E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Charles and the Oak.
When Charles II. fled from the Parliamentary army, he took refuge in Boscobel House; but when he deemed it no longer safe to remain there, he concealed himself in an oak. Dr. Stukeley says that this tree “stood just by a horse-track passing through the wood, and the king, with Colonel Carlos, climbed into it by means of the hen-roost ladder. The family reached them victuals with a nut-hook.” (Itinerarium Curio’sum, iii. p. 57, 1724.)
