Read Ebook: Authorised Guide to the Tower of London by Loftie W J William John

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BY W.J. LOFTIE, B.A., F.S.A.

REVISED EDITION.

WITH TWELVE VIEWS AND TWO PLANS, AND A DESCRIPTION OF THE ARMOURY, BY THE VISCOUNT DILLON, P.S.A.

LONDON:

PRICE ONE PENNY.

THE TOWER OF LONDON.

GENERAL SKETCH.

The Tower of London was founded in 1078, by William the Conqueror, for the purpose of protecting and controlling the city. To make room for his chief buildings he removed two bastions of the old wall of London, and encroached slightly upon the civic boundaries. Part therefore of the Tower is in London, and part in Middlesex, but it forms, with its surrounding fortifications, a precinct in itself which belongs neither to the city nor the county. It covers an area of 18 acres within the Garden rails.

The present buildings are partly of the Norman period; but architecture of almost all the styles which have flourished in England may be found within the walls. It is well to remember that though the Tower is no longer a place of great military strength it has in time past been a fortress, a palace, and a prison, and to view it rightly we must regard it in this threefold aspect.

It was first built as a fortress, and has a central Keep, called the "White Tower." The Inner Ward is defended by a wall, flanked by thirteen towers, the entrance to it being on the south side under the Bloody Tower. The Outer Ward is defended by a second wall, flanked by six towers on the river face , and by three semicircular bastions on the north face. A Ditch or "Moat," now dry, encircles the whole, crossed at the south-western angle by a stone bridge, leading to the "Byward Tower" from the "Middle Tower," a gateway which had formerly an outwork, called the "Lion Tower."

The security of the walls made it convenient as a State prison, the first known prisoner being Ralf Flambard, Bishop of Durham, who had been active under William Rufus in pushing on the buildings. From that time the Tower was seldom without some captive, English or foreign, of rank and importance.

In the Tudor period the "Green" within the Tower was used on very rare occasions for executions. Condemned prisoners were usually beheaded on

The Tower moat is immediately before us. It is drained and used as a parade ground. Beyond it, as we approach the entrance, we have a good view of the fortifications. On the extreme left are the Brass Mount and North Bastions. In the middle is Legge's Mount. To the right is the entrance gateway. The highest building behind is the White Tower, easily distinguished by its four turrets. In front of it are the Devereux, Beauchamp, and Bell Towers, the residences of the Lieutenant of the Tower and of the Yeoman Gaoler being in the gabled and red tiled houses between the last two. From one of these windows Lady Jane Grey saw her husband's headless body brought in from Tower Hill, by the route we now traverse; and the leads are still called Queen Elizabeth's Walk, as she used them during her captivity in 1554.

stood where the Ticket Office and Refreshment Room are now. Here the visitor obtains a pass which admits him to see the Regalia, or Crown Jewels, and another for the Armoury. In the Middle Ages and down to 1834 the Royal Menagerie was lodged in a number of small buildings near the Lion Tower, whence its name was derived and the saying arose, "seeing the lions," for a visit to the Tower. Where the wooden gate now stands, there was a small work called the Conning Gate. It marked the boundaries of Middlesex and the Tower Precinct. Here prisoners were handed over to the Sheriff.

The visitor who has obtained a ticket passes up a short stair and finds himself in a well-lighted circular apartment in the Wakefield Tower. The deep window recess opposite the door was fitted up as a small chapel, with Aumbry, Piscina, and Sedilia. Tradition says that Henry VI used it for his devotions when a prisoner in the Tower, and was here murdered. In the centre, in a large double case, are arranged the splendid objects which form the English Regalia. The following are the most remarkable:--

The Prince of Wales's coronet, with a single arch.

The Orb, of gold, with a cross and bands of jewels.

St. Edward's Staff, a sceptre of gold, 4 feet 7 inches in length, surmounted by an orb which is supposed to contain a fragment of the true cross.

The Royal Sceptre.

The Sceptre of Equity, surmounted by a dove.

Small sceptres, one of ivory.

Besides these magnificent regal emblems, which chiefly date from the Restoration, when the places of the ancient objects, destroyed during the Commonwealth, were supplied as nearly as possible, observe, also--

The Anointing Spoon, the sole relic of the ancient regalia, of silver gilt.

The Eagle, for the anointing oil.

The Golden Salt-cellar, a model of the White Tower.

