Some districts were affected more than others. Thus in the deanery of Basingstoke, in the north of Hampshire, at one time or other, and chiefly in the month of March, by far the greater proportion of benefices fell vacant. On the western side of the county several institutions are made in February, and a considerable number in March. Ivychurch priory, in Wiltshire, where the prior died on February 2nd, and all the rest of the community but one quickly followed him to the grave, is situated close to the boundaries of Hampshire, and an institution was made to a living not far distant on February the 7th. One of the earliest vacancies was Fordingbridge vicarage, also not far from Wiltshire, which appointment was made on the 21st of December, 1348. Only two days later there was apparently the first beginning of the plague at Southampton. The southern coast of the county generally round about Portsmouth and Hayling island suffered chiefly in April and March, and in the later month are recorded numerous institutions to livings in the Isle of [p114] Wight and in the country between the southdowns and the sea. On January the 14th, 1349, a new vicar was appointed to Wandsworth by Bishop Edyndon, "because to our pastoral office it belongs," he says, "to have charge of the churches, and to provide for the needs and wants, especially whilst the present mortality among men continues to rage."[199] Mr. F. J. Baigent, who for many years has made the episcopal registers and other muniments of the diocese of Winchester his special study, writing of the effects of this great epidemic, says: "We have no means of ascertaining the actual havoc occasioned among the religious houses of this diocese . . . but in the hospital of Sandown, in Surrey, there existed not a single survivor, and of other religious houses in the diocese (which comprises only two counties) there perished no fewer than 28 superiors, abbots, abbesses, and priors." Of Sussex, the adjoining county to Hampshire, which is conterminous with the diocese of Chichester, the loss of the episcopal registers makes it difficult to speak with certainty as to the number of clergy swept off by the pestilence or as to its effect upon the religious houses. It is certain, however, that the disease was not less virulent here than in other places about which definite information is obtainable.