236 ANTIQUITIES OP SELBORXE. 



and liberality, discharged the whole debts of the prior and convent of 

 Selborne, to the amount of one hundred and ten marks eleven shillings 

 and sixpence ; * and, a few years before he died, he made a free gift of 

 one hundred marks to the same priory : on which account the prior and 

 convent voluntarily engaged for the celebration of two masses a day by 

 two canons of the convent for ten years, for the bishop's welfare, if he 

 should live so long ; and for his soul if he should die before the 

 expiration of this term." f 



At this distance of time it seems matter of great wonder to us how 

 these societies, so nobly endowed, and whose members were exempt 

 by their very institution from every means of personal and family 

 expense, could possibly run in debt without squandering their revenues 

 in a manner incompatible with their function. 



Religious houses might sometimes be distressed in their revenues 

 by fires among their buildings, or large dilapidations from storms, &c. ; 

 but no such accident appears to have befallen the priory at Selborne. 

 Those situate on public roads, or in great towns where there were 

 shrines of saints, were liable to be intruded on by travellers, devotees, 

 and pilgrims ; and were subject to the importunity of the poor, who 

 swarmed at their gates to partake of doles and broken victuals. Of 

 these disadvantages some convents used to complain, and especially 

 those at Canterbury ; but this priory, from its sequestered situation, 

 could seldom be subject to either of these inconveniences, and therefore 

 we must attribute its frequent debts and embarrassments, well endowed 

 as it was, to the bad conduct of its members, and a general inattention 

 to the interests of the institution. 



LETTEE XVI. 



BEAUFORT was bishop of Winchester from 1405 to 1447; and yet, 

 notwithstanding this long episcopate, only torn. i. of " Beaufort's 

 Eegister " is to be found. This loss is much to be regretted, as it must 

 unavoidably make a gap in the history of Selborne Priory, and perhaps 

 in the list of its priors. 



In 1410 there was an election for a prior, and again in 1411. 



In vol. i., p. 24, of " Beaufort's Register," is the instrument of the 

 election of John Wynchestre to be prior the substance as follows : 



Richard Elstede, senior canon, signifies to the bishop that brother 

 Thomas Weston, the late prior, died October 18th, 1410, and was 

 buried November llth. That the bishop's license to elect having been 

 obtained he and the whole convent met in the chapter-house, on the 

 same day about the hour of vespers, to consider of the election ; that 

 brother John Wynchestre, then sub-prior, with the general consent, 

 appointed the 12th of November, ad horam ejusdem diei capittdarem, 

 -for the business ; when they met in the chapter-house, post missam de 



* Yet in ten years time we find, by the "Notabilis Visitatio," that all their 

 relics, plate, vestments, title-deeds, &c., were in pawn. 

 t Lowth's Life of Wykeham. 