The Baptismal Font, used at the christening of the Sovereign's children, of silver, double gilt.

The Sacramental Plate used at the coronation.

A large silver-gilt wine-fountain, of good workmanship, presented to Charles II by the Corporation of Plymouth.

Two Swords of Justice, Ecclesiastical and Civil.

In the central case is a model of the Koh-i-noor in its original setting.

In the cases in the recesses are also exhibited the insignia of the British and Indian orders of Knighthood, their collars, stars, and badges, and the Victoria Cross.

Leaving the Wakefield Tower, we descend the slope and turn to the left near the site of what was the Cold Harbour Tower, a name the exact meaning of which is unknown. The original Jewel House was behind it to the east, forming with the south side of the White Tower, and portions of the palace, a small courtyard, in which some remains of the ancient buildings may still be traced. On a raised platform is the gun-carriage and limber on which the body of Her Majesty the late Queen Victoria was conveyed on the occasion of her funeral, 2nd February, 1901, from Windsor Railway Station to St. George's Chapel. This was placed here by order of the Houses of Parliament. We now reach a doorway made in the south wall of the

or Keep, the oldest part of the whole fortress.

The White Tower is somewhat irregular in plan, for though it looks so square from the river its four sides are all of different lengths, and three of its corners are not right angles. The side towards which we approach is 107 feet from north to south. The south side measures 118 feet. It has four turrets at the corners, three of them square, the fourth, that on the north-east, being circular. From floor to battlements it is 90 feet in height. The original entrance was probably on the south side, and high above the ground, being reached as usual in Norman castles by an external stair which could be easily removed in time of danger. Another or the same entrance led from an upper storey of the palace. The interior is of the plainest and sternest character. Every consideration is postponed to that of obtaining the greatest strength and security. The outer walls vary in thickness from 15 feet in the lower to 11 in the upper storey. The whole building is crossed by one wall, which rises from base to summit and divides it into a large western and a smaller eastern portion. The eastern part is further subdivided by a wall which cuts off St. John's Chapel, its crypt, and its subcrypt, each roof of which is massively vaulted. There is no vaulting but a wooden floor between the storeys of the other part. There are several comparatively modern entrances.

The chapel is the largest and most complete now remaining in any Norman castle, and must have seen the devotions of William the Conqueror and his family. It is 55 feet 6 inches long by 31 feet wide, and 32 feet high, and is vaulted with a plain arch. There are four massive columns on either side and four in the apse. The south aisle, as we have seen, communicated with the palace, and an upper aisle, or gallery, similarly opened into the

of the White Tower, which we reach by a circuitous route through a passage round the walls, only wide enough for one person at a time, and a circular, or newel, stair in the north-east turret, gaining at every turn glimpses of the extensive stores of small arms. The second floor is divided into two large apartments, not reckoning the chapel; in the eastern wall of the smaller or Banqueting Chamber, is a fire-place, the only one till recently discovered in any Norman Keep. A second and third have of late years been found in the floor below, but the whole building was designed for security, not for comfort and in spite of the use of wooden partitions and tapestry must have been miserable as a place of residence. On leaving St. John's Chapel we enter

The mounted figures from 1826 till 1883 stood in a long gallery adjoining the south side of the Tower, but at the latter date this was pulled down, and the figures removed to the top floor. Within the last few years the floor below has been used for the later arms, but the lighting of the rooms and their shape, with various other causes, prevent any strictly chronological arrangements of the collection, many objects of which also belong to long periods of time.

The arms and armour are now placed on the two upper floors of the White Tower, the earlier weapons and all the armour, being on the top floor, while the later weapons and the Indian arms and armour, with various personal relics, are placed on what is the third stage or second floor. To this the visitor ascends by a circular staircase in the south front of the Tower. At the foot observe a brass plate recording the finding in 1674 of the supposed remains of the "Princes in the Tower," Edward V and his brother Richard Duke of York. The visitor then enters the Chapel of St. John, and on leaving passes into the smaller of the two rooms on this floor.

At the end of the room is a Persian horse armour of brass scales connected by chain mail. Near this is the quilted armour of the Burmese General Maha Bundoola, killed in 1824. At the other end of the room is a large bell from Burmah, presented by the late General Sir William Gomme, G.C.B., and near it are two figures with Japanese armour, one of them presented to Charles II when prince by the Mogul. It is interesting as being one of the earliest examples of Eastern armour which has an authentic record of its presence in this country, and it also exhibits the persistence in early forms so common in the East. The cases on either hand contain weapons, helmets, and armour from most parts of our Indian Empire, as well as weapons from Cabul, Persia, Africa, America, and the South Seas. Some of these were presented by the Honourable East India Company, some were acquired by purchase after the Great Exhibition of 1851, and others have been added at various times. In the centre of the room are models showing the Tower buildings in the years 1842 and 1866.

