THE question whether the Herne's Oak of Shakspere is at present existing, or whether it was cut down some sixty years ago, has become a subject of much controversy. Mr. Jesse, the author of those very agreeable volumes, Gleanings in Natural History,' maintains that the identical tree is still standing. The Quarterly Review,' on the contrary, asserts that the tree has been cut down. At Windsor there are many believers in the present Herne's Oak, and many non-believers. We have bestowed some care in the investigation of the question; and we shall endeavour

to present to our readers the result of our inquiries in connexion with our own early recollections.

The memory of the editor carries him back to Windsor as it was forty years ago. The castle was then almost uninhabited. The king and his family lived in an ugly barrack-looking building called the Queen's Lodge, which stood opposite the south front of the castle. The great quadrangle, the terrace, and every part of the Home Park, was a free playground for the boys of Windsor. The path to Datchet passed immediately under the south terrace, direct from west to east, and it abruptly descended into the Lower Park at a place called Dodd's Hill. From this path several paths diverged in a south-easterly direction towards the dairy at Frogmore; and one of these went close by a little dell, in which long rank grass, and fern, and low thorns grew in profusion. Near this dell stood several venerable oaks. Our earliest recollections associate this place with birds'-nests and mushrooms; but some five or six years later we came to look here for the "oak with great ragg'd horns," to which we had been introduced in the newly discovered world of Shakspere. There was an oak, whose upper branches were much decayed, standing some thirty or forty yards from the deep side of the dell; and there was another oak, with fewer branches, whose top was also bare, standing in the line of the avenue near the park wall. We have heard each of these oaks called Herne's Oak; but the application of the name to the oak in the avenue is certainly more recent. That tree, as we first recollect it, had not its trunk bare. Its dimensions were comparatively small, and it seemed to us to have no pretensions to the honour which it occasionally received. The old people, however, used to say that Herne`s Oak was cut down or blown down, and certainly our own impressions were that Herne's Oak was gone. One thing, however, consoled us. The little dell was assuredly the "pit hard by Herne's Oak" in which Anne Page and her troop of fairies "couched with obscured lights." And so we for ever associated this dell with Shakspere.

Years passed on-Windsor ceased to be familiar to us. When Mr. Jesse, however, published his second series of 'Gleanings' in 1834, we were pleased to find this passage:"The most interesting tree at Windsor, for there can be little doubt of its identity, is the celebrated Herne's Oak. There is, indeed, a story prevalent in the neighbourhood respecting its destruction. It was stated to have been felled by command of his late Majesty George III. about fifty years ago, under peculiar circumstances. The whole story, the details of which it is unnecessary to enter upon, appeared so improbable, that I have taken some pains to ascertain the inaccuracy of it, and have now every reason to believe that it is perfectly unfounded." But we were not quite satisfied with Mr. Jesse's description of this oak. In his 'Gleanings' he says, "In following the footpath which leads from the Windsorroad to Queen Adelaide's Lodge, in the Little Park, about half way on the right, a dead tree may be seen close to an avenue of elms. This is what is pointed out as Herne's Oak." Now we distinctly recollected that one of the trees which some persons said was Herne's Oak was not only close to an avenue of elms but formed part of the avenue; the other oak which pretended to the name was some distance from the avenue. Mr. Jesse goes on to say,

"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 wa probably altered, in order to protect the tree from injury."

Here again was the manifestation of some imperfect local knowledge, which led us to doubt Mr. Jesse's strong assertion of the tree's identity. The footpath, so far from being altered to protect the tree from injury, was actually made, for the first time, some five-and-twenty years ago, when the ancient footpath to Datchet, which

crossed the upper part of the park, passing, as we have mentioned, under the south terrace, was diverted by order of the magistrates, in order to give a greater privacy to the castle. The present pathway to Datchet was then first made, and a causeway was carried across the little dell. One of the paths from the castle to the dairy went near this dell, but it was on the more northern side, and not far from the other tree which some persons called Herne's Oak. Indeed, we were by no means sure that Mr. Jesse's description did not apply to this other tree. The expression "close to the avenue" might include it. Certainly his engraving was much more like that tree, as we recollect it, than the tree in the avenue.

