oak

   The oak symbolizes steadfast courage, royalty, and England. There are specific associations with the Royal Navy, and with the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, celebrated on *Royal Oak Day.

   Individual oaks can be locally famous. Many are called 'Gospel Oaks', because they mark a spot on the parish boundary where *Rogation processions used to pause while a Gospel passage was read. One in Sherwood Forest is said to have been a meeting-place for *Robin Hood and his men. Another, at Clipstone (Nottinghamshire) is the Parliament Oak, so called because either King John or Edward I convened a Parliament there. Another, in the grounds of Boscobel House (Shropshire) is said to be the one in which Charles II hid after the Battle of Worcester, while all along the route of his escape there are trees (not necessarily oaks) in which, it is claimed, he also hid from pursuers - for example an oak near Melksham Court (Gloucestershire), and a hollow elm in Brighton (Sussex). Wesley several times held open-air services at the tree now called Wesley's Oak near Altrincham (Cheshire).

   Cords of window-blinds had a toggle shaped like an acorn, which was said to prevent lightning from entering through the window, since it was believed (mistakenly) that oak trees are never struck by lightning. Such blinds are now rare, so the belief must be dying out. Grated oak bark or acorns were a country remedy for diarrhoea, and an infusion of oak bark was drunk for rheumatism (Hatfield, 1994: 36, 46).