there is in shropshire a fine oak-tree which the country people there call the "royal oak". they say it is the great-grandson, or perhaps the great-great-grandson of another fine old oak, which more than two hundred years ago stood on the same spot, and served once as a shelter to an english king. this king was charles ii, the son of the unlucky charles i who had his head cut off by his subjects because he was a weak and selfish ruler.