I.
Comprising the First Two Epochs in the History of Windsor
Castle.
Amid the gloom hovering over the early history of Windsor Castle appear
the mighty phantoms of the renowned King Arthur and his knights, for
whom it is said Merlin reared a magic fortress upon its heights, in a
great hall whereof, decorated with trophies of war and of the chase, was
placed the famous Round Table. But if the antique tale is now worn out,
and no longer part of our faith, it is pleasant at least to record it,
and surrendering ourselves for a while to the sway of fancy, to conjure
up the old enchanted castle on the hill, to people its courts with
warlike and lovely forms, its forests with fays and giants.
Windsor, or Wyndleshore, so called from the winding banks of the river
flowing past it, was the abode of the ancient Saxon monarchs; and a
legend is related by William of Malmesbury of a woodman named Wulwin,
who being stricken with blindness, and having visited eighty-seven
churches and vainly implored their tutelary saints for relief, was at
last restored to sight by the touch of Edward the Confessor, who further
enhanced the boon by making him keeper of his palace at Windsor. But
though this story may be doubted, it is certain that the pious king
above mentioned granted Windsor to the abbot and monks of Saint Peter at
Westminster, “for the hope of eternal reward, the remission of his sins,
the sins of his father, mother, and all his ancestors, and to the praise
of Almighty God, as a perpetual endowment and inheritance.”
But the royal donation did not long remain in the hands of the
priesthood. Struck by the extreme beauty of the spot, “for that it
seemed exceeding profitable and commodious, because situate so near the
Thames, the wood fit for game, and many other particulars lying there,
meet and necessary for kings--yea, a place very convenient for his
reception,” William the Conqueror prevailed upon Abbot Edwin to accept
in exchange for it Wakendune and Feringes, in Essex, together with three
other tenements in Colchester; and having obtained possession of the
coveted hill, he forthwith began to erect a castle upon it--occupying a
space of about half a hide of land. Around it he formed large parks, to
enable him to pursue his favourite pastime of hunting; and he enacted
and enforced severe laws for the preservation of the game.
As devoted to the chase as his father, William Rufus frequently hunted
in the forests of Windsor, and solemnised some of the festivals of the
Church in the castle.
In the succeeding reign--namely, that of Henry the First--the castle
was entirely rebuilt and greatly enlarged--assuming somewhat of the
character of a palatial residence, having before been little more than
a strong hunting-seat. The structure then erected in all probability
occupied the same site as the upper and lower wards of the present pile;
but nothing remains of it except perhaps the keep, and of that little
beyond its form and position. In 1109 Henry celebrated the feast of
Pentecost with great state and magnificence within the castle. In 1122
he there espoused his second wife, Adelicia, daughter of Godfrey, Duke
of Louvain; and failing in obtaining issue by her, assembled the barons
at Windsor, and causing them, together with David, King of Scotland,
his sister Adela, and her son Stephen, afterwards King of England, to do
homage to his daughter Maud, widow of the Emperor Henry the Fifth.
Proof that Windsor Castle was regarded as the second fortress in the
realm is afforded by the treaty of peace between the usurper Stephen and
the Empress Maud, in which it is coupled with the Tower of London under
the designation of Mota de Windsor. At the signing of the treaty it was
committed to the custody of Richard de Lucy, who was continued in the
office of keeper by Henry the Second.
In the reign of this monarch many repairs were made in the castle, to
which a vineyard was attached--the cultivation of the grape being at
this time extensively practised throughout England. Strange as the
circumstance may now appear, Stow mentions that vines grew in abundance
in the home park in the reign of Richard the Second, the wine made from
them being consumed at the king's table, and even sold.
It is related by Fabian that Henry, stung by the disobedience and
ingratitude of his sons, caused an allegorical picture to be painted,
representing an old eagle assailed by four young ones, which he placed
in one of the chambers of the castle. When asked the meaning of the
device, he replied, “I am the old eagle, and the four eaglets are
my sons, Who cease not to pursue my death. The youngest bird, who
is tearing out its parent's eyes, is my son John, my youngest and
best-loved son, and who yet is the most eager for my destruction.”
On his departure for the holy wars Richard Coeur de Lion entrusted the
government of the castle to Hugh de Pudsey, Bishop of Durham and Earl of
Northumberland; but a fierce dispute arising between the warrior-prelate
and his ambitious colleague, William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, he was
seized and imprisoned by the latter, and compelled to surrender the
castle. After an extraordinary display of ostentation, Longchamp was
ousted in his turn. On the arrival of the news of Richard's capture and
imprisonment in Austria, the castle was seized by Prince John; but it
was soon afterwards taken possession of in the king's behalf by the
barons, and consigned to the custody of Eleanor, the queen-dowager.
In John's reign the castle became the scene of a foul and terrible event
William de Braose, a powerful baron, having offended the king, his wife
Maud was ordered to deliver up her son a hostage for her husband.
But instead of complying with the injunction, she rashly returned for
answer--“that she would not entrust her child to the person who could
slay his own nephew.” Upon which the ruthless king seized her and her
son, and enclosing them in a recess in the wall of the castle, built
them up within it.
Sorely pressed by the barons in 1215, John sought refuge within the
castle, and in the same year signed the two charters, Magna Charta and
Charta de Foresta, at Runnymede--a plain between Windsor and Staines. A
curious account of his frantic demeanour, after divesting himself of
so much power and extending so greatly the liberties of the subject, is
given by Holinshed:--“Having acted so far contrary to his mind, the king
was right sorrowful in heart, cursed his mother that bare him, and
the hour in which he was born; wishing that he had received death by
violence of sword or knife instead of natural nourishment. He whetted
his teeth, and did bite now on one staff, now on another, as he walked,
and oft brake the same in pieces when he had done, and with such
disordered behaviour and furious gestures he uttered his grief, that
the noblemen very well perceived the inclination of his inward affection
concerning these things before the breaking-up of the council, and
therefore sore lamented the state of the realm, guessing what would
follow of his impatience, and displeasant taking of the matter.”
The faithless king made an attempt to regain his lost power, and war
breaking out afresh in the following year, a numerous army, under the
command of William de Nivernois, besieged the castle, which was stoutly
defended by Inglehard de Achie and sixty knights. The barons, however,
learning that John was marching through Norfolk and Suffolk, and
ravaging the country, hastily raised the siege and advanced to meet him.
But he avoided them, marched to Stamford and Lincoln, and from thence
towards Wales. On his return from this expedition he was seized with the
distemper of which he died.
Henry the Third was an ardent encourager of architecture, and his reign
marks the second great epoch in the annals of the castle. In 1223 eight
hundred marks were paid to Engelhard de Cygony, constable of the castle,
John le Draper, and William the clerk of Windsor, masters of the works,
and others, for repairs and works within the castle; the latter, it is
conjectured, referring to the erection of a new great hall within the
lower ward, there being already a hall of small dimensions in the upper
court. The windows of the new building were filled with painted glass,
and at the upper end, upon a raised dais, was a gilt throne sustaining
a statue of the king in his robes. Within this vast and richly decorated
chamber, in 1240, on the day of the Nativity, an infinite number of poor
persons were collected and fed by the king's command.
