Wall Plaque of The Herne 29.5cm )O(

Herne the Hunter is an equestrian ghost associated with Windsor Forest and Great Park in the English county of Berkshire.

In Margaret Murray's 1931 book, God of the Witches, she posits that Herne is a manifestation of Cernunnos, the Celtic horned god. Because he is found only in Berkshire, and not in the rest of the Windsor Forest area, Herne is considered a "localised" god -- and could indeed be the Berkshire interpretation of Cernunnos.

The earliest written account of Herne comes from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1597:
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;
And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle,
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain
In a most hideous and dreadful manner.
You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know
The superstitious idle-headed eld
Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age,
This tale of Herne the Hunter for a truth.