OF SELBORNE 315 



very spot which tradition has always pointed out as having been 

 the site of the convent kitchen. This clumsy utensil,' whether 

 intended for holy water, or whatever purpose, we were going to 

 procure, but found that the labourers had just broken it in pieces, 

 and carried it out on the highways. 



The Priory of Selbome had possessed in this village a Grange, 

 an usual appendage to manerial estates, where the fruits of their 

 lands were stowed and laid up for use, at a time when men took 

 the natural produce of their estates in kind. The mansion of 

 this spot is still called the Grange, and is the manor-house of 

 the convent possessions in this place. The author has conversed 

 with very ancient people who remembered the old original 

 Grange; but it has long given place to a modern farm-house. 

 Magdalen College holds a court-leet and court-baron ^ in the great 

 wheat-barn of the said Grange, aimually, where the President 

 usually superintends, attended by the bursar and steward of the 

 college.* 



The following uncommon presentment at the court is not 

 unworthy of notice. There is on the south side of the king's 

 field (a large common-field so called) a considerable tumulus, or 

 hillock, now covered with thorns and bushes, and known by the 

 name of Kite's Hill, which is presented, year by year, in court as 

 not ploughed. Why this injunction is still kept up respecting 

 this spot, which is surrounded on all sides by arable land, may be 

 a question not easily solved, since the usage has long survived 

 the knowledge of the intention thereof We can only suppose 

 that as the prior, besides thurset and pillory, had also furcas, a 

 power of life and death, that he might have reserved this little 

 eminence as the place of execution for delinquents. And there 

 is the more reason to suppose so, since a spot just by is called 

 Gaily [Gallows] hill. 



The lower part of the village next the Grange, in which is 

 a pond and a stream, is well known by the name of Gracious- 

 street, an appellation not at all understood. There is a lake in 

 Surrey, near Chohham, called also Gracious-pond : and another, if 



1 A judicious antiquary, who saw this vase, observed, that it possibly might have 

 been a standard measure between the monastery and it's tenants. The priory we 

 have mentioned claimed the assize of bread and beer in Seliorne manor ; and pro- 

 bably the adjustment of dry measures for grain, &c. 



2 The time when this court is held is the mid-week between Easter and Whit- 

 suntide. 



^Owen Oglethorp, president, &c. an. Edw. Sexti, primo [viz. 1547.] demised to 

 Soiert Arden Seliorne Grange for twenty years. Rent wi^.—/ndex of Leases. 



