220 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
common farmhouse from time immemorial. The south end is modern, 
and consists of a brewhouse, and then a kitchen. The middle part is 
an hall twenty -seven feet in length, and nineteen feet in breadth ; and 
has been formerly open to the top, but there is now a floor above it, 
and also a chimney in the western wall. The roofing consists of 
strong massive rafter-work ornamented with carved roses. I have often 
looked for the lamb and flag, the arms of the knights templars, with- 
out success ; but in one corner found a fox with a goose on his back, 
so coarsely executed, that it required some attention to make out the 
device. 
Beyond the hall to the north is a small parlour with a vast heavy 
stone chimney-piece, and at the end of all the chapel or oratory, 
whose massive thick walls and narrow windows at once bespeak great 
antiquity. This room is only sixteen feet by sixteen feet eight inches ; 
and full seventeen feet nine inches in height. The ceiling is formed of 
vast joists, placed only five or six inches apart. Modern delicacy would 
not much approve of such a place of worship ; for it has at present 
much more the appearance of a dungeon than of a room fit for the 
reception of people of condition. The field on which his oratory abuts 
is called Chapel-field. The situation of this house is very particular, 
for it stands upon the immediate verge of a steep abrupt hill. 
Not many years since this place was used for a hop-kiln, and was 
divided into two stories by a loft, part of which remains at present, and 
makes it convenient for peat and turf, with which it is stowed. 
LETTEE X. 
The Priory at times was much obliged to Gurdon and his family. As 
Sir Adam began to advance in years he found his mind influenced by 
the prevailing opinion of the reasonableness and efficacy of prayers for 
the dead ; and therefore, in conjunction with his wife Constantia, in 
the year 1271, granted to the prior and convent of Selborne all his 
right and claim to a certain place, placea, called " La Playstow," in the 
village aforesaid, in liheram, puram, et perpetuam elemosinam" 
This Pleystow,"^ locus ludorum, or play-place, is a level area near the 
church of about forty-four yards by thirty-six, and is known now by the 
name of the Plestor.f 
It continues still, as it was in old times, to be the scene of recreation 
for the youths and children of the neighbourhood ; 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 
* In Saxon Pie^eptrOp, or Ple^ftop ; viz., Plegestow, or Plegstow. 
t At this juncture probably the vast oak, mentioned p. 6, was planted by the 
prior, as an ornament to his new acquired market-place. According to this 
supposition the oak was aged 432 years when blown down. 
