OF SELBOUNE, 
505 
ground at his mill according to old custom. He had also, 
according to Bishop Tanner^ secta molendini de Strete : but 
the purport of Strete, we must confess, we do not under- 
stand.' Strete, in old English, signifies a road or highway, 
as Watling Strete, &c., therefore the prior might have some 
mill on a high road. The Priory had only one mill origi- 
nally at Selborne ; but, by grants of lands, it came possessed 
of one at Durton, and one at Oakhanger, and probably some 
on its other several manors.'^ The mill at the Priory was 
in use within the memory of man, and the ruins of the 
mill-house were standing within these thirty years : the 
pond and dam, and miller^s dwelling, still remain.^ As the 
stream was apt to fail in very dry summers, the tenants 
found their situation very distressing for want of water, and 
so were forced to abandon the spot. This inconvenience 
was probably never felt in old times, when the whole dis- 
trict was nothing but woodlands : and yet several centuries 
ago there seem to have been two or three mills between 
Well-head and the Priory. 
Occasional mention has been made of the many privileges 
and immunities enjoyed by the convent and its priors ; but 
a more particular statement seems to be necessary. The 
author therefore thinks this the proper place, before he 
concludes these antiquities, to introduce all that has been 
collected by the judicious Bishop Tanner, respecting the 
Priory and its advantages, in his Notitia Monastica, a book 
now seldom seen, on account of the extravagance of its 
price ; and being but in few hands cannot be easily con- 
^ As there was another manor besides that of the Priory, in the Strete 
of Selborne, namely Sir Adam Gurdon's, possibly the privilege secta 
molendini de Strete enabled the prior to compel the vassals of that manor, 
equally with his own, to bring their corn to be ground at his mill. — Ed. 
^ Thomas Knowles, president, &c. ann. Hen. 8vi. xxiii*'. [viz. 1532.] 
devised to J. Whitelie their mills, &c. for twenty years. Rent xxiii s. 
iiii d. — Accepted Frewen, president, &c. ann. Caroli xv. [viz. 1640.] 
demised to Jo. Hook and Elizabeth, his wife, the said mills. Rent as 
above. — G. W. 
^ The miller's dwelling has long since disappeared ; and the Mill- 
field, now cultivated as a hop-ground, commemorates in name only the 
former use of the spot. — Ei>. 
