Pennant's Tour 1773 |
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Page 153:- |
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| Hart Horn Tree | If the Hart-horn oak exists, it escaped my notice. Mr. Brooke, Somerset Herald, told me he had seen an ancient tree in the road leading from Penrith to Appleby, not far from Lady's Pillar, said to be Hart's-horn Tree, which road is over part of Whinfel-park, that has been inclosed. It took its name from a pair of stag's horns nailed on it, in memory of a famous chace, in the years 1333 or 1334, between a greyhound named Hercules, and a stag. They are said to have run from this park to Red Kirk in Scotland, and back again: that the stag had just strength enough to leap over the pales, within which it died. Hercules, in attempting to follow, fell down, and died on the outside. - The horns of the stag were nailed on one of the oaks; and, in process of time, being lost in the growth of the tree, another pair were nailed on, and, to record this wonderful chace, the following lines were inscribed: | FAMOUS CHACE.
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| "Hercules killed Hart a-greese, |
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| "And Hart a-greese killed Hercules.*" |
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| But Dr. Burn justly observed, that it is much more probable that the chace was to Nine Kirk, or the Church of St. Ninian, a place on the Eimot, within the verge of the forest, than to Red Kirk in Scotland, a distance so remote as to take away all credit from the relation. |
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| I re- |
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| * See Camden, 11, 994. Burn, 1, 398. |
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