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Article A MASON'S ADVENTURE; ← Page 2 of 8 →
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A Mason's Adventure;
in tiie escape of Charles the Second , after the battle of Worcester . It is a large square brick-built mansion , situated amidst extensive plantations and pastures , approached through an avenue two miles long , and celebrated throughout the surrounding district for the generous hospitality of its noble owner . The fishing-lake and the circumjacent woods are particularly beautiful . Merry groups of visitors from many of the neihbouring townships , who have onlto ask to obtain
perg y mission , were recreating in boats on the lake—some fishing and some singing hymns . The latter were Wesleyans , I was informed ; and certainly no scenery could be better adapted to raise the thoughts of tho creature to his Creator . The route now , as we drew nearer to Boscobel , became more wild , and the roads were frightful . Brother Law assured me that we were pursuing the way along the bye-lanes which so favored Charles ' s escape
from Boscobel to Moseley Hall , except that then the face ofthe country was infinitely more wild and woody . I confess I was disappointed with the present aspect of Boscobel House . It has been so modernised , that only the turret through which the royal refugee made his exit into the garden outside , is visible . The interior is tolerably well preserved . . The banquet-room , or " parlour , " is wainscoted with carved oak , and there are two paintingsone of the Kingand the other of Old Nollas his
, , , soldiers nicknamed Cromwell . The arbour in which Charles retired to read on the Sunday , is in perfect preservation , and the garden . The present oak-tree , inheriting the title of " royal" from its parent , is of venerable age , and preserved by an iron palisade . The tree in which Charles concealed himself with Colonel Carlis , must have been
considerably more bushy in the foliage , or the persons who sought for him must have been purblind . Among other anecdotes of the occasion related by the dames of the country round , who talk of the affair as of a thing of yesterday , so minutely has it been handed down from one generation to another , is , that the Colonel had provided himself with an owl , which , when the sheriff and his party were beneath the tree , be let fly out of the branches , and the party beneath seeing it , took it as
a convincing proof that no person could be hidden there , and at once quitted both the spot and the vicinity . The secret recesses , or hiding-holes , with the gallery in which the King walked , are still uninjured . The entrances would certainly elude the keenest search . Brother Law informed me that they were originally constructed to hide the unfortunate persecuted Catholic priests of that fanatical age . Afterwards we drove down to Whiteladies , not
quite a mile from Boscobel , where Charles first fled after the battle , with its occupant and proprietor , Mr . Giffard , whose famil y still own the ancestral territory and estates . So complete is the ruin , that it now forms a resting-place for tbe dead—a cemetery for the Catholics , of whom there are a great number in that district , and whose remains , side by side with their Protestant brethren , may truly he said , requiescere in pace , so secluded and solitary is the site . But to make this portion of my
adventure more interesting , I cannot resist quoting the very words of an author of " The History of His Majesties Preservation , " written in 1651 , about a year after the event , taken from a most curious old book , for the perusal of which I was indebted to a friend of Brother Law , and for which the gentleman would not take a hundred guineas , so highly does he prize the volume . After reciting the disasters of the battle at Worcester , as by an eye-VOL . VIII . A A
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Mason's Adventure;
in tiie escape of Charles the Second , after the battle of Worcester . It is a large square brick-built mansion , situated amidst extensive plantations and pastures , approached through an avenue two miles long , and celebrated throughout the surrounding district for the generous hospitality of its noble owner . The fishing-lake and the circumjacent woods are particularly beautiful . Merry groups of visitors from many of the neihbouring townships , who have onlto ask to obtain
perg y mission , were recreating in boats on the lake—some fishing and some singing hymns . The latter were Wesleyans , I was informed ; and certainly no scenery could be better adapted to raise the thoughts of tho creature to his Creator . The route now , as we drew nearer to Boscobel , became more wild , and the roads were frightful . Brother Law assured me that we were pursuing the way along the bye-lanes which so favored Charles ' s escape
from Boscobel to Moseley Hall , except that then the face ofthe country was infinitely more wild and woody . I confess I was disappointed with the present aspect of Boscobel House . It has been so modernised , that only the turret through which the royal refugee made his exit into the garden outside , is visible . The interior is tolerably well preserved . . The banquet-room , or " parlour , " is wainscoted with carved oak , and there are two paintingsone of the Kingand the other of Old Nollas his
, , , soldiers nicknamed Cromwell . The arbour in which Charles retired to read on the Sunday , is in perfect preservation , and the garden . The present oak-tree , inheriting the title of " royal" from its parent , is of venerable age , and preserved by an iron palisade . The tree in which Charles concealed himself with Colonel Carlis , must have been
considerably more bushy in the foliage , or the persons who sought for him must have been purblind . Among other anecdotes of the occasion related by the dames of the country round , who talk of the affair as of a thing of yesterday , so minutely has it been handed down from one generation to another , is , that the Colonel had provided himself with an owl , which , when the sheriff and his party were beneath the tree , be let fly out of the branches , and the party beneath seeing it , took it as
a convincing proof that no person could be hidden there , and at once quitted both the spot and the vicinity . The secret recesses , or hiding-holes , with the gallery in which the King walked , are still uninjured . The entrances would certainly elude the keenest search . Brother Law informed me that they were originally constructed to hide the unfortunate persecuted Catholic priests of that fanatical age . Afterwards we drove down to Whiteladies , not
quite a mile from Boscobel , where Charles first fled after the battle , with its occupant and proprietor , Mr . Giffard , whose famil y still own the ancestral territory and estates . So complete is the ruin , that it now forms a resting-place for tbe dead—a cemetery for the Catholics , of whom there are a great number in that district , and whose remains , side by side with their Protestant brethren , may truly he said , requiescere in pace , so secluded and solitary is the site . But to make this portion of my
adventure more interesting , I cannot resist quoting the very words of an author of " The History of His Majesties Preservation , " written in 1651 , about a year after the event , taken from a most curious old book , for the perusal of which I was indebted to a friend of Brother Law , and for which the gentleman would not take a hundred guineas , so highly does he prize the volume . After reciting the disasters of the battle at Worcester , as by an eye-VOL . VIII . A A