2-888-084 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Monmouth Ash, 1850. Tree in Dorset where James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, is said to have hidden after the Battle of Sedgemoor in July 1685: 'An ash tree, at the foot of which the would-be King was found crouching in a ditch, and half hid under the fern...The pursuers sprang on their prey. Some of them were about to fire; but Portman forbad all violence. The prisoner's dress was that of a shepherd; his beard, prematurely grey, was of several days' growth. He trembled greatly, and was unable to speak. Even those who had often seen him were at first in doubt whether this were the brilliant and graceful Monmouth...'. The tree was '...deeply indented with the carved initials of crowds of persons who had been to visit it. The props were added, to save the trunk from falling, about three years since...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.