This is in allusion to a device exhibited over the triumphal arch, in Leadenhall street, through which the king passed in his way from the Tower to Whitehall, on the day of his coronation. Behind a picture of the king appeared, deciphered in a large table, "the Royal Oak, bearing crowns and sceptres, instead of acorns; amongst the leaves in a label _Miraturque novas frondes et non suà poma._ As designing its reward, for the shelter it afforded his majesty, after the fight at Worcester."[76] These devices were invented by John Ogilby, gent., to the conduct of whom the poetical part of the coronation, as it is termed in his writ of privilege, was solely entrusted. The same fancy is commemorated, by the author of "Loyal Reflections on his Majesty's Restoration, Procession, and Coronation," who thus apostrophises the Royal Oak: Thou vegetive soul, whose glory 'tis and pride To suffer wounds, or sink, not to divide; Whose branches Ogilby's rich fancy made Bear crowns for nuts, but thy best fruit was shade. When Charles lodged in thy boughs, thou couldst not want Many degrees to be a sensitive plant. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 76: Ogilby's relation of his Majesty's entertainment passing through the city of London to his coronation.] TO LORD CHANCELLOR HYDE. &c. The great statesman, to whom Dryden made this new-year's offering, was the well known Earl of Clarendon, of whose administration Hume gives the following striking account: "Clarendon not only behaved with wisdom and justice in the office of chancellor: all the counsels, which he gave the king, tended equally to promote the interest of prince and people. Charles, accustomed, in his exile, to pay entire deference to the judgment of this faithful servant, continued still to submit to his direction; and for some time no minister was ever possessed of more absolute authority. He moderated the forward zeal of the royalists, and tempered their appetite for revenge. With the opposite party, he endeavoured to preserve, inviolate, all the king's engagements. He kept an exact register of the promises which had been made, for any service; and he employed all his industry to fulfil them." Notwithstanding the merits of Clarendon, and our author's prophecy in the following verses, that He had already wearied fortune so, She could no longer be his friend or foe;