with the Hospital of Lepers founded here by Henry de Hoese, or Berengar may have intended to make Dureford a cell to Welbeck; for in an early document of the time of Henry II, 'AILDRIC, Prior of Dureford," appears as the first witness to a grant of land to the monastery of St. Denys, on the river Itchen, given by Geoffry Hoese (Hosatus), and several others of his family, namely, Henry, Gilbert, William, Hosatus de Ba, Hubert, Walter, and William, William the clerk of Froxfield."

This arrangement, at any rate, did not continue long, as we find in the next episcopal charter, that of Bishop John (1173— 1180), the name of ROBERT, as abbot of Dureford.

"John, by the grace of God, Bishop of Chichester, to all the sons of Mother Church, to whom the present Charter may come, greeting in Christ. "Although our wish is to respect the rights of all men, yet are we more strictly bound towards those committed to our care, who, by their consecration to religion, and the sweet-smelling reputation of pious devotion, are proved to be continually, and with one accord, fighting for Christ, and we must, with a more attentive anxiety, watch, lest their rights should be in any way impaired.

"Wherefore, by the consent of our Chapter, we have confirmed to our dear son ROBERT, Abbot of Dereford, and his brethren there serving God, and all their successors canonically appointed, the church of the Holy Mother of God and always Virgin Mary, and of St. John the Baptist at Dureford, in which they are devoted to divine services, with all its appurtenances, and we take them under the protection of the Holy Trinity and of ourselves, thinking it right to specify them in these words: by the gift of Henry Hose the site itself, which is called Dureford, with its curtilege as marked out by the position of the boundaries (cum adjacentiis suis, sicut terminorum designat positio et cum incrementis), and with the additions which Henry Hose the younger, his heir, has given them, as his deed witnesseth; by the gift of Gernagan and his wife, that land which Alwyn Bulluc has held; by the gift of Walter Hose de Stapulford, the land which Walter the wheelwright (redarius) has held. These and all other gifts which may reasonably and justly be offered to them hereafter in our Diocese, We grant and confirm to be for ever profitable to their use. Moreover, as to the Indulgence granted to them by the privilege of the Roman Chair, that any person of the Diocese of Chichester who may choose to be buried among them (apud ipsos), unless he has been excommunicated or interdicted, might be there freely buried, We assent, reserving however the compensation due to that church from which the dead body shall have been removed.-Witnesses ❞—f. 30.

We may here observe the wise foresight of Abbot Robert, thus inducing the Diocesan not only to confirm past gifts, but to promise his sanction to all future benefactions, and these accordingly soon came. The succeeding Bishop, Seffrid II. (1180-1204), professing "to follow the footsteps 6 Maddox, Formul. Angl. p. 248.

of Bishop John, after duly considering the piety and honesty of the said canons, as well as the slenderness of their receipts,' confirmed many fresh gifts, made in the few years elapsed since those by the two Henry Hoeses and Walter Hoese. The donors were principally the landowners of the neighbourhood-Alan de Zuche, William St. John, William de Ellested, Simon de Waira, Ralph Sanzaver, William Altar, William Waissebre, Hugh Baci, Robert Agnill, Alan St. George; besides men of high station, such as, Jocelin, warder of Arundel Castle, who both in his own (f. 56), and also in the confirmatory charter of King Henry II (f. 1), is described as "brother to the Queen" (Adeliza, widow of Henry I, remarried to William, Earl of Arundel). The King's confirmation was witnessed by Richard Tocliffe, Bishop of Winchester Peter de Leia, Bishop of St. David's; and by "Geoffry my son, Chancellor." This was Geoffry Plantagenet, son of fair Rosamond, Archbishop of York and Chancellor in 11821189; and the grant must therefore have been given between those two dates. William de Braose gave them a tun of red wine for masses, and the saltpan Herdopure; William, Earl of Arundel (1176-1196), charged land with the payment of a silver marc; and "Richard the parson of Ellestede, with the consent of his brother Robert," had given the canons the tithes of the land at Wyhuse, on condition of their presenting to his own church annually at Michaelmas half a pound of incense.

r;

Building was probably going on at the abbey about this time, and William le Vesselir, knight, provided them with a quarry at Wyhus (f. 65). Another of this family afterwards gave them all his land at de la Holme for the rent of a pair of white gloves (unum par albarum cirothecarum) at Easter, or one penny; and even this penny was soon remitted (ff. 68, 69, 70). The estate at Wyhus was made more complete by Urso de Lintes giving them the pasturage there; by Robert de Vilirs giving up to them the encroachment they had made in the adjoining marsh (f. 72); and by Alan de St. George, who gave them legal right "to the encroachment they had made near his land at Wyhus in his common pasture, as far as he or his heirs could do so," but annexing a remarkable condition which evidences his opinion of the grasping spirit of

those he had to deal with, "that they should be incapable of receiving anything more in future from himself or his heirs (ea conventione quod ipsi seu a me vel heredibus meis plus in posterum non possint accipere, and stipulating also for a convenient road through the enclosure (f. 72).