During the greater part of Henry's long and eventful reign the works
within the castle proceeded with unabated activity. Carpenters were
maintained on the royal establishment; the ditch between the hall and
the lower ward was repaired; a new kitchen was built; the bridges were
repaired with timber procured from the neighbouring forests; certain
breaches in the wall facing the garden were stopped; the fortifications
were surveyed, and the battlements repaired. At the same time the
queen's chamber was painted and wainscoted, and iron bars were placed
before the windows of Prince Edward's chamber. In 1240 Henry commenced
building an apartment for his own use near the wall of the castle,
sixty feet long and twenty-eight high; another apartment for the queen
contiguous to it; and a chapel, seventy feet long and twenty-eight feet
wide, along the same wall, but with a grassy space between it and the
royal apartments. The chapel, as appears from an order to Walter de
Grey, Archbishop of York, had a Galilee and a cloister, a lofty wooden
roof covered with lead, and a stone turret in front holding three or
four bells. Withinside it was made to appear like stone-work with good
ceiling and painting, and it contained four gilded images.
This structure is supposed to have been in existence, under the
designation of the Old College Church, in the latter part of the reign
of Henry the Seventh, by whom it was pulled down to make way for the
tomb-house. Traces of its architecture have been discovered by diligent
antiquarian research in the south ambulatory of the Dean's Cloister, and
in the door behind the altar in St. George's Chapel, the latter of
which is conceived to have formed the principal entrance to the older
structure, and has been described as exhibiting “one of the most
beautiful specimens which time and innovation have respected of the
elaborate ornamental work of the period.”
In 1241 Henry commenced operations upon the outworks of the castle, and
the three towers on the western side of the lower ward--now known as the
Curfew, the Garter, and the Salisbury Towers--were erected by him. He
also continued the walls along the south side of the lower ward, traces
of the architecture of the period being discoverable in the inner walls
of the houses of the alms-knights as far as the tower now bearing his
name. From thence it is concluded that the ramparts ran along the east
side of the upper ward to a tower occupying the site of the Wykeham or
Winchester Tower.
The three towers at the west end of the lower ward, though much
dilapidated, present unquestionable features of the architecture of the
thirteenth century. The lower storey of the Curfew Tower, which has been
but little altered, consists of a large vaulted chamber, twenty-two feet
wide, with walls of nearly thirteen feet in thickness, and having
arched recesses terminated by loopholes. The walls are covered with the
inscriptions of prisoners who have been confined within it. The Garter
Tower, though in a most ruinous condition, exhibits high architectural
beauty in its moulded arches and corbelled passages. The Salisbury Tower
retains only externally, and on the side towards the town, its original
aspect. The remains of a fourth tower are discernible in the Governor
of the Alms-Knights' Tower; and Henry the Third's Tower, as
before observed, completes what remains of the original chain of
fortifications.
On the 24th of November 1244 Henry issued a writ enjoining “the clerks
of the works at Windsor to work day and night to wainscot the high
chamber upon the wall of the castle near our chapel in the upper bailey,
so that it may be ready and properly wainscoted on Friday next [the 24th
occurring on a Tuesday, only two days were allowed for the task], when
we come there, with boards radiated and coloured, so that nothing be
found reprehensible in that wainscot; and also to make at each gable of
the said chamber one glass window, on the outside of the inner window
of each gable, so that when the inner window shall be closed the glass
windows may be seen outside.”
The following year the works were suspended, but they were afterwards
resumed and continued, with few interruptions; the keep was new
constructed; a stone bench was fixed in the wall near the grass-plot by
the king's chamber; a bridge was thrown across the ditch to the king's
garden, which lay outside the walls; a barbican was erected, to which
a portcullis was subsequently attached; the bridges were defended by
strong iron chains; the old chambers in the upper ward were renovated;
a conduit and lavatory were added; and a fountain was constructed in the
garden.
In this reign, in all probability, the Norman Tower, which now forms a
gateway between the middle and the upper ward, was erected. This tower,
at present allotted to the house keeper of the castle, Lady Mary Fox,
was used as a prison-lodging during the civil wars of Charles the
First's time; and many noble and gallant captives have left mementoes of
their loyalty and ill fate upon its walls.
In 1260 Henry received a visit to Windsor from his daughter Margaret,
and her husband, Alexander the Third, King of Scotland. The queen gave
birth to a daughter during her stay at the castle.
In 1264, during the contest between Henry and the barons, the valiant
Prince Edward, his son, returning from a successful expedition into
Wales, surprised the citizens of London, and carrying off their
military chest, in which was much treasure, retired to Windsor Castle
and strongly garrisoned it. The Queen Eleanor, his mother, would fain
have joined him there, but she was driven back by the citizens at London
Bridge, and compelled to take sanctuary in the palace of the Bishop of
London, at St. Paul's.
Compelled at length to surrender the castle to the barons, and to depart
from it with his consort, Eleanor of Castile, the brave prince soon
afterwards recovered it, but was again forced to deliver it up to
Simon de Montford, Earl of Leicester, who appointed Geoffrey de Langele
governor. But though frequently wrested from him at this period, Windsor
Castle was never long out of Henry's possession; and in 1265 the chief
citizens of London were imprisoned till they had paid the heavy fine
imposed upon them for their adherence to Simon de Montford, who had been
just before slain at the battle of Evesham.
During this reign a terrific storm of wind and thunder occurred, which
tore up several great trees in the park, shook the castle, and blew down
a part of the building in which the queen and her family were lodged,
but happily without doing them injury.
Four of the children of Edward the First, who was blessed with a
numerous offspring, were born at Windsor; and as he frequently
resided at the castle, the town began to increase in importance and
consideration. By a charter granted in 1276 it was created a free
borough, and various privileges were conferred on its inhabitants. Stow
tells us that in 1295, on the last day of February, there suddenly arose
such a fire in the castle of Windsor that many offices were therewith
consumed, and many goodly images, made to beautify the buildings,
defaced and deformed.
Edward the Second, and his beautiful but perfidious queen, Isabella of
France, made Windsor Castle their frequent abode; and here, on the 13th
day of November 1312 at forty minutes past five in the morning, was
born a prince, over whose nativity the wizard Merlin must have presided.
Baptized within the old chapel by the name of Edward, this prince became
afterwards the third monarch of the name, and the greatest, and was also
styled, from the place of his birth, EDWARD OF WINDSOR.
II.
Comprising the Third Great Epoch in the History of the
Castle--And showing how the Most Noble Order of the Garter
was instituted.
Strongly attached to the place of his birth, Edward the Third, by his
letters patent dated from Westminster, in the twenty-second year of his
reign, now founded the ancient chapel established by Henry the First,
and dedicated it to the Virgin, Saint George of Cappadocia, and Saint
Edward the Confessor; ordaining that to the eight canons appointed by
his predecessor there should be added one custos, fifteen more canons,
and twenty-four alms-knights; the whole to be maintained out of the
revenues with which the chapel was to be endowed. The institution was
confirmed by Pope Clement the Sixth, by a bull issued at Avignon the
13th of November 1351.
In 1349, before the foundation of the college had been confirmed, as
above related, Edward instituted the Order of the Garter. The origin of
this illustrious Order has been much disputed. By some writers it has
been ascribed to Richard Coeur de Lion, who is said to have girded a
leathern band round the legs of his bravest knights in. Palestine. By
others it has been asserted that it arose from the word “garter” having
been used as a watchword by Edward at the battle of Cressy. Others again
have stoutly maintained that its ringlike form bore mysterious reference
to the Round Table. But the popular legend, to which, despite the doubts
thrown upon it, credence still attaches, declares its origin to be as
follows: Joan, Countess of Salisbury, a beautiful dame, of whom Edward
was enamoured, while dancing at a high festival accidentally slipped
her garter, of blue embroidered velvet. It was picked up by her royal
partner, who, noticing the significant looks of his courtiers on the
occasion, used the words to them which afterwards became the motto of
the Order--“Honi soit qui mal y pense;” adding that “in a short time
they should see that garter advanced to so high honour and estimation as
to account themselves happy to wear it.”
