By what we called a "forced march" we arrived at the grounds of the
famous Palace of Woodstock, and were lucky in meeting with a woodman who
took us across the park, where we had a fine view of the monument, the
lake, and the magnificent Palace of Blenheim.
[Illustration: BLENHEIM PALACE.]
Woodstock is a place full of history and in a delightful position, with
woods still surrounding it as in the days of yore, when it was the abode
of kings and a royal residence. A witenagemot, or supreme council, was
held here by King Ethelred in the year 866, and Alfred the Great pursued
his literary work here by translating the _Consolations of Boethius_,
and in the grounds he had a deer-fold. In Domesday Book it is described
as a royal forest, and Henry I had an enclosure made in the park for
lions and other wild beasts, which he surrounded by a very high wall, in
which menagerie he placed the first porcupine ever seen in England,
presented to him by William de Montpellier. The country people at that
time imagined that the quills of the porcupine were weapons which the
animal could shoot at those who hunted it. Henry II resided at the
palace with the lady of his love, the Fair Rosamond.
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