314 A N T I QJJ I T I E S 
that, whatever might be the occafion of Ken's firft fall, the fubfe- 
quent ones feem to have been detigned. The fcullion appears 
to have been an artful fellow, and to have feen the king's foible; 
which furnilhes an early fpecimen of that his eafy foftnefs and 
facility of temper, of which the infamous GaveJIon took fuch ad- 
vantages, as brought innumerable calamities on the nation, and 
involved the prince at laft in misfortunes and fufFerings too de- 
plorable to be mentioned v/irhout horror and amazement. 
LETTER IIL 
i"* ROM the filence of Dome/day refpefting churches, it has been' 
fuppofed that few villages had any at the time when that record 
was taken; but Selborne, we fee, enjoyed the benefit of one; 
hence we may conclude, that this place was in no abjeft flate even 
at that very dlftant period. How many fabrics have fucceeded 
each other lince the days of Radfredrus the prefhyier, we cannot 
pretend to fay ; our bufinefs leads us to a defcription of the pre- 
fent edifice, in which we fhall be circLimflantial. 
Our church, which was dedicated to the Firgin Mary, confifts 
of three ailes, and meafures fifty-four feet in length by forty- 
feven in breadth, being almofh as broad as it is long. The pre- 
fent building has no pretenfions to antiquity ; and is, as I fuppofc;, 
of no ea]-her date than the beginning of the reign oi Henry Yll. 
It 
