"_Mrs. Page._ 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.
_Page._ ... there want not many, that do fear In deep of night to walk by this Herne's oak."
Herne's Oak, so long an object of much curiosity and enthusiasm, is now no more. According to one theory, the old tree was blown down August 31, 1863; and a young oak was planted by her Majesty, September 12, 1863, to mark the spot where Herne's Oak stood.[536] Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, however, tells us, "the general opinion is that it was accidentally destroyed in the year 1796, through an order of George III. to the bailiff Robinson, that all the unsightly trees in the vicinity of the castle should be removed; an opinion confirmed by a well-established fact, that a person named Grantham, who contracted with the bailiff for the removal of the trees, fell into disgrace with the king for having included the oak in his gatherings."[537]
[537] See "Notes and Queries," 3d series, vol. xii. p. 160.
_Olive._ This plant, ever famous from its association with the return of the dove to the ark, has been considered typical of peace. It was as an emblem of peace that a garland of olive was given to Judith when she restored peace to the Israelites by the death of Holofernes (Judith, xv. 13). It was equally honored by Greeks and Romans. It is, too, in this sense that Shakespeare speaks of it when he makes Viola, in "Twelfth Night" (i. 5), say: "I bring no overture of war, no taxation of homage; I hold the olive in my hand, my words are as full of peace as matter." In Sonnet CVII. occurs the well-known line:[538]
"And peace proclaims olives of endless age."
[538] See also "3 Henry VI.," iv. 6; "Timon of Athens," v. 4; "Antony and Cleopatra," iv. 6; "2 Henry IV.," iv. 4.
_Palm._ As the symbol of victory, this was carried before the conqueror in triumphal processions. Its classical use is noticed by Shakespeare in "Coriolanus" (v. 3). Volumnia says:[539]
"And bear the palm, for having bravely shed Thy wife and children's blood."
[539] See "As You Like It," iii. 2; "Timon of Athens," v. 1; cf. "Henry VIII.," iv. 2.