To-morrow we are to have a treat of the highest kind. We are to spend the day at Windsor. I feel pretty well acquainted with its history and associations, but I shall spend the evening with George in brushing up my information. There is nothing more unpleasant than to find yourself in the presence of things and places of which you painfully feel an entire ignorance. If ever we meet again, how much we shall have to chat over on our favorite topics!
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.