WINDSOR CASTLE. numents to perpetuate the respectable inhabitants and others. It contains also a very noble organ, which formerly belonged to St. George's Chapel, and was presented by the king to the parish, when the new instrument was erected in the collegiate place of worship. WINDSOR CASTLE. THIS princely and magnificent residence of the British Monarchs, is situated on the summit of an hill, which commands the most beautiful, rich, and luxuriant prospects. The silver Thames flows beneath it, and, by its serpentine course through the vale which its waters fertilize, heightens and completes the unrivalled scene. This This castle originated in the preference which William the Conqueror gave to the spot on which it stands. He was so delighted with it, that having obtained the possession of it from the monks of Westminster, as we have already mentioned, he did not delay to erect a royal seat, or fortified castle; for, as early as the fourth year of his reign, it is recorded that he kept his court, and ordered a synod to be held here, at the festival period of Whitsuntide. He also designed the parks, laid out extensive forests where he might enjoy the pleasures of the chase, and enacted laws for the preservation of the deer and other game. castle is described in Domesday Book as containing half an hide of land, parcel of the Manor of Clewer. Henry the First not only enlarged it with many stately buildings, but strengthened it with walls and ramparts; and, in the tenth year of his reign, summoned his nobles to attend him here at the feast of the Pentecost, which was celebrated with great pomp and magnificence. So many, indeed, and so important were the improvements which this monarch made in the castle, that some of our antiquarian writers have represented him as the original founder of it. In the succeeding reign, in a treaty of peace between King Stephen and Duke Henry, afterwards Henry the Second, this castle is called Mota de Windesor, the fortress of Windsor. In the year 1177, Henry the Second held a grand council or parliament here, at which were present the great barons, the king's chief tenants, William King of Scotland, and his brother David: and when Richard the First departed on his romantic expedition to the Holy Land, Hugh de Pudsey, Bishop of Durham and Earl of Northumberland, being appointed a regent of the kingdom, during the king's absence, made Windsor the place of his residence, on account of its strength and security. King John, for the same reason, in the year 1215, lodged in the castle previous to his granting Magna Charta; which accounts for Runnymede, a meadow on the banks of the Thames, and at a small distance from Windsor, being appointed for the scene of that renowned festival of liberty. That king, however, soon after manifesting a disposition to break his late solemn engagement, this castle was besieged by the barons, though without success. In the year 1263, when Henry the Third and his barons were in a state of hostility, it was delivered up by treaty to the latter; but in the same year it was recovered by surprize, and made a place of rendezvous for the royal party. Edward the First and his Queen Eleanor took great delight in this castle, and four of their royal offspring were born within its walls. Edward the Second made it also the place of his residence; and his son, afterwards Edward the Third, of glorious name, was born here, and, on that account, called Edward of Windsor. The affection which this prince bore to his native place induced him to take down the whole of the old castle, except the three towers on the west end, in the lower ward, and to rebuild it in a new and more stately form: and a principal part of the structure, as it now stands, was accordingly erected. He also made it the seat of the most noble Order of the Garter, which he had previously instituted in the year 1349. Nor should it be forgotten that, at this period, 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 appurtenances, 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 |