Hampshire Folklore. 307
Speaking of the Manor of the Grange at Selborne, White noted : " a considerable tumulus or hillock, now covered with thorns and bushes, and known by the name of Kite's Hill, which is presented, year by year, in court as not ploughed," and he attributed it to the possible fact that the Prior of Selborne in old days had his gallows there, and gave as evidence the fact that " a spot just by is called Gaily (Gallows) Hill." 20 May it not be that the gallows stood on Gaily Hill, but that the disinclination to disturb the tumulus, eventually attributed to the vicinity of the gallows, originated long before Priors and their gallows were thought of? Unfortunately, during the last two or three centuries, there has been no hesitation in Hampshire about disturbing tumuli, but of old time the burial places of heathen forefathers were sacred. The continuity of such consecration finds proof in more than one instance within the county borders. Cheriton Church unmistakeably is built upon a large circular earthwork, whether originally of a sepulchral or merely religious character has not been, — so far as I am aware, — ascertained, but admittedly arti- ficial and prehistoric, one of the "gods' mounds"; and in connection with this immemorial religious character it is not without interest to note that the orientation of Cheriton Church is distinctly E.N.E. But, though there are other churches in the county that do not face due east-^ and various reasons are locally proffered to explain the fact, the question of orientation is too big to touch on even roughly here, beyond the suggestion that the cause is possibly not
-° The Antiquities of Selborne, Letter xxvi.
-^ The following may be noted as instances : St. Mary, (Bentworth), E.N.E. , I2ih cent.; St. Michael, (Cheriton), E.N. E., probably pre-Conquest, (on mound); All Saints, (Hinton Ampner), E.N.E., pre-Conquest; St. Mary, (Crawley), E.N.E.; Sts. Peter and Paul, (Thruxton), E.N.E., 12th cent. (?); Our Lady, (Upton Grey), E.S.E., 13th cent.; St. Michael, (Stoke Charity), E.S.E., 13th cent.; St. Katharine, (Littleton), E.N.E., 12th cent, (on mound); Sts. Mary and Edward, (Netley), E.N.E., 13th cent.; Brockenhurst, pre-Conquest, (on mound).
