KERNELS OAK. 47 



but the external wood is still sound, and long may 

 it remain so. 



I might multiply my reasons for considering 

 the present tree as the real Herne's Oak, by 

 quoting the opinions of the late amiable Sir Her- 

 bert Taylor^ Sir David Dundas, and others on the 

 subject, but perhaps enough has been said. I 

 may however add, that Mr. Gilpin, in his work on 

 Forest Scenery, tells us that Kernels Oak is still 

 supposed to exist. He adds, that " in the Little 

 Park of Windsor there is a walk, known by the 

 name of Queen Elizabeth's Walk. It consists of 

 elms, among which is a single oak, taken into the 

 row, as if particularly meant to be distinguished at 

 the time when the walk or avenue was made. It 

 is a large tree, measuring twenty-four feet in cir- 

 cumference." In consequence of this statement, 

 I caused the tree to be measured, the day I am 

 writing this, by a respectable carpenter, used to 

 measure timber. He tells me that it girts at the 

 end of the trunk, twenty-one feet, and that allow- 

 ing for the bark which was on it, in the year 

 1 792 or 3, when Mr. Gilpin wrote his account, it 

 would have had a girth of twenty-three feet at least, 

 so nearly does it agree with Mr. Gilpin's state- 

 ment, and which, by the way, was written some 

 years before either Mr. Delamotte or Mr. Nichol- 

 son drew the supposititious oak, already referred to. 

 The present tree must, therefore, once have been a 



