TH

CHAPTER III.

THE TOWER OF LONDON.

HIS Tower is a Citadel, to defend or command the City. A Royal Palace for Assemblies and Treaties: A Prison of Estate, for the most dangerous Offenders: the only Place of Coinage for all England at this time the Armoury for warlike Provision; The Treasury of the Ornaments and Jewels of the Crown; and general Conserver of the most Ancient Records of the King's Courts of Justice at Westminster.' Thus John Strype concludes his sixty folio pages concerning the Tower of London in the new and enlarged edition of old John Stow's Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, which he published in the year 1720. The extract is interesting as a summary of the varied uses to which, during its long life,

this Tower of London has been put. But out of the long list only two or three functions have survived to the present hour. No longer a palace, a prison, a mint, a record-office, it yet remains a citadel, an armoury, and the guardian of the ornaments and jewels of the crown. Among the many ancient and splendid buildings of which London can boast, none more powerfully, it may be doubted whether any other so powerfully, kindles the imagination and excites the interest of all English-speaking people.

The Tower of London sprang into being at the call of one of the most grim and mighty of English sovereigns-the Stark William'-at one of the darkest and most tragic epochs in the history of the English nation. By his will of steel and by his military skill and courage, William I. had seized the crown of England; the White Tower is at once the symbol and the evidence of the firmness with which he planted his dynasty in a land that yielded only to his all-conquering sword. Although the London of 1078 was but a tiny hamlet compared with the London of 1890, William recognised at once its great importance, and the castle reared at his command still stands as a convincing proof a convincing proof that the Norman no less than the Roman knew how to build for the ages. At the spot where the ancient Roman wall touched the Thames, where in Saxon times stood two strong bastions, William, in order that he might command the city,' began the great cluster of Tower buildings with the one that is still the strongest, the great central keep or White Tower.

Around this as a centre, during the two centuries separating the close of the Conqueror's reign from the end of Henry the Third's, the great mass of buildings that have ever since occupied that site came gradually into existence. The plan gives a good bird's-eye view of the whole. It represents the Tower as it appeared just prior to the most recent alterations, and therefore possesses a special interest. special interest. The chief of these alterations have been the removal of the Horse Armoury from the south of the White Tower, the sweeping away of the mass of stores and offices between the Horse Armoury and the inner ward, of the block of stores by the side of the Salt Tower, and of all the buildings hard by the Iron Gate, and the reerection of Lanthorn Tower midway between the Salt and Wakefield Towers. In all other respects the plan shows the Tower as it is to-day.

In the centre stands the great Norman keep. Around this runs the massive fortification known as the inner ward or curtain, strengthened by no less than thirteen towers, viz., those now known as the Wakefield, Bloody, Bell, Beauchamp, Devereux, Flint, Bowyer, Brick, Martin, Constable, Broad Arrow, Salt, and Lanthorn towers. The Lanthorn, as already noted, is a recent restoration, and two or three of the others are of late date. The only entrance to this inner ward was through the gateway of the Bloody Tower; and the huge portcullis by which it was secured is still there, and

in working order. Around and encircling the whole of the inner ward stands the outer ward-a very powerful fortification, strengthened by three batteries, known as Legge's Mount, North Bastion, and Brass Mount Battery. Byward Tower, the main entrance to the outer ward, dates from Richard the Second's time, the foundation being still earlier; and in ancient days it protected the drawbridge, 130 feet in length, by which only the Tower could be approached. The river front is occupied by a strong quay, built originally by Henry III., and defended by St. Thomas's Tower, through

A. Tower Stairs. B. Wharfinger's House. c. Middle Tower. D. Byward Tower. E. Guard Room. F. Queen's Stairs. G. Bell Tower. 1. Beauchamp Tower. K. Devereux Tower. L. Legge's Mount Battery. M. Flint Tower. N. Bowyer Tower. o. Brick Tower. P. Martin Tower. Q. Old Jewel House. R. Constable Tower. s. Salt Tower. T. Develin Tower. w. Wakefield Tower. x. Bloody Tower. Y. Main Guard. z. Site

of Scaffold on Tower Green.

which the main entrance from the river-a via dolorosa in English historypassed, closed by the famous Traitor's Gate. Encircling this whole cluster of fortifications ran what was in early days the most efficient protection to the Tower-the wide and deep moat, which in recent times has been drained, and laid out partly as an exercise ground and partly as a garden.

So much for the general plan; and now a word or two about the history of the Tower, a theme demanding a whole volume for anything