THE OAK. ^ 35 



account of a tree -which, from its connexion 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 Eegisters of Donington, is the follow- 

 ing note, in the handwriting of the late Eector, Dr. 

 Woodhouse : — '■'■ Extracts from the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions, vol. 5, part 2nd, chap. 3, written by the Rev. George 

 Plaxton, Rector of Donington and {Kinnardsey) from 

 1690 to 1703." Then follows the type. "The Eoyal 

 Oak was a fair spreading tree ; the boughs of it all lined 

 and covered with ivy. Here, in the thick of these boughs, 

 the King sat in the day-time, with Colonel Carlos, and in 

 the night lodged in Boscobel House ; so that they are 

 strangely mistaken who judged it an old hollow Oak, 

 whereas it was a gay and flourishing tree surrounded with 

 a great many more, and, as I remember in Mr. Evelyn's 

 History of Medals, you have one of King James I. or 

 Charles I. where there is a fine spread Oak with this 

 epigraph, ' Seris nepotibus umbra,' which I leave to your 

 thoughts. . . . The poor remains of the Eoyal Oak are 

 now fenced in by a handsome brick wall, at the charge of 

 Basil Fitzherbert, Esq., with this inscription over the gate, 

 upon a blue stone in letters of gold : 



Felicissimam arborem qiiam in asylum 



potentissimi regis Caroli Secimdi Deus Opt. Max. 



per qiiem reges regnant hie crescere 



voluit tarn in perpetuam rei tantse 



memoriam quam in specimen fiimse 



in reges fidei muro cinctara 



posteris commendant Bazilius 



et Jana Fitzherbert. 



Querens arnica Jovi. ^ 



1 Translation. — This most highly-favoured tree, planted by the 

 God through whom kings reign, to afford shelter to his Majesty King 

 Charles the Second, was enclosed with a wall by Bazil and Jane 

 Fitzherbert, as well to preserve to posterity a memorial of the 

 auspicious event as to be a token of their own stedfast loyaltJ^ 



