CHAPTER I.

THE ROYAL PRECINCTS.

E never approach Windsor by the SouthWestern Railway, without thinking of Heidelberg. The favourite castle of our English monarchs-planted on a hill, its terrace crowning lovely slopes of garden ground and woods calls to mind the once cherished home of the Electors Palatine, which, in like manner, rests in lordly magnificence on a declivity covered and enlivened by masses of foliage. The battlemented ridge here peeping above the tree tops, with faces looking down on field, and road, and river, is very much akin to that which surmounts the orchards there-where we have seen English tourists rejoicing in one of the most glorious of landscapes; and have talked with them of the fortunes of poor Elizabeth of Bohemia, who, as Ferdinand the Elector's wife, and our first James' daughter, is a connecting historical link between the two edifices. Nor are the positions of the towns and bridges of Windsor and Heidelberg, in relation to the kingly halls and haunts-so long their chief attraction-much unlike. But, as in many other cases, when some few features of resemblance have struck the mind on a first survey, the comparison leads to a contrast; so, the similarity between these two places is accompanied by many points of difference. We miss at Windsor the noble heights of Heidelberg, ascending behind the

palace. We miss the valley. We miss the hanging woods and vineyards. Nor is the royal borough internally at all like the German university town. And then, moreover, and so for ages may it be, while Heidelberg is a crumbling ruin, deserted of her princes, Windsor is in the perfection of its strength and beauty, its lawns ringing with the laugh of merry children round their royal parents,* who there find a magnificent retreat and a happy home.

Opposite the entrance to the railway station is Travers College, standing near the spot where the martyrs were burnt in the reign of Henry VIII. We walk up the town till we reach the gateway which bears his name. It was erected in the first year of his reign, and the rose, portcullis, and the fleur-de-lis still decorating the front, are memorials of the Tudor origin of this stately piece of architecture. Once it was used for judicial purposes, for Stow calls this gate the Exchequer of the honour, where had been, and yet continued, a monthly court, kept by the clerk of the castle for the pleas of the forest. Here, tradition says, he came out to meet Anne Boleyn, when she entered the castle in the sunshine of his fickle favour, to be created, in the old presence chamber, a peeress of the realm, to wear the coronet of a marchioness, preparatory to putting on the diadem of a queen.

The appearance of the gateway shows the recent restoration of the masonry, and so do all the adjoining buildings. On the left-hand side is the guardhouse, and at the corner is the Salisbury Tower. A row of houses for the military knights on the Le Maire and Crane foundations till lately stood before the wall between the Salisbury and Garter Towers. On this site, buildings are now being erected for the use of the garrison, and the outer wall is being

*This, alas! is now no longer so.-January, 1862.

pierced with windows. Within the Garter-tower there has just been discovered an old stone staircase, with a roof of curious construction, something like complicated steps reversed. The military knights occupy the buildings on the right-hand side of the ward. In the midst of them is the Tower where the Governor lives. The Garter-house. with that symbol over the door, is now the residence of the Master of the Queen's Household. In the drawing-room of the latter is a carved mantelpiece of the time of James I.

St. George's Chapel is built in the Perpendicular style, and is one of the finest examples of it in the kingdom. There are, however, still remaining a few fragments of earlier date.

On walking round the exterior of the chapel at Windsor, the attention is immediately arrested by the fine windows in the aisles, and especially by the noble western window lately restored. "Like those in Henry VII.'s Chapel, and King's College Chapel," (observes Mr. Britton), "it fills up the whole width of the nave, and like the former is divided into three large compartments, each of which is again subdivided by smaller mullions into five lights. Horizontally it consists of six tiers of lights, each with a cinquefoil head, and filled with ancient stained glass. Every transom has internally and externally an embattled moulding. The west. window of Henry VII.'s Chapel contains only three transoms, and that of King's Chapel only one. The latter is divided into nine lights by vertical mullions." The western doorway, which has nothing to recommend it, exhibits the square outline and spandrel. The entrance to the cloisters at the east end of the chapel, between that and the tomb-house, is full of grace. "It has neither sculpture nor foliage of any sort to aid its effect, but it is nevertheless singularly appropriate and beautiful." As the eye passes along the elegant pile, the flying buttresses, yielding their light and

The

ornamental supports to the clerestory, produce a pleasing effect. Yet the buttresses here are very plain compared with some erected in the same age. This part of the edifice is a striking example of the combination of utility and ornament, which is so important a principle in Gothic architecture. Of all the external features of St. George's Chapel, the battlements are the most elaborately ornamented. They are carried round the roof, forming an elegant mural crown, and afford a choice specimen of the taste of that period. Adjoining it at the east end is the royal tomb-house which Cardinal Wolsey intended to be his mausoleum. history of that appropriation has been already given. It is a late instance of Perpendicular architecture, retaining "its propriety and elegance of design." It displays "neither any admixture of other styles nor any of the extravagance of German or French art of the period." Passing through the beautiful gateway between the chapel and the tombhouse, you enter the dean's cloister built by Edward III. and lately restored. The south wall is a fragment of the chapel of Henry III., and in the first arch is a curious painting of a crowned head—probably that of the royal builder. This relic was discovered behind the plaster while the restorations were going on in 1859. A projecting window on the opposite side belongs to a room said by some to have been occupied by Anne Boleyn. Beyond are the canons' cloisters, leading to the Hundred Steps, which have just been entirely rebuilt, and now bear no resemblance to what they were when we began to climb them thirty years ago.

On the left-hand side is a passage by the porch and doorway leading to the Chapter House. The rubbish by which this was concealed has been lately removed, and the groined roof and curious panelling are well worth examination. Crossing the passage to the outside of the chapel, you have a view of the northern aspect of the edifice. Some build