Towards the end of 1838 the following passage in The Quarterly Review' came to destroy the little hope which we had indulged that Mr. Jesse had restored to us Herne's Oak:

"Among his anecdotes of celebrated English oaks, we were surprised to find Mr. Loudon adopting (at least so we understand him) an apocryphal story about Herne's Oak, given in the lively pages of Mr. Jesse's 'Gleanings.' That gentleman, if he had taken any trouble, might have ascertained that the tree in question was cut down one morning, by order of King George III., when in a state of great, but transient, excitement; the circumstance caused much regret and astonishment at the time, and was commented on in the newspapers. The oak which Mr. Jesse would decorate with Shakspearian honours stands at a considerable distance from the real Simon Pure. Every old woman in Windsor knows all about the facts."

Mr. Jesse replied to this statement, in a letter addressed to the editor of The Times,' dated Nov. 28, 1838. Mr. Jesse says that the story thus given was often repeated by George IV., who, however, always added, “That tree was supposed to have been Herne's Oak, but it was not." Mr. Jesse adds, that the tree thus cut down, which stood near the castle, was an elm. We may take the liberty of mentioning that George IV. did not always add that the tree cut down was not Herne's Oak; and this we know from the very best authority. Mr. Jesse goes on to say that, soon after the circumstance referred to, three large old oak-trees were blown down in a gale of wind in the Little Park; and one of them, supposed to be Herne's Oak, was cut up and made into boxes and other Shaksperian relics. Mr. Jesse, however, conceives that the matter is put beyond doubt by the following statement :

"To set the matter at rest, however, I will now repeat the substance of some information given to me relative to Herne's Oak by Mr. Ingalt, the present respectable bailiff and manager of Windsor Home Park. He states that he was appointed to that situation by George III., about forty years ago. On receiving his appointment he was directed to attend upon the King at the Castle, and on arriving there he found his Majesty with the old Lord Winchilsea.' After a little delay, the king set off to walk in the park, attended by Lord Winchilsea, and Mr. Ingalt was desired to follow them. Nothing was said to him until the king stopped opposite an oak-tree. He then turned to Mr. Ingalt and said, 'I brought you here to point out this tree to you. I commit it to your especial charge, and take care that no damage is ever done to it. I had rather that every tree in the park should be cut down than that this tree should be hurt. This is Herne's Oak.' Mr. Ingalt added that this was the tree still standing near Queen Elizabeth's Walk, and is the same tree which I have mentioned and given a sketch of in my Gleanings in Natural History.' Sapless and leafless it certainly is, and its rugged bark has all disappeared. 'Its boughs are moss'd with age,

And high top bald with gray antiquity ;'

but there it stands, and long may it do so, an object of interest to every admirer of our immortal bard. In this state it has been, probably, long before the recollection

of the oldest person living. Its trunk appears, however, sound, like a piece of shiptimber, and it has always been protected by a strong fence round it—a proof of the care which has been taken of the tree, and of the interest which is attached to it."

Mr. Engall (not Ingalt), "the present respectable bailiff and manager of Windsor Home Park," certainly did not reside at Windsor forty years ago. He is not now what may be called an old man; and he was originally about the person of George III. at one of those seasons of affliction which were so distressing to his Majesty's family and to his subjects. The conversation thus reported by Mr. Jesse is entirely at variance with much earlier recollections of George III., which we shall presently show.

We are here relieved from the doubt as to which tree Mr. Jesse originally intended to describe as Herne's Oak, by the following passage of his letter to 'The Times. "King William III. was a great planter of avenues, and to him we are indebted for those in Hampton Court and Bushy Parks, and also those at Windsor. All these have been made in a straight line, with the exception of one in the Home Park, which diverges a little, so as to take in Herne's Oak as a part of the avenue-a proof, at least, that William III. preferred distorting his avenue to cutting down the tree in order to make way for it in a direct line, affording another instance of the care taken of this tree 150 years ago."

