268 THE ANTIQUITIES 



The occasion of this armament appears also from a summons 

 to the bishop of Winchester to parhament, part of which I shall 

 transcribe on account of the insolent menace which is said therein 

 to have been denounced against the English language : — -" qualiter 

 " rex Francice de terra nostra Gascon nos fraudulenter et cautelose 

 " decepit, earn nobis nequiter detinendo . . . vero predictis fraude 

 " et nequitia non contentus, ad expurgationem regni nostri classe 

 " maxima et bellatorum copiosa multitudine congregatis, cum quibus 

 " regnum nostrum et regni ejusdem incolas hostiliter jam invasurus, 

 " linguam Anglicam, si concepte iniquitatis proposito detestabili 

 " potestas correspondeat, quod Deus avertat, omnino de terra delere 

 "proponit ". Dated 30th September, in the year of king Edward's 

 reign xxiii.^ 



The above are the last traces that I can discover of Gurdon's 

 appearing and acting in pubUc. The first notice that my evi- 

 dences give of him is, that, in 1232, being the ]6th of Henry III. 

 he was the king's bailiff, with others, for the town of Alton. 

 Now, from 1232 to 1295 is a space of sixty-three years; a long 

 period for one man to be employed in active life ! Should any 

 one doubt whether all these particulars can relate to one and the 

 same person, I should wish him to attend to the following reasons 

 why they might. In the first place, the documents from the 

 priory mention but one Sir Adam Gurdon, who had no son law- 

 fully begotten : and in the next, we are to recollect that he must 

 have probably been a man of uncommon vigour both of mind 

 and body ; since no one, unsupported by such accomplishments, 

 could have engaged in such adventures, or could have borne 

 up against the difficulties which he sometimes must have en- 

 countered : and, moreover, we have modern instances of persons 

 that have maintained their abilities for near that period. 



Were we to suppose Gurdon to be only twenty years of age in 

 1232, in 1295 he would be eighty-three ; after which advanced 

 period it could not be expected that he should live long. From 

 the silence, therefore, of my evidences it seems probable that 

 this extraordinary person finished his life in peace, not long after, 

 at his mansion of Temple. Gurdon's seal had for it's device — a 

 man, with a helmet on his head, drawing a cross-bow ; the 

 legend, " Sigillum Ade de Gurdon"; his arms were, "Goulis, iii 

 " floures argent issant de testes de leopards ".^ 



' Reg. Wynton, Stratford, but query Stratford ; for Stratford was not bishop 

 of Winton till 1323, near thirty years afterwards. 



2 From the collection of Thomas Martin, Esq. in the Antiquarian Repertory, 

 p. 109, N» XXXI. 



