A coloured etching of parkland with Windsor Castle in the background. In the foreground is a very old oak tree with a few living branches. Beside it, a group of three people are gathered: a grinning fat man in an ochre-coloured doublet and hose, a ruff, and a brimmed hat, flanked by two women in respectable eighteenth-century fashions. More trees and several tiny deer are visible behind them.

Herne’s Oak, Windsor Park

Attributed to Samuel Ireland

c.1799

Etching with hand colouring

11.0 x 16.2 cm

RCIN 700759

Image credit: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021

In The Merry Wives of Windsor, 'Herne's Oak' is said to be the haunt of 'Herne the Hunter,' a ghost identifiable by his 'great ragg'd horns.' Sir John Falstaff is lured there by the prospect of an amorous liaison. Instead, he encounters a mob of townspeople who pinch and 'mock him home to Windsor'.

The first tree in Windsor Home Park to be identified as 'Herne's Oak' was felled in 1797. However, it dominates the foreground of this hand-coloured print.

Published in Samuel Ireland’s Picturesque Views on the River Thames, this print is at once a view of eighteenth-century Windsor Park and an illustration to Shakespeare. Between the tree and Windsor Castle are Falstaff and the 'merry wives' themselves, wearing distinctive 'Elizabethan' flared collars.

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A woman sits on a grassy bank in front of a tree. She is very pale, with a serious expression. She wears a low-cut white dress with lace trim, a fichu across her breast, and blue ribbons on the bodice. Her hands are in her lap; one hand holds an object, too small to make out. On the right sits an alert fox dog with white fur. The background includes more trees and a cloudy sky.

Shade of Falstaff

Anonymous, published in Punch, 1891

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Albert Edward, Prince of Wales meets the ghost of Falstaff, accompanied by Mr Punch. The Prince is tall and fat, with a short beard, holding a cigar, and wearing a formal suit and heavy overcoat. Mr Punch stoops, holding his hat and stroking his chin. He also wears a tailcoat; his head has an exaggerated forehead, nose and chin, and he has an exaggerated hunch on his back. Falstaff is rendered in grey to show his status as a ghost; like Albert Edward he is bearded and overweight, but he wears medieval costume including a sword and hood, and carries a plumed hat.