OF SELSORNE. 509 



now passed since the dissolution ; a series of years that 

 would craze the stoutest edifices. But, besides the slow 

 hand of time, many circumstances have contributed to level 

 this venerable structure with the ground ; of which nothing 

 now remains but one piece of a wall of about ten feet long, 

 and as many feet high, which probably was part of an 

 out-house. 1 As early as the latter end of the reign of 

 Hen. VII. we find that a farm-house and two barns were 

 built to the south of the Priory, and undoubtedly out of its 

 materials. Avarice, again, has much contributed to the 

 overthrow of this stately pile, as long as the tenants could 

 make money of its stones or timbers. Wantonness, no 

 doubt, has had a share in the demolition ; for boys love tc 

 destroy what men venerate and admire. A remarkable 

 instance of this propensity the writer can give from his 

 own knowledge. When a schoolboy, more than fifty years 

 ago, he was eyewitness, perhaps a party concerned, in the 

 undermining a portion of that fine old ruin at the north end 

 of Basingstoke town, well known by the name of Holy Ghost 

 Chapel. Very providentially the vast fragment, which 

 these thoughtless little engineers endeavoured to sap, did 

 not give way so soon as might have been expected ; but it 

 fell the night following, and with such violence that it shook 

 the very ground, and, awakening the inhabitants of the 

 neighbouring cottages, made them start up in their beds as 

 if they had felt an earthquake. The motive for this dan- 

 gerous attempt does not so readily appear : perhaps the 

 more danger the more honour, thought the boys ; and the 

 notion of doing some mischief gave a zest to the enterprise. 

 As Dryden says upon another occasion, 



" It look'd so like a sin it pleased the more." 

 Had the Priory been only levelled to the surface of the 

 ground, the discerning eye of an antiquary might have as- 

 certained its ichnography, and some judicious hand might 

 have developed its dimensions. But, besides other ravages, 



1 This wall has since shared the fate of other portions of the Priory, 

 and the stones thereof have gone either to mend a barn or to repair a 

 road ED. 



