monarchy and the focus of the British Empire as well as nearly the whole
of royal Europe. The Castle was visited by heads of state from all over the
world and was the scene of a series of splendid state visits. On these
occasions the state rooms were used for their original purpose by royal
guests. The visits of King Louis Philippe in 1844 and the Emperor Napoleon
III inn 1855 were especially successful. They were invested at Windsor with
the Order of the Garter in formal ceremonies, as on other occasions were
King Victor Emanuel I of Italy and the Emperor William I of Germany.
For the most of the twentieth century Windsor Castle survived as it was in
the nineteenth century. The Queen and her family spend most of their
private weekends at the Castle.
A distinctive feature of hospitality at Windsor Castle are the
invitations to «dine and sleep» which go back to Queen Victoria’s time
and encompass people prominent in many walks of life including The
Queen’s ministers. On such occasions, The Queen shows her guests a
specially chosen exhibition of treasures from the Royal Collection.
THE GALLERY,THE CHINA MUSEUM
The central vaulted undercroft, originally created by James Wyatt and
extended in the same style by Jeffry Wyatville to serve as the principal
entrance hall to the State Apartments, was cut off when the Grand Staircase
was reoriented in the reign of Queen Victoria. It has recently been
redesigned and now houses a changing exhibition of works of art from the
Royal Collection, which include Old Master drawings from the world-famous
Print Room in the Royal Library.
The carved Ionic capitals of the columns survive from Hugh May’s
alterations for Charles II. In cases round the walls are displayed
magnificent china services from leading English and European porcelain
manufacturers: Serves, Meiden, Copenhagen, Naples, Rockingham and
Worchester. These are still used for royal banquets and other important
occasions.
There are some famous paintings in Windsor Castle: Van Dyke’s «Triple
Portrait of Charles I» painted to send to Bernie in Italy to enable him to
sculpture a bust of the King; Colonel John St.Leger, a friend of the Prince
Regent, by Gainsborough;Vermeer’s portrait of a lady at the virginals; The
five eldest children of Charles I by Van Dyke; John Singleton Copley, the
American artist, painted the three youngest daughters of George III and
Queen Charlotte:Princesses Mary, Sophia and Amelia, none of whom left
legitimate descendants and The Campo SS. Giovanniie Paolo Canaletto etc.
ST GEORGE’S CHAPEL
St George’s Chapel is the spiritual home of the Prodder of the Garter,
Britain’s senior Order of Chivalry, founded by King Edward III in 1348. St
George is the patron saint of the Order.
The architecture of the Chapel ranks among the finest examples of
Perpendicular Gothic, the late medieval style of English architecture.
Unlike most of the other great churches ,St George’s Chapel has its
principal or «show» front on the south , facing the Henry YIII gate and
running almost the length of the Lower Ward.
As Sovereign of the Order of the Garter, The Queen attends a service in
the Chapel in June each year, together with the Knights and Ladies of the
Order. Today thirteen Military Knights of Windsor represent the Knights of
the Garter in ST George’s Chapel at regular services. Ten sovereigns are
buried in the Chapel, as are buried in the Chapel, as are other members
of the royal family, many represented by magnificent tombs.
The Albert Memorial Chapel
The richly decorated interior is a Victorian masterpiece, created by
Sir George Gilbert Scott for Queen Victoria in 1863-73 to commemorate her
husband Albert.
The vaulted ceiling is decorated in gold mosaic by Antonio Salviati.
The figures in the false west window represent sovereigns, clerics and
others associated with St George’s Chapel. The inlaid marble panels around
the lower walls depict scenes from Scripture.
This was the site of one of the Castle’s earliest chapels, built in
1240 by King Henry III and adapted by King Edward III in the 1350s as
the first chapel of the College of St George and the Order of the
Garter. When the existing St George’s Chapel was built in 11475-15528, this
small chapel fell into disuse. Subsequent plans to turn it into a royal
mausoleum came to nothing.
In 1863 Queen Victoria ordered its complete restoration and
redecoration as a temporary resting place for Prince Albert.
