t being a
little over, some of them returned, and causing the body to be laid in a
collier's cart, for want of other conveniency, conveyed it in a very
unbecoming contemptuous manner to Winchester, where it was buried the
next day without solemnity, and which is worse, without grief.

[Footnote 15: Yet Eadmer saith, that Tyrrel told him, he had not been in
the Forest that day. [D.S.]]

I shall conclude the history of this prince's reign, with a description
and character of his body and mind, impartially from the collections I
have made; which method I shall observe likewise in all the succeeding
reigns.

He was in stature somewhat below the usual size, and big-bellied, but he
was well and strongly knit. His hair was yellow or sandy; his face red,
which got him the name of Rufus; his forehead flat; his eyes were
spotted, and appeared of different colours; he was apt to stutter in
speaking, especially when he was angry; he was vigorous and active, and
very hardy to endure fatigues, which he owed to a good constitution of
health, and the frequent exercise of hunting; in his dress he affected
gaiety and expense, which having been first introduced by this prince
into his court and kingdom, grew, in succeeding reigns, an intolerable
grievance. He also first brought in among us the luxury and profusion of
great tables. There was in him, as in all other men, a mixture of
virtues and vices, and that in a pretty equal degree, only the
misfortune was, that the latter, although not more numerous, were yet
much more prevalent than the former. For being entirely a man of
pleasure, this made him sacrifice all his good qualities, and gave him
too many occasions of producing his ill ones. He had one very singular
virtue for a prince, which was that of being true to his word and
promise: he was of undoubted personal valour, whereof the writers in
those ages produce several instances; nor did he want skill and conduct
in the process of war. But, his peculiar excellency, was that of great
dispatch, which, however usually decried, and allowed to be only a happy
temerity, does often answer all the ends of secrecy and counsel in a
great commander, by surprising and daunting an enemy when he least
expects it; as may appear by the greatest actions and events upon the
records of every nation.

He was a man of sound natural sense, as well as of wit and humour, upon
occasion. There were several tenets in the Romish Church he could not
digest;