34 THE OAK. 



Evelyn, who wrote his Sylva in tho 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 Nemorensis 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 Boscobel, 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-Laly'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 tbe 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 Boseobel Oak stands, 

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

 account of a tree which, from its connection with one of 

 the most important events in English history, will always 

 be remembered with interest. 



On a single printed leaf which is pasted in at the 

 end of one of the parish registers of Donington, is the 



