In obedience to yr Lʳˢ Order of the 15th instant, that I should view the severall places in the Tower therein mentioned—viz. Beauchamp Tower and ye Bloody Tower and report wt Expense will put them in condition to hold prisoners of State and what number they will hold I have accordingly viewed the same and report that both the said places were put the last summer in better repair than they have been in many years being whited, mended, and made strong, but to make them fitt for prisoners of State, if by that