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The legend of Herne the Hunter
Herne was one of the King's huntsmen in the Great Park,
a
man skilled in woodcraft. One day when he and the King
were
out hunting a huge stage they were racking turned on
the
King charging to gore him. Herne bravely stood in its way
and
saved the King's life, but he was seriously gored
himself.
From a beech tree a wizard called Phillip Urwick
appeared.
He bade the King to strap the dead stag's antlers
to
Herne's head. The King bound Herne to an oak to support
him,
and miraculously he survived. The King was forever
grateful
and Herne became his favourite head huntsman.
Urwick tended Herne back to health in his hut on Bagshot
Heath.
Two of the other huntsmen became jealous of the
King's
favourite and some say they framed him for poaching
and
others say they struck a bargain with Urwick to remove
his
skill at woodcraft. Whatever the cause, Herne hanged
himself
in shame from his oak but his spirit was restless
and
the wild hunt had begun.
The two treacherous huntsmen were impelled by Urwick to
ride
with Herne for all eternity and to this day the hunt is
seen
or heard in Windsor Forest and as far away as Cookham Moor and Huntercombe
Manor which gets its name from the hunter.
Author Angus Macnaghten reports on a sighting,
almost
certainly of Herne, at Cookham. In his book
Haunted
Berkshire he tells of a woman's experience
on
the common at Cookham Dean one Summer's evening in
the
1920s. She saw the figure of a man wearing antlers
coming
out of the undergrowth which at that time covered
the
common. She saw the figure disappear into one of
the
three oak trees on the common.
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