But whatever may have originated the Order, it unquestionably owes
its establishment to motives of policy. Wise as valiant, and bent upon
prosecuting his claim to the crown of France, Edward, as a means of
accomplishing his object, resolved to collect beneath his standard the
best knights in Europe, and to lend a colour to the design, he gave
forth that he intended a restoration of King Arthur's Round Table, and
accordingly commenced constructing within the castle a large circular
building of two hundred feet in diameter, in which he placed a round
table. On the completion of the work, he issued proclamations throughout
England, Scotland, France, Burgundy, Flanders, Brabant, and the Empire,
inviting all knights desirous of approving their valour to a solemn
feast and jousts to be holden within the castle of Windsor on Saint
George's Day, 1345. The scheme was completely successful. The flower of
the chivalry of Europe--excepting that of Philip the Sixth of France,
who, seeing through the design, interdicted the attendance of his
knights-were present at the tournament, which was graced by Edward
and his chief nobles, together with his queen and three hundred of
her fairest dames, “adorned with all imaginable gallantry.” At this
chivalrous convocation the institution of the Order of the Garter
was arranged; but before its final establishment Edward assembled his
principal barons and knights, to determine upon the regulations, when it
was decided that the number should be limited to twenty-six.
The first installation took place on the anniversary of Saint George,
the patron of the Order, 1349, when the king, accompanied by the
twenty-five knights'-companions, attired in gowns of russet, with
mantles of fine blue woollen cloth, powdered with garters, and hearing
the other insignia of the Order, marched bareheaded in solemn procession
to the chapel of Saint George, then recently rebuilt, where mass was
performed by William Edington, Bishop of Winchester, after which they
partook of a magnificent banquet. The festivities were continued for
several days. At the jousts held on this occasion, David, King of
Scotland, the Lord Charles of Blois, and Ralph, Earl of Eu and Guisnes,
and Constable of France, to whom the chief prize of the day was
adjudged, with others, then prisoners, attended. The harness of the King
of Scotland, embroidered with a pale of red velvet, and beneath it a
red rose, was provided at Edward's own charge. This suit of armour was,
until a few years back, preserved in the Round Tower, where the royal
prisoner was confined. Edward's device was a white swan, gorged, or,
with the “daring and inviting” motto--
Hay hay the wythe swan By God's soul I am thy man.
The insignia of the Order in the days of its founder were the garter,
mantle, surcoat, and hood, the George and collar being added by Henry
the Eighth. The mantle, as before intimated, was originally of fine blue
woollen cloth; but velvet, lined with taffeta, was substituted by
Henry the Sixth, the left shoulder being adorned with the arms of Saint
George, embroidered within a garter. Little is known of the materials
of which the early garter was composed; but it is supposed to have been
adorned with gold, and fastened with a buckle of the same metal.
The modern garter is of blue velvet, bordered with gold wire, and
embroidered with the motto, “Honi soit qui mal y pense.” It is worn on
the left leg, a little below the knee. The most magnificent garter
that ever graced a sovereign was that presented to Charles the First by
Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, each letter in the motto of which was
composed of diamonds. The collar is formed of pieces of gold fashioned
like garters, with a blue enamelled ground. The letters of the motto are
in gold, with a rose enamelled red in the centre of each garter. From
the collar hangs the George, an ornament enriched with precious stones,
and displaying the figure of the saint encountering the dragon.
The officers of the Order are the prelate, represented by the Bishop
of Winchester; the Chancellor, by the Bishop of Oxford; the registrar,
dean, garter king-at-arms, and the usher of the black rod. Among the
foreign potentates who have been invested with the Order are eight
emperors of Germany, two of Russia, five kings of France, three of
Spain, one of Arragon, seven of Portugal, one of Poland, two of Sweden,
six of Denmark, two of Naples, one of Sicily and Jerusalem, one of
Bohemia, two of Scotland, seven princes of Orange, and many of the most
illustrious personages of different ages in Europe.
Truly hath the learned Selden written, “that the Order of the Garter
hath not only precedency of antiquity before the eldest rank of honour
of that kind anywhere established, but it exceeds in majesty, honour,
and fame all chivalrous orders in the world.” Well also hath glorious
Dryden, in the “Flower and the Leaf,” sung the praises of the
illustrious Institution:--
“Behold an order yet of newer date, Doubling their number, equal in
their state; Our England's ornament, the crown's defence, In battle
brave, protectors of their prince: Unchanged by fortune, to their
sovereign true, For which their manly legs are bound with blue. These
of the Garter call'd, of faith unstain'd, In fighting fields the laurel
have obtain'd, And well repaid the laurels which they gained.”
In 1357 John, King of France, defeated at the battle of Poitiers by
Edward the Black Prince, was brought captive to Windsor; and on the
festival of Saint George in the following year; 1358, Edward outshone
all his former splendid doings by a tournament which he gave in honour
of his royal prisoner. Proclamation having been made as before, and
letters of safe conduct issued, the nobles and knighthood of Almayne,
Gascoigne, Scotland, and other countries, flocked to attend it, The
Queen of Scotland, Edward's sister, was present at the jousts; and it is
said that John, commenting upon the splendour of the spectacle, shrewdly
observed “that he never saw or knew such royal shows and feastings
without some after-reckoning.” The same monarch replied to his
kingly captor, who sought to rouse him from dejection, on another
occasion--“Quomodo cantabimus canticum in terra aliena!”
That his works might not be retarded for want of hands, Edward in the
twenty-fourth year of his reign appointed John de Sponlee master of the
stonehewers, with a power not only “to take and keep, as well within
the liberties as without, as many masons and other artificers as were
necessary, and to convey them to Windsor, but to arrest and imprison
such as should disobey or refuse; with a command to all sheriffs,
mayors, bailiffs, etc., to assist him.” These powers were fully acted
upon at a later period, when some of the workmen, having left their
employment, were thrown into Newgate; while the place of others, who had
been carried off by a pestilence then raging in the castle, was supplied
by impressment.
In 1356 WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM was constituted superintendent of the works,
with the same powers as John de Sponlee, and his appointment marks
an important era in the annals of the castle. Originally secretary to
Edward the Third, this remarkable man became Bishop of Winchester and
prelate of the Garter. When he solicited the bishopric, it is said
that Edward told him he was neither a priest nor a scholar; to which he
replied that he would soon be the one, and in regard to the other, he
would make more scholars than all the bishops of England ever did. He
made good his word by founding the collegiate school at Winchester, and
erecting New College at Oxford. When the Winchester Tower was finished,
he caused the words, HOC FECIT WYKEHAM, to be carved upon it; and the
king, offended at his presumption, Wykeham turned away his displeasure
by declaring that the inscription meant that the castle had made him,
and not that he had made the castle. It is a curious coincidence that
this tower, after a lapse of four centuries and a half, should become
the residence of an architect possessing the genius of Wykeham, and who,
like him, had rebuilt the kingly edifice--SIR JEFFRY WYATVILLE.
William of Wykeham retired from office, loaded with honours, in 1362,
and was succeeded by William de Mulso. He was interred in the cathedral
at Winchester. His arms were argent, two chevrons, sable, between three
roses, gules, with the motto--“Manners maketh man.”
In 1359 Holinshed relates that the king “set workmen in hand to take
down much old buildings belonging to the castle, and caused divers other
fine and sumptuous works to be set up in and about the same castle, so
that almost all the masons and carpenters that were of any account
in the land were sent for and employed about the same works.” The old
buildings here referred to were probably the remains of the palace and
keep of Henry the First in the middle ward.
As the original chapel dedicated to Saint George was demolished by
Edward the Fourth, its position and form cannot be clearly determined,
But a conjecture has been hazarded that it occupied the same ground as
the choir of the present chapel, and extended farther eastward.
