hundred years ago, and contains the tomb of Edward IV.,
who built it. In 1789, more than three hundred years after his
interment, the leaden coffin of the king was found in laying a new
pavement. The skeleton is said to have been seven feet long, and Horace
Walpole got a lock of the king's hair. Here also lie Henry VI., Henry
VIII., and Charles I. The latter's coffin was opened in 1813, and the
king's remains were found in fair preservation. The close companionship
of Henry VIII. and Charles in death is thus described by Byron:

"Famed for contemptuous breach of sacred ties,
By headless Charles see heartless Henry lies."

The tradition of "Herne the Hunter," which Shakespeare gives in the
_Merry Wives of Windsor_, is said to be founded on the fact that Herne,
a keeper of Windsor Forest, having committed some offence, hanged
himself upon an oak tree. His ghost afterwards was to be seen, with
horns on its head, walking round about this oak in the neighborhood of
the castle.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL.

(By permission of Messrs. Harper & Brothers.)]

SOME RIVER SCENES.

[Illustration: MAGNA CHARTA ISLAND.]

Just below Windsor the Thames passes between Runnimede, the "Meadow of
Council," where the barons encamped, and Magna Charta Island, where King
John signed the great charter of English liberty. The river sweeps in a
tranquil bend around the wooded isle, where a pretty little cottage has
been built which is said to contain the very stone whereon the charter
was signed. The river Coln falls into the Thames, and "London Stone"
marks the entrance to Middlesex and the domain of the metropolis. We
pass Staines and Chertsey, where the poet Cowley lived, and then on the
right hand the river Wey comes in at Weymouth. Many villages are passed,
and at a bend in the Thames we come to the place where Caesar with his
legions forded the river at Cowey Stakes, defeated Cassivelaunus, and
conquered Britain. In his _Commentaries_ Julius Caesar writes that he
led his army to the Thames, which could be crossed on foot at one place
only, and there with difficulty. On arriving, he perceived great forces
of the enemy drawn up on the opposite bank, which was fortified by sharp
stakes set along the margin, a similar stockade being fixed in the bed
of the river and covered by the stream. These facts being ascertained
from prisoners and deserters, Caesar sent the cavalry in front and
ordered the legions to follo