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Upper Chamber in the Curfew Tower
W. A. Delamotte
1843
Wood-engraving
10.8 cm high by 9.8 cm, vignetted
Seventieth wood-engraving for W. Harrison Ainsworth's Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance, from Ainsworth's Magazine (April 1843); Book IV, "Cardinal Wolsey," Chapter VII, "Of the Mysterious Noise heard in the Curfew Tower," p. 215.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Viewed from a recess which has been partly closed, the appearance ofthis chamber is equally picturesque and singular; and it is scarcelypossible to pass beneath its huge beams or to gaze at the fantastic yetstriking combinations they form in connection with the deep embrasures, the steep staircases and trap-doors, and not feel that the whole place belongs to romance, and that a multitude of strange and startling stories must be connected with it. The old architects were indeed great romancers, and built for the painter and the poet.
Bouchier and his companion crept about under the great meshwork ofbeams — peered into all the embrasures, and beneath the carriages of the culverins. There was a heap of planks and beams lying on the floor between the two staircases, but no one was near it.[Chapter VII, "Of the Mysterious Noise heard in the Curfew Tower,"pp. 214-215]
In British literature's first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto (1764), set in a mediaeval castle, author Horace Walpole established the conventions of the genre. Aside from a "Gothic" or mediaeval setting (an abbey, convent, or castle), the most pervasive element is the menacing, gloomy atmosphere. When Edgar Allen Poe adapted the Gothic for his American readership, he substituted the ancestral mansion for the European castle. Although the Curfew Tower is merely an element of the old castle, it has several levels, all dark, drafty, and ominous, especially since the reader, like Captain Bouchier, associates the Curfew Tower with the execution of Mark Fytton earlier in the story. Thus, the artist and author set the stage for the appearance of Herne the Hunter in the Cruikshank steel-engraving for Chapter XI. In such scenes in the novel Ainsworth utilizes the atmospheric setting to synthesize medievalism and terror; here, he enforces our belief in eerie scenario through the apprehensions of the otherwisestalwart Captain of the Guard.
Above: The present-day tranquility of Delamotte's wood-engraving contrasts the high drama of the romance featuring Henry VIII and Herne the Hunter: The Disappearance of Herne in the Curfew Tower (April 1843). The steel-engraving is positioned in Book IV, Chapter XI, so that serves as a climax to Delamotte's earlier wood-engravings of the Curfew Tower in the same instalment. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Left: The first view of the round tower, Curfew Tower, from Thames Street (Book I, headpiece for Ch. II). Centre: Delanotte's second external study, Eastern View of the Curfew Tower (Book I, Ch. II). Right: Delamotte captures an action scene, Mark Fytton, the Butcher, Hanging from the Curfew Tower (Book I, tailpiece for Ch. III). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
King Henry III ordered the construction of the Curfew Tower, which derives its name from its bells, between 1227 and 1230 at the extreme western end of the castle's fortifications as part of the new defences following the siege of Windsor during the reign of King John. The D-shaped tower contains a thirteenth-century dungeon, and has some of the oldest masonry in Windsor Castle. Its walls are thirteen feet thick at the base, and rise to a height of one hundred feet. Its position commands the northwest angle of the defences of the castle's lower ward. In 1477, King Edward IV effected the greatest change in its history by allowing the College of St. George to repurpose it as a belfry. At that time, the College had labourers construct an internal timber frame to house the bells and a clock mechanism with an external face. The College's bells and clock have remained in place since the late fifteenth century. Structurally, however, the tower had remained unchanged for centuries, until architect Anthony Salvin (1798-1881), an expert on Mediaeval and Tudor architecture, carried out necessary structural restoration work in 1863.
Salvin’s work included giving the tower a completely new stone face, raising the height of the upper walls and adding a large semi-conical roof modeled on one at Carcassone. The story goes that it was Emperor Napoleon III who suggested this new look while visiting Queen Victoria in 1855. Salvin's alterations gave us the Curfew Tower that we see today, still fulfilling its role as the chapel clock and bell tower, as it has done for over 500 years.["Image of the Month: The Curfew Tower, College of St. George, Windsor Castle"]
Ainsworth, William Harrison. Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance. Illustrated by George Cruikshank and Tony Johannot. With designs on wood by W. Alfred Delamotte. London: Routledge, 1880. Based on the Henry Colburn edition of 1844.
"Image of the Month: The Curfew Tower." College of St. George, Windsor Castle. https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/image_of_the_month/the-curfew-tower/
Patten, Robert L. Chapter 30, "The 'Hoc' Goes Down." George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, vol. 2: 1835-1878. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers U. P., 1991; London: The Lutterworth Press, 1996. Pp. 153-186.
Plowman-Craven."Curfew Tower, Windsor Castle." https://www.plowmancraven.co.uk/projects/curfew-tower-windsor-castle/
Worth, George J. William Harrison Ainsworth. New York: Twayne, 1972.
Last modified 31 December 2017