This collection of twenty-five essays about St George's Chapel, Windsor, is a Festschrift in honour of Dr Eileen Scarff, who retired from the post of Archivist in 2008. The final two chapters are, in fact, an account of how she built up the department and re-housed the library and archives of the College in the Vicars’ Hall and Undercroft – a wonderful achievement.

The other twenty-four chapters take us roughly chronologically through the history of the building of the Castle; the first chapel dedicated to St George and completed in 1248 in the reign of Henry iii; the founding of the Order of the Garter by Edward iii in 1349; the role of the Bishop of Winchester as Prelate of the Order; and the building of the new chapel, begun by Edward iv in 1477, which became his burial-place in 1483.

There follows a full account of the architecture of the Chapel which describes St George's as the most expensive parish church of the fifteenth century, designed possibly by Thomas Jurdan, who incorporated a secular theme into the design based on Crosby Hall at Chelsea in London. Burials in the Chapel are discussed, in particular those of Henry vi in 1484 and Bishop Oliver King sometime after his death in 1503. A chapter is devoted to the restoration of the great west window, and there is an account of the relationship between the Chapel and the medieval town, which was surprisingly cordial, given the regular alienation of town property to the College of St George. Doubtless the Chapel brought work and prosperity to the townsfolk, and the presence of many pilgrims accounts for a remarkable increase in the number of inns in Windsor by the mid-sixteenth century.

During the Commonwealth period much damage was done to the fabric and furnishings, but on the restoration of the monarchy the Dean and Canons were also restored, and under Charles ii the tone of worship became more distinctly High Church and new furnishings and plate were provided, some of them by the king himself. During the eighteenth century the Chapel enjoyed a period of stability and as the favoured residence of King George iii was restored with antiquarian sensitivity and at considerable expense. The Chapel underwent further restoration in the mid-nineteenth century, supervised by Thomas Willement who oversaw much cleaning, repainting and reglazing between 1843 and 1849. George Gilbert Scott took over in 1862, beginning work on replacing the great east window, but the major work of restoration and improvement had to wait until Sir Harold Brakspear in the 1920s. The account of the fabric is completed by a chapter on the building of the George vi Memorial Chapel in 1968–9, designed by George Pace, the first structural addition to the exterior of the Chapel since it was completed in 1528.

This is a scholarly series of essays, well illustrated (but in black and white only) and accompanied by numerous plans, line drawings and contemporary engravings. It suffers slightly from being a series of specialist essays by different authors rather than a continuous account by one author, but there are copious notes and a good index. The Chapel is fortunate to have a particularly full set of archives, which reflects the fact that it is the only collegiate church in England that has maintained a continuous existence from its medieval foundation to the present day. This volume both offers many fascinating new insights into the history and development of this celebrated building, and is a fitting tribute to Dr Scarff herself, who did so much over twenty years to put the archives in good order and make them accessible to a wider public.