The Tower of London, (Vol. 1 of 2)Gower, Ronald Sutherland, Lord
History
The Tower of London, (Vol. 1 of 2)
Gower, Ronald Sutherland, Lord
Tower of London (London, England)
Sir Walter Besant recommended—and no one spoke with higher authority on
aught appertaining to old London and its history—any one who desires to
make himself acquainted with the appearance of the Tower in the days of
Queen Elizabeth, to study the plan drawn up by Haiward and Gascoigne
in 1597, which they styled “A True and Exact Draught of the Tower
Liberties.” In that plan it will be seen at a glance that the fortress,
palace, armoury, arsenal, and State prison of England’s capital,
had its principal entry towards the west—in fact, that the western
approach was the only entrance by land, the eastern entrance, known as
the Iron Gate, being but seldom used. Supposing that the visitor of
Elizabeth’s day had passed through the no longer existing Bulwark Gate,
he would next pass under another gate, called from its proximity to
the menagerie of wild animals, the Lion Gate, which was connected by a
walled causeway over the moat, about a hundred feet in width, with the
Lion Tower, which has disappeared; from the Lion Gate, which has also
been pulled down, the scarp would be reached.
[Illustration: _Plan of the Tower in 1597_
_by Haiward and Gascoyne._]
The Lion Tower, with its barbicans and _tête-du-pont_, had the honour
of a moat to itself, but all this has disappeared, Lion Gate, tower,
barbican, _tête-du-pont_, have all vanished with the lions and other
wild beasts which were kept here from the days of the Norman kings
until the year 1834, when they were removed to Regent’s Park and formed
the nucleus of the Zoological Gardens.
Henry I. had kept some lions and leopards at his palace of Woodstock,
and on the occasion of Frederic II. of Germany sending three leopards
to Henry III., these animals were sent to the Tower. Besides lions and
leopards, an elephant and a bear were also about that time in the Tower
menagerie. In 1252 the Sheriffs of London were ordered to pay fourpence
a day for the keep of the bear, and also to provide a muzzle and chain
for Bruin while he caught fish in the Thames. During the reign of the
three first Edwards, the lions and other animals had food given them
to the value of sixpence a day, their keeper only receiving three
half-pence per diem. One of the Plantagenet Court officials held the
office, and was styled “The Master of the King’s Bears and Apes.” In
old views of the Tower can be seen the circular pit or pen in which,
down to the days of James I., bear-baiting took place—to watch this
brutal “sport” being one of this not altogether admirable monarch’s
favourite amusements.
In his account of a visit paid to the Tower in the reign of Elizabeth,
the German traveller, Paul Hentzner, writes of the Royal menagerie as
follows:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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