The Chapel is now dominated by Alfred Gilbert’s tomb of the Duke of
Clarence and Avandale who died in 1892.
The Great Park
The Great Park of Windsor, covering about 4,800 acres, has evolved out
of the Saxon and medieval hunting forest. It is connected to the Castle by
an avenue of nearly 3 miles, known as the Long Walk, planted by King
Charles II in 1685 and replanted in 1945. The Valley Gardens are open
all year round
WESTMINSTER ABBEY
Westminster Abbey is one of the most famous, historic and widely
visited churches not only in Britain but in the whole Christian world.
There are other reasons for its fame apart from its beauty and its vital
role as a centre of the Christian faith in one of the world’s most
important capital cities. These include the facts that since 1066
every sovereign apart from Edward Y and Edward YIII has been crowned here
and that for many centuries it was also the burial place of kings, queens
and princes.
The royal connections began even earlier than the present Abbey, for
it was Edward the Confessor, sometimes called the last of the English
kings(1042-66) and canonised in 1163, who established an earlier church on
this site. His great Norman Abbey was built close to his palace on
Thorney Island. It was completed in 1065 and stood surrounded by the many
ancillary buildings needed by the community of Benedictine monks who
passed their lives of prayer here. Edward’s death near the time of his
Abbey’s consecration made it natural for his burial place to be by the
High Altar.
Only 200 years later, the Norman east end of the Abbey was demolished
and rebuilt on the orders of Henry III, who had a great devotion to Edward
the Confessor and wanted to honour him. The central focus of the new Abbey
was a magnificent shrine to house St Edward’s body ; the remains of this
shrine, dismantled at the Reformation but later reerected in rather a
clumsy and piecemeal way, can still be seen behind the High Altar today.
The new Abbey remained incomplete until 1376, when the rebuilding of
the Nave began; it was not finished until 150 years later, but the master
masons carried on a similar thirteenth-century Gothic, French-influenced
design, as that of Henry III’s initial work, over that period, giving the
whole a beautiful harmony of style.
In the early sixteenth century the Lady Chapel was rebuilt as the
magnificent Henry YII Chapel; with its superb fan-vaulting it is one of
Westminster’s great treasures.
In the mid-eighteenth century the last malor additions - the two
western towers designed by Hawksmoor - were made to the main fabric of the
Abbey.
THE NAVE was begun by Abbot Litlington who financed the work with
money left by Cardinal Simon Langham, his predecessor, for the use of the
monastery. The master mason in charge of the work was almost certainly the
great Henry Yevele. His design depended on the extra strength given to the
structure by massive flying buttresses. These enabled the roof to be
raised to a height of 102 feet. The stonework of the vaulting has been
cleaned and the bosses gilded in recent years.
At the west end of the Nave is a magnificent window filled with
stained glass of 1735, probably designed by Sir James Thornhill (1676-
1734).(He also painted the interior of the dome in St Paul’s Cathedral} The
design shows Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with fourteen prophets, and
underneath are the arms of King Sebert, Elizabeth I, George II, Dean
Wilcocks and the Collegiate Church of St Peter in Westminster.
Also at the west end of the Nave is the grave of the Unknown Warrior.
The idea for such a memorial is said to have come from a British
chaplain who noticed, in a back garden at Armeentieeres, a grave with the
simple inscription: «An unknown British soldier». In 1920 the body of
another unknown soldier was brought back from the battlefields to be
reburied in the Abbey on 11 November. George Y and Queen Mary and many
other members of the royal family attended the service, 100 holders of the
Victoria Cross lining the Nave as a Guard of Honour. On a nearby pillar
hangs the Congressional Medal, the highest award which can be conferred by
the United St ates.
From the Nave roof hang chandeliers, both giving light and in
daylight reflecting it from their hundreds of pedant crystals. They were
a gift to mark the 900th anniversary of the Abbey and are of Waterford
glass.
At the east end of the Nave is the screen separating it from the
Choir. Designed by the then Surveyor, Edward Blore, in 1834, it is the
fourth screen to be placed here; the wrought-iron gates, however, remain
from a previous screen. Within recent years the screen has been painted
and glided.
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