THE ANTIQUITIES 
[LETT. 
LETTER IT. 
That Selborne was a place of some distinction and note in the 
time of the Saxons we can give most undoubted proofs. But as 
there are few, if any, accounts of villages before Domesday, it 
will be best to begin with that venerable record. " Ipse rex tenet 
Selesburne. Eddid regina tenuit, et nung[uam geldavit. De isto 
manerio dono dedit rex Eadfredo presbytero dimidiam hidam 
cum ecclesia. Tempore regis Edwardi et post, valuit duodecim 
solidos et sex denarios ; modo octo solidos et quatuor denarios." 
Here we see that Selborne was a royal manor ; and that Editba 
the queen of Edward the Confessor, had been lady of that 
manor; and was succeeded in it by the Conqueror; and that 
it had a church. Beside these, many circumstances concur to 
prove it to have been a Saxon village ; such as the name of the 
place itself,^ the names of many fields, and some families,^ with 
1 Selesburne, Selebiirne, Selbnrn, Selbourn, Selborne, and Selborn, as it 
lias been variously spelt at different periods, is of Saxon derivation ; for Se 
signifies great, and buim torrents, a brook or rivulet : so that the name seems 
to be derived from the great perennial stream that breaks out at the upper 
end of the village. Sel also signifies bonus, item, fmcundus, fertilis. " bel- 
ssepf-run : fcecunda graminis clausura ; fertile pascuum : a meadow in the 
parish of Godelming is still called Sal-gars-ton." — Lye's Saxon Dictionary, 
in the Supplement, by Mr. Manning. 
2 Thus the name oi Akhed signifies all-reverend, and that of Kemp means 
a soldier. Thus we have a church-litton, or inclosure for dead bodies, and 
not a church-yard : there is also a Culver-craft near the Grange-farm, being 
the inclosure wliere the priory pigeon-house stood, from culver a pigeon. 
Again there are three steep pastures in this parish called the Lithe, from 
Hlithe, clivus. The wicker-work that binds and fastens down a hedge on 
the top is called ether, from ether a hedge. When the good women call 
their hogs they cry sic, sic,'^ not knowing that sic is Saxon, or rather Celtic, 
for a hog. Coppice or brushwood our countrymen call rise, from hris, 
frondes ; and talk of a load of rise. Within the author's memory the Saxon 
plurals, housen and peason, were in common use. But it would be endless 
to instance in every circumstance : he that wishes for more specimens must 
I " lUa, porcus, apud Lacones ; un porceaucliez les Lacedemoniens : ce mot a sans doute este 
pris des Celtes, qui discent sic pour marquer un porceau. Encore aujonr'huy quand les Bretons 
chassent ces animaux, ils ne disent point autrement que sic, sic." — Antiquite de la Nation et de 
la Langice des Celtes, par Pezron. 
