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Windsor─both so picturesque in themselves, and both so surpassingly rich in historical recollections. The one object is accomplished─the other is on the eve of commencement.
The project of the "Tower" brought together author and artist─Ainsworth and Cruikshank─in partnership, on equal terms, and on their own responsibility. Considerations, however, connected with publication, led to an arrangement with Bentley, who, taking to himself a third of the profits, and no risk, was appointed to publish the work in monthly parts. By this he realized some six or seven hundred pounds; but it is now out of his hands. It is still as popular as ever, as it must long remain. "Desirous," says Mr. Ainsworth, "of exhibiting the Tower in its triple light of a palace, a prison, and a fortress, the author has shaped his story with reference to that end; and he has also contrived such a series of incidents as should naturally introduce every relic of the old pile─its towers, chapels, halls, chambers, gateways, arches, and draw-bridges─so that no part of it should remain unillustrated." It is curious to observe how this purpose is worked out in entire consistency with an unbroken and uninterrupted narrative. With every necessity imposed upon the historian for going out of his way, in order to realize previously resolved upon effects, there is no appearance of his ever doing so; and indeed, the scene being circumscribed and the locality fixed, there is in this work fewer abrupt turns and changes than in the majority of its predecessors. The historical events chosen for illustration are happily suited for the design: they admit of every variety of agency, and embrace an enormous field in a small space;─they involve the throne and the block, the siege and the stake, the secret plot and the fiery storm of revolt;─"the mad battle and the ghastly grave." They comprise the cold insidious foreign bigot, wily as a serpent, and the hot-gospeller, frantic in his fanaticism; the haughty daring noble and the brutal gaoler; the courtly knight and the headsman,─a goodly company with an infinite train of "dwarf-and-giant auxiliaries." The characters are extremely numerous; but they are not more skilfully grouped than they are artfully discriminated. Two of them seem to us of first-rate rank in that grand human gallery to which this author has now contributed several noble portraitures; these are, Mary the queen, and the subtle Spaniard, Simon Renard. But the whole space allotted to this memoir would not be too wide a limit for a comprehensive review of the characteristics of this admirable romance.
One remark may be allowed. Mr. Ainsworth, in his introductory observations, says, "Opposite the matchless White Tower─William of Orange by the side of William the Conqueror─is that frightful architectural abomination, the grand Store-House. It may not be impossible to remove this ugly and incongruous structure." Not long after this was written, the abused building was burnt down. Should not cant or prejudice, when it traces robberies to novels, have traced the conflagration to this romance!
In the first week of 1841, Old Saint Paul's was commenced. The proprietors of the Sunday Times newspaper had proposed to Mr. Ainsworth to write a romance to be published in their journal weekly throughout the year, for which they very liberally offered 1000l. This was a new feature in newspaper management and romance-writing. The offer was accepted: the tale appeared in successive numbers, and at the close of the year (the copyright reverting to Mr. Ainsworth) it was re-issued in three handsome volumes, lavishly illustrated by Franklin. A large edition was disposed of.