Page:White - The natural history of Selborne, and the naturalist's calendar, 1879.djvu/345

Rh The above are the last traces that I can discover of Gurdon’s appearing and acting in public. The first notice that my evidences give of him is that in 1232, being the 16th of Henry III., he was the King’s bailiff, with others, for the town of Alton. Now, from 1232 to 1295 is a space of sixty-three years, a long period for one man to be employed in active life! Should any one doubt whether all these particulars can relate to one and the same person, I should wish him to attend to the following reasons why they might. In the first place, the documents from the priory mention but one Sir Adam Gurdon, who had no son lawfully begotten; and in the next, we are to recollect that he must have probably been a man of uncommon vigour, both of mind and body, since no one unsupported by such accomplishments could have engaged in such adventures, or could have borne up against the difficulties which he sometimes must have encountered; and moreover, we have modern instances of persons that have maintained their abilities for near that period.

Were we to suppose Gurdon to be only twenty years of age in 1232, in 1295 he would be eighty-three; after which advanced period it could not be expected that he should live long. From the silence, therefore, of my evidences, it seems probable that this extraordinary person finished his life in peace, not long after, at his mansion of Temple. Gurdon’s seal had for its device a man, with a helmet on his head, drawing a cross-bow; the legend, "Sigillum Ade de Gurdon," his arms were, “Goulis, iii floures argent issant de testes de leopards.”

If the stout and unsubmitting spirit of Gurdon could be so much influenced by the belief and superstition of the times, much more might the hearts of his ladies and daughter. And accordingly we find that Ameria, by the consent and advice of her sons, though said to be all under age, makes a grant for ever of some lands down by the stream at Durton; and also of her right of the common of Durton itself. Johanna, the daughter and heiress of