Letter 18.
London.
Dear Charley:—
It was a fine, clear morning when we started for Windsor by railroad, a distance of twenty-one miles. The country is fine; but our thoughts were on the castle. At Slough we took an omnibus, and rode into the town. It is a pretty, quiet place, of about ten thousand inhabitants. There are some six or seven streets, and they present but few attractions. The castle is every thing. You know this has been the favorite residence of most of the English monarchs, and the scene of many a tournament in the days of chivalry. The castle was the work of William the Conqueror. John lived at Windsor while Magna Charta was extorted from him by his barons at Runnymede. Henry III. did a great deal to the castle, but Edward III. invested it with its great glory. This was his native place. The architect he employed was the famous William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, a man of great genius. He built the noble round tower. This was in 1315. Wykeham built him a palace worthy of the hero and his noble son, the Black Prince. Edward IV. built St. George's Chapel, and Henry VII. and Henry VIII. both made important additions to the fortress. Young Edward VI. resided here, and did not like its retirement and gloom. Elizabeth made the terrace and other improvements. When Charles II. was restored, he brought a foreign taste to the improvement of the castle, and a great deal of elegancy was attempted, but which poorly harmonized with the Gothic, baronial style of Wykeham's works.
George IV. was a man of exquisite taste, and he employed Sir Jeffry Wyatville to carry out the plans of Edward III. and his architect. This was in 1824, and his immense labors have been successful. These improvements cost two million pounds sterling. I ought to say that Windsor Castle was the favorite home of George III., who died here. This palace stands on a lofty chalk hill, and commands the valley of the Thames. Around it is the finest, terrace in the world, the descent from which is faced with a rampart of freestone extending about seventeen hundred feet. The whole building occupies about twelve acres.
I shall not describe all the towers, for there are some dozen or fifteen. The round tower of Edward III. is the chief one. Here he revived the round table of King Arthur, and established the Order of the Garter. From the battlements of this strong fortress you gaze upon no less than twelve counties. Prince Albert is constable of this tower. This was the old prison, or donjon of the castle. Here James I. of Scotland was a prisoner, and here he wrote his sweet verses and celebrated Nature's beauties and the praises of his lady-love, Jane Beaufort. Here, too, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, long suffered, and sung the sweetest lays. We had a ticket to see the state apartments. Suffice it to say that we went through the Queen's Audience Chamber, the Vandyke Room, the Queen's State Drawing Boom or Zuccharelle Room, the State Ante-Room, the Grand Staircase and Vestibule, the Waterloo Chamber, the Grand Ball Room, St. George's Hall, the Guard Chamber, the Queen's Presence Chamber. All these are very, very beautiful. I was delighted with the Vandyke Room. Here are twenty-two undoubted productions of this greatest of portrait painters. Charles I. and Henrietta were favorite subjects with the artist. Here are several of them and their children, and they are to be found elsewhere. The equestrian portrait of Charles I. is a truly grand picture. You know the beautiful old copy, of a cabinet size, which we have in the study at home: it will please me more than ever, since I know how faithful it is. That queen of Charles's who made him so much trouble with her Popery and temper was a wonderfully beautiful woman. I should not soon be weary looking at her portrait. She was daughter of Henry IV. of France. Her fortune was hard, to lose a father by an assassin, and a husband by the executioner. The Gobelin tapestry, illustrating the life of Esther, in the Audience Room, is very rich. In the State Ante-Room are the most wonderful carvings of fowl, fish, fruit, and flowers, by Grinling Gibbons. They are thought to be unsurpassed in this department of art. On the Great Staircase is a noble colossal marble statue, of that excellent sovereign, but bad man, George IV. It is by Chantrey. The Waterloo Chamber is adorned with thirty-eight portraits of men connected with Waterloo, and twenty-nine of them are by Sir Thomas Lawrence. St. George's Hall is two hundred feet long, thirty-four wide, thirty-two high, and contains some fine portraits of sovereigns by Vandyke, Lely, Kneller, Gainsborough, and Lawrence. On twenty-four shields are the arms of each sovereign of the Order of the Garter, from Edward III. to William IV. The Guard Chamber is a noble room, eighty feet in length. Immediately on entering, we were struck with the colossal bust of Nelson by Chantrey, A piece of the mast of the Victory, shot through by a cannon ball, forms its fitting pedestal. Here, too, we saw the busts of the great Duke of Marlborough by Rysbach, and the Duke of Wellington by Chantrey, and their two banners, by the annual presentation of which to the reigning sovereign, on the anniversaries of Blenheim and Waterloo, they hold the estates of Blenheim and Strathfieldsaye. There are figures in armor representing the Duke of Brunswick, 1530; Lord Howard, 1588; Earl of Essex, 1596; Charles I., when Prince of Wales, 1620; and Prince Rupert, 1635. These suits of armor are the genuine ones which were worn by these characters in their lifetime. One thing greatly delighted me—it was the gorgeous shield, executed by Benvenuto Cellini, and presented by Francis I. to Henry VIII. at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. The workmanship is entirely beyond anything I had imagined possible for delicacy of finish. I hardly wonder that kings used to quarrel for the residence of this artist.
I know, Charley, you are impatient to hear about St. George's Chapel, of which you have so often expressed your admiration, when we have looked at the beautiful engravings of its interior, at home. It is very fine, and should be seen to be comprehended. It is of what is called the perpendicular Gothic style. The interior is divided by a screen and organ gallery, into the body of the church, and the choir. These have side aisles, and in these are five separate little chapels. Two of these make up the place of transepts, and the other three, and the chapter house, form abutments at each angle of the chapel. Now, I think, you can't fail to get an idea of the building.
The choir is filled with the stalls and banners of the knights of the garter. Each knight has his banner, helmet, crest, and sword.