meimwmimz 55 



laraeniei' that they miitst thus leave house find home to 

 the use of saviage beasts ; wHich crueltie hot onely mortall 

 men living here on earth, hut also the earth itseEe, might 

 seeme to detest, as by a trondeffiir signification it seemed 

 to declare by the shaking and roaring of the same, which 

 chanced about the fourteeiithe yeare of his reign, as writers 

 have recorded.' 



"On account of the great crimes and cruelties which 

 William committed in forming this hunting-ground, it was 

 the universal belief of the people that God would maiethe 

 New Forest the death-scene of certain of the Norman 

 kiiig's Own relatives or descendants. 



" The first of the Conqueror's blood "who met with his 

 death in the New Forest was Richard, his second son in 

 order of birth, but whom some make illegitimate. He was 

 gored to death by a stag as he Was hiintiiig. ' The judg- 

 ment of God,' say the old English annalists, 'punished him 

 in his father's dispeopling of that ebuatiy.' The next was 

 William Eufus." 



Of the circumstances connected with the death of Wil- 

 liam Utifiis, a graphic account is given in the chronicle of 

 Williain of Malmsbury, who wai born kb'out 1090 and died 

 1143, and who must therefore 'have beeh Etlive at the tihie 

 (1100) that it occurred. It pertkiiis hot to my design to 

 qWote his dytails. Let it JstimCe that I state that a stone 

 was erected long siftei'wat'ds On the ^|)pt on which it is 

 alleged 'th&it KtlfUS 'fil, l!^ith the fbliowihg inscription com- 

 memorative of the fact :^— 



" 1. Hete stood the ostk On^whidh an arrbw shot by Sir 

 Waltef Tyrrell ata stag glanced and stru-ck King l^illiam 

 the Second, sumanied Rttifus, in the breast, of which he 

 inStatitly died, on the 2d August, A.D. 1100. 



" 2. King William the Second, surnaritied Etafus; being 

 slain, as is before related, was laid in a cart belonging to 

 one Purkess, and drawn frOin hence to Witidhester, and 

 was buried in the cathedral church of that city. 



"3. A.D. lH5. Tfeat the place' -ivhtete' an etent so 



