With a purely historical aim in view, we have attempted in the following pages to illustrate the adventurous and romantic story of the escape of King Charles II. after the battle of Worcester, following step by step the hazardous journey from that city to the Sussex coast, and describing with pen and pencil the present condition or fate of the various houses which afforded the royal fugitive a safe asylum in the year 1651.<br><br>With this object, the first part of our work is therefore presented in the form of a tour taken in the present day; the thread of the story being sustained throughout from various authentic and contemporary sources, and from family and local traditions not hitherto recorded in a collective form.<br><br>The second part consists of five interesting pamphlets not included in Hughes's well-known and scholarly compilation, "The Boscobel Tracts," and will therefore form a supplement to that work.