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Scathed Oak-tree in the Home Park
W. A. Delamotte
1843
Wood-engraving
9.5 cm high by 9 cm, vignetted
Sixty-seventh Delamotte illustration for Ainsworth's Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance, Ainsworth's Magazine (March 1843); Book IV, headpiece for Chapter VI, "The Legend of Herne the Hunter," p. 202.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"Nearly a century and a half ago," commenced Cutbeard, about the middle of the reign of Richard the Second, there was among the keepers of the forest a young man named Herne. He was expert beyond his fellows in all matters of woodcraft, and consequently in great favour with the king, who was himself devoted to the chase. Whenever he stayed at the castle, King Richard, like our own royal Harry, would pass his time in hunting, hawking, or shooting with the long-bow; and on all these occasions the young keeper was his constant attendant. If a hart was to be chased, Herne and his two black hounds of Saint Hubert’s breed would hunt him down with marvellous speed; if a wild boar was to be reared, a badger digged out, a fox unkennelled, a marten bayed, or an otter vented, Herne was chosen for the task. No one could fly a falcon so well as Herne — no one could break up a deer so quickly or so skilfully as him. But in proportion as he grew in favour with the king, the young keeper was hated by his comrades, and they concerted together how to ruin him. All their efforts, however, were ineffectual, and rather tended to his advantage than injury.
"One day it chanced that the king hunted in the forest with his favourite, the Earl of Oxford, when a great deer of head was unharboured, and a tremendous chase ensued, the hart leading his pursuers within a few miles of Hungerford, whither the borders of the forest then extended. All the followers of the king, even the Earl of Oxford, had by this time dropped off, and the royal huntsman was only attended by Herne, who kept close behind him. At last the hart, driven to desperation, stood at bay, and gored the king's horse as he came up in such a manner that it reared and threw its rider. Another instant, and the horns of the infuriated animal would have been plunged into the body of the king, if Herne had not flung himself between the prostrate monarch and his assailant, and received the stroke intended for him. Though desperately wounded, the young hunter contrived slightly to raise himself, and plunged his knife into the hart's throat, while the king regained his feet. [Book the Fourth, "Cardinal Wolsey," Chapter VI, "The Legend of Herne the Hunter," p. 202]
The views that Delamotte offers of the Home Park and Windsor Forest as these appeared in the summer of 1842 are only occasionally complemented by the larger-scale steel-engravings. The inset wood-engravings complement both the chase scenes early in the novel and the appearances of Herne the Hunter later. The strategy of showing the present-day counterpart of the Tudor scene which Ainsworth describes seems almost intended to encourage literary tourism and amateur antiquarianism.Unfortunately,all too often Ainsworth is absorbed in the picturesque backdrop rather than the development of the novel's characters, who, of course, are generally absent from Delamotte's wood-engravings of Victorian Windsor, the notable exceptions being Haunted Beech-tree, near Norfolk Farm (Book I, Ch. V) and The Wild Huntsman (Book I, Ch. V). The change in perspective, from omniscient in the text to objective in the wood-engravings, enforces a suspension of disbelief as Ainsworth utilizes actual settings that bridge past and present.
Above: Tony Johannot's stylish realisation of the scene in which Morgan Fenwolf brings down the rampaging stag which menaces Anne Boleyn, The Royal Chase in Windsor Forest. [Click on image to enlarge it.]
Left: The first perspective of the park, View of the Castle, from the Great Park (Book I, Ch. VIII). Centre: Another 1842 sketch of the same area, Haunted Beech-tree, Looking towards the Hill (Book IV, Ch. VI). Right: Delamotte's map in aerial perspective, Windsor Great Park, 1529 (Book III, Ch. IV). [Click on images to enlarge them.]
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 29 December 2017