PREFACE. JHE object of the author of this little narrative is to arrange the incidents of an eventful history of forty-two days into a connected and comprehensive form, thereby enabling the reader with little trouble and at a trifling expense to gratify his curiosity in all that relates to Boscobel. The records of our chief historians pass over in silence many pleasing stories to be found in biographies and other works of light literature. Hume's account is short and comprehensive; and Lord Clarendon in his History of the Great Rebellion is faulty, and in some places inaccurate. It is to be regretted that Sir Walter Scott has departed from truth in making Woodstock the place of the King's retirement after the battle of Worcester. Accordingly such facts as the author has been able to gather, and may serve to illustrate this romantic episode in the history of Charles II., he has endeavoured to embody in the following pages. The incidents connected with the details of his flight and hair-breadth escapes have always been popular and eagerly read by young and old. "Oak apple day," as every school-boy knows, is commemorated by wearing oak leaves and apples. The Horse Guards, which date their origin from this period, and other household troops always appear on the anniversary of King Charles's restoration with a sprig of oak in their caps and on their colours. Strange stories are still told by the honest and simple-minded rustics in those villages through which Charles passed-many of the old houses now exist which were the scenes of adventures here related. Those who may wish for a fuller description of the events here briefly recorded will find many amusing anecdotes in a work entitled the "Personal History of Charles II.," as also in "An Account of his Majesty's Escape from Wor 66 cester, dictated to Mr. Pepys by the King himself," originally printed by Lord Hailes, and still preserved in the library of Magdalen College, Cambridge. 'Boscobel," by Thomas Blount, a lawyer and royalist, is a book particularly deserving of notice. It is written in a quaint and ultra-royal strain, illustrative of the style of the age, and minutely accurate in all matters of fact, and it is worthy of remark that the first part was translated into Portuguese by the desire of Queen Catherine. In Nash's History of Worcestershire some important facts are related which lead one to believe that Blount was not the author of the work attributed to him. These are to be found at the end of Bohn's volume of the "Memoirs of Count Grammont and Charles II.," written by one of the Hamiltons, a work which presents a lively picture of the dissolute court and courtiers of Charles II. Mr. Whitgreave's "Narrative"-" Ellesdon's Letter to the Earl of Clarendon" -“The King's Concealment at Trent," by Mrs. Anne Wyndham, who even exceeds Blount in her ultra-royalism; together with "A Letter from a Prisoner at Chester," will be found in a work by the Rev. E. Hughes, lately republished. Colonel Gounter's account of the "Miraculous Escape of King Charles" from Hele House to Brighton, supplying the chasm in the 13th book of Clarendon, is an interesting historical fragment. The M.S. of this account was lately found in a bureau, formerly the property of Colonel Gounter, of Racton, in Sussex, and purchased by the trustees of the British Museum. A small tract, said to be the only one now existing, entitled " Whiteladies," may be seen in the Grenville library at the British Museum. After a perusal of these authentic sources, the author has selected and strung together the most amusing and striking incidents, and now offers the fruits of a few hours of pleasant labour more especially to that class of his countrymen, who, while engaged in the pursuits of business, or striving for an honest maintenance by manual labour, either amidst the smoke and turmoil of our larger towns, or the less noisy scenes of our quiet villages and hamlets, delight to take their evening walk along the shady lanes and bye-roads ;-to explore the pleasant nooks and corners to be found in every rural district;-to ramble through woods and meads; -to visit the many old-fashioned homesteads and grey manor houses ;to linger among the ruins of dismantled abbeys, or the crumbling walls of feudal strongholds, with which our native land abounds, and all of which conspire to awaken deep and solemn thoughts and feelings ;—with the hope that the events here recorded may tend to increase their love for the country, and a desire of prying into those village stories, quaint legends, and curious traditions, which more or less abound in almost every neighbourhood, and thus lead them from the exciting amusements of the crowded city to find repose for their overtasked minds in the quieting influence of rural scenery. Indeed the author knows not of a more agree able mode of becoming acquainted with the rise, growth, and progress of the country in which he lives than by personally inspecting its antiquities and studying its contemporary literature. Crested earthworks, cone-shaped mounds, Druidical stones, old British camps, broken gateways, dinted towers, stately columns, and moulded arches,—each tells its own tale; while imagination, labouring to restore them to their former state, often gives to " airy nothing a local habitation and a name." These works of other days not only revive a host of historical recollections, but also teach us the varying stages of civilization are connected more or less with our national and social history, and when carefully studied are not involved in such impenetrable or cheerless mist as is generally supposed "Oh! History, what precious food is thine! How rich thou art with treasures manifold! On what flower'd meadows do thy footsteps shine! Hates, loves, great deeds, battles, and victory: Or stood in cruel fire to serve the God on high." Then, again, if we turn from the limited and perishable works of man to the inexhaustible and never-failing gifts of Nature, what can afford such wholesome gratification as the contemplation of the wonders and beauties of Creation, where every element teems with life and is instinct with the impress of God's handywork; where everything around us speaks of a beneficent Creator, Who, designing the happiness of His creatures, has stamped His indelible seal on the humblest of His works? Surely, then, the best study of man consists in investigating the wonders of Nature, for there will he find "sermons in stones and good in everything." The language of Nature, too, is not like the harsh accents of human wisdom, which often insults and wounds while it instructs us, and her lessons, which all may read and all can feel, speak to us with that |