The two first Georges neglected the Castle--though the second placed
there Windsor's last prisoner, the Maréchal de Belleisle--to such an
extent that George III had to build the "Queen's Lodge" for himself and
his family. This building is immortalized by the king's remark to Fanny
Burney, a Maid of Honour to his Queen Charlotte, "Was there ever such
stuff as much of Shakespeare? ... only of course one must not say so";
but it is now pulled down. St. George's Chapel had been completely
neglected, probably because there was no need of it, for many years
before George III began to renovate and repave it in 1787. He removed
the tracery and glass of the east window, in order to exalt a new
picture of the Resurrection in painted glass. The walls were then
stained to harmonize with the heavy colouring of this picture, and
finally the Chapel was darkened by the blocking up of the clerestory, to
destroy the painful contrast between the sunlit walls and the glass.
George III also restored the ruined Tomb House and dug a royal vault
beneath it. Under George IV the monument to the Princess Charlotte of
Wales was placed in the chantry at the west end of the north aisle. Two
years before, Wyatville (né Wyatt) began to rebuild the Castle. The
incongruous buildings and external additions of the Restoration were
removed. The entrance gateway to the upper ward, with its two towers of
Lancaster and York, was made. The height of the Round Tower was
increased by thirty-nine feet and a flag turret added. The old houses
under the Curfew, Garter, and Salisbury towers were cleaned away. Thus
in four years the exterior of the Castle, shaken more free of the little
town clambering and clustering about it, was brought to its present
state, which may or may not have blasted the hopes of the author of this
epigram:
Let restless George who can leave nothing quiet,
Change if he will the good old name of Wyatt:
But let us hope that their united skill
May not make Windsor Castle Wyatville.
The Tomb House was converted by Queen Victoria and Sir Gilbert Scott
into the Albert Memorial Chapel, on the death of the Prince Consort in
1861. As a memorial to the same prince, the mullions were restored to
the east window of St. George's Chapel in 1863. Queen Victoria lived
much at Windsor, and in her time the interior of the Castle attained its
present height of costliness and domesticity. The majesty without and
the splendour within answer fully to the expectations usually founded
upon a reading of history and a sober loyalty to the Crown.
[Illustration: ETON COLLEGE FROM WINDSOR]
WINDSOR FOREST AND PARK
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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