illustrious mother, f " was a 

 great benefactress to the University of Oxford, to the canons of Oseney, 

 the nuns of Godstow, and other religious houses in Oxfordshire. She 

 died very aged, in the year 1300,J and was buried before the high altar 

 in the abbey church of Oseney, at the head of the tomb of Henry 

 D'Oily, under a flat marble, on which was inlaid her portraiture, in the 

 habit of a vowess, engraved on a copper-plate." " Edmondson's History 

 and Genealogical Account of the Grevilles," p. 23. 



LETTER XIII, 



THE reader is here presented with the titles of five forms 

 respecting the choosing of a prior. " Charta petens licentiam 

 elegendi prelatum a Domino episcopo Wintoniensi :" " Forma licentie 



* Ancient deeds are often dated on a Sunday, having been executed in churches 

 and church-yards for the sake of notoriety, and for the conveniency of procuring 

 several witnesses to attest. 



t Ela Longspee, Countess of Salisbury, in 1232, founded a monastery at Lacock, 

 in the county of Wilts, and also another at Hendon, in the county of Somerset, 

 in her widowhood, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin and St. Bernard. CAMDEN. 



J Thus she survived the foundation of her chantry at Selborne fifteen years. 

 About this lady and her mother consult Dugdale's "Baronage," i. 72, 175J 177 ; 

 Dugdale's "Warwickshire," i. 383 ; Leland's " Itin." ii. 45. 



