Old Oak, near Blacknest not far from Windsor Castle, based on a sketch made by Sandhurst Military Academy drawing-master W. Alfred Delamotte for the eighth instalment of W. Harrison Ainsworth's Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance for the March 1843 number in Ainsworth's Magazine. Book the Fourth, "Cardinal Wolsey," Chapter III, ""How Mabel Lyndwood was taken to the Castle by Nicholas Clamp; and how they encountered Morgan Fenwolf by the way," p. 187: 5.7 cm high by 7.5 cm wide, vignetted. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Passage Illustrated
The evening was delightful, and their way through the woods was markedby numberless points of beauty. Mabel said little, for her thoughts were running upon her grandfather, and upon his prolonged and mysterious absence; but the falconer talked of the damage done by the thunderstorm, which he declared was the most awful he had ever witnessed; and he pointed out to her several trees struck by the lightning. Proceeding in this way, they gained a road leading from Blacknest, when, from behinda large oak, the trunk of which had concealed him from view, Morgan Fenwolf started forth, and planted himself in their path. The gearof the proscribed keeper was wild and ragged, his locks matted anddisordered, his demeanour savage, and his whole appearance forbidding and alarming. [Book IV, "CardinalWolsey,"ChapterIII, "How Mabel Lyndwood was taken to the Castle by Nicholas Clamp; and how they encountered Morgan Fenwolf by the way," pp. 187-188]
Commentary
Britons, to arms! and let 'em come; Be you but Britons still, strike home, And, lion-like, attack 'em, No power can stand the deadly stroke That's given from hands and hearts of oak, With Liberty to back 'em. — William Hogarth, The Invasion, Plate II (1756)
The reader should disregard the more positive associations of the British oak, for here Ainsworth is not calling up such heroic qualities as stalwartness and British love of liberty, as in the anthem "Hearts of Oak," a patriotic jingle by David Garrick and William Boyce that became the official march of the Royal Navy (revised in 1809 from the 18th c. version), a song that originated in the Drury Lane pantomime Harlequin's Invasion. This play was staged many times in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and commemorated by a Hogarth print simply entitled England. Ainsworth is doubtless thinking of an oler tradition, in which the oak had druidical and mystical associations.
In the novel, the motif of the oak tree, so frequently associated with Herne the Hunter, here implies Mabel Lyndwood's rustic lineage; although it turns out that she is Cardinal Wolsey's illegitimate daughter, Mabel has been raised by a virtuous but slightly crochety local forester. As a recurring motif the oak also connects Mabel to the other less moral forester, Morgan Fenwolf, who becomes one of Herne's confederates before turning against him. In this chapter, the old family friend, the venerable falconer Nicholas Clamp, conducts Mabel through the forest to the kitchen of Windsor Castle, where she encounters such characters as the sanguine Shoreditch, the perceptive jester Will Somers, and Patch, Cardinal Wolsey's apoplectic fool — a scene which Cruikshank ably presents in the same number.
Cruikshank's Depiction of Mabel Lyndwood's arrival at Windsor Castle
Above: Mabel is introduced to the amiable society of the Great Kitchen at Windsor Castle, The Quarrel between Will Sommers and Patch in the great kitchen of the Castle (Book IV, Ch. IV). [Click on images to enlarge them.]
Delamotte's Other Depictions of Herne's Oak
Left: The first view of the haunted tree, Herne's Oak (Book I, Ch. I). Centre: Delanotte's depiction of Morgan Fenwolf riding with Herne, The Wild Hunstmen (Book I, Ch. V). Right: Delamotte reiterates the "haunted tree" motif in Scathed Oak-tree in the Home Park (Book IV, Ch. VI). [Click on images to enlarge them.]
Other Views and Related Material on Windsor Castle
- Windsor Castle from the Long Walk, Victorian additions and alterations by Sir Jeffry Wyattville
- Early twentieth-century view of the castle from the river
- The Frogmore Mausoleum, adjacent to the Long Walk
- Statue of Queen Victoria at the foot of Castle Hill, Windsor
References
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.
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 31 December 2017