WHERE A NORMAN FELL. 143 
There is a romantic and especial interest about 
this place strangely impressing one who has seen 
it for the first time. Some Trees—mostly Oak 
and Beech—are sparsely scattered in the imme- 
diate neighbourhood of the memorial stone; and 
the heights above are also thinly wooded. But 
adjoining the stone there are Beeches and Oaks, 
covering an undulated woodland which is strangely 
beautiful, offermg perhaps an example of sylvan 
loveliness, nay of sylvan grandeur, such as can be 
furnished in a greater degree by no other forest- 
land in the whole of Britain. 
This part of the New Forest was doubtless 
grander by far in the days which immediately 
followed the Norman Conquest than it is at present. 
Here it requires but little imagination to believe 
there must have prevailed, when great Oaks flung 
their shadows on the ground in the depth of 
this leafy hollow, a singular gloom and loneliness ; 
and the circumstance must lend colour to the 
belief that it was an assassin’s hand, and not the 
misdirection of an arrow, that caused the death 
of the Red King. Rufus, at any rate, was found 
dead with an arrow in his breast in this gloomy 
I 2 
