OF SELBOBNE, 
509 
now passed since tlie dissolution ; a series of years that 
"would craze the stoutest edifices. But, besides the slow 
hand of time, many circumstances have contributed to level 
this venerable structure with the ground ; of which nothing 
now remains but one piece of a wall of about ten feet long, 
and as many feet high, which probably was part of an 
out-house.^ As early as the latter end of the reign of 
Hen. YII. we find that a farm-house and two barns were 
built to the south of the Priory, and undoubtedly out of its 
materials. Avarice, again, has much contributed to the 
overthrow of this stately pile, as long as the tenants could 
make money of its stones or timbers. Wantonness, no 
doubt, has had a share in the demolition ; for boys love to 
destroy what men venerate and admire. A remarkable 
instance of this propensity the writer can give from his 
own knowledge. When a schoolboy, more than fifty years 
ago, he was eyewitness, perhaps a party concerned, in the 
undermining a portion of that fine old ruin at the north end 
of Basingstoke town, well known by the name of Holy Ghost 
Chapel. Yery providentially the vast fragment, which 
these thoughtless little engineers endeavoured to sap, did 
not give way so soon as might have been expected ; but it 
fell the night following, and with such violence that it shook 
the very ground, and, awakening the inhabitants of the 
neighbouring cottages, made them start up in their beds as 
if they had felt an earthquake. The motive for this dan- 
gerous attempt does not so readily appear : perhaps the 
more danger the more honour, thought the boys ; and the 
notion of doing some mischief gave a zest to the enterprise. 
As Dryden says upon another occasion, 
" It look'd so like a sin it pleased the more." 
Had the Priory been only levelled to the surface of the 
ground, the discerning eye of an antiquary might have as- 
certained its ichnography, and some judicious hand might 
have developed its dimensions. But, besides other ravages. 
^ This wall has since shared the fate of other portions of the Priory, 
and the stones thereof have gone either to mend a barn or to repair f 
road — Ed. 
