Four Times of the Day is 29 May, Oak Apple Day, a public holiday which celebrated the Restoration of the monarchy (demonstrated by the oak boughs above the barber's sign and on some of the subjects' hats, which recall the royal oak tree in which Charles II hid after losing the Battle of Worcester in 1651). Alternatively, Sean Shesgreen has suggested that the date is 3 September, commemorating the battle of Worcester itself, a dating that preserves the seasonal progression from winter to spring to summer to autumn. Charing Cross was a central staging post for coaches, but the congested narrow road was a frequent
HMS Royal Oak (1664) Dutch during their Raid on the Medway in 1667. HMS Royal Oak (1664) HMS "Royal Oak" was a 100-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1664 at Portsmouth Dockyard. "Royal Oak" was built by John Tippets, Master-Shipwright at Portsmouth 1660-8, who later became Navy Commissioner and subsequently Surveyor of the Navy (Knighted 1672). Historian Brian Lavery quotes an entry in the "Calendar of State Papers, Domestic" series (the records of the English, and later, the British, governmental proceedings, dating back to the reign of Henry VIII; also known as the "British State Papers", and