OF bELBOBNE. 
513 
almanack that there had been a fair here in former days on the 
1st of August; and were desirous to revive so joyous a 
festival. Against this innovation the vicar set his face, and 
persisted in crying it down, as the probable occasion of 
much intemperance. However the fair prevailed ; but was 
altered to the 29th of May, because the former day often 
interfered with wheat harvest. On that day it still con- 
tinues to be held, and is become a useful mart for cows and 
calves. Most of the lower housekeepers brew beer against 
this holiday, which is dutied by the excisemen ; and their 
becoming victuallers for the day without a license is over- 
looked. 
Monasteries enjoyed all sorts of conveniences within 
themselves. Thus at the Priory, a low and moist situation, 
there were ponds and stews for their fish : at the same place 
also, and at the Grrange in Culver Croft,^ there were dove- 
houses ; and on the hill opposite to the Grrange the prior 
had a warren, as the names of The Coney Crofts and Coney 
Croft Hanger plainly testify.^ 
Nothing has been said as yet respecting the tenure or 
holding of the Selborne estates. Temple and Norton are 
manor farms and freehold ; as is the manor of Chapel near 
Oakhanger, and also the estate at Oakhanger House and 
Blackmoor. The Priory and Grange are leasehold under 
Magdalen College, for twenty-one years, renewable every 
seven : all the smaller estates in and round the village are 
copyhold of inheritance under the college, except the little 
remains of the Gurdon manor, which had been of old leased 
out upon lives, but have been freed of late by their present 
lord, as fast as those lives have dropped. 
Selborne seems to have derived much of its prosperity 
from the near neighbourhood of the Priory. For monas- 
teries were of considerable advantage to places where they 
had their sites and estates, by causing great resort, by pro- 
curing markets and fairs, by freeing them from the cruel 
oppression of forest laws and by letting their lands at easy 
Culver, as has been observed before, is Saxon for a pigeon — G. W. 
A warren was an usual appendage to a manor.— G, W. 
