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Flag-Tower, with Standard Lowered
W. A. Delamotte
1843
Wood-engraving
9.6 cm high by 7 cm wide
Tailpiece for Book the Sixth, Chapter VII,"The Signal Gun," in W. Harrison Ainsworth's Windsor Castle, from Ainsworth's Magazine (June 1843), eleventh instalment, p. 315.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
The exclamation was occasioned by a flash of fire from the battlementsof the Round Tower, followed by a volume of smoke, and in another secondthe deep boom of a gun was heard.
At the very moment that the flash was seen, a wild figure, mounted on a coal-black steed, galloped from out the wood, and dashed towards Henry, whose horse reared and plunged as he passed.
"There spoke the knell of Anne Boleyn!" cried Herne, regarding Henry sternly, and pointing to the Round Tower. "The bloody deed is done, and thou art free to wed once more. Away to Wolff Hall, and bring thy new consort to Windsor Castle!" [Book the Sixth, "Jane Seymour," Chapter VII, "The Signal Gun," pp. 314-315]
Although the lowering of the royal standard may signify Henry VIII's departure from Windsor Castle for the seat of the Seymours, Wolf Hall, it may suggest the reader's departure from the pages of Windsor Castle. Another point is whether the standard has the lions of England quartered with the fleurs-de-lys of France (that is, the standard of the Tudors) or that it bears the insignia of the 1842 sometime resident of the castle, Queen Victoria: the rampant lion of Scotland on a yellow field (upper right), the three lions of England on a red field (upper left and lower right), and the Welsh harp, lower left, on a blue field. Unfortunately, Delamotte's partially furled is not easily deciphered.
Above: George Cruikshank's realisation of the dramatic scene in which the moralising spirit blames Henry's impulsiveness and egotism for the destruction of Anne Boleyn, The Signal (Book VI, Chapter VII). [Click on image to enlarge it.]
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.
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.
Worth, George J. William Harrison Ainsworth. New York: Twayne, 1972.
Last modified 5 January 2017