CHAP. CV. 



COUYLA^CE/E. QUE'RCUS. 



1755 



in" ; at least there is a tree which some old inhabitants of Windsor consider 



M such, and which their fathers did before them the best proof, perhaps, of 



its identity. In following the footpath which leads from the Windsor road 



to Queen Adelaide's Lodge, in the Little 



Park, about half way on the right, a dead 



tree (of which fig. 1588. is a portrait) may be 



seen close to an avenue of elms. This is 



what is pointed out as Herne's Oak ; I can 



almost fancy it the very picture of death. Not 



a leaf, not a particle of vitality appears about 



it. The hunter must have blasted it. It 



stretches out its bare and sapless branches, 



like the skeleton arms of some enormous 



giant, and is almost fearful in its decay. None 



of the delightful associations connected with 



it have however vanished, nor is it difficult to 



fancy it as the scene of Falstaff 's distress, and 



the pranks of the * Merry Wives.' Among 



many appropriate passages which it brought 



to my recollection was the following : 



' There want not many that do fear 



In deep of night to walk by this Herne's Oak,' 



Its spectral branches might indeed deter many from coming near it, * 'twixt 

 twelve and one.' 



" The footpath which leads across the park is stated to have passed in former 

 times close to Herne's Oak. The path is now at a little distance from it, and 

 was probably altered in order to protect the tree from injury. I was glad to 

 find * a pit hard by,' where J Nan and her troop of fairies, and the Welch devil 

 Evans,' might all have * couch'd,' without being perceived by the * fat Windsor 

 stag' when he spake like * Herne the hunter.' The pit above alluded to has 

 recently had a few thorns planted in it, and the circumstance of its being near 

 the oak, with the diversion of the footpath, seems to prove the identity of the 

 tree, in addition to the traditions respecting it : 



' There is an old tale goes, that Herne the hunter, 

 Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest, 

 Doth all the winter time, at still midnight, 

 Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns, 

 And there he blasts the tree.' 



The last acorn, I believe, which was found on Herne's Oak was given to the 

 late Sir David Dundas of Richmond, and was planted by him on his estate 

 in Wales, where it now flourishes, and has a suitable inscription near it. I 

 have reason to think that Sir David Dundas never entertained 

 a doubt of the tree I have referred to being Herne's Oak, and 

 he had the best opportunities of ascertaining it. In digging 

 holes near the tree lately, for the purpose of fixing the pre- 

 sent fence round it, several old coins were found, as if they 

 had been deposited there as future memorials of the interest 

 this tree had excited." (Jesse's Glean, in Nat. Hist., 2d s., 

 p. 117.) By others another tree was said to be Herne's Oak, 

 of which^g. 1589. is a portrait taken from nature some years ago. This tree, 

 which no longer exists, had been in a decaying state for more than half a 

 century before our drawing was made. 



Buckinghamshire. The large oak at Wootton (Jig. 1 590.) is, probably, one of 

 the handsomest in England. Its trunk measures 25 ft. in circumference at 1 ft. 

 from the ground ; and at the height of 12 ft. it divides into four large limbs, 

 the principal of which is 15ft. in circumference. It is above 90 ft. high, and 

 covers an area of 150 ft. in diameter with its branches. The great beauty 

 of this tree is the breadth of its head, occasioned by the enormous size 

 of its limbs; which gives it so completely the character of the oak, that 



1589 



