Page:King Edward VII, his life & reign; the record of a noble career 1.djvu/33

 roof has echoed the sounds of hymns sung on the reception of royal infants into the national Church, of the joyous hymeneal march, and of the slow funereal dirge. The name of the chapel shows at once its intimate connection with our leading order of knighthood, the "Most Noble" Order of the Garter, instituted in an uncertain year, and for an unknown reason, about the middle of the fourteenth century, at a time when the Court of England was, in Hallam's words, "the sun of that system which embraced the valour and nobility of the Christian world", when chivalry was in its zenith, and in all the virtues which adorned the knightly character none were so conspicuous as Edward the Third and the Black Prince". The Order was dedicated to St. George of Cappadocia and St. Edward the Confessor, and its feast or solemn annual convention was kept at Windsor on St. George's Day, April 23, with scarcely a break from the reign of the founder, the third Edward, to that of Queen Elizabeth.

The building is one of the finest examples of Perpendicular architecture in England, surpassing in design, according to some judges, the glorious King's College Chapel at Cambridge, and that of Henry the Seventh at Westminster. The architecture shows the latest style of mediæval art, in which the aspiring lines of earlier days are lost, and lavish and intricate ornament appear. The work of erection was begun by Edward the Fourth, who pulled down, in 1473, almost all the earlier chapel, completed and adorned with stained-glass windows in 1363 by Edward the Third. The nave of the chapel was vaulted about 1490, and the choir groining was finished in 1507. The hanging pendants from the fan-vaulting of the choir show a later development of style, in strong contrast with the simpler lines of the earlier vaulting in the nave. The lantern and rood screen were finished in 1516, and the stalls and other fittings some years later. Much of the later work and decoration are due to the taste and skill of Sir Reginald Bray, who rendered active service in bringing the first Tudor king to the throne, and was also chief architect of Henry the Seventh's chapel at Westminster. He died in 1503, and lies buried in the Windsor chapel. In this edifice, so founded