34 THE OAK. 



an acorn born by a tree which perhaps flourished when 

 our Holy Religion was preached in Palestine by the 

 Saviour, whose coming was to banish from the earth all 

 those barbarous rites which were then being enacted 

 beneath the shade of its branches. 



Evelyn, who wrote his Sylva in the reign of Charles II., 

 thus dedicated the fourth edition to that monarch : " To 

 you then, Royal Sir, does this Fourth Edition continue its 

 humble addresses, since you are our Nemoremis Rex : as 

 having once had your temple, and court too, under that 

 sacred Oak which you consecrated with your presence, 

 and we celebrate, with just acknowledgment to God, for 

 your preservation." 



The tree here alluded to, called the " Royal Oak," for- 

 merly stood at Bcscobel, in Shropshire, but was destroyed 

 soon after it attained its notoriety by the ill-judged curi- 

 osity of the Royalists. For the same author, speaking of 

 an Oak which put forth its buds about Christmas, says : 

 " King James went to visit it, and caused benches to be 

 placed about it ; which, giving it reputation, the people 

 never left hacking of the boughs and bark till they killed 

 the tree, as I am told they have served that famous Oak 

 near White-Lady's, which hid and protected our late 

 Monarch from being discovered and taken by the rebel 

 soldiers who were sent to find him, after his almost mira- 

 culous escape at the battle of Worcester." In the course 

 of the spoliation, a huge bulk of timber, consisting of 

 many loads, was carried away in handfuls. Several sap- 

 lings were raised in different parts of the country from 

 its acorns, one of which grew near St. James's Palace, 

 where Marlborough House now stands, and there was 

 another in the Botanic Garden, Chelsea. The former 

 has been long since felled, and of the latter even the 

 recollection seems now almost lost. 



Through the kindness of the Rev. J. Dale, Curate of 

 Donington, the parish in which the Boscobel Oak stands, 

 I am enabled to lay before my readers a full and authentic 



