ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
359 
dictorum virorum in unam marcam argenti pro cujuslibet distrin- 
cione super me facienda tenear. — Dat. apud Wareborn die sabati 
proxima ante festum St. Marci evangeliste, anno regni regis 
Edwardi tertio decimo."* 
But the reader perhaps would wish to be better informed 
respecting this benefactress, of whom as yet he has heard no 
particulars. 
The Ela Longspee therefore . above-mentioned was a lady of 
high birth and rank, and became countess to Thomas de New- 
burgh, the sixth earl of Warwick : she was the second daughter 
of the famous Ela Longspee, countess of Salisbury, by William 
Longspee, natural son of king Henry IL by Rosamond. 
Our lady, following the steps of her illustrious mother,t was a 
great benefactress to the university of Oxford, to the canons of 
Oseney, the nuns of Godstow, and other religious houses in Ox- 
fordshire. She died very aged in the year 1300, J: and was buried 
before the high altar in the abbey church of Oseney, at the head 
of the tomb of Henry D'Oily, under a flat marble, on which was 
inlaid her portraiture, in the habit of a vowess, engraved on a 
copper-plate " — Edmonson's History and Genealogical Account 
of the Grevilles, p. 23. 
LETOER XHL 
The reader is here presented with five forms respecting the 
choosing of a prior.§ Such evidences are rare and curious, and 
* Ancient deeds are often dated on a Sunday, having been executed in churches and church- 
yards for the sake of notoriety, and for the coaveniency of procuring several witnesses to attest. 
t Ela Longspee, countess of Salisbury, in 1232 founded a monastery at Lacock, in the county 
of Wilts, and also anotlier at Hendon, in the county of Somerset, in her widewhood, to the honour 
of the Blessed Virgin and St. Bernard. — Camden. 
t Thus she survived the foundation of her cha«try at Selborne fifteen years. About this lady 
ind her mother consult Dugdale's Baronage, I. 72, 1/5, 177 — Dugdale's Warwickshire, 1. 383,— 
Leland's Itin. II. 45. 
§ Carta, pbtkns licbntiam ei.i6endi phelatum a Domixo Episcopo Wintonibnsi. 
Defuncto prelato forma petendi licentiam eligendi. 
Domino et patri in Christo reverendo domino et P. Dei gratia Wintoniensi episcopo, devoti su 
Alii supprior monasterii de S. U intoaiensis dioceseos salutem cum subjectioue humili, reveren- 
cidm, et honorem. Monasterio nostro de S. in quo sub protectione vestra vivimus, sub habitu 
regulari, Prioris solacio destituto per mortem bone memorie, &c. quondam Prioris nostri, qui tali 
hora in aurora diem clausit extremum, vestre paternitati reverende et dominationi precipue istum 
nostrum et nostri monasterii casum flebilem cum merore nunciamus ; ad vestre paternitatis re- 
fugium fratres nostres A. et C. canonicos destinantes, rogando et petendo devote quatanus nobis 
digcemini licenciam tribuere, ut monasterio predicto, Prioris regimine destituto, providere possi« 
