struction of a harmless family. The site of the cottage, and its useful and bowery orchard, was included in a wider sweep of ground, and the whole added to the New Forest.

But few years had passed on before retributive judgments fell on the family of the Conqueror in the very scene of its iniquity. His second son, Richard, whose abilities and chivalric qualities had caused the greatest hopes to be formed of him, who was the pride of his father's heart and the delight of his eyes-Richard, for whose brow he had destined the conquered diadem of England, was gored to death by an infuriated stag, which he attacked imprudently while the poor animal was standing at bay to defend its life. Not long after this tragic event, the young boy, who has been mentioned in this tale as the son of Prince Robert, was killed by a fall from his horse when hunting in the New Forest. These were the most beloved objects of the Conqueror's heart, and these he saw descend into untimely graves before him.

As for William Rufus, his fate is more generally known. When the measure of his crimes was full, the Red King, as he was called by his miserable subjects, was slain in the same New Forest by an arrow from the bow of his favourite knight, Sir Walter Tyrrel. He was killed accidentally by the arrow that was shot at a doe glancing against the branch of a tree, and from thence it rebounded to the king's bosom, who never spoke after he was wounded; but perhaps the dying tyrant, before the light for ever left his eyes, might recognize the old

yew tree, under which in his turbulent boyhood he had met the Saxon peasant Redwald, although by his continued despotic encroachments, that yew, and the neighbouring cottage site, was now in the heart of the New Forest.

HISTORICAL SUMMARY.

THE extensive tract of land in Hampshire, called the New Forest from the era of the Conquest to the present day, was, in the Saxon times, a fruitful and cultivated district, called Ytew. The desecration of upward of thirty-six churches thereon, and the depopulation of numerous towns and villages belonging thereto, with the destruction of the property of the inhabitants, who were driven forth from their homes, which were laid waste to form this hunting ground, without the slightest compensation made to the owners, rendered the Norman dynasty exceedingly unpopular with their subjects. In the lifetime of the Conqueror, his favourite son Richard, and his grandson, lost their lives hunting in this chase.

His successor, William Rufus, continued throughout his whole reign the same lawless depredations on the property of his subjects, and greatly enlarged the precincts of the New Forest; according to the early chronicles, upwards of fifty churches were ultimately destroyed, besides seventeen churches

and towns overthrown and desolated, to make another New Forest of lesser extent at Windsor.

Historians affirm that the Norman princes concealed a political motive under the pretence of a passionate love of hunting, and that they depopulated these districts, in order to afford a freer access to the troops which they occasionally sent from Normandy, to awe the English.

But a violent love for the chase seems to have been the besetting sin of the Norman princes, from whence sprung their cruel game laws; for instance, a man that killed a stag out of season was hanged or beheaded, and any one who took a hawk's nest, and destroyed the eggs or young, was sentenced to lose his eyes.

The New Forest, which is still thirty miles in circuit, is divided into nine walks; to each there is a keeper, two rangers, a bow bearer, and a lord warden. On the north side of Malwood Castle is an oak that buds on Christmas day and always withers before night.

The bad character of William Rufus is attributed to a neglected education; an historian thus describes his character: "Bred up to arms from his youth, and at a court where he continually beheld instances of severity and absolute power, he became a perfect brute in his behaviour and manners. He was of a very ill disposition, which being never corrected by education, frequently led him into actions unworthy of a prince. To these ill qualities he joined a great contempt for religion and principles, utterly regardless of honour or honesty. He was as greedy of

money as his father, only he disposed of it, when unjustly gained, in vain expenses, wherein he was guided more by caprice than reason. The only good quality remarkable in him was his great courage, which, however, was scarcely to be distinguished from a brutal fierceness."

79

THE ROYAL BROTHERS.

THE fitful sunbeams of an April day of smiles and showers streamed brightly through the richly-stained glass of the high arched windows of a stately apartment in Ludlow Castle, and cast a sort of changeful glory on the mild and thoughtful features of a youth apparently about 12 years old, who was seated in a crimson canopied chair fringed with gold, before a carved ebony reading table covered with books and illuminated MSS. and was deeply engaged in the perusal of a folio, printed on vellum, and bound in rose-coloured velvet, clasped and studded with gold, and emblazoned on either side with the royal arms of England.

The youthful student was of a sweet and serious aspect, the singular beauty of his person being less worthy of observation than the noble and ingenuous expression of his countenance, which indicated habits of reflection and intellectual graces beyond

his age.

He was attired in a style of regal magnificence, wearing a robe of purple velvet lined with ermine, a cap of the same material turned up with a similar fur, and adorned with the white rose badge of York. His doublet and long hose were of white damask, embroidered with gold and fastened with jewelled studs. He wore, according to the fashion of the fifteenth century, boots of black velvet, with long