Page images
PDF
EPUB

WINDSOR CASTLE.

the kings of France and Scotland were both prisoners in this castle. It may be presumed to have been about the thirty-fourth year of this king's reign when the most considerable enlargement or re-edification was made; as it appears that writs, as related by Ashmole, in his history of the Order of the Garter, dated the fourteenth of April in the same year, were directed to several sheriffs to impress diggers, hewers of stone, carpenters, and various other artificers, from London and other parts of England, into the king's service at Windsor. Four years after, two commissioners were appointed to provide stone, timber, lead, iron, &c. and privileged to seize carriages for the conveyance of materials necessary for this great undertaking.

The magnificent works were carried on under the direction of William of Wyckham, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, with a salary of a shilling per day, and three shillings per week to his clerk. The ability displayed by the reverend and superintending architect, won the regard and confidence of the monarch, who, in the year 1360, committed to him the sole care of the castle and all its appur tenances, as well as the entire command of the manors of Old and New Windsor.

The buildings appear to have been forwarded with great diligence and dispatch for some time, but were afterwards so much interrupted, by a contagion which prevailed among the workmen, that the king found himself under the necessity of having recourse, a second time, to compulsory measures, to satisfy his desire to have this favourite work completed. Accordingly, writs were issued, dated the thirtieth day of March, 1363, by which the sheriffs were commanded, under severe penalties, to send to Windsor a specified number of masons and labourers by the approaching Easter. In the course of the following year, it appears that the buildings were in a sufficient state of preparation to be glazed, and agents were appointed to collect and purchase glass, wherever it was to be found. Twelve glaziers were also ordered to be impressed for this service,

and to engage in it, at the king's wages. Carriages were also compulsively taken to convey all necessary materials which these great works required.

In consequence of these determined measures of the king to quicken the progress of the building towards completion, it may be supposed that it proceeded to the royal satisfaction, as from the year 1370 to 1375, no recourse whatever seems to have been had to these violent measures; and, as the monarch died in 1377, it may be reasonably conjectured that the castle was completed at the former period.

There is an anecdote respecting William of Wyckham, which, as it is mentioned in all the accounts written of Windsor Castle, must not be omitted by us. Previous to the completion of the work, the great architect caused the equivocal sentence," This made Wyckham," to be cut in the inner wall of Winchester Tower. This circumstance being reported to the king, as if the good man had assumed to himself the honour of building the castle; he would probably have fallen under his majesty's displeasure, had he not readily assured his royal master that he meant it only as an acknowledgment that this structure had made him great in the favour of his prince, and occasioned his being raised to his present high station.

In succeeding reigns, other considerable additions were made to the buildings within the castle. Edward the Fourth enlarged and improved the beautiful Chapel of St. George.— Henry the Seventh vaulted the roof of the choir of that structure, and added the stately fabric adjoining the king's apartments in the upper ward.-Henry the Eighth rebuilt the great gate at the entrance into the lower ward.-Edward the Sixth began, and his successor, Queen Mary, perfected the bringing water into a fountain of curious workmanship, in the middle of the upper ward, to serve as a conduit for the necessary supply of the castle.-Queen Elizabeth formed a terrace on the north side of the castle:and Charles the First, among other improvements, caused the gate to be built, which is at the east end of it, leading

WINDSOR CASTLE.

into the park: but, such is the changeful state of man, in whatever station he may be placed, this palace, which that monarch had adorned, and where he lived in sovereign state; during the convulsions which soon followed, became his prison.

This residence of so many kings cannot be supposed to have escaped the rage of republican fury; and it was plundered of many of its ornaments and decorations. But Charles the Second, after the restoration, not only repaired its injuries and improved its buildings, but furnished it with consummate magnificence: he embellished the apartments, enriched them with paintings, formed a magazine of arms; while, at the same time, he enlarged the terrace made by Queen Elizabeth, and carried it round the south and east sides of the upper court. He also, in the year 1676, faced it with a solid rampart of free-stone, and shaped the ground in well-adapted slopes towards the park. The views from this terrace, which is 1870 feet in length, are not easily described:-Camden gives the following account of the spot, which would answer the purposes of more modern description. "It enjoyeth a most delightful prospect round about; for right in front it overlooketh a vale, lying out far and wide, garnished with corn fields, flourishing with meadows, decked with groves on either side, and watered with the most mild and gentle river Thames. Behind it arise hills every where, neither rough nor over high, attired, as it were, with woods, and even dedicated by nature to hunting and game."

