A huge Oak, dry and dead Still clad with reliques of its trophies old, SPENSER. It is an interesting fact that the morning after the king of Prussia arrived at Windsor Castle, in order to be present at the christening of the Prince of Wales, the whole of His Majesty's suite, including the celebrated Baron Humboldt, enquired their way to Herne's Oak. This was the first object of their attention and curiosity, and probably of their veneration. The splendours of the castle, its pictures, the noble scenery surrounding it, and the many historical facts connected with it, were objects of inferior interest, compared to a single withered, time-destroyed tree, yet rich with recollections of the genius of our immortal Shakspeare. On arriving at the sacred tree, it was gazed at in silence, but each of the party gathered a leaf from the ivy which is now clinging to the decaying trunk, as a relic which they intended to carry back to their own country, to be shewn there as one of no common interest. The nobleman who accompanied the party to the tree, acquainted me with this little anecdote, and I must confess that it afforded me no small degree of gratification. Pleasing as it is to see foreigners hasten to look at a tree which our great bard has immortalized, it is still more so to have the perfect conviction, that if any tree in the park has a right to be considered as the real Herne's Oak, it is the tree in question. In a former work, I ventured to give this opinion, and facts which have since come to my knowledge have only served to confirm it. In that work, a very imperfect representation of the tree was given. By the kindness of Mr. Starke, whose paintings of forest scenery are so well known, and so highly appreciated, I am now enabled to give a more perfect, or rather, an exact one. The discussion which has taken place with respect to the identity of the tree, has occasioned some degree of interest on the subject, nor do I think that that interest has yet subsided. At all events I feel sure, that the admirers of our immortal bard will thank me for my endeavours to prove the claim, which this tree has to be called "Herne's Oak." The discussion I have referred to was commenced in an article in the Quarterly Review on Mr. Loudon's Arboretum, in which an attack, not a very courteous one, was made upon me for the opinion I had given respecting this tree. To this I made a reply in the Times newspaper, stating some facts corroborating my former statement. The question was afterwards taken up in the Gentleman's Magazine, in which some one under the high-sounding title of " Plantagenet," first of all advocated my cause, and then published another letter in which he endeavoured to refute my arguments in favour of the present tree. This he did in consequence of having seen Collyer's Map of the Home Park, Windsor, in which a hand may be seen pointing to an oak in an avenue, and under it is written, "Sir John Falstaffe's Oak." As this avenue was marked as formed of a treble row of trees, the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine argued that the present tree must have stood in the centre row of trees, whereas that marked on Collyer's plan was in the exterior or outward row. To say nothing of the accuracy of this plan, which is a very old one, it requires some degree of ingenuity to shew that the tree now standing in the avenue was not in the external row. By a reference to the plan, I am convinced that most people would think that there was no third row of trees at this place, and consequently that the present tree must be the one pointed out in the plan. By referring also to the accompanying. |