1 + 
From PORTSMOUTH 
LETTER V. 
1*0 the fame. 
Madam, 
W E had now a fair view of calshot castle, which is 
built on the eaft point of the new foreft, This wood 
is famous in ftory. Here it was that william the conqueror 
deftroyed many towns and villages for thirty miles round ; and 
expofed many thoufands, perhaps fome more virtuous than him- 
felf, to mifery, for the gratification of his pleafure in hunting : 
and yet he might then lay the foundation of the glory of this 
nation, in the oaks which grew here, and the fhips which were 
made with them, At this diverfion, and in this foreft, his fon 
king william rufus loft his life. Walter tyrrel was the 
name of the man, who fhooting an arrow at a deer, it ftruck a 
tree, and flanting off, wounded the king to death. 
You may imagine the fuperftition of the times led men to 
impute the accident to the judgments of heaven, for the crimes 
of the father in diftrefiing the inhabitants of this part of the 
country. It might be fo : but the wifdom and mercy of men 
being finite, and thefe attributes in God infinite, I think we 
have no right to draw conclufions of this kind, efpecially in the 
punifhment of children for the faults of their parents. 
Calshot castle is fuppofed capable of guarding the entrance 
into Southampton water, which is not two miles broad, and 
the channel for fhips very narrow. The land on both fides has 
a very pleafing effedl. About two miles from the caftle, on the 
3 oppofite 
