found that, among the rest, the remains of Herne's Oak had been destroyed."

Either Mr. Crofton Croker, on whose authority this statement is made, must have misunderstood what Mr. Nicholson told him, or else Lady Ely had misrepresented to him, what the King had told her, supposing she had asked him the question, which may now be fairly doubted. It may be added that Mr. Davis assures me that he not only frequently heard the King assert that he had cut down the supposititious Herne's Oak, but that he repeated the assertion during a succession of years, when his mind and body were in a perfectly healthy state.

Fifthly:-The fact that the King placed the present tree under the especial charge of Mr. Engall, who is still the manager of the Home Park, forty years ago, telling him at the time that it was Herne's Oak. It may be added, on the same authority, that some chairs were made from the supposititious Herne's Oak, and presented to the King, as interesting relics of that tree, but which he refused to accept, stating that Herne's Oak was still standing. Many things, also, were made from the tree and sold to various persons in the neighbourhood, which left the impression that Herne's Oak had been felled.

Sixthly: A statement which I know was

made by his late Majesty, George IV., that

Herne's Oak had not been cut down by his father, and which has been confirmed to me by one of the surviving members of his family.

Seventhly: :- The present appearance of the tree would serve to prove that it might have remained in nearly the state, in which we now see it, through a long succession of ages. I remember, a few years ago, going to see a fine sound oak, of about the same girth, a few minutes after it had been struck with lightning. It was in Richmond Park. The bark had been stripped, with the leaves completely pulverized. Not one of the smaller branches was to be seen. Some of the larger ones were riven and thrown to a considerable distance, but the trunk was left, having only two or three naked arms remaining upon it, and no appearance of vitality to shew how lately it had been a flourishing and beautiful ornament of the Park, except some sparkling drops of sap which oozed from the tree, and looked like tears trickling down the sturdy stem, as if it were weeping over its premature fate ;

Black from the stroke above, the smould'ring oak
Stands a sad shatter'd trunk.

That this trunk would have remained in that state during many centuries, there can be little doubt, and this, I think, might have been the case with Herne's Oak. It had evidently been "blasted,"

but the external wood is still sound, and long may it remain so.

I might multiply my reasons for considering the present tree as the real Herne's Oak, by quoting the opinions of the late amiable Sir Herbert Taylor, Sir David Dundas, and others on the subject, but perhaps enough has been said. I may however add, that Mr. Gilpin, in his work on Forest Scenery, tells us that Herne's Oak is still supposed to exist. He adds, that "in the Little Park of Windsor there is a walk, known by the name of Queen Elizabeth's Walk. It consists of elms, among which is a single oak, taken into the row, as if particularly meant to be distinguished at the time when the walk or avenue was made. It is a large tree, measuring twenty-four feet in circumference." In consequence of this statement, I caused the tree to be measured, the day I am writing this, by a respectable carpenter, used to measure timber. He tells me that it girts at the end of the trunk, twenty-one feet, and that allowing for the bark which was on it, in the year 1792 or 3, when Mr. Gilpin wrote his account, it would have had a girth of twenty-three feet at least, so nearly does it agree with Mr. Gilpin's statement, and which, by the way, was written some years before either Mr. Delamotte or Mr. Nicholson drew the supposititious oak, already referred to. The present tree must, therefore, once have been a

very large and noble one. Compared with the girth of two or three near it, it is seen now to disadvantage, but it should be recollected that these other trees are pollards, and the very circumstance of trees having been deprived of their leading branches, through a succession of years, which has not been the case with Herne's Oak, always increases the size of their trunks.

I can again only express my hope, that the arguments I have made use of will not be unacceptable to the admirers of Shakspeare. Even if I could be proved to be wrong, I do not see what object would be gained by the endeavours to destroy the interest, which would otherwise be attached to this last relic of our immortal bard. I may appear obstinate, or too persevering in my wish to rescue it from oblivion and neglect, but as long as I feel that I have the best of the argument, I will maintain my ground.

In order that the tree may now be readily recognized by strangers, I have had the following quotation affixed to it:

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 this oak.

I am assured that since this inscription has been put on the tree, some females, who were in the habit of passing between Windsor and Datchet,

through the Park at night, have been alarmed with the fear of meeting "Herne the hunter." If this be so, it curiously shows the unexpected fact, that superstition holds the same sway in this neighbourhood that it did, when Shakspeare made Mrs. Page (and she is speaking two centuries before his time) say,

there want not many that do fear,

In deep of night to walk by this Herne's Qak.

D