On the left hand observe the beheading axe, which has been here since 1687, also the block on which Lord Lovat, in 1747, lost his head at one stroke for the share he took in the attempt of the Pretender in 1745.

Beyond this, against the wall, is a model by John Bell of a monument for the Great Duke of Wellington. It was presented by the late Sir Daniel Lysons, Constable of the Tower, 1890-1898. Still on the left hand, in a glass case, is the soldier's cloak on which General Wolfe expired in the moment of victory, at Quebec, 1759.

Beyond, in another case, is the uniform worn as Constable of the Tower by the Great Duke of Wellington from 1826 until his death, in 1852.

In a case at the end of the room is a mass of fused gun flints, a relic of the fire which in 1841 destroyed the Great Store in the Tower and many thousand stand of arms, cannon, &c.

The staircase in the S.W. corner is now ascended leading to the great upper chamber, generally known as the Council Chamber, 95 feet by 40 feet, and, like the smaller room, 21 feet high. Round this top floor runs a passage cut in the thickness of the walls, with numerous openings inwards opposite the windows, and widening somewhat when forming as it does the triforium of St. John's Chapel. At the entrance are cases containing velvet-covered brigandines and canvas-covered jacks, garments which were much used in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as giving protection by means of numerous small plates of metal disposed between the thicknesses of the material covering and lining them, and also great flexibility. In the cases on the right hand are specimens of chain mail in form of hoods, coats, sleeves, &c, mostly, if not all, of Eastern origin. Observe also some bronze swords and other very early weapons.

Round the walls of the two rooms are arranged the various staff weapons used in England and the continent. In the first enclosure on the left are cases in which are ancient bronze tools, weapons, and ornaments from various localities, stone implements and weapons, and a suit of bronze armour from Cumae, an ancient Greek settlement near Naples. In the centre of the enclosure are grouped many varieties of staff weapons of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Among them are boar spears for the chase and for war, halberds, partizans, bills, glaives, holy water sprinkles , and the 18 foot pikes of the Civil War period.

Descending the room in the first enclosure is the armour of the Earl of Worcester, who died 1589. This suit is very massive, the breast and back plates together weighing 40 lbs. 3 oz. In the same enclosure are two figures made up of Maximilian armour, and a bowman and a musketeer of the Earl of Worcester's time. In the archways will be seen early forms of guns and pistols of various types and swords and other weapons.

The next mounted figure is of the middle of the sixteenth century, and the two foot figures are made up of early sixteenth-century armour.

At the side is a cuir bouilli crupper as worn by the English heavy cavalry in the sixteenth century.

The next enclosure contains an equestrian figure of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, the favourite of Elizabeth. This fine suit bears all over it the badge of the Ragged Staff, and is engraved with the badges and collars of the Garter and of the Order of St. Michael of France. The suit was made between 1566 and 1588, and is of very great interest as one of the very few known which also possesses the extra pieces for the tilt yard, viz.: the Grandguard and the Passguard, ornamented like the suit, which with them weighs about 83-1/2 lbs. It will be seen that the extra pieces are for the left side, and the helmet has no air holes on that side, as the tilters passed left arm to left arm on either side of the tilt or barrier. The two foot figures are of about the same date.

The next mounted figure is one still showing the gilt enrichment so many of these suits for the tilt yard originally had. It was attributed to Robert Earl of Essex, another favourite of his Queen, but has now been identified as the armour made by Jacobe Topf, for Sir John Smith, cousin german to Edward VI, and a great military writer of the sixteenth century. Many other pieces of this suit are in the Royal collection in Windsor Castle. The two foot figures came from the Great Armoury at Malta. Beyond the passage are a mounted figure showing how the lance was held when jousting at the tilt or barrier in the sixteenth century and later, and inferior suits for horsemen, and some other suits from Malta.

On leaving the large room, in the case in the archway will be seen axes, horsemen's hammers and maces, all designed for breaking and rending armour. Observe also various forms of the bayonet, from the early plug bayonet to the later socketed type of that weapon.

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