With our own recollections of the localities still vivid, we have recently visited the favourite haunts of our boyhood in the Little Park. Our sensations were not pleasurable. The spot is so changed, that we could scarcely recognise it. We lamented twenty-five years ago that the common footpath to Datchet should have been carried through the picturesque dell, near which all tradition agreed that Herne's Oak stood; but we were not prepared to find that, during the alterations of the castle, the most extensive and deepest part of the dell, all on the north of the path, had been filled up and made perfectly level. Our old favourite thorns are now all buried, and the antique roots of the trees that stood in and about the dell are covered up. Surely the rubbish of the castle might have been conveyed to a less interesting place of deposit. The smaller and shallower part of the dell, that on the south of the path, has been half filled up, and what remains is of a formal and artificial character. Mr. Jesse seems quite unaware of the change that has taken place in the locality, for in his Gleanings he says, "I was glad to find a pit hard by, where Nan and her troop of fairies, and the Welsh devil Evans, might all have couched, 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, seem to prove the identity of the tree, in addition to the traditions respecting it." The divergence of the avenue, which Mr. Jesse, somewhat enthusiastically, attributes to the respect of William III. for Herne's Oak, must, we fear, be assigned to less poetical motives. The avenue, we understand, formed the original boundary of the park in that direction. It diverges at least 120 yards before it reaches Mr. Jesse's Herne's Oak; and there is little doubt that the meadow on the south of the avenue after it diverges, which in our remembrance was a separate enclosure, was formerly a common field. The engraving at the head of this Illustration is a most faithful delineation of the oak which Mr. Jesse calls Herne's. It is now perfectly bare down to the very roots. "In this state," says Mr. Jesse, "it has been, probably, long before the recollection of the oldest person living." He adds, "it has always been protected by a strong fence round it." In our own recollection this tree was unprotected by any fence, and its upper part only was withered and without bark. So far from Herne the hunter having blasted it, it appears to have suffered a premature decay within the last twenty years. This tree is of small

girth compared with other trees about it. It is not more than fifteen feet in circumference at the largest part, while there is a magnificent oak at about 200 yards distance whose girth is nearly thirty feet. The engraving at the end of this notice is a representation of that beautiful tree.

The doubts which naturally belong to this question are, we apprehend, sufficiently cogent to render it a somewhat bold act for the authorities connected with the park to have recently put up a board on Mr. Jesse's favourite tree in the avenue, bearing this inscription :

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

Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest,
Doth all the winter-time, at full midnight,

Walk round about this oak.”*

The subject, since the publication of our first edition, has been investigated with great acuteness by Dr. Bromet; and his conclusions are given in a very interesting letter in the Gentleman's Magazine' for April, 1841. He has collected a variety of testimony from living persons, which goes to prove that a tree called Herne's Oak was cut down some sixty years ago, and that the tree which now pretends to the honour" this oak”—had acquired the name in very modern times :—“ its present name was not conferred upon it until some time after the demolition of another old tree, formerly possessing that title." This entirely agrees with our own personal recollections of the talk of Windsor about Herne's Oak. But Dr. Bromet justly observes that the " strongest proof" against the claims of Mr. Jesse's oak is "Collier's map of 1742, which actually points out 'Sir John Falstaff's oak' as being, not in the present avenue, but outside it, near the edge of the pit." Mr. Collier, "was a resident in the immediate vicinity of the tree he thus distinguishes ;”—and his map is therefore an indisputable "record of its locality and character a hundred years ago." So far, we think, the proof is absolute that the oak in the avenue is not Herue's Oak. It was not as we believe so called by general tradition even in very recent times: it certainly was not so called in Collier's Plan of Windsor Little Park' in 1742, in which plan another tree, standing some yards away from the avenue, is remarkable enough to bear the name of Sir John Falstaff's Oak. We take the liberty of copying a little plan from the article in the Gentleman's Magazine.'