The armor, of course, varied very much in its character and fashion,
according to the age in which the monarch who wore it lived; and it was
very interesting, in walking down the hall, to see how military fashions
had changed from century to century, as shown by the successive changes
in the accoutrements which were observed in passing along the line of
kings.
There were many suits of armor that were quite small, having been made
for the English princes when they were boys. Rollo amused himself by
imagining how he should look in one of these suits of armor, and he
wished very much that he could have an opportunity of trying them on. In
one place there was a battery of nine beautiful little cannons made of
brass, each about two feet long, and just about large enough in caliber
for a boy to fire. These cannons, which were all beautifully ornamented
with bas reliefs on the outside, and were mounted on splendid little
carriages, were presented to Charles II. when he was a boy; and I
suppose that he and his playmates often fired them. There were a great
many other strange and curious implements of war that have now gone
wholly out of fashion. There were all kinds of matchlocks, and guns, and
pistols, of the most uncouth and curious shapes; and shot of every
kind--chain shot, and grape shot, and saw shot; and there were bows and
arrows, and swords and halberds, and spears and cutlasses, and every
other kind of weapon. These arms were arranged on the walls in
magnificent great stars, or were stacked up in various ornamental forms
about pillars or under arches; and they were so numerous that Rollo
could not stop to look at half of them.
After this the yeoman of the guard led his party to a great many other
curious places. He showed them the room where the crowns and sceptres of
the English kings and queens, and all the great diamonds and jewels of
state, were kept. These treasures were placed on a stand in an immense
iron cage, so that people assembled in the room around the cage could
look in and see the things, but they could not reach them to touch them.
They were also taken to see various prison rooms and dungeons where
state prisoners were kept; and also blocks and axes, the implements by
which several great prisoners celebrated in history had been beheaded.
They saw in particular the block and the axe which were used at the
execution of Anne Boleyn and of Lady Jane Grey; and all the party looked
very earnestly at the marks which the edge of the axe had made in the
wood when the blows were given.
The party walked about in the various buildings, and courts, and streets
of the Tower for nearly two hours; and then, bidding the yeoman good by,
they all went away.
"Now," said Rollo, as soon as they had got out of the gate, "which is
the way to the Tunnel?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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