The landscape of Windsor Great Park as it is seen today was largely created between 1746 and 1765, under the Rangership of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. The Duke’s nephew, King George III, employed Nathaniel Kent (1737-1810) to improve the conditions and running of the Great Park in 1791. Nathaniel Kent had studied Flemish husbandry during his early career as a diplomat in Brussels, and on his return to England in 1766 he was persuaded to abandon his career as a diplomat to become an agricultural adviser. His book, Hints to Gentlemen of Landed Property, published in 1775, which recommended the enclosure and drainage of land, and the rotation of crops, made Kent famous, and contributed to the agricultural revolution of the period. This document lists recommendations for improving the ‘picteresque beauty’ of the Park by the removal of certain trees in the valley between Cooks Hills and at Snow Hill, to improve the views, with sketches illustrating Kent’s points. Although undated, it must have been written in 1791, for in November that year Kent wrote in his Journal that, having obtained the King’s approval, he had issued orders for the removal of the trees he had identified near Cooks Hills, ‘that the full effect of these Alterations may be at once seen, and afford a fair sample of an Hundred other similar improvements’.

The Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle, an ancient position dating back to the eleventh century, is in charge of the Castle, on behalf of the Sovereign. A small series of seventeenth and eighteenth-century books of orders issued by the Constables commences in 1668, when Prince Rupert of the Rhine, cousin of Charles II, was appointed as Constable. The Order Books reflect the duties of the Constable at that period, with many orders and copy letters relating to the Castle’s Garrison, of which he was the Commander, and to the trees and game in Windsor Forest, of which he was the Keeper. The orders issued by Prince Rupert in 1668-69 included new instructions ‘for the better Government of the Garrison’, and authority for trees to be felled in Windsor Forest in order to carry out repairs in the Keep [Round Tower], which the Prince had selected for his ‘Lodgings’, and to repair the Forest fences [the ‘Pale’], to keep in the new herd of deer.

The Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle, an ancient position dating back to the eleventh century, is in charge of the Castle, on behalf of the Sovereign. A small series of seventeenth and eighteenth-century books of orders issued by the Constables commences in 1668, when Prince Rupert of the Rhine, cousin of Charles II, was appointed as Constable. The Order Books reflect the duties of the Constable at that period, with many orders and copy letters relating to the Castle’s Garrison, of which he was the Commander, and to the trees and game in Windsor Forest, of which he was the Keeper. The orders issued by Prince Rupert in 1668-69 included new instructions ‘for the better Government of the Garrison’, and authority for trees to be felled in Windsor Forest in order to carry out repairs in the Keep [Round Tower], which the Prince had selected for his ‘Lodgings’, and to repair the Forest fences [the ‘Pale’], to keep in the new herd of deer.

George III is remembered by many as the King who lost the American colonies, and his reputation on both sides of the Atlantic has suffered accordingly. The causes of the American War of Independence, however, are complex, and include the decision made by the British Government in 1763 that the territories in North America recently acquired from the French should be settled and organised for defence and profit, and that, as this would be expensive, America should pay for its own government by being taxed heavily. The Americans, not unsurprisingly, felt that there should ‘no taxation without representation’. Anti-British feeling grew and war finally broke out in 1775. On 4 July 1776 the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence. The conflict was protracted, but in 1781, with the assistance of France, Spain and the Netherlands, the Americans won the land war, compelling the British Army to surrender at Yorktown. In 1783 the Treaty of Paris ended the war and recognised the sovereignty of the United States. At the time many people felt that this defeat was a disaster for Britain. However, the King himself took a much more sanguine approach to the defeat, as can be seen in this essay.

George III is remembered by many as the King who lost the American colonies, and his reputation on both sides of the Atlantic has suffered accordingly. The causes of the American War of Independence, however, are complex, and include the decision made by the British Government in 1763 that the territories in North America recently acquired from the French should be settled and organised for defence and profit, and that, as this would be expensive, America should pay for its own government by being taxed heavily. The Americans, not unsurprisingly, felt that there should ‘no taxation without representation’. Anti-British feeling grew and war finally broke out in 1775. On 4 July 1776 the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence. The conflict was protracted, but in 1781, with the assistance of France, Spain and the Netherlands, the Americans won the land war, compelling the British Army to surrender at Yorktown. In 1783 the Treaty of Paris ended the war and recognised the sovereignty of the United States. At the time many people felt that this defeat was a disaster for Britain. However, the King himself took a much more sanguine approach to the defeat, as can be seen in this essay.