“Upon the question of its style,” says Mr. Poynter, from whose valuable
account of the castle much information has been derived, “there is the
evidence of two fragments discovered near this site, a corbel and
a piscina, ornamented with foliage strongly characteristic of the
Decorated English Gothic, and indicating, by the remains of colour
on their surfaces, that they belonged to an edifice adorned in the
polychromatic style, so elaborately developed in the chapel already
built by Edward the Third at Westminster.”
The royal lodgings, Saint George's Hall, the buildings on the east and
north sides of the upper ward, the Round Tower, the canons' houses in
the lower ward, and the whole circumference of the castle, exclusive of
the towers erected in Henry the Third's reign, were now built. Among the
earlier works in Edward's reign is the Dean's Cloister. The square of
the upper ward, added by this monarch, occupied a space of four
hundred and twenty feet, and encroached somewhat upon the middle ward.
Externally the walls presented a grim, regular appearance, broken only
by the buttresses, and offering no other apertures than the narrow
loopholes and gateways. Some traces of the architecture of the period
may still be discerned in the archway and machecoulis of the principal
gateway adjoining the Round Tower; the basement chamber of the Devil
Tower, or Edward the Third's Tower; and in the range of groined and
four-centred vaulting, extending along the north side of the upper
quadrangle, from the kitchen gateway to King John's Tower.
In 1359 Queen Philippa, consort of Edward the Third, breathed her last
in Windsor Castle.
Richard the Second, grandson of Edward the Third, frequently kept his
court at Windsor. Here, in 1382, it was determined by council that war
should be declared against France; and here, sixteen years later, on a
scaffold erected within the castle, the famous appeal for high treason
was made by Henry of Lancaster, Duke of Hereford, against Thomas
Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, the latter of whom defied his accuser to
mortal combat. The duel was stopped by the king, and the adversaries
banished; but the Duke of Lancaster afterwards returned to depose his
banisher. About the same time, the citizens of London having refused
Richard a large loan, he summoned the lord mayor, sheriffs, aldermen,
and twenty-four of the principal citizens, to his presence, and after
rating them soundly, ordered them all into custody, imprisoning the lord
mayor in the castle.
In this reign Geoffrey Chaucer, “the father of English poetry,” was
appointed clerk to the works of Saint George's Chapel, at a salary of
two shillings per day (a sum equal to 657 pounds per annum of modern
money), with the same arbitrary power as had been granted to previous
surveyors to impress carpenters and masons. Chaucer did not retain his
appointment more than twenty months, and was succeeded by John Gedney.
It was at Windsor that Henry the Fourth, scarcely assured of the crown
he had seized, received intelligence of a conspiracy against his life
from the traitorous Aumerle, who purchased his own safety at the expense
of his confederates. The timely warning enabled the king to baffle the
design. It was in Windsor also that the children of Mortimer, Earl of
March, the rightful successor to the throne, were detained as hostages
for their father. Liberated by the Countess-dowager of Gloucester,
who contrived to open their prison door with false keys, the youthful
captives escaped to the marshes of Wales, where, however, they were
overtaken by the emissaries of Henry, and brought back to their former
place of confinement.
A few years later another illustrious prisoner was brought to
Windsor--namely, Prince James, the son of King Robert the Third, and
afterwards James the First of Scotland. This prince remained a captive
for upwards of eighteen years; not being released till 1424, in the
second of Henry the Sixth, by the Duke of Bedford, then regent. James's
captivity, and his love for Jane of Beaufort, daughter of the Duke of
Somerset, and granddaughter to John of Gaunt, to whom he was united,
have breathed a charm over the Round Tower, where he was confined; and
his memory, like that of the chivalrous and poetical Surrey, whom he
resembled in character and accomplishments, will be ever associated with
it.
In the “King's Quair,” the royal poet has left an exquisite picture of a
garden nook, contrived within the dry moat of the dungeon.
“Now was there made, fast by the tower's wall, A garden faire, and in
the corners set An arbour green with wandis long and small Railed about,
and so with leaves beset Was all the place, and hawthorn hedges knet,
That lyf was none, walking there forbye, That might within scarce any
wight espy. So thick the branches and the leave's green Beshaded all
the alleys that there were. And midst of every harbour might be seen
The sharpe, green, sweet juniper, Growing so fair with branches here
and there, That as it seemed to a lyf without The boughs did spread the
arbour all about.”
And he thus describes the first appearance of the lovely Jane, and the
effect produced upon him by her charms:
“And therewith cast I down mine eye again, Where as I saw walking under
the tower, Full secretly, new comyn her to plain, The fairest and the
freshest younge flower That e'er I saw, methought, before that hour;
For which sudden abate, anon did start The blood of all my body to my
heart.”
Henry the Fifth occasionally kept his court at Windsor, and in 1416
entertained with great magnificence the Emperor Sigismund, who brought
with him an invaluable relic--the heart of Saint George--which he
bestowed upon the chapter. The emperor was at the same time invested
with the Order.
In 1421 the unfortunate Henry the Sixth was born within the castle, and
in 1484 he was interred within it.
III.
Comprising the Fourth Epoch in the History of the Castle--
And showing how Saint George's Chapel was rebuilt by King
Edward the Fourth.
Finding the foundation and walls of Saint George's Chapel much
dilapidated and decayed, Edward the Fourth resolved to pull down the
pile, and build a larger and statelier structure in its place. With this
view, he constituted Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury, surveyor
of the works, from whose designs arose the present beautiful edifice. To
enable the bishop to accomplish the work, power was given him to remove
all obstructions, and to enlarge the space by the demolition of the
three buildings then commonly called Clure's Tower, Berner's Tower, and
the Almoner's Tower.
The zeal and assiduity with which Beauchamp prosecuted his task is
adverted to in the patent of his appointment to the office of chancellor
of the Garter, the preamble whereof recites, “that out of mere love
towards the Order, he had given himself the leisure daily to attend the
advancement and progress of this goodly fabric.”
The chapel, however, was not completed in one reign, or by one
architect. Sir Reginald Bray, prime minister of Henry the Seventh,
succeeded Bishop Beauchamp as surveyor of the works, and it was by him
that the matchless roof of the choir and other parts of the fabric were
built. Indeed, the frequent appearance of Bray's arms, sometimes single,
sometimes impaling his alliances, in many parts of the ceiling and
windows, has led to the supposition that he himself contributed largely
to the expense of the work. The groined ceiling of the chapel was
not commenced till the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry the
Seventh, when the pinnacles of the roof were decorated with vanes,
supported by gilt figures of lions, antelopes, greyhounds, and dragons,
the want of which is still a detriment to the external beauty of the
structure.
“The main vaulting of St. George's Chapel,” says Mr. Poynter, “is
perhaps, without exception, the most beautiful specimen of the Gothic
stone roof in existence; but it has been very improperly classed with
those of the same architectural period in the chapels of King's College,
Cambridge, and Henry the Seventh, at Westminster. The roofing of the
aisle and the centre compartment of the body of the building are indeed
in that style, but the vault of the nave and choir differ essentially
from fan vaulting, both in drawing and construction. It is, in fact,
a waggon-headed vault, broken by Welsh groins--that is to say, groins
which cut into the main arch below the apex. It is not singular in the
principle of its design, but it is unique in its proportions, in which
the exact mean seems to be attained between the poverty and monotony of
a waggon-headed ceiling and the ungraceful effect of a mere groined roof
with a depressed roof or large span--to which may be added, that with a
richness of effect scarcely, if at all, inferior to fan tracery, it
is free from those abrupt junctions of the lines and other defects of
drawing inevitable when the length and breadth of the compartments of
fan vaulting differ very much, of which King's College Chapel exhibits
some notable instances.”
