OF SELBORNE. 
439 
Religious houses might sometimes be distressed in tlicir 
revenues by fires among their buildings,, or large dilapida- 
tions from storms, &c. ; but no such accident appears to 
have befallen the Prior j of Selborne. Those situate on 
public roads, or in great towns, where there were shrines 
of saints, were liable to be intruded on by traveP-ers, de- 
votees, and pilgrims; and were subject to the importunity 
of the poor, who swarmed at their gates to partake of doles 
and broken victuals. Of these disadvantages some convents 
used to complain, and especially those at Canterbury; but 
this priory, from its sequestered situation, could seldom be 
subject to either of these inconveniences, and therefore we 
must attribute its frequent debts and embarrassments, well 
endowed as it was, to the bad conduct of its members, and 
a general inattention to the interests of the institution. 
LETTER XVL 
EAUFORT was Bishop of Winchester from 
1405 to 1447 ; and yet, notwithstanding this 
long episcopate, only tom. i. of Beaufort's 
Register is to be found. This loss is much 
to be regretted, as it must unavoidably make 
a gap in the History of Selborne Priory, and perhaps in the 
list of its priors. 
In 1410 there was an election for a prior, and again in 
1411. 
In vol. i. p. 24, of Beaufort's Register, is the instrument 
of the election of John Wynchestre to be prior — the sub- 
stance as follows : — 
Richard Elstede, senior canon, signifies to the bishop 
that brother Thomas Weston, the late prior, died October 
18th, 1410, and was buried November 11th. That the bishop^s 
license to elect having been obtained, he and the whole 
convent met in the chapter-house, on the same day, about 
the hour of vespers, to consider of the election : — that 
brother John Wynchestre, then sub-prior, with the general 
