Oo Cae 
i 
a 
By C. Penruddocke. 9 
and Richard! set out at 9 o’clock the same evening, hoping to get 
into Wales, and thence escaping to France. Passing Evelin or 
Evelith Mill they were challenged by the miller, Roger Bushell, 
and, thinking soldiers were after them, beat a hasty retreat up a 
dirty lane. The King declared that if it had not been for the 
rustling of Dick’s calf-skin breeches he would have lost his guide 
in the dark! Arrived at length at the house of a Mr. Francis 
Wolfe, at Madeley, in Shropshire—about five miles from White 
Ladies, and within a mile of the river Severn—they discovered that 
guards were stationed all along the banks of the river, the bridges 
secured, and well watched, and the passage boats seized, so that any 
attempt to cross would be both risky and dangerous. Mr. Wolfe 
being under suspicion as a Royalist, his house had been well searched 
and its hiding places discovered, so that he could offer nothing but 
the shelter of a hay-mow, or, as some writers say, a barn with a 
heap of straw for a bed, and press a little money upon the King’s 
acceptance. Mrs. Wolfe recommended a decoction of walnut leaves 
to replace the soot, which the rain had washed off the King’s face, 
and which she assured him would be more permanent. 
Frustrated in his idea of crossing into Wales, he stopped only 
long enough for rest, and on Friday night, with the conveyance of 
a maid of Mr. Wolfe’s, who brought the King two miles on his 
way, returned to Richard’s house at Hobbal Grange, and, without 
making any stay there, went with “Trusty Dick” to Boscobel, 
which was reached about three o’clock on Saturday morning. Bos- 
cobel was a small mansion built by Mr. John Gifford, of Madeley, 
son of Peter Gifford, of Chillington.. It was very secluded, and 
surrounded by trees. The architect who built it called it Bosco 
bello, or Fair Wood. The house came afterwards to the Fitzherberts, 
who were connected by marriage with the Giffords. The house con- 
tained two “priest holes”—one entered by a trap in the floor of a 
1 Communication, Earl of Bradford in Henry G. de Bunsen’s (Rector of 
Donington) work: Boscobel, p. 41, published 1878. 
1The Rev. G. W. Dodd says it was named Boscobel by Sir Basil Brook, of 
Madeley Court, at the house-warming feast. ‘ Narrative of Boscobel,” 2nd 
Edit., Wolverhampton, 1859, pp. 1 and 2. 
