440 
ANTIQUITIES 
It continues still, as it was in old times, to be the scene 
of recreation for the youths and children of the neighbour- 
hood ; and impresses an idea on the mind that this village, 
even in Saxon times, could not be the most abject of places, 
when the inhabitants thought proper to assign so spacious a 
spot for the sports and amusements of its young people/ 
THE PLESTOR. 
As soon as the prior became possessed of this piece of 
ground, he procured a charter for a market^ from King 
Henry III., and began to erect houses and stalls, seldas/' 
around it. From this period Selborne became a market 
town, but how long it enjoyed that privilege does not 
^ For more circumstances respecting the Plestor, see Letter II. to 
Mr Pennant. — G. W. 
Bishop Tanner, in his I^otitia Monastica, has made a mistake re- 
specting the market and fair at Selborne ; for, in his references to Dods- 
worth, cart. 54 Hen. III. m. 3. he says, " De mercatu, et feria de Sele- 
ouriir But this reference is wrong ; for, instead of Seleburn, it proves 
that the place there meant was Lekeborne or Legeborn, in the county 
of Lincoln. This error was copied from the index of the Cat. MSS. 
Angl. It does not appear that there ever was a chartered fair at Sel- 
borne. For several particulars respecting the present fair at Selborne 
see Letter XXVI. of these Antiquities. — G. W. 
