426 
A N T I Q^U I T I E S 
Nothing has been faid as yet refpefting the tenure or holding 
of the Selborne eftates. T^emple and Norton are manor farms and 
freehold ; as is the manor of Chapel near Oakhanger, and alfo the 
eftate at Oakhanger-houfe and Black-moor. The Priory and Grange 
are leafehold under Magdalen college, for twenty-one years, renew- 
able every feven : all the fmaller eftates in and round the village 
are copyhold of inheritance under the college, except the little 
remains of the Gurdon-manor, which had been of old leafed out 
upon lives, but have been freed of late by their prefent lord, as 
faft as thofe lives have dropped. 
Selborne feems to have derived much of it's profperity from the 
near neighbourhood of the Priory. For monafteries were of con- 
fiderable advantage to places where they had their fites and 
eftates, by caufing great refort, by procuring markets and fairs, 
by freeing them from the cruel opprefTion of foreft-laws, and by 
letting their lands at eafy rates. But, as foon as the convent v^^as 
fuppreffed, the town which it had occafioned began to decline, 
and the market was lefs frequented; the rough and fequeftered 
fituation gave a check to refort, and the negleded roads rendered 
it lefs and lefs accefiible 
That it had been a confiderable place for fize formerly appears 
from the largenefs of the church, which much exceeds thofe of 
the neighbouring villages; by the ancient extent of the burying 
ground, which, from human bones occalionally dug up, is found 
to have been much encroached upon ; by giving a name to the 
hundred; by the old foundations and ornamented ftones, and 
tracery of windows that have been difcovered on the north-eafl 
fide of the village; and by the many veiligcs of difufed fifli- 
ponds ftill to be feen around it. For ponds and ftews were multi- 
plied in the times of popery, that the affluent might enjoy fome 
variety 