Supported by these exquisite ribs and groins, the ceiling is decorated
with heraldic insignia, displaying the arms of Edward the Confessor,
Edward the Third, Edward the Black Prince, Henry the Sixth, Edward
the Fourth, Henry the Seventh, and Henry the Eighth; with the arms of
England and France quartered, the holy cross, the shield or cross of
Saint George, the rose, portcullis, lion rampant, unicorn, fleur-de-lis,
dragon, and prince's feathers, together with the arms of a multitude of
noble families. In the nave are emblazoned the arms of Henry the Eighth,
and of several knights-companions, among which are those of Charles the
Fifth, Francis the First, and Ferdinand, Infant of Spain. The extreme
lightness and graceful proportions of the pillars lining the aisles
contribute greatly to the effect of this part of the structure.
Beautiful, however, as is the body of the chapel, it is not comparable
to the choir. Here, and on either side, are ranged the stalls of the
knights, formerly twenty-six in number, but now increased to thirty-two,
elaborately carved in black oak, and covered by canopies of the richest
tabernacle-work, supported by slender pillars. On the pedestals is
represented the history of the Saviour, and on the front of the stalls
at the west end of the choir is carved the legend of Saint George; while
on the outside of the upper seat is cut, in old Saxon characters, the
twentieth Psalm in Latin. On the canopies of the stalls are placed the
mantle, helmet, coat, and sword of the knights-companions; and above
them are hung their emblazoned banners. On the back of each stall are
fixed small enamelled plates, graven with the titles of the knights
who have occupied it. The ancient stall of the sovereign was removed in
1788, and a new seat erected.
The altar was formerly adorned with costly hangings of crimson velvet
and gold, but these, together with the consecrated vessels of great
value, were seized by order of Parliament in 1642 amid the general
plunder of the foundation. The service of the altar was replaced by
Charles the Second.
The sovereign's stall is immediately on the right on the entrance to the
choir, and the prince's on the left. The queen's closet is on the
north side above the altar. Beneath it is the beautiful and
elaborately-wrought framework of iron, representing a pair of gates
between two Gothic towers, designed as a screen to the tomb of Edward
the Fourth, and which, though popularly attributed to Quentin Matsys,
has with more justice been assigned to Master John Tressilian.
One great blemish to the chapel exists in the window over the altar,
the mullions and tracery of which have been removed to make way for
dull colourless copies in painted glass of West's designs. Instead of
--“blushing with the blood of kings, And twilight saints, and dim
emblazonings”--steeping the altar in rich suffusion, chequering the
walls and pavement with variegated hues, and filling the whole sacred
spot with a warm and congenial glow, these panes produce a cold,
cheerless, and most disagreeable effect.
The removal of this objectionable feature, and the restoration of
framework and compartments in the style of the original, and enriched
with ancient mellow-toned and many-hued glass in keeping with the place,
are absolutely indispensable to the completeness and unity of character
of the chapel. Two clerestory windows at the east end of the choir,
adjoining the larger window, have been recently filled with stained
glass in much better taste.
The objections above made may be urged with equal force against the east
and west windows of the south aisle of the body of the fane, and the
west window of the north aisle. The glorious west window, composed of
eighty compartments, embellished with figures of kings, patriarchs, and
bishops, together with the insignia of the Garter and the arms of the
prelates--the wreck gathered from all the other windows--and streaming
with the radiance of the setting sun upon the broad nave and graceful
pillars of the aisles--this superb window, an admirable specimen of the
architecture of the age in which it was designed, had well-nigh shared
the fate of the others, and was only preserved from desecration by the
circumstance of the death of the glass-painter. The mullions of this
window being found much decayed, were carefully and consistently
restored during the last year by Mr. Blore, and the ancient stained
glass replaced.
Not only does Saint George's Chapel form a house of prayer and a temple
of chivalry, but it is also the burial-place of kings. At the east end
of the north aisle of the choir is a plain flag, bearing the words--
King Edward IIII. And his Queen Elizabeth Widville.
The coat of mail and surcoat, decorated with rubies and precious stones,
together with other rich trophies once ornamenting this tomb, were
carried off by the Parliamentary plunderers. Edward's queen, Elizabeth
Woodville, it was thought, slept beside him; but when the royal tomb was
opened in 1789, and the two coffins within it examined, the smaller one
was found empty. The queen's body was subsequently discovered in a stone
coffin by the workmen employed in excavating the vault for George the
Third. Edward's coffin was seven feet long, and contained a perfect
skeleton. On the opposite aisle, near the choir door, as already
mentioned, rests the ill-fated Henry the Sixth, beneath an arch
sumptuously embellished by Henry the Eighth, on the key-stone of which
may still be seen his arms, supported by two antelopes connected by a
golden chain. Henry's body was removed from Chertsey, where it was first
interred, and reburied in 1484, with much solemnity, in this spot. Such
was the opinion entertained of his sanctity that miracles were supposed
to be wrought upon his tomb, and Henry the Seventh applied to have
him canonised, but the demands of the Pope were too exorbitant. The
proximity of Henry and Edward in death suggested the following lines to
Pope--
“Here, o'er the martyr-king the marble weeps, And fast beside him
once-fear'd Edward sleeps; The grave unites, where e'en the grave finds
rest, And mingled here the oppressor and the opprest.”
In the royal vault in the choir repose Henry the Eighth and his third
queen Jane Seymour, together with the martyred Charles the First.
Space only permits the hasty enumeration of the different chapels and
chantries adorning this splendid fane. These are Lincoln Chapel, near
which Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury, is buried; Oxenbridge
Chapel; Aldworth Chapel; Bray Chapel, where rests the body of Sir
Reginald de Bray, the architect of the pile; Beaufort Chapel, containing
sumptuous monuments of the noble family of that name; Rutland Chapel;
Hastings Chapel; and Urswick Chapel, in which is now placed the cenotaph
of the Princess Charlotte, sculptured by Matthew Wyatt.
In a vault near the sovereign's stall lie the remains of the Duke of
Gloucester, who died in 1805, and of his duchess, who died two years
after him. And near the entrance of the south door is a slab of grey
marble, beneath which lies \one who in his day filled the highest
offices of the realm, and was the brother of a king and the husband of a
queen. It is inscribed with the great name of Charles Brandon.
At the east end of the north aisle is the chapter-house, in which is a
portrait and the sword of state of Edward the Third.
Adjoining the chapel on the east stands the royal tombhouse. Commenced
by Henry the Seventh as a mausoleum, but abandoned for the chapel in
Westminster Abbey, this structure was granted by Henry the Eighth to
Wolsey, who, intending it as a place of burial for himself, erected
within it a sumptuous monument of black and white marble, with eight
large brazen columns placed around it, and four others in the form of
candlesticks.
At the time of the cardinal's disgrace, when the building reverted to
the crown, the monument was far advanced towards completion--the vast
sum of 4280 ducats having been paid to Benedetto, a Florentine sculptor,
for work, and nearly four hundred pounds for gilding part of it. This
tomb was stripped of its ornaments and destroyed by the Parliamentary
rebels in 1646; but the black marble sarcophagus forming part of it, and
intended as a receptacle for Wolsey's own remains, escaped destruction,
and now covers the grave of Nelson in a crypt of Saint Paul's Cathedral.
