OF SELBORNE. 451 



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

 being, his office rendered him an inferior in the commu- 

 nity. 1 



LETTER XII. 



2 HE ladies and daughter of Sir Adam Gurdon 

 were not the only benefactresses to the Priory 

 of Selborne ; for, in the year 1281, Ela Long- 

 spee 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. 2 In the 

 east end of the south aisle there are two sharp -pointed 

 Gothic niches ; one of these probably was the place under 



1 In two or three ancient records relating to St. Oswald's hospital in 

 the city of Worcester, printed by Dr. Nash, pp. 227 and 228 of his " Col- 

 lections 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 patronus. Va- 

 cavit dicta preceptoria seu magisterium ad preceptoriam 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, what- 

 soever 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 :" "Prc- 

 ccptorice, praedia preceptoribus assign ata." Cow ell, in his " Law Dic- 

 tionary," enumerates sixteen preceptorice, or preceptories, in England ; 

 but Sudington is not among them. It is remarkable that Gurtlcrus, in 

 his " Ilistoria Templariorum," Amstel. 161)1, never once mentions the 

 words p receptor or preceptorium. G. W. 



2 A chantry >vas 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. G. W. 



