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
Emerging from the Mark Lane railway station, the visitor obtains an
excellent view of the great fortress. Within the railed space of Trinity
Square, the first permanent scaffold on Tower Hill was set up in the
reign of Edward III, but the first execution recorded here was that of
Sir Simon Burley in 1388. Here also were beheaded, among others, Dudley,
the minister of Henry VII (1510), his son the Duke of Northumberland
(1553), his grandson, Lord Guildford Dudley (1554), Cromwell, Earl of
Essex (1540), More and Fisher (1535), Surrey (1547), and his son,
Norfolk (1572), Strafford (1641), and Archbishop Laud (1645), and the
Scotch lords in 1716, 1746, and 1747, the last being Simon, Lord Lovat.
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.
_The Lion Tower_
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 Middle Tower_ (Pl. I)
was originally built by Henry III, but has been entirely refaced.
Through its archway we reach the stone bridge, which had formerly in the
centre a drawbridge of wood. We next reach
_The Byward Tower_ (Pl. II),
the great Gatehouse of the Outer Ward. It is in part the work of Henry
III, and in part that of Richard II. Observe the vaulting and the dark
recesses on the southern side. We pass on the left
_The Bell Tower_ (Pl. IX),
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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