Henry the Eighth was not interred in this mausoleum, but in Saint
George's Chapel, as has just been mentioned, and as he himself directed,
“midway between the state and the high altar.” Full instructions
were left by him for the erection of a monument which, if it had been
completed, would have been truly magnificent. The pavement was to be of
oriental stones, with two great steps upon it of the same material. The
two pillars of the church between which the tomb was to be set were to
be covered with bas-reliefs, representing the chief events of the Old
Testament, angels with gilt garlands, fourteen images of the prophets,
the apostles, the evangelists, and the four doctors of the Church, and
at the foot of every image a little child with a basket full of red and
white roses enamelled and gilt. Between these pillars, on a basement of
white marble, the epitaphs of the king and queen were to be written in
letters of gold.
On the same basement were to be two tombs of black touchstone supporting
the images of the king and queen, not as dead, but sleeping, “to show,”
so runs the order, “that famous princes leaving behind them great fame
do never die.” On the right hand, at either corner of the tomb, was to
be an angel holding the king's arms, with a great candlestick, and
at the opposite corners two other angels hearing the queen's arms and
candlesticks. Between the two black tombs was to rise a high basement,
like a sepulchre, surmounted by a statue of the king on horseback, in
armour--both figures to be “of the whole stature of a goodly man and
a large horse.” Over this statue was to be a canopy, like a triumphal
arch, of white marble, garnished with oriental stones of divers colours,
with the history of Saint John the Baptist wrought in gilt brass upon
it, with a crowning group of the Father holding the soul of the king in
his right hand and the soul of the queen in his left, and blessing them.
The height of the monument was to be twenty-eight feet.
The number of statues was to be one hundred and thirty-four, with
forty-four bas-reliefs. It would be matter of infinite regret that this
great design was never executed, if its destruction by the Parliamentary
plunderers would not in that case have been also matter of certainty.
Charles the First intended to fit up this structure as a royal
mausoleum, but was diverted from the plan by the outbreak of the civil
war. It was afterwards used as a chapel by James the Second, and mass
was publicly performed in it. The ceiling was painted by Verrio, and the
walls highly ornamented; but the decorations were greatly injured by the
fury of an anti-Catholic mob, who assailed the building, and destroyed
its windows, on the occasion of a banquet given to the Pope's nuncio by
the king.
In this state it continued till the commencement of the present century,
when the exterior was repaired by George the Third, and a vault,
seventy feet in length, twenty-eight in width, and fourteen in depth,
constructed within it, for the reception of the royal family. Catacombs,
formed of massive octangular pillars, and supporting ranges of shelves,
line the walls on either side.
At the eastern extremity there are five niches, and in the middle twelve
low tombs. A subterranean passage leads from the vault beneath the choir
of Saint George's altar to the sepulchre. Within it are deposited the
bodies of George the Third and Queen Charlotte, the Princesses Amelia
and Charlotte, the Dukes of Kent and York, and the last two sovereigns,
George the Fourth and William the Fourth.
But to return to the reign of Edward the Fourth, from which the desire
to bring down the history of Saint George's Chapel to the present time
has led to the foregoing digression. About the same time that the chapel
was built, habitations for the dean and canons were erected on the
north-east of the fane, while another range of dwellings for the minor
canons was built at its west end, disposed in the form of a fetterlock,
one of the badges of Edward the Fourth, and since called the Horse-shoe
Cloisters. The ambulatory of these cloisters once displayed a fine
specimen of the timber architecture of Henry the Seventh's time, when
they were repaired, but little of their original character can now be
discerned.
In 1482 Edward, desirous of advancing his popularity with the citizens
of London, invited the lord mayor and aldermen to Windsor, where he
feasted them royally, and treated them to the pleasures of the chase,
sending them back to their spouses loaded with game.
In 1484 Richard the Third kept the feast of Saint George at Windsor, and
the building of the chapel was continued during his reign.
The picturesque portion of the castle on the north side of the upper
ward, near the Norman Gateway, and which is one of the noblest Gothic
features of the proud pile, was built by Henry the Seventh, whose name
it still bears. The side of this building looking towards the terrace
was originally decorated with two rich windows, but one of them has
disappeared, and the other has suffered much damage.
In 1500 the deanery was rebuilt by Dean Urswick. At the lower end of
the court, adjoining the canons' houses behind the Horse-shoe Cloisters,
stands the Collegiate Library, the date of which is uncertain, though it
may perhaps be referred to this period. The establishment was enriched
in later times by a valuable library, bequeathed to it by the Earl of
Ranelagh.
In 1506 Windsor was the scene of great festivity, in consequence of the
unexpected arrival of Philip, King of Castile, and his queen, who had
been driven by stress of weather into Weymouth. The royal visitors
remained for several weeks at the castle, during which it continued a
scene of revelry, intermixed with the sports of the chase. At the same
time Philip was invested with the Order of the Garter, and installed in
the chapel of St. George.
The great gateway to the lower ward was built in the commencement of
the reign of Henry the Eighth; it is decorated with his arms and
devices--the rose, portcullis, and fleur-de-lis, and with the bearings
of Catherine of Arragon. In 1522 Charles the Fifth visited Windsor, and
was installed I knight of the Garter.
During a period of dissension in the council, Edward the Sixth was
removed for safety to Windsor by the Lord Protector Somerset, and here,
at a later period, the youthful monarch received a letter from the
council urging the dismissal of Somerset, with which, by the advice of
the Arch-bishop of Canterbury, he complied.
In this reign an undertaking to convey water to the castle from
Blackmore Park, near Wingfield, a distance of five miles, was commenced,
though it was not till 1555, in the time of Mary, that the plan was
accomplished, when a pipe was brought into the upper ward, “and there
the water plenteously did rise thirteen feet high.” In the middle of the
court was erected a magnificent fountain, consisting of a canopy
raised upon columns, gorgeously decorated with heraldic ornaments, and
surmounted by a great vane, with the arms of Philip and Mary impaled
upon it, and supported by a lion and an eagle, gilt and painted. The
water was discharged by a great dragon, one of the supporters of the
Tudor arms, into the cistern beneath, whence it was conveyed by pipes to
every part of the castle.
Mary held her court at Windsor soon after her union with Philip of
Spain. About this period the old habitations of the alms-knights on the
south side of the lower quadrangle were taken down, and others erected
in their stead.
Fewer additions were made to Windsor Castle by Elizabeth than might have
been expected from her predilection for it as a place of residence. She
extended and widened the north terrace, where, when lodging within the
castle, she daily took exercise, whatever might be the weather. The
terrace at this time, as it is described by Paul Hentzner, and as it
appears in Norden's view, was a sort of balcony projecting beyond the
scarp of the hill, and supported by great cantilevers of wood.
In 1576 the gallery still bearing her name, and lying between Henry the
Seventh's buildings and the Norman Tower, was erected by Elizabeth. This
portion of the castle had the good fortune to escape the alterations and
modifications made in almost every other part of the upper ward after
the restoration of Charles the Second. It now forms the library. A large
garden was laid out by the same queen, and a small gateway on Castle
Hill built by her--which afterwards became one of the greatest
obstructions to the approach, and it was taken down by George the
Fourth.
Elizabeth often hunted in the parks, and exhibited her skill in archery,
which was by no means inconsiderable, at the butts. Her fondness for
dramatic performances likewise induced her to erect a stage within
the castle, on which plays and interludes were performed. And to her
admiration of the character of Falstaff, and her love of the locality,
the world is indebted for the “Merry Wives of Windsor.”
James the First favoured Windsor as much as his predecessors; caroused
within its halls, and chased the deer in its parks; Christian the Fourth
of Denmark was sumptuously entertained by him at Windsor. In this reign
a curious dispute occurred between the king and the dean and chapter
respecting the repair of a breach in the wall, which was not brought
to issue for three years, when, after much argument, it was decided in
favour of the clergy.