George III is remembered by many as the King who lost the American colonies, and his reputation on both sides of the Atlantic has suffered accordingly. The causes of the American War of Independence, however, are complex, and include the decision made by the British Government in 1763 that the territories in North America recently acquired from the French should be settled and organised for defence and profit, and that, as this would be expensive, America should pay for its own government by being taxed heavily. The Americans, not unsurprisingly, felt that there should ‘no taxation without representation’. Anti-British feeling grew and war finally broke out in 1775. On 4 July 1776 the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence. The conflict was protracted, but in 1781, with the assistance of France, Spain and the Netherlands, the Americans won the land war, compelling the British Army to surrender at Yorktown. In 1783 the Treaty of Paris ended the war and recognised the sovereignty of the United States. At the time many people felt that this defeat was a disaster for Britain. However, the King himself took a much more sanguine approach to the defeat, as can be seen in this essay.

George III is remembered by many as the King who lost the American colonies, and his reputation on both sides of the Atlantic has suffered accordingly. The causes of the American War of Independence, however, are complex, and include the decision made by the British Government in 1763 that the territories in North America recently acquired from the French should be settled and organised for defence and profit, and that, as this would be expensive, America should pay for its own government by being taxed heavily. The Americans, not unsurprisingly, felt that there should ‘no taxation without representation’. Anti-British feeling grew and war finally broke out in 1775. On 4 July 1776 the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence. The conflict was protracted, but in 1781, with the assistance of France, Spain and the Netherlands, the Americans won the land war, compelling the British Army to surrender at Yorktown. In 1783 the Treaty of Paris ended the war and recognised the sovereignty of the United States. At the time many people felt that this defeat was a disaster for Britain. However, the King himself took a much more sanguine approach to the defeat, as can be seen in this essay.

Very few volumes of Queen Charlotte’s diary have survived in the Royal Archives, and therefore the nine remaining, rather plain-looking notebooks, dating from the years 1789 and 1794, should indeed be considered archival treasures. As consort of George III and mother of a large family, Queen Charlotte led a busy domestic life often under strain from her husband’s illness, yet she remained interested in many subjects, including the arts, music, botany and the theatre. As these are the only eighteenth-century royal diaries to survive in the Royal Archives, these notebooks provide a unique record of Georgian life from the perspective of a member of the royal family. The entries record the public life of the Queen, such as her theatre visits, stays in country houses and dinners with aristocratic families; but often more fascinating are the minutiae of the domestic lives of Queen Charlotte and the royal family described in her diary. The entries illustrated here, from 24 and 25 November 1789, were written while the royal family were residing at Windsor Castle and contain details of the daily routine and leisure pursuits enjoyed by the family.

The transit of Venus is a rare but predictable astronomical event, which occurs in a pattern which generally repeats itself every 243 years, with pairs of transits occurring eight years apart. They are important events because when Venus, the Earth and the Sun are in a straight line, it is possible to measure the scale of the solar system by determining the distance of the Earth from the Sun. A transit occurred on 6 June 1761, and its ‘pair’ was due to occur on 3-4 June 1769. George III had a great interest in the science of his day; his education had included physics, chemistry, and natural and experimental philosophy, and he developed a collection of scientific instruments, a number of which are now kept in the Science Museum. His fascination with astronomy led to his patronage of William Herschel in the 1780s and, in 1768, to his commissioning the architect William Chambers to build an observatory on Royal land at Richmond, London, in time for the transit of Venus the following year; the building still stands in the Old Deer Park, part of the grounds of the former Richmond Palace. The King stayed up to watch the event with a small group which included the instrument-makers John Cuff and Jeremiah Sisson, and the clockmaker Benjamin Vulliamy, and this memorandum estimates what was likely to be visible from Richmond of the planet’s progress.