Description

Published 1923: Hardcover / Very Good Condition

Original red embossed cloth no jacket. 307 clean and bright pages. Slight fading on boards consistent with age.

Collection can be arranged by Appointment. Churchtown, Dublin 14

Postage service is also available.

Windsor Castle is a novel by William Harrison Ainsworth serially published in 1842. It is a historical romance with gothic elements that depicts Henry VIII's pursuit of Anne Boleyn. Intertwined with the story are the actions of Herne the Hunter, a legendary ghost that haunts Windsor woods.

In the twentieth year of the reign of the right high and puissant King Henry the Eighth, namely, in 1529, on the 21st of April, and on one of the loveliest evenings that ever fell on the loveliest district in England, a fair youth, having somewhat the appearance of a page, was leaning over the terrace wall on the north side of Windsor Castle, and gazing at the magnificent scene before him. On his right stretched the broad green expanse forming the Home Park, studded with noble trees, chiefly consisting of ancient oaks, of which England had already learnt to be proud, thorns as old or older than the oaks, wide-spreading beeches, tall elms, and hollies. The disposition of these trees was picturesque and beautiful in the extreme. Here, at the end of a sweeping vista, and in the midst of an open space covered with the greenest sward, stood a mighty broad-armed oak, beneath whose ample boughs, though as yet almost destitute of foliage, while the sod beneath them could scarcely boast a head of fern, couched a herd of deer.

William Harrison Ainsworth was a 19th century English historian and author. Ainsworth studied law and worked briefly in publishing but eventually worked in journalism and literature. His first success as a writer came with Rookwood in 1834, which features Dick Turpin as its leading character. Ainsworth wrote 39 more novels, the last appearing in 1881. Windsor Castle is an historical romance set during the time of Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon, and Anne Boleyn.