Little was done at Windsor by Charles the First until the tenth year of
his reign, when a banqueting-house erected by Elizabeth was taken down,
and the magnificent fountain constructed by Queen Mary demolished. Two
years after wards “a pyramid or lantern,” with a clock, hell, and dial,
was ordered to be set up in front of the castle, and a balcony was
erected before the room where Henry the Sixth was born.
In the early part of the year 1642 Charles retired to Windsor to
shield himself from the insults of the populace, and was followed by a
committee of the House of Commons, who prevailed upon him to desist from
the prosecution of the impeached members. On the 23rd of October in
the same year, Captain Fogg, at the head of a Parliamentarian force,
demanded the keys of the college treasury, and, not being able to obtain
them, forced open the doors, and carried off the whole of the plate.
The plunder of the college was completed by Vane, the Parliamentary
governor of the castle, who seized upon the whole of the furniture and
decorations of the choir, rifled the tomb of Edward the Fourth,
stripped off all the costly ornaments from Wolsey's tomb, defaced the
emblazonings over Henry the Sixth's grave, broke the rich painted glass
of the windows, and wantonly destroyed the exquisite woodwork of the
choir.
Towards the close of the year 1648 the ill-fated Charles was brought a
prisoner to Windsor, where he remained while preparations were made for
the execrable tragedy soon afterwards enacted. After the slaughter of
the martyr-monarch the castle became the prison of the Earl of Norwich,
Lord Capel, and the Duke of Hamilton, and other royalists and cavaliers.
Cromwell frequently resided within the castle, and often took a moody
and distrustful walk upon the terrace. It was during the Protectorate,
in 1677, that the ugly buildings appropriated to the naval knights, and
standing between the Garter Tower and Chancellor's Tower, were erected
by Sir Francis Crane.
IV.
Containing the History of the Castle from the Reign of
Charles the Second to that of George the Third--With a few
Particulars concerning the Parks and the Forest. Windsor
Castle.
ON the Restoration the castle resumed its splendour, and presented a
striking contrast to the previous gloomy period. The terrace, with its
festive groups, resembled a picture by Watteau, the courts resounded
with laughter, and the velvet sod of the home park was as often pressed
by the foot of frolic beauty as by that of the tripping deer.
Seventeen state apartments were erected by Sir Christopher Wren, under
the direction of Sir John Denham. The ceilings were painted by Verrio,
and the walls decorated with exquisite carvings by Grinling Gibbons. A
grand staircase was added at the same time. Most of the chambers were
hung with tapestry, and all adorned with pictures and costly furniture.
The addition made to the castle by Charles was the part of the north
front, then called the “Star Building,” from the star of the Order of
the Garter worked in colours in the front of it, but now denominated the
“Stuart Building,” extending eastward along the terrace from Henry the
Seventh's building one hundred and seventy feet. In 1676 the ditch was
filled up, and the terrace carried along the south and east fronts of
the castle.
Meanwhile the original character of the castle was completely destroyed
and Italianised. The beautiful and picturesque irregularities of the
walls were removed, the towers shaved off, the windows transformed into
commonplace circular-headed apertures. And so the castle remained for
more than a century.
Edward the Third's Tower, indifferently called the Earl Marshal's
Tower and the Devil Tower, and used as a place of confinement for state
prisoners, was now allotted to the maids of honour. It was intended by
Charles to erect a monument in honour of his martyred father on the site
of the tomb-house, which he proposed to remove, and 70,000 pounds were
voted by Parliament for this purpose. The design, however, was abandoned
under the plea that the body could not be found, though it was perfectly
well known where it lay. The real motive, probably, was that Charles had
already spent the money.
In 1680 an equestrian statue of Charles the Second, executed by Strada,
at the expense of Tobias Rustat, formerly housekeeper at Hampton Court,
was placed in the centre of the upper ward. It now stands at the lower
end of the same court. The sculptures on the pedestal were designed by
Grinling Gibbons; and Horace Walpole pleasantly declared that the statue
had no other merit than to attract attention to them.
In old times a road, forming a narrow irregular avenue, ran through the
woods from the foot of the castle to Snow Hill but this road having been
neglected during a long series of years, the branches of the trees
and underwood had so much encroached upon it as to render it wholly
impassable. A grand avenue, two hundred and forty feet wide, was planned
by Charles in its place, and the magnificent approach called the Long
Walk laid out and planted.
The only material incident connected with the castle during the reign of
James the Second has been already related.
Windsor was not so much favoured as Hampton Court by William the Third,
though he contemplated alterations within it during the latter part of
his life which it may be matter of rejoicing were never accomplished.
Queen Anne's operations were chiefly directed towards the parks,
in improving which nearly 40,000 pounds were expended. In 1707 the
extensive avenue running almost parallel with the Long Walk, and called
the “Queen's Walk,” was planted by her; and three years afterwards
a carriage road was formed through the Long Walk. A garden was also
planned on the north side of the castle. In this reign Sir James
Thornhill commenced painting Charles the Second's staircase with designs
from Ovid's Metamorphoses, but did not complete his task till after the
accession of George the First. This staircase was removed in 1800, to
make way for the present Gothic entrance erected by the elder Wyatt.
The first two monarchs of the house of Hanover rarely used Windsor as a
residence, preferring Hampton Court and Kensington; and even George the
Third did not actually live in the castle, but in the Queen's Lodge--a
large detached building, with no pretension to architectural beauty,
which he himself erected opposite the south terrace, at a cost of nearly
44,000 pounds. With most praiseworthy zeal, and almost entirely at his
own expense, this monarch undertook the restoration of Saint George's
Chapel. The work was commenced in 1787, occupied three years, and
was executed by Mr. Emlyn, a local architect. The whole building was
repaved, a new altar-screen and organ added, and the carving restored.
In 1796 Mr. James Wyatt was appointed surveyor-general of the royal
buildings, and effected many internal arrangements. Externally he
restored Wren's round-headed windows to their original form, and at the
same time gothicized a large portion of the north and south sides of the
upper ward.
Before proceeding further, a word must be said about the parks. The home
park, which lies on the east and north sides of the castle, is about
four miles in circumference, and was enlarged and enclosed with a brick
wall by William the Third. On the east, and nearly on the site of the
present sunk garden, a bowling-green was laid out by Charles the Second.
Below, on the north, were Queen Anne's gardens, since whose time the
declivity of the hill has been planted with forest trees. At the
east angle of the north terrace are the beautiful slopes, with a path
skirting the north side of the home park and leading through charming
plantations in the direction of the royal farm and dairy, the ranger's
lodge, and the kennel for the queen's harriers. This park contains many
noble trees; and the grove of elms in the south-east, near the spot
where the scathed oak assigned to Herne stands, is traditionally
asserted to have been a favourite walk of Queen Elizabeth. It still
retains her name.
The great park is approached by the magnificent avenue called the Long
Walk, laid out, as has been stated, by Charles the Second, and extending
to the foot of Snow Hill, the summit of which is crowned by the colossal
equestrian statue of George the Third, by Westmacott. Not far from this
point stands Cumberland Lodge, which derives its name from William, Duke
of Cumberland, to whom it was granted in 1744. According to Norden's
survey, in 1607, this park contained 3050 acres; but when surveyed by
George the Third it was found to consist of 3800 acres, of which 200
were covered with water. At that time the park was over grown with fern
and rushes, and abounded in bogs and swamps, which in many places were
dangerous and almost impassable. It contained about three thousand head
of deer in bad condition. The park has since been thoroughly drained,
smoothed, and new planted in parts; and two farms have been introduced
upon it, under the direction of Mr. Kent, at which the Flemish and
Norfolk modes of husbandry have been successfully practised.
