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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Boscobel
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(13km/8m NW of Wolverhampton) Site of the famous oak tree in the branches of which *Charles II hid for a night and a day when parliamentarians were searching for him after the Battle of Worcester. He spent the following night in a priest-hole within Boscobel House, a building of the 17C which survives today (considerably altered). After the Restoration the king's birthday, May 29, was celebrated each year as Oak Apple Day; it remained a public holiday until the mid-19C. The oak shown now at Boscobel is believed to be a self-seeded sapling from an acorn of the original tree.
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