The Priory of Selborne had póflefled in this village a Grange, an
ufnal appendage to manerial eftates, where the fruits of their lands
were flowed and laid up for ufe, at a time when men took the natural
produce of their eftates in kind. The manfion -of this fpot is ftili
called the Grange, and is the manor-houfe of the convent poflef-
fions in this place. The author has cönverfed with very ancient
people who remembered the old original Grange; but it has long
given place to a modern farm-houfe. ‘Magdalen College holds a
court-leet and court-baron“ in the great wheat-barn of the faid
Grange, annually, where the Prefident ufually fuperintends, attended
by the burfar andfeward of the college, p
The following uncommon prefentment at the court is not unworthy
of notice. There is on the fouth fide of the-king’s field,
(a large common-field fo -called) a confiderable tumulus, or
hillock, now covered-with thorns-and bulhes, and known by the
name of Kite’s Hill, which is prefented, year by year, in court as not
ploughed. Why this »injundtion is ftili kept up-refpedting this fpot,
which is furrounded on all fides by arable land, may be a queftion
noteafily folved, fincethe ufage has longfurvivëd the knowledge
of the intention thereof. We can only fuppofe that as the prior,
befides thurfet and pillory, had alfo fur cat, a power of life and
death, that he might havé-refervëd this little eminence as the
place of execution for .delinquents. And there is the more reafon
to fuppofe fo, fince a fpot juft by is called Gaily [Gallows] hill. •
• Thetime«henthiacourtishaaisBiemrd-weékbetween£«/trr zn&Wbitfuntide.
p 0<wen Oglethorpe, • prefident, See. an. Edov. S e x t i , primo [viz. 1547.3 demited
j£o Robert Arden Selbome' Grange i£or twenty years. -Kent vi‘t - -Index. 'o f Leaps.
The
; The lower part dfi the. village) next the GrMg(, in which is a
pond and a ftreara, is well knbwm by the name of Gracious-Jlrcet,
an i appellation not at Call- underftood, There iis'a. lake in Surrey,
near Chobham, called alfo Graeious-.pmd: and another, if we miftake
not, hear Hedleigh, in the county of Hants, This ftrange denomination
we do not at all comprehend, and conclude that it may
be a corruption from foitte Saxon word, itfelf pci'haps forgotten.
It has been obferved already, that Bifhop banner was miftake®
when he refers to an evidence of B.oifwor.th “ Be mercatu et feri a
de Seleburne.” Selborne never had a chartered fair; the prefent
fair was let up fince the year 1681, by a fet of jovial fellows, who
had found in an old almanack that there had been a.-fair here in
former days on the firft olAuguf; and were defirous to revive fo
joyous a feftival. Againft this innovation the vicar fet his face, and
perfifted in crying it down, as the probable occafion of much intemperance.
However the fair prevailed; but was altered to the
t-wenty-nirith of May, becaufe theiformer day.-often interfered with
wheat-haf-Veft. On that day;it ftili continues to be held, and is become
an: üfeful mart for cows and calves. Moft of the -lower
houfe-keepers brew beer againft this holiday, which is dutied by
the exdfeman; and their becoming vidtuallers for the day without
a licenfe is overlooked.
Monafteries enjoyed all forts of conVeniencies within themfelves.
Thus at the Priory, a low andmoift fituation, there were ponds
and ftews for their f ill: at the fame place alfo,. and,at the Grange
cin Culver-croft, there were doVe-houfes; and on the hill oppofite
to the Grange the prior had a warren, as the names of -the Coney-
crofts and Coney-croft jfe»|-rr;plainly:teftify
' < Ctllvery as has been obferved before,. is Saxon for a pigeon.
* A warren was an ufiVal appendage to a manor,
I i i Nothing