Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/430

 352 NOTES AND QUERIES. iua.vm.Ana.ao.mi. THE DEATH OF WILLIAM RUFUS (12 S. viii. 308). The Anglo-Saxon v Chronicler, a contemporary, gives the following brief account : On the morning after Lammas Day (August 1st, 1100), King William was shot with an arrow in hunting, by one of his men, and afterwards brought to Winchester, and buried in the bishopric. . . . On the Thursday he was slain, and on the morning after buried. This is much enlarged by Orderic Vitalis, William of Malmesbury, Matthew of West- minster, and others. It is stated that the Royal party went into the forest to shoot. The King and Sir William Tyrrel kept to- gether during the day. While resting, a harb cams bounding by, at which the King drew an arrow without effect. The hart paused and looked round startled : and William, who had no second arrow, called aloud to his companion, " Shoot, shoot, in the devil's name." Tyrrel drew his bow ; and the arrow, glancing against a tree (or " against the beast's grizzly back," according to Orderic), pierced the King's left breast and entered the heart. But there are no authentic records extant to show how the King met his death. Sir Walter Tyrrel himself asserted on oath, bafore the Abbot of St. Denys, many years aftsr, when he had nothing to hope or to fear in relation to the matter, that he never saw the King on the day of his death, nor entered the part of the forest in which he fell. JAMES SETON-ANDEBSON. 39, Carlisle Eoad, Hove, Sussex. Extracts from original authorities take some spaca. Reference should be made to Appendix, Note U, vol. v., of Freeman's ' Norman Conquest,' and to Appendix, Note SS, vol. ii., of ' Reign of William Rufus ' by the same author. Both these works are usually available in a good public library. The death of William Rufus is discussed and extracts given from con- temporary and other authorities. F. M. M. Wise, in his ' History of the New Forest ' (1883), quotes original authorities in his footnotes on pp. 93, 94, 95, 96, viz., the two chroniclers William of Malmesbury and Vitalis. Wise states, p. 94, that William of Malmesbury says nothing about the tree from which nearly all modern historians represent the arrow as glancing. Vitalis (' Historia Eccl.,' pars, iii., lib. x., cap. xii., inMigns, ' Patrologiae Cursus,' torn, clxxxviii., p. 751) expressly states that it rebounded from the back of a beast of chase (/era), apparently, by the mention of bristles, a wild boar. Matthew Paris (ed. Wats., torn, i., p. 54) first mentions the tree, but his narrative is doubtful. Wise also states that neither William of Malmesbury nor Vitalis, who go into details, mentions the spot where the King was killed. F. CBOOKS. See text and note in Earle and Plum- msr's ' Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel,' Oxford, 1892-9 : vol. i., p. 235, Anna! 1100, for death of the King ; and vol. ii., pp. 286-7, for note on the text and mention of other authorities and versions of the event. A. R. BAYLEY. Appendix U of E. A. Freeman's ' History of the Norman Conquest,' vol. v., might be helpful to MB. O. G. S. CBAWFOBD, as mention is made of the earliest chroniclers of the circumstances of the Red King's death. These were Henry of Huntingdon, Florence, William of Malmesbury and Orderic, but Mr. Freeman refers to many other recorders of the event and his note strikes me as being very valuable. Remembering his horror of field sports one need not be surprised, as I was, to read in the text (p. 147) that Rufus died in that spot which his father's cruelty had made a wilderness, glutting his own cruelty to the last moment of his life by the savage sports which seek for pleasure in the infliction of wanton suffering. I should think the local tradition of the New Forest must be highly respectable. It does not seem likely that fresh evidence will be obtained. ST. SWITHIN. CHEBBY OBCHABDS OF KENT (12 S. viii. 211, 275). The following list of varieties of Kentish cherries may prove of interest : White Varieties. Adams Crown, Governor Woods, Elton Hearts, Frogmores, Ambers, Bigarreaux, Napoleons and Florence Hearts. Black Varieties. Bowmans May, Early Rivers, Victoria Blacks, Maydukes, Waterloo Blacks, Circassians and Turks. A very common small cherry called Brandy Blacks might also be included. I have given them in order of their ap- pearance under each heading. It is possible some readers may be cog- nizant of other kinds, but those I have enumerated are the chief commercial kinds known to the trade. REGINALD JACOBS. 1, Heathercliff, Grove Road, Bournemouth.