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names of ^ Groves , though they had not a Tree about them: Nay Chap. I.sometimes, one stately Tree alone was so rever’d: And of liich a onethere is mention in a Fragment of an Inscription in a Garden at Rome,

■where there was a Temple built under a spreading Beech-Tree , sacredto Jupiter , under the Name of Fagutalis. .

Innumerable are the Testimonies I might produce in behalf of Groves ctrab.7.9.and /iF oods out of the Toets, Virgil, Gratius, Ovid, Horace , Clau-d'tan, Statins, Silius, and others of later times, especially the DivineTetrarch : (for Scriptorum Chorus omnis amat Nemus ) were I mindedto swell this Charming Subject, beyond the limits ot a Chapter : Ithink only to take notice, that Theatrical Representations, such as■were those of the Ionian call’d Andria ; the Scenes of Raft orals, andthe like innocent Rural Entertainments, were of old adorned and trim-med up & ramie E frondibus, cum racemis T corymbis , and frequentlyrepresented in Groves , as the learned Scaliger shews: And here themost beloved and coy Mistress of Apollo rooted; and the noblest poes Ices, LiBiRaptures have been conceiv’d in the Walks and || Shades of Trees , and ca P‘ 2I *Toets have composed Verses which have animated Men to heroic and „ See Waiver.glorious Actions; here Orators (as we shewed) have made their & Umbra, cap.‘Panegyrics, Historians grave Relations , and the profound Thiloso-phers loved here to pass their Lives in Repose and Contemplation; and cap. 9.

the frugal Repasts- mollesque sub arbore somnt, were the natural

md chaste Delights of our Forefathers , so sweetly describes by Tapi-nius,

Subter op aca quies vacuusque slentia servatHorror, & exclusepallet mala Lucis Imago

Nec caret Umbra T)eo> __ /

Arboribus funs horror inest, quin ipse SacerdosAccejsus , Hominumque times deprehendere luci.

12. Nor were Groves thus only frequented by the great Scholars , andthe great Wits, but by the greatest Statesmen and Toliticians also.

Thence that of Cicero speaking of Rlato , with Clinias and Megillus ,who were us’d to discoursed rerumpublicarum inst it ut is, & optimis le-gjbus, in the Groves of Cypress , and other umbrageous Recesses: ItWas under a vast Oak growing in the Park at St. Vincent’s , near Taris ,that St. Lovis was us’d to hear Complaints, determine Causes, and doJustice to such as resorted thither : And we read of solemn Treaties of^eace held under a flourishing Elm between Gisors and Trier , whichWas afterwards fell’d by the French King ^Philip in a rage against KingHenry II. not agreeing to it. Nay, they have sometimes been known toCrown their Kings under a goodly Tree , or some venerable Grove , wherethey had their Stations and Conventions; for so they chose Abimelech ;

Re Tostatus upon Judg. ix. 6. and I read ( in Chronicon Jo. Bromton )that Augustin the Monk ( sent hither from the Pope ) held a kind ofCouncil under a certain Oak in the West of England , and that concer-ning the Great Question, namely the right Celebration of Easter , andthe state of the Anglican- Church, &f. where also ’tis reported he dida great Miracle. In the mean time I meet with but one Instanceyhere this goodly Tree has been (in our Country ) abus’d to coverjmpious Designs, as was that of the Arch-Rebel Kett , who in theReign of King Edw. VI. (becoming Leader to that Fanatick Insur-f Q y° nm Norfolk ). made an Oak (under the specious Name of * Re- *gtierc« t Rt-Ration), th q Court, Council-honse, and place of Convention, whence formatimis.

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