The gifts of Henry Hoese the younger having been of no less importance than those of his father, he has been frequently considered as the founder; but his charter 7 takes care, before reciting his own, expressly to confirm his father's gifts. These consisted of the site and mill of Dureford, the meadow from the county boundary to the bridge, with abundant pasture and fuel, the land of Vure at Standen, with the chapel there, and a third of the tithes of the domain at Standen, with some land and reclaimed land (assart), on condition of providing ornaments, vestments, and lights for this chapel, and also a fit resident. priest acceptable to the donor and his heirs (f. 18), also tithes of his pannage, and all the tithes of cheese from his domain pastures in Herting, except one piece of cheese belonging to the church of Herting.

He then enumerates his own grants, incidentally proving that the church of the abbey had not been completed and dedicated in his father's time. In another charter, indeed (f. 10), he grants the canons any quarry or marl-pit, wherever they may be found in his manor, to build the abbey (ad abbaciam construendam.) "Moreover I have given, "he says," in pure and perpetual alms, to endow the said church of Dureford on the day of its dedication," a rent of 258. from the mill of Haggebeden, in return for which the canons undertook (concesserunt) to offer a daily mass on the newly consecrated altar of the Holy Cross, and keep a lamp burning night and day before the high altar. He gave also on this solemn occasion all his wood on the west of the London road from Dureford to Styngel, and confirmed his wife's gifts which she enjoyed in libero maritagio from her father's fee, John de Port, by which he secured a daily mass of St. Mary before her altar. He had at first made a grant which proved so inconvenient, that he now commuted it for 15s. rent, charged on a mill at Littleton. His object appears to have been to provide food for the canons, and he had originally granted them every 7 Chartul., f. 7; also in Monast. App. i.

tenth quarter of corn used in his household, wherever he might be, and the tenth of all the meat in his larder. The 158. were to be spent in the kitchen of the refectory by two canons selected for the purpose. After confirming also the gifts of others in his fee, including Stathorp from Walter Hoese, he concluded by "enjoining all his heirs and his liegemen to love, protect, and maintain the church," and "corroborated the deed by his seal, for the souls of King Henry and King Richard, of William, Earl of Arundel, of his father, mother, himself, his wife, and children, his predecessors and successors; the witnesses being Seffrid, Bishop of Chichester (Oct. 1180 -1204); Christopher, Abbot of Waverley; Robert, Abbot of Leiston; Guido, Prior of Southwick 10; R., Prior of St. Denis ; R., Archdeacon of Surrey; Adam de Port, H. de Perci, William de Alta Ripa, R. Sanzaver, and others."

8

Judging from the date of Abbot Christopher, and the mention of King Richard, this deed must have been given between the years 1189 and 1196, and most probably on the very day when these great ecclesiastics were assembled for the consecration of the church. It was an important concession that this deed sanctioned the gifts of the liegemen, as no profits derived from land could otherwise have been withdrawn from the feudal lord.

Previous to this, the charter of William, Earl of Arundel, who died in 1176, had spoken of "the canons regular of Herting," with no mention of Dureford (f. 44).

Two silver marcs a year were given for the mass of St. Mary before alluded to, at the feast of St. Michael, by William, Earl de Warenne (f. 45).

Although we have already noticed grants of stone quarries to build the abbey, yet the destruction of all the buildings has been so complete, that their form and extent, and the dates of their construction, are wholly unknown. It was, of course, one of the first cares of the convent to advance the building of their church so as to admit of its solemn dedication, and this seems to have occurred before the end of the

8 Christopher had been Abbot of Bruern, and succeeded the monk, Henry of Chichester, as Abbot of Waverley, in Surrey. He was removed from his office in 1196. 9 The Premonstratensian Canons of

Leiston, in Suffolk, were founded in the year 1182.

10 The Augustinian Canons of Southwick, county of Hants, were founded in

1133.

twelfth century. There were probably additions to it, or alterations made subsequently; but of these the only traces we now have are a few dispersed mouldings and capitals of stone, which appear to belong to the thirteenth century, except one of a crocketed pediment apparently of a later date. The active energy and kindness of Richard G. P. Minty, Esq., of Petersfield, have searched out these relics, and furnished drawings, from some of which the woodcuts are taken. There are also remaining the curved foliage of the boss of a vault in high relief but much defaced, and the half figure of a man as a corbel supporting a flat stone; a large heavy stone mortar also is lying in the garden, 16 inches across the bowl and 12 inches high, in which perhaps the pepper, mustard, cumin, and other condiments of the conventual kitchen were formerly pounded.