198 Gilpin's fobest scenjeky. 



Among these celebrated trees we must not 

 forget Hern's Oak in "Windsor Forest. Shake- 

 speare tells us, — 



' An old tale goes, that Hern the hunter, 

 Sometime a keeper here in "Windsor forest, 

 Doth all the winter time, at still of midnight, 

 WaUc round ahout this Oak, with ragged horns ; 

 And then he blasts the trees, destroys the cattle. 

 Makes the miloh-cow yield hlood, and shakes a chain 

 In hideous, dreadful manner.' 



This tree, as far as 'vve can pay credit to tradition 

 and general opinion, still exists. In the little 

 park at "Windsor is a walk, known by the name 

 of Qaeen 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 titne when the walk was laid out. This tree 

 is supposed to be Hern's Oak. It is a large tree, 

 measuring about twenty-four feet in circum- 

 ference, and is still in great vigour, which I think 

 chiefly injures its historical credit. For though it 

 is evidently a tree in years, and might well have 

 existed in the time of Elizabeth, it seems too 

 strong and vigorous to have been a proper tree in 

 that age, for Hern, the hunter, to have danced 



