OF S EL BORNE. 
of entrenchments ; nor can I fuppofe that it was a Komnn town, 
becaufe I have too good an opinion of the tafte and judgment of 
thofe poliflied conquerors to imagine that they would fettle on fa- 
barren and dreary a wafte. 
LETTER IL 
That Selhrne v/as a place of fome diftindlion and note in the 
time of the Saxons we can give mod undoubted proofs. But, as 
there are few if any accounts of villages before Dome/day, it will 
be beft to begin with that venerable record, " Ipfe rex tenet 
Selejhurne. Eddid regina tenuit, et nunquam geldavit. Dc ifto 
manerio dono dedit rex Radfredo prefbytero dimidiam hit! am 
" cum ecclefia. Tempore regis Edzvardt et poft, valuit duodeclm 
folidos et fex denarios; modo o6lo folidos et quatuor denarlos." 
Here we fee that Selborne was a royal manor ; and that Ed'itha, the 
queen of Edzvard the ConfelTor, had been lady of that manor ; 
and was fucceeded in it by the Conqueror ; and that it had a 
church. Befide thefe, many circumftances concur to prove it to 
have been a Saxon \\l\age ; fuch as the name of the place itfelf', 
* Selejhurne, Seleburne, Selburn, Selbourn, Selborne, and Selborn, as it has been 
varloufly fpelt at different periods, is of i'lj.v 5« derivation ; iov Sel fignifies jj JYa/, and 
burn torrens, a brook or rivulet : fo that the name ieems to be derived from the gi eat 
perennial ftream that breaks out at the upper end of the village. — Sel alfo fignifies bonus, 
item, feecundus, fertilis. 8el gjejiy-tun : foccimda graminh claufura ; fertile pafcuum: 
araeadow in the parilli of Godelming is ftill called Sal-gars-ton:'' 
Lye's Saxon Diiflionary, in the Supplement, by Mr. Manning. 
the 
