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 Armoury_. In connection with the Armouries, it should be noted that the present collection of arms and armour had its origin in that formed at Greenwich by King Henry VIII, who received many presents of this nature from the Emperor Maximilian and others. He also obtained from the Emperor several skilled armourers, who worked in his pay and wore his livery. English iron in former days was so inferior, or the art of working it was so little known, that even as far back as the days of Richard II German and Italian armourers were the chief workmen in Europe. It should be remembered that the earlier kind of armour chiefly consisted of quilted garments, further fortified by small pieces of leather, horn, or metal. So far from the invention of gunpowder having driven out armour, if we may credit the story of the earliest employment of that explosive, it was at a date when plate armour was hardly in use, certainly not in large pieces. What actually did cause the disuse of armour was the change in ideas as to the movement of troops and the large quantity of armour which was made in the sixteenth century, and consequently the inferior make. In England the disuse of armour seems to have begun earlier than on the Continent, but at no time were the ordinary soldiers covered with metal as seen in Armouries and other places. The weight, and what was more important, the cost, prevented such a thing. It was only the rich who could afford to pay for and had horses to carry armour, who wore much of what we see now. Again, armour for war was much lighter and less complete than that used for the tilt yard, where protection to the wearer was more considered than his ability to hurt his opponent. The greater substance of such armour and its frequent enrichment with engraving and gilding no doubt led to the preservation of this class of defence. Chain mail suffered extremely by rust and neglect, and even plate armour was subject to the same deterioration. It is consequently not to be wondered at that little or no armour of a date previous to the fifteenth century is to be seen in this collection. On Henry VIII's death the first inventory of the Royal collection was