A VERY OLD PENSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20112, 24 November 1928, Page 14

A VERY OLD PENSION.

CHARLES 11. AND OAK TREE

PAYMENT STILL BEING MADE. [from our own correspondent.] VANCOUVER. Nov. 1 Dr. Francis Walker, professor of English at the University of British Columbia, receives a pension of £lB a year, which had its source in the gratitude of Charles 11. for the shelter of the famous oak tree on the night of the Battle of Worcester, September 6, 1651 According to the source of the pen sion, it was at the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Pendrell Yates, "Boscobel," that tho King was succored on bis flight after Worcester. She had never seen Charles, and was very excited when he camo to her. She summoned her five brothers, and, in a conference with tho King, they decided that tho branches of tho oak would afford him best protection. The treo has been immortalised by painters and artists.

Ascending tho Throne, Charles remembered bis six friends, and awarded them annuities in perpetuity. Elizabeth's was £SO. Her pension passed to her eldest son, a Yates, theuce through the Dysons. The inheritance was split into four when tho namo of tho family became Walker. Once it was cut off for a brief period, but was restored. Dr. Walker has hist returned from a summer holiday in England. lie brought hack two tiny shoots froni tho famous treo which has flourished through the intervening 277 years.