434 ANTIQUITIES 



the right of Pillory, Thurcet, and Furcas, and every mano- 

 rial privilege. 



I find next a grant from Jo. de Venur, or Venuz, to the 

 prior of Selborne "de tota mora [a moor or bog] ubi Bene 

 oritur, usque ad campum vivarii, et de prato voc. Syden- 

 meade cum abutt : et de cursu aque molendini." And also 

 a grant in reversion ' ' unius virgate terre " [a yard land] in 

 Achangre at the death of Eichard Actedene his sister's 

 husband, who had no child. He was to present a pair of 

 gloves of one penny value to the prior and canons, to be 

 given annually by the said Eichard j and to quit all claim 

 to the said lands in reversion, provided the prior and canons 

 would engage annually to pay to the king, through the 

 hands of his bailiffs of Aulton, ten shillings at four quar- 

 terly payments, a pro omnibus serviciis, consuetudinibus, 

 exactionibus, et demandis." 



This Jo. de Venur was a man of property at Oakhanger, 

 and lived probably at the spot now called Chapel Farm. 

 The grant bears date the seventeenth year of the reign of 

 Henry III. [viz. 1233]. 



It would be tedious to enumerate every little grant for 

 lands or tenements that might be produced from my 

 vouchers. I shall, therefore, pass over all such for the 

 present, and conclude this letter with a remark that must 

 strike every thinking person with some degree of wonder. 

 No sooner had a monastic institution got a footing, but the 

 neighbourhood began to be touched with a secret and reli- 

 gious awe. Every person round was desirous to promote 

 so good a work ; and either by sale, by grant, or by gift in 

 reversion, was ambitious of appearing a benefactor. They 

 who had not lands to spare gave roads to accommodate the 

 infant foundation. The religious were not backward in 

 keeping up this pious propensity, which they observed so 

 readily influenced the breasts of men. Thus did the more 

 opulent monasteries add house to house, and field to field ; 

 and, by degrees, manor to manor, till at last " there was no 

 place left " but every district around became appropriated 

 to the purposes of their founders, and every precinct was 

 drawn into the vortex. 