Boasting every variety of forest scenery, and commanding from its knolls
and acclivities magnificent views of the castle, the great park is
traversed, in all directions, by green drives threading its long
vistas, or crossing its open glades, laid out by George the Fourth.
Amid the groves at the back of Spring Hill, in a charmingly sequestered
situation, stands a small private chapel, built in the Gothic style, and
which was used as a place of devotion by George the Fourth during the
progress of the improvements at the castle, and is sometimes attended by
the present queen.
Not the least of the attractions of the park is Virginia Water, with
its bright and beautiful expanse, its cincture of green banks, soft and
smooth as velvet, its screen of noble woods, its Chinese fishing-temple,
its frigates, its ruins, its cascade, cave, and Druidical temple, its
obelisk and bridges, with numberless beauties besides, which it would be
superfluous to describe here. This artificial mere covers pretty nearly
the same surface of ground as that occupied by the great lake of olden
times.
Windsor forest once comprehended a circumference of a hundred and twenty
miles, and comprised part of Buckinghamshire, a considerable portion
of Surrey, and the whole south-east side of Berkshire, as far as
Hungerford. On the Surrey side it included Chobham and Chertsey, and
extended along the side of the Wey, which marked its limits as far as
Guildford. In the reign of James the First, when it was surveyed by
Norden, its circuit was estimated at seventy-seven miles and a half,
exclusive of the liberties extending into Buckinghamshire. There were
fifteen walks within it, each under the charge of a head keeper, and the
whole contained upwards of three thousand head of deer. It is now almost
wholly enclosed.
V.
The Last Great Epoch in the History of the Castle.
A prince of consummate taste and fine conceptions, George the Fourth
meditated, and, what is better, accomplished the restoration of the
castle to more than its original grandeur. He was singularly fortunate
in his architect. Sir Jeffry Wyatville was to him what William
of Wykeham had been to Edward the Third. All the incongruities of
successive reigns were removed: all, or nearly all, the injuries
inflicted by time repaired; and when the work so well commenced was
finished, the structure took its place as the noblest and most majestic
palatial residence in existence.
To enter into a full detail of Wyatville's achievements is beyond the
scope of the present work; but a brief survey may be taken of them.
Never was lofty design more fully realised. View the castle on the
north, with its grand terrace of nearly a thousand feet in length,
and high embattled walls; its superb facade, comprehending the stately
Brunswick Tower; the Cornwall Tower, with its gorgeous window; George
the Fourth's Tower, including the great oriel window of the state
drawing-room; the restored Stuart buildings, and those of Henry the
Seventh and of Elizabeth; the renovated Norman Tower; the Powder Tower,
with the line of walls as far as the Winchester Tower;--view this, and
then turn to the east, and behold another front of marvellous beauty
extending more than four hundred feet from north to south, and
displaying the Prince of Wales's Tower, the Chester, Clarence, and
Victoria Towers--all of which have been raised above their former level,
and enriched by great projecting windows;--behold also the beautiful
sunken garden, with its fountain and orangery, its flights of steps, and
charming pentagonal terrace;--proceed to the south front, of which the
Victoria Tower, with its machicolated battlements and oriel window,
forms so superb a feature at the eastern corner, the magnificent gateway
receiving its name from George the Fourth, flanked by the York and
Lancaster Towers, and opening in a continued line from the Long Walk;
look at Saint George's Gate, Edward the Third's renovated tower, and the
octagon tower beyond it; look at all these, and if they fail to excite a
due appreciation of the genius that conceived them, gaze at the triumph
of the whole, and which lords over all the rest--the Round Tower--gaze
at it, and not here alone, but from the heights of the great park,
from the vistas of the home park, from the bowers of Eton, the meads
of Clewer and Datchet, from the Brocas, the gardens of the naval
knights--from a hundred points; view it at sunrise when the royal
standard is hoisted, or at sunset when it is lowered, near or at
a distance, and it will be admitted to be the work of a prodigious
architect!
But Wyatville's alterations have not yet been fully considered. Pass
through Saint George's Gateway, and enter the grand quadrangle to which
it leads. Let your eye wander round it, beginning with the inner
sides of Edward the Third's Tower and George the Fourth's Gateway,
and proceeding to the beautiful private entrance to the sovereign's
apartments, the grand range of windows of the eastern corridor, the
proud towers of the gateway to the household, the tall pointed windows
of Saint George's Hall, the state entrance tower, with its noble
windows, until it finally rests upon the Stuart buildings and King
John's Tower, at the angle of the pile.
Internally the alterations made by the architects have been of
corresponding splendour and importance. Around the south and east sides
of the court at which you are gazing, a spacious corridor has been
constructed, five hundred and fifty feet in length, and connected with
the different suites of apartments on these sides of the quadrangle;
extensive alterations have been made in the domestic offices; the state
apartments have been repaired and rearranged; Saint George's Hall
has been enlarged by the addition of the private chapel (the only
questionable change), and restored to the Gothic style; and the Waterloo
Chamber built to contain George the Fourth's munificent gift to the
nation of the splendid collection of portraits now occupying it.
“The first and most remarkable characteristic of operations of Sir
Jeffry Wyatville on the exterior,” observes Mr. Poynter, “is the
judgment with which he has preserved the castle of Edward the Third.
Some additions have been made to it, and with striking effect--as the
Brunswick Tower, and the western tower of George the Fourth's Gate-way
which so nobly terminates the approach from the great park. The more
modern buildings on the north side have also been assimilated to the
rest; but the architect has yielded to no temptation to substitute his
own design for that of William of Wykeham, and no small difficulties
have been combated and overcome for the sake of preserving the outline
of the edifice, and maintaining the towers in their original position.”
The Winchester Tower, originally inhabited by William of Wykeham, was
bestowed upon Sir Jeffry Wyatville as a residence by George the Fourth;
and, on the resignation of the distinguished architect, was continued to
him for life by the present queen.
The works within the castle were continued during the reign of William
the Fourth, and at its close the actual cost of the buildings had
reached the sum of 771,000, pounds and it has been asserted that the
general expenditure up to the present time has exceeded a million and a
half of money.
The view from the summit of the Round Tower is beyond description
magnificent, and commands twelve counties--namely, Middlesex, Essex,
Hertford, Berks, Bucks, Oxford, Wilts, Hants, Surrey, Sussex, Kent,
and Bedford; while on a clear day the dome of Saint Paul's may be
distinguished from it. This tower was raised thirty-three feet by Sir
Jeffry Wyatville, crowned with a machicolated battlement, and surmounted
with a flag-tower.
The circumference of the castle is 4180 feet; the length from east to
west, 1480 feet; and the area, exclusive of the terraces, about twelve
acres.
For the present the works are suspended. But it is to be hoped that the
design of Sir Jeffry Wyatville will be fully carried out in the lower
ward, by the removal of such houses on the north as would lay Saint
George's Chapel open to view from this side; by the demolition of the
old incongruous buildings lying westward of the bastion near the Hundred
Steps, by the opening out of the pointed roof of the library; the repair
and reconstruction in their original style of the Curfew, the Garter,
and the Salisbury Towers; and the erection of a lower terrace extending
outside the castle, from the bastion above mentioned to the point of
termination of the improvements, and accessible from the town; the
construction of which terrace would necessitate the removal of the
disfiguring and encroaching houses on the east side of Thames Street.
This accomplished, Crane's ugly buildings removed, and the three western
towers laid open to the court, the Horse-shoe Cloisters consistently
repaired, Windsor Castle would indeed be complete. And fervently do
we hope that this desirable event may be identified with the reign of
VICTORIA.
THUS ENDS THE THIRD BOOK OF THE CHRONICLE OF WINDSOR CASTLE