WINDSOR CASTLE

An engaging, lavishly illustrated history of Windsor Castle from the first walls and turrets raised by the Normans, to Edward IV's beautiful Chapel of St. George, to Edward VIII's last, sad farewell to the magnificent building which stood for historical continuity and the duty of kings to rule. Rowse romps his way through nine centuries of royal marriages and intrigues gossiping happily about Henry VIII's youthful revels, George III's invention of a ""blue and gold turned up with red"" Windsor uniform and Queen Victoria's pall-mall invitations to ""dine and sleep"" there. (Victoria loathed the place and spent as much time as she could at the less imposing Osborne and Balmoral.) George IV who is not remembered as one of England's outstanding kings, did raise Windsor to unprecedented elegance by picking up for a song the rare French furnishings of ruined aristocrats which the Revolution threw on the market. A colorful panoply of the English monarchy festooned with royal romances, christenings, birthday bails, receptions and behind-the-stairs political plots. Only the charwoman is kept out of sight.