ANTiaUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
401 
LETTER XXVI. 
Though the evidences and documents of tlie Priory and parish 
of Selborne are now at an end, as yet, the author has still several 
things to say respecting the present state of that convent and its 
Grange, and other matters, he does not see how he can acquit 
himself of the subject without trespassing again on the patience 
of the reader by adding one supplementary letter. 
No sooner did the Priory (perhaps much out of repair at the 
time) become an appendage to the cottage, but it must at once 
have tended to swift decay. Magdalene College wanted now 
only two chambers for the chantry priest and his assistant ; and 
therefore had no occasion for the hall, dormitory, and other 
spacious apartments belonging to so large a foundation. The 
roofs neglected, would soon become the possession of daws and 
owls ; and, being rotted and decayed by the weather, would fall 
in upon the floors; so that all parts must have hastened to speedy 
dilapidation and a scene of broken ruins. Three full centuries 
have now passed since the 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 vener- 
able 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. VII. we find that a farm-house 
and two barns were built to the south of the *Priory, and un- 
doubtedly out of its materials. Avarice again has much con- 
tributed to the overthrow of this stately pile, as long as the 
tenants could make money of its stones, or timbers. Wanton- 
ness, 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 eye-wit- 
ness, perhaps a party concerned, in the undermining of a portion 
of that fine old ruin at the north end of Basingstoke town, well 
* This wall has at last shared the fate of the other portions of the Priory. The farmer who 
rents the place wanted a few stones, and down went the wall. The site of the Priory is still 
covered with fragments of the building, amongst which I observed some line specimens of tes- 
selated pavements, fragments of pilasters, &c. In digging amongst the foundations, a few years 
ago, two stone-coffins were discovered, in one of which was a skeleton tolerably perfect. The 
coffins are now in the farm-yard, but have nothing about them to distinguish them from other 
similar memorials of mortality/. — D. 
2 D 
