22 JUNE 1889, Page 14

OAK-APPLE DAY.

[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.P1 SIR,—Mr. Thomas Hughes is right, and Mr. E. S. Kennedy wrong. It is quite true that Charles took shelter in the Boscobel oak on September 3rd ; but it is also true that he made his triumphal entry as King into London on his birth- day, May 296, and that this day was in consequence known as Restoration Day, or, amongst rustics, Oak-Apple Day, the oak having been largely used for decorative purposes upon the occasion of his entry.

I remember being, as a lad, compelled to wear oak on this day, under pain of a severe nettling from any surviving Royalist youth I might meet ; but I believe the custom is fast dying away now that Restoration Day is no longer observed in