The deanery, adjoining the dean's cloister, is dated 1500, but the Winchester tower to the north-east of it is the work of the famous prelate and architect William of Wykeham, who was employed by Edward III. on the greater part of this extension and alteration of Henry III.'s work. The Horseshoe cloisters were restored in Tudor style by Sir Gilbert Scott. The Norman gate on the north side of the round tower was rebuilt by Wykeham.
The site of the upper ward was built upon by Henry II., and, to a greater extent, by Edward III., but only in the foundations and lowest storey are remains of so early a period to be found. The buildings were wanting in homogeneity until their reconstruction was undertaken by Sir Jeffrey Wyatville under the direction of George IV., for Charles II. was unable to carry out a similar intention, perhaps fortunately, as Sir Christopher Wren proposed drastic alterations. Charles, however, completed the so-called Star Building, named from the representation of the star of the Order of the Garter on the north front. Here the state apartments are situated. They include the throne room, St George's Hall, where meetings of the Order of the Garter are held, the audience and presence chambers, and the grand reception room, adorned with Gobelins tapestries, and the guardroom with armour. All these chambers contain also splendid pictures and other objects of art; but more notable in this connexion are the picture gallery, the Rubens room or king's drawing-room, and the magnificent Van Dyck room. The ceilings of several of the chambers were decorated by Antonio Verrio, under the direction of Charles II. In the royal library, which is included among the private apartments, is a fine collection of drawings by the old masters, including three volumes from the hand of Leonardo da Vinci. Here is also a magnificent series of eighty-seven portraits by Holbein, highly finished in sepia and chalk, representing the chief personages of the court of Henry VIII. There are, moreover, examples by Michelangelo and Raphael, though the series attributed to these masters are not accepted as genuine in their entirety.
South of the castle, beside the Home Park, is the Royal Mews. Within the bounds of the park is Frogmore (q.v.), with the Royal The parks. Mausoleum and that of the duchess of Kent, and the royal gardens. An oak-tree marks the supposed site of Herne's Oak, said to be haunted by the ghost of “Herne the hunter,” a forest-ranger who hanged himself here, having fallen under the displeasure of Queen Elizabeth (Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act iv. sc. 4). A splendid avenue, the Long Walk, laid out in the time of Charles II. and William III., leads from George IV.'s gate on the south side of the castle straight into the heart of the Great Park, a distance of 3 m. Another fine and still longer straight avenue is Queen Anne's Ride, planted in 1707. Among various buildings within the park is Cumberland Lodge, built by Charles II. and taking name from the duke of Cumberland, who commanded the victorious royal troops at the battle of Culloden in 1746, and resided here as chief ranger. At the southern boundary of the park is a beautiful artificial lake called Virginia Water, formed by the duke. Windsor Forest formerly extended far over the south of Berkshire, and into the adjacent county of Surrey, and even in 1790 still covered nearly 60,000 acres. It was disafforested by an act of 1813.
A few old houses remain in the town of Windsor, but the
greater part is modernized. The church of St John the Baptist
Windsor
town.
was rebuilt in 1822, but contains some fine examples
of Grinling Gibbons's wood-carving. There are statues
of Queen Victoria, unveiled in the first Jubilee year,
1887, and of Prince Albert (1890). The town hall was built in
1686 by Sir Christopher Wren, who represented the borough in
parliament. The town was formerly celebrated for the number
of its inns, of which there were seventy in 1650. The most
famous were the “Garter” and the “White Hart,” the first of
which was the favourite of Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff, and
is frequently mentioned in The Merry Wives of Windsor. The
borough is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors.
Area, 2717 acres.
History.—Windsor (Wyndeshour, Wyndsore, Windlesore) was probably the site of a Roman settlement, two Roman tombs having been discovered at Tyle-Place Farm in 1865, while a Roman camp and various antiquities were unearthed at St Leonard's Hill in 1705. The early history of Windsor centres round the now unimportant village of Old Windsor, which was a royal residence under Edward the Confessor; and Robert of Gloucester relates that it was at a fair feast which the king held there in 1053 that Earl Godwin met with his tragic end. By the Confessor it was granted to Westminster Abbey, but was recovered in exchange for two other manors by William I., who erected the castle about 2 m. north-west of the village and within the manor of Clewer, round which the later important town of New Windsor was to grow up. The earliest existing charter of New Windsor is that from Edward I. in 1277, which was confirmed by Edward II. in 1315–1316 and by Edward III. in 1328. This constituted it a free borough and granted to it a gild merchant and other privileges. The same king later leased it as fee farm to the burgesses on condition that they “did justice to merchants, denizen and alien and to the poor.” The town does not seem to have been prosperous, and the fee-farm rent was reduced by several succeeding sovereigns. In 1439 extensive privileges were accorded to the burgesses by Henry VI., and Edward IV. in 1467 granted a charter of incorporation under the title of the “mayor, bailiffs and burgesses.” Further confirmations of existing privileges were granted by Edward IV. in 1477, by Henry VII. in 1499, by Henry VIII. in 1515 and by Edward VI. in 1549. A fresh charter was granted by James I. in 1603, and the renewal of this by Charles II. in 1664 incorporating the town under the title of the “mayor, bailiffs and burgesses of the borough of New Windsor,” remained the governing charter until 1835. By the charter of Edward I. the county gaol was fixed at Windsor, but on the petition of the men of Berkshire it was removed thence to a more central town in the reign of Edward II. New Windsor sent two members to parliament from 1302 to 1335 and again from 1446 to 1865, omitting the parliaments of 1654 and 1656; by the act of 1867 it lost one member. The market is of ancient date, and in 1273 the abbess of Burnham is said to hold markets at Burnham and Beaconsfield to the prejudice of the market at Windsor. Edward IV. in 1467 granted a fair on the feast of St Edward the Confessor, and the charter of 1603 mentions a Saturday market and three yearly fairs. No fairs are now held, but the Saturday market is still maintained. Windsor bridge is mentioned in the reign of Edward I.; the present structure dates from 1822. The town has never had an important industry, but has depended almost entirely upon the castle and court.
The political history of Windsor centres round the castle, at which the Norman kings held their courts and assembled their witan. Robert Mowbray was imprisoned in its dungeons in 1095, and at the Christmas court celebrated at Windsor in 1127 David of Scotland swore allegiance to the empress Maud. In 1175 it was the scene of the ratification of the treaty of Windsor. The castle was bestowed by Richard I. on Hugh, bishop of Durham, but in the next year was treacherously seized by Prince John and only surrendered after a siege. In 1217 Ingelram de Achie with a garrison of sixty men gallantly held the fortress against a French force under the count de Nevers. It was a centre of activity in the Barons' War, and the meeting-place of the parliament summoned by Henry in 1261 in rivalry to that of the barons at St Albans; two years later, however, it surrendered to Simon de Montfort. The appeal of high treason against Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, was heard by Richard II. in Windsor Castle in 1398. During the Civil War of the 17th century the castle was garrisoned for the parliament, and in 1648 became the prison of Charles, who spent his last Christmas within its walls.
See J. E. Tighe, Annals of Windsor (1858); Victoria County History: Berkshire.
WINDTHORST, LUDWIG (1812–1891), German politician, was born on the 17th of January 1812 at Kaldenhof, a country house near Osnabrück. He sprang from a Roman Catholic
