th the oaken garland."
And again (i. 3): "To a cruel war I sent him; from whence he returned,
his brows bound with oak." Montesquieu, indeed, said that it was with
two or three hundred crowns of oak that Rome conquered the world.
Although so much historical and legendary lore have clustered round the
oak, yet scarcely any mention is made of this by Shakespeare. The legend
of Herne the Hunter, which seems to have been current at Windsor, is
several times alluded to, as, for instance, in "Merry Wives of Windsor"
(iv. 4):

"_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]

[536] See "Windsor Guide," p. 5.

[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; "