NEW FOREST, HAMPSHIRE.
In the bottom of a beautiful forest vale adjoining the hamlet of Canterton, near Stoney Cross, a stone is erected to point out the scene of William Rufus’s death, who was accidentally slain here by Sir Walter Tyrrel, a Norman, his companion in the chase. A stag passing by, the knight discharged his arrow at him; but the weapon, glancing against a tree, took a direction contrary to the one intended, and pierced the monarch through the heart. Tyrrel, on seeing him fall, immediately escaped and embarked for Normandy. The body, however, was shortly after found by a forester, who threw it in his cart, and conveyed it to Winchester, where a plain tomb is still pointed out as covering its remains. Tradition says that the name of the person who paid this attention to the deceased king, was Purkess, a charcoal maker; whose immediate male descendants still reside near the spot. It also asserts, that part of the cart on which the body was placed, existed till within these few years, when the only remaining wheel was wantonly committed to the flames.
The Illustrated London News, London, England, Week Ending August 27, 1842