The works of Verrio, on the walls and ceilings of some of the larger apartments, were begun and completed in the reigns of James the Second and William the Third. Queen Anne made several additions to the castle, particularly the flight of steps on the east side of the terrace. That princess meditated also considerable alterations in the park, from designs of Le Nôtre, which were interrupted by her death: the regular outlines of them were very visible at the commencement of the present reign, but have been since levelled.

The principal improvements during the last century, and which have been continued into the present, and are still continuing, have been produced by George the Third:-St. George's Chapel has been the more particular object of his splendid taste and pious munificence. This sacred structure has ever been admired for the style of its architecture and the richness of its ornaments. Nor has it been less revered, as being the sepulchre of Edward the Fourth, Henry the Sixth, Henry the Eighth, his Queen the Lady Jane Seymour, and Charles the First. But it has been repaired, altered, and fitted up, under his present majesty's direction, in such a manner as to render it one of the most elegant, sumptuous, and solemn places of public worship in the kingdom, and to justify its claim to the title of the "beauty of holiness."-The ditches also, which skirted the east and south sides of the castle, have been filled up and the ground levelled. The apartments have been enriched with additional pictures, and the windows of the upper court have been enlarged, and shaped in a manner more suited to the general character of the structure which they enlighten.

The castle is about a mile in circumference, and divided into two spacious courts. The centre is occupied by the Round Tower, which was formerly separated from the lower court by a strong wall and draw-bridge. The lower court is divided into two parts by St. George's Chapel. On the north or inner side, are the several houses and apartments of the Dean, Canons, and other officers. On the south and west sides of the outer part, are the houses of the poor Knights of Windsor. In this court are also several apartments belonging to the officers of the Crown and the Order of the Garter. The upper court is a spacious and regular square, containing, on the north side, the royal apartments and St. George's Hall with the Royal Chapel. They compose that part of the castle which is called the Star building, from the Star and Garter that appear on the front next the terrace. On the south and east sides, are the

WINDSOR CASTLE.

apartments of their Majesties, and the several branches of the Royal Family; and on the west is the Round Tower.

In the centre of the court is a large equestrian statue of Charles the Second, of copper: it is placed on a marble pedestal, ornamented with nautical devices, beautifully sculptured in basso relievo, by Gibbons. "The fruit, fish, and implements," observes Lord Orford, " are all exquisite; while the man and the horse may serve for a sign to draw the passenger's eye to the pedestal." Beneath the statue is a curious hydraulic engine, invented by Sir Samuel Morland, who was appointed magister mechanicorum to the above monarch in 1681.

The Round Tower is the residence of the Constable, or, as he is now generally denominated, the Governor, whose office is both civil and military. He is invested with full powers to guard the Castle against every enemy, foreign and domestic; and also to investigate and determine all disputes that may arise within the precincts of Windsor Forest, which an old manuscript description of this manor represents as seventy-seven miles in circumference. He has a Deputy or Lieutenant-Governor, who holds equal command in his ab

sence.

The Tower is built on a lofty artificial mount, surrounded with a moat. The ascent to the upper apartments is by a long flight of stone steps, guarded by a cannon planted at the top, and levelled at the entrance. The curtain of the tower is the only battery now in the Castle, and is mounted with seventeen pieces of ordnance, which appear to retain their situation more as objects of ornament than utility. Formerly the whole of the Castle was guarded with cannon on its several towers.

The entrance is through a square paved court, in which is a reservoir of water, contrived in the reign of Charles the Second, to receive the drains from the upper leads. Here was also erected, in the year 1784, an engine for raising water upwards of three hundred and seventy feet, by the

« PreviousContinue »