XXYl.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
555 
Selborne seems to Lave derived much of its prosperity from 
the near neighbourhood of the Priory. For monasteries were of 
considerable advantage to places where they had their sites and 
estates, by causing great resort, by procuring markets and fairs, 
by freeing them from the cruel oppression of forest-laws, and by 
letting their lands at easy rates. But, as soon as the convent 
was suppressed, the town which it had occasioned began to 
decline, and the market was less frequented; the rough and 
sequestered situation gave a check to resort, and the neglected 
roads rendered it less and less accessible. 
That it had been a considerable place for size formerly 
appears from, the largeness of the church, which much exceeds 
those of the neighbouring villages; by the ancient extent of the 
burying ground, which, from human bones occasionally dug up, 
is found to have been much encroached upon ; by giving a name 
to the hundred; by the old foundations and ornamented stones 
and tracery of windows that have been discovered on the 
north-east side of the village ; and by the many vestiges of 
disused fish-ponds still to be seen around it. For ponds and 
stews were multiplied in the times of popery, that the affluent 
might enjoy some variety at their tables on fast days ; therefore 
the more they abounded the better probably was the condition 
of the inhabitants. 
