•OF SEX BORNE. 
343 
feen- inftances, 'from the pope; not only for convenience-fake, 
and on account of diftance, and the badnefs of the roads, but as 
a. matter of fl'ate and diftindion. Why the owner Ihould apply 
to. the prior, in preference to the bijlop of the dtocefe, and how the 
former became competent to fjch a grant, I cannot fay; but that 
the priors of Selborne did take, that privilege is plain, becaufe fome 
years afterward, in 1280, Prior Richard granted to Henry E^aterford 
and:his wife iV/V^o/^?i3'a licenfe to build an oratory m their court- 
hbufe, " curia fua de.Waterford,'" in which they might celebrate 
dtvine.fervice,. faving.the rights o-f the mother church of Bajynges. 
Yet all the while the prior of Selborne grants with fuch referve and 
caution, as if ih doubt' of his power, and leaves Gurdon and his 
lady anfwerable' in future to the bilhop, or his ordinary, or to the 
vicar for the time being, in cafe they fhould infringe the rights of 
the mother church of Selborne. 
The manor-houfe called Temple is at prefent a fingle buildings 
running in length from fouth to north, and has been occupied as 
a common farm houfe from time immemorial. The fouth end is 
modern, and confifts of a brew-houfe, and then a kitchen. The 
middle part is an hall twenty-feven 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 alfo a chimney in the weftern wall. The 
roofing confifts of ftrong maffive rafter-work ornamented with 
carved rofes. . I have often looked for the lamb and fag, the arms 
of the knights templars, without faccefs ; but in one corner found a 
a fox with a goofe on his back, fo coarfely executed, that it re- 
quired fome attention to make out the device. 
Beyond the hall to the north is a fmall parlour with a vaft heavy 
ftone chimney-piece ; and, at the end of all, the chapel ov oratory^ 
whofe maffive thick walls and narrow windows at once befpeak, 
. . - great 
