pPaat "bore, TscgcT^^y, anel laqric/", 471 



enced as having been the hiding-place of Charles II., after the 

 battle of Worcester. In this tree, not far from Boscobel House, 

 the king, and his companion. Col. Careless, or Carless, resorted 

 when they thought it no longer safe to remain in the house — the 

 family giving them vidluals on a Nut-hook. From this tree Charles 

 gathered some Acorns, and set them himself in St. James's Park: — 



" I51est Charles then to an Oak his safety owes; 



The Royal Oak, which now in sonys shall live. 

 Until it reach to heaven with its boughs — 

 Boughs that for loyalty shall garlands give." 



In many parts of England, Oak-branches are suspended over 

 doorways, and gilded Oak-leaves and Oak-Apples are worn, on 

 Royal Oak Day (May 29th), in celebration of King Charles's resto- 

 ration, and his preservation in the Boscobel Oak, which is still 

 extant. 



Seven Oaks have given a name to a village in Kent ; and 

 Dean Stanley has described a row of seven Oaks standing at a par- 

 ticular spot in Palestine to which the following curious legend is 

 locally attached : — After Cain had murdered his brother, he was 

 punished by being compelled to carry the dead body of Abel during 

 the lengthened period of five hundred years, and then to bury it in 

 this place. Upon doing so, he planted his staff to mark the grave, 

 and out of this staff grew up the seven Oak trees. 



The aged Oaks of Germany excited the wonder and respe(5t of 

 Tacitus, who, speaking of one of the giants of the Hercynian forest, 

 exclaims : " Its majestic grandeur surpasses all belief; no axe has 

 ever touched it ; contemporary with the creation of the world, it is 

 a symbol of immortality." Sacred trees, or pillars formed of living 

 trunks of trees, many of which were Oaks, were to be found in 

 ancient Germany, called Irmcnscule. The world-tree of Romowe, 

 the ancient sacred centre of the Prussians, was an evergreen Oak, 

 The Oak of St. Louis at Vincennes, and the Oak of the Partisans 

 at St. Ouen, are trees regarded with reverence by the French. 



Evelyn considers that the wood used for our Saviour's cross 

 was Oak ; founding his belief on the statements made by divers 

 learned men who had studied the subject, and "upon accurate 

 examination of the many fragments pretended to be parcels of it." 

 The same author speaks of " the fatal praeadmonition of Oaks 

 bearing strange leaves " ; and tells us that sleeping under Oak- 

 trees will cure paralysis, and recover those whom the malign 

 influence of the Walnut-tree has smitten. Paulus, a Danish 

 physician, averred that one or two handfuls of small Oak-buttons 

 mingled with Oats given to black horses will change them in a few 

 days to a fine dapple-grey. Bacon says that there is an old tradi- 

 tion that if boughs of Oak be put into the earth, they will bring 

 forth wild Vines ; he also remarks that in his day country people 

 had " a kind of prediction that if the Oake-apple, broken, be full 

 of wormes, it is a signe of a pestilent yeare." It is said that when 



