has had its interest with people in general much increased by its
association with the history of Napoleon in the Island of St. Helena.
The tree whose boughs seemed to hang so fondly over his remains has now
its scions in all parts of the world. Few travellers visited the tomb
without taking a small cutting of the Napoleon Willow for cultivation in
their own land. Slips of the Willow at Twickenham, like those of the
Willow at St. Helena, have also found their way into many countries. In
1789 the Empress of Russia had some of them planted in her garden at St.
Petersburgh.
Mr. Loudon tells us that there is an old _oak_ in Binfield Wood, Windsor
Forest, which is called _Pope's Oak_, and which bears the inscription
"HERE POPE SANG:"[014] but according to general tradition it was a
_beech_ tree, under which Pope wrote his "Windsor Forest." It is said
that as that tree was decayed, Lady Gower had the inscription alluded to
carved upon another tree near it. Perhaps the substituted tree was an
oak.
I may here mention that in the Vale of Avoca there is a tree celebrated
as that under which Thomas Moore wrote the verses entitled "The meeting
of the Waters."
The allusion to _Pope's Oak_ reminds me that Chaucer is said to have
planted three oak trees in Donnington Park near Newbury. Not one of them
is now, I believe, in existence. There is an oak tree in Windsor Forest
above 1000 years old. In the hollow of this tree twenty people might be
accommodated with standing room. It is called _King's Oak_: it was
William the Conqueror's favorite tree. _Herne's Oak_ in Windsor Park, is
said by some to be still standing, but it is described as a mere
anatomy.
----An old oak whose boughs are mossed with age,
And high top bald with dry antiquity.
_As You Like it_.
"It stretches out its bare and sapless branches," says Mr. Jesse, "like
the skeleton arms of some enormous giant, and is almost fearful in its
decay." _Herne's Oak_, as every one knows, is immortalised by
Shakespeare, who has spread its fame over many lands.
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 trees, and takes the cattle;
And makes milch cows yield blood, and shakes a chain
In a most hideous and dreadful manner.
You have heard of such a spirit; and well you know,
The superstitious, idle-headed eld
Received, and did deliver to our age,
This tale of Herne the Hunter for a truth.
_Merry Wives of Windsor_.
"Herne, the hunter" is said to have hung himself upon one of the
branches of this tree, and even,
----Yet there want not many that do fear,
In deep of night to walk by this Herne's Oak.
_Merry Wives of Windsor_.
It was not long ago visited by the King of Prussia to whom Shakespeare
had rendered it an object of great interest.
It is unpleasant to add that there is considerable doubt and dispute as
to its identity. Charles Knight and a Quarterly Reviewer both maintain
that _Herne's Oak_ was cut down with a number of other old trees in
obedience to an order from George the Third when he was not in his right
mind, and that his Majesty deeply regretted the order he had given when
he found that the most interesting tree in his Park had been destroyed.
Mr. Jesse, in his _Gleanings in Natural History_, says that after some
pains to ascertain the truth, he is convinced that this story is not
correct, and that the famous old tree is still standing. He adds that
George the Fourth often alluded to the story and said that though one of
the trees cut down was supposed to have been _Herne's Oak_, it was not
so in reality. George the Third, it is said, once called the attention
of Mr. Ingalt, the manager of Windsor Home Park to a particular tree,
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 Hernes Oak_."