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Herne's Oak
W. A. Delamotte
1842
Wood-engraving
7.2 x 6 cm, framed
Fourth Delamotte illustration for W. Harrison Ainsworth's Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance, first published in the June 1842 number of Ainsworth's Magazine; volume, p. 7.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Throwing a shuddering glance at thehaunted dell, he was about to hurry towards the castle, when a large,lightning-scathed, and solitary oak, standing a little distance fromhim, attracted his attention.
This was the very tree connected with the wild legend of Herne the Hunter, which Captain Bouchier had warned him not to approach, and henow forcibly recalled the caution. Beneath it he perceived a figure,which he at first took for that of the spectral hunter; but his fearswere relieved by a shout from the person, who at the same momentappeared to catch sight of him.
Satisfied that, in the present instance, he had to do with a being of this world, Surrey ran towards the tree, and on approaching itperceived that the object of his alarm was a young man of very athleticproportions, and evidently, from his garb, a keeper of the forest.[Chapter I. "Of the Earl of Surrey's solitary Ramble in the Home Park; Ofthe Vision beheld by him in the Haunted Dell; And of hisMeeting with Morgan Fenwolf, the Keeper, beneath Herne's Oak,"pp. 7-8]
The centre-piece of the "romance" side of Ainsworth's "historical romance" is Herne's Oak, which has been replaced several times over the centuries, but still (presumably) possesses the aura of folklore associated with its Celtic Cernunnos, or quasi-anthropomorphic woodland deity. In The History of the Devil—The Horned God of the West Herne (1929), R. Lowe Thompson speculates that "Herne" as well as other Wild Huntsmen in European folklore all derive from the same ancient source. "Herne" may be a cognate of the name of Gaulish deity Cernunnos, just as the English word "horn" is cognate withthe Latin "cornu." Cernunnos was the Gallic horned god of fertility, vegetable life, animals, wealth, and the underworld.
Although Ainsworth does not refer to the tradition that Herne's visitations foreshadow some national disaster or the death of the reigning monarch, Herne does seem responsible, nevertheless, for most of the spectre's back-story, including his being a fourteenth-century forester who was gored by a stag and then saved by the Devil on the condition that he wear the stag's antlers ever afterwards. Herne (or "Horn") was said to have been one of the keepers of the Forest of Windsor in the reign of Richard II, and known for his skills in hunting and woodcraft. Intervening to save the King from a rampaging white hart when hunting, Herne was fatally gored. Although a magus named Philip Urswick recovered Herne's life, the yeoman was temporarily cursed with loss of his woodcraft until his jealous fellows made amends and swore loyalty to him. Urswick chopped off the hart's antlers, and then tied them on to Herne's head, whereupon they attached themselves magically, as though they were natural growth.
Some fifty years before Ainsworth wrote the story, Samuel Ireland recorded (or more likely made up) he legend in which the forester, having been falsely charged with a capital crime such as treason, hanged himself on the oak tree to avoid living in disgrace. The precise location of the tree in the Home Park has always been a matter of debate. The tree commonly accepted as Herne's Oak was cut down in 1796, and then, in 1838, Edward Jesse claimed that a different tree in the avenue was the real Herne's Oak. This tree enjoyed some celebrity, especially with Queen Victoria. When it was blown down on 31 August 1863, the Queen commanded that another be planted at the same place. This "Queen's Tree," in turn, had to removed in 1906 when the avenue of oaks was replanted. A tree planted in 1906 now enjoys the title "Herne's Oak," which is, doubtless, a tourist draw on account of its Shakespearean associations. Now curious tourists hope to catch a glimpse of the spirit-hunter wearing the horns of a stag, riding a black stallion, and leading a Wild Hunt with a pack of phantom hounds and hunters.
Above: George Cruikshank's realisation of the spectral hunter in deerskins on his jet-black stallion, as regarded by Richmond and Shoreditch, Herne the Hunter Plunging into the Lake (steel-engraving, Chapter 10: fifth monthly instalment, December 1842). [Click on image to enlarge it.]
Ainsworth, William Harrison. Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance. Illustrated by George Cruikshank and Tony Johannot. With designs on wood by W. Alfred Delamotte. London: Routledge, 1880. Based on the Henry Colburn edition of 1844.
Chesson, Wilfred Hugh. George Cruikshank. The Popular Library of Art. London: Duckworth, 1908.
Jerrold, Blanchard. The Life of George Cruikshank. In Two Epochs. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. 2 vols. London: Chatto and Windus, 1882.
Patten, Robert L. Chapter 30, "The 'Hoc' Goes Down." George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, vol. 2: 1835-1878. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers U. P., 1991; London: The Lutterworth Press, 1996. Pp. 153-186.
Worth, George J. William Harrison Ainsworth. New York: Twayne, 1972.
Last modified 4 December 2017