The next morning the King was aroused by a great knocking at the door, and when he asked what it was, he was told that some officers had come from the Parliamentarians to remove him to Hurst Castle. A jolting, heavy-wheeled coach was brought to the door, and in it he was carried off _en route_ for Hurst Castle.
Perhaps the most exciting episode in the history of the town was when the French landed on the island in 1377 and burnt it completely, while those of the population who were not slaughtered ran away. So complete was the destruction that it is said no one returned to live there for two years.
The Medina is the principal river of the island, and its name has been connected with the root of "middle" or "mid," and is supposed to be related to the names Medway and Maidstone. The only two other rivers are both, oddly enough, named Yar, and besides them there are numerous streams.
Parkhurst, now chiefly associated with the closely-guarded prison, was at one time a forest for hunting of over 3,000 acres. It was so from the Conqueror's time, being mentioned in Domesday Book under "Watching Wood," which is rated lightly because part of the land formerly belonging to it has been taken into the King's park. A curious little record which has been preserved tells us that in the reign of Edward III. one John Maltravers should in the season for buck-hunting attend the King at Carisbrooke for one day, at his own charge both for himself and horse, and afterwards to remain so long as the King wanted him, but at the King's expense.
CONCERNING LITERARY MEN AND MAKERS OF HISTORY
For such a small area the island can boast a surprising number of literary associations. That which remains pre-eminently the first is the long residence of Tennyson at Farringford, near Freshwater; this lasted for more than half his life, though in the end the poet was so worried by those tourists who wished to "see" him, in the same simple style they went to see Carisbrooke or the Zoo, that he built himself a new home near Haslemere, and thither retreated during that part of the year when he would be most likely to be pestered in the island. There is no doubt that, though he was morbidly sensitive to public notice, he would have greatly missed it had the incense not been offered him, and he certainly did not discourage attention by his bizarre habit of dressing, which made even those who did not know him by reputation turn to stare at him in the street. Keats is another in the first rank of poets which the island can claim. He wrote part of _Endymion_ while on a visit to Carisbrooke, and _Lamia_ in a cottage at Shanklin; the part where this cottage stood was renamed, in his honour, Keats' Green.