68 



THE OAK. 



of domestic friends, as the Forest of Dean did 

 the fury of foreign enemies. 



In the New Forest formerly stood an Oak, from 

 which the arrow glanced that killed William Rn- 

 fus. Like the Cadenham Oak before mentioned, 

 it came into leaf at Christmas, and, although it 

 has long since disappeared, it is remarkable that 

 a young tree, near the spot where it stood, is sub- 

 ject to the same peculiarity. The veteran tree 

 was paled round by the command of Charles II., 

 in order to preserve it, and it stood until at least 

 the commencement of the 18th century ; for in 

 the year 1745, to mark the spot, a triangular stone 

 was erected on it by Lord Delaware, on the three 

 sides of which were the following inscriptions : — 

 Here stood the Oak-tree on which an arrow, 

 shot by Sir Walter Tyrrell at a stag, glanced and 

 struck King Wilham 11. , surnamed Rufus, on the 

 breast, of which stroke he instantly died, on the 

 2nd of August, 1100." King William II., being 

 thus slain, was laid in a cart belonging to one 

 Purkess, and drawn from hence to Winchester, 

 and buried in the cathedral church of that city." 



That the spot where an event so memorable 

 happened might not hereafter be unknown, this 

 stone was set up by John Lord Delaware, w^ho 

 has seen the tree growing in this place."* This 

 inscription is now^ nearly effaced. 



There is a particular interest connected with 

 trees of great antiquity, which attaches itself to 

 nothing else. A flourishing Oak in the \dgour 

 of its age, furnished with a well-proportioned, 

 tapering trunk, and with symmetrically-arranged 



* Gilpin. See Frontispiece. 



