The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-09 00:00:00

ARRIVAL AT WINDSOR CASTLE.

:For more than a fortnight past the inhabitants of the
lyal and ancient borough have been in a continued state
of t vccitement in making the necessary preparations to do
all h o nour to the Princess Alexandra on her arrival in
Wind or, and to celebrate the greater event which is to fel-
low it in their town to-morrow. A fortnight ago a special
meetin g of the town council was summoned to consider
what pr,+,blic steps should be taken duly to carry out the
desires o f the inhabitants, and this was followed by a public
meeting, at which a committee was appointed with plenary
powers to ,decorate the town in welcome to the adventred of
the young :Princess who was about to take up her .
deuce amongst them. If London was to be made gaudy,
gay, and grand for the occasion, it was felt that Windsor,
with its surrounding locality, should be brilliant, beautiful,
and bright. The metropolis, in its spontaneous outburst of
enthusiastic welcome, must of necessity be confined to the
adventitious aid of art for the expression of its uncontrol-
lable feeling—but the loyal denizens of the Royal borough
were in possession of vast advantages over their metropo-
litan neighbours. They live amidst imperishable natu-
ral beauties. The locality would seem to be
really glorified by nature herself. Even in this early spring-
iree, before the buds have burst their cells or the leaves
yoeped forth, the hill and dale, the wood and plain, the very
% vier and the sky, seem to unite harmoniously to produce
a s 'cone around the Royal domain which is perhaps un-
equ tiled within the realm of merry England. Windsor, at
Tightest, has already been its b. enhseerenh by the young Princess
vs just arrived to makewho amongst us.er
iShe
ha 4 see 7 'Windsor in all the brightness of thes
_when that venerable forest, which is its featureehiefumm ta.mnd
ao historically romantic in its reminiscences as it
which is
grand to the eye, appeared in all its brightest
is rich and.
spring time of the year to
returns to it in the
robes, and sht.
shine upon it h
erself, as we all hope, through a long life-
sunshine and of stormlesa summer.
season of bright
During all the ,nreparations that have been going on all
over the town and in the Castle nature herself has seemed
to smile with gratification. The giant trees in the great
ark and the hedge-mw plants in the rural lanes have Bud-
odenly burst into leaf, e_ though impatient of that restraint
which the cold of the doparting winter imposes upon them.
The very heavens have :for ten days past been glorious with
the brightest sunshine, and even the night time.--
cc o'er beauteous -Windsor's high and storied halls,
Where Edward'e chiefs start from the glowing walls,"
has ai'most seemed to ntirror day, for our satellite during
as long' a space has shove each night with unclouded and
unwonted brilliancy, while the air-temperature was such
that we iteemed to have jumpet:4 into summer with the spring.
For a whole fortnight not a cloud was seen over Windsor
until Friday last, when a temporarj and most unpleasant
change too tic ,place, and from that time to the close of the
first act of the great national drama on Saturday SVening,
Windsor, it a double sense, was clouded.
Whe earl, morning of Saturday was cheery and hopeful,