_Gospel Oaks_ (Vol. v., p. 209.).--Near the hamlet of Cressage, co.
Salop, is a very old oak tree, under which tradition says the first
missionaries of the Gospel to this land preached. The name of the
hamlet, _Cressage_, is, I have been told, a contraction of _Christ's
Oak_.
There is also, near Dudley, a place called _Round Oak_; and on the road
between Walsall and Lichfield, near the latter, may still be seen the
old _Shire Oak_.
At _Stanford's Bridge_, co. Worcester, is a place called the _Apostles'
Oak_; and in the parish of _Hartlebury_, in the same county, is a tree
bearing the name of the _Mitre Oak_. Both these places, and also a
_Rock_, have contended for the honour of being the scene of the
conference of St. Augustine and the British bishops, A.D. 603. (Nash,
vol. ii. p. 399.)