Authorised Guide to the Tower of LondonLoftie, W. J. (William John)
History
Authorised Guide to the Tower of London
Loftie, W. J. (William John)
Tower of London (London, England) -- Guidebooks
The figures on the opposite side of the room are horsemen and pikemen
of the seventeenth century, after which time armour may be said to have
ceased to be worn, till at the coronation of George IV in 1820, when the
Household Cavalry appeared in cuirasses. In the table cases in this room
are odd portions of armour: gorgets, gauntlets, cuisshes, &c., daggers,
knives, and swords, including good examples of the Cinquedea, or short
broad-bladed sword peculiar to Northern Italy.
In the series of wall cases at the end of both rooms will be found
several varieties of helmets, including salades, close helmets, tilting
helmets; also morions and cabassets and breasts and backs. Among these
observe the fine painted archers' salade, with vizor; two fine Venetian
salades, like the ancient Greek helmets, and bearing armourers' stamps;
sixteenth-century tilting helmets, with side doors for air; spider
helmets, &c. Those on the upper shelves are either false or imitations
of real examples. In the case by the door is a helmet made for and worn
by the late Emperor Napoleon III (when prince) at the Eglinton
Tournament, in 1839.
On the walls are portions of horse armour, bucklers for foot soldiers,
and several shields simulating the embossed ornamentation of the
sixteenth century.
_The Parade_.
The Waterloo Barracks are opposite, built in 1845 on the site of
storehouses burnt in 1841. The building of similar character to the
right is the Officers' Quarters: between the two a glimpse is obtained
of the Martin or Brick Tower, whence Blood stole the crown in 1671.
Observe, on the left, the extensive collection of cannons of all ages
and countries, including triple guns taken from the French, of the time
of Louis XIV, and some curious and grotesque mortars from India.
Observe, on the right, almost adjoining the Barrack, the Chapel of St.
Peter "ad Vincula," so called from having been consecrated on that
well-known festival of the Latin Church, the 1st of August, probably in
the reign of Henry I (1100-1135). The old chapel was burnt in 1512, and
the present building erected only in time to receive the bodies of the
first victims of the tyranny of Henry VIII. It was considered a Royal
Chapel before 1550; the interior is not shown to the public. Here it is,
in the memorable words of Stow, writing in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
that there lie before the high altar, "two dukes between two queens, to
wit, the Duke of Somerset and the Duke of Northumberland, between Queen
Anne and Queen Katharine, all four beheaded." Here also are buried Lady
Jane (Grey) and Lord Guildford Dudley, the Duke of Monmouth, and the
Scotch lords, Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and Lovat, beheaded for their share
in the rebellion of 1745. The last burial in the chapel was that of Sir
John Fox Burgoyne, Constable of the Tower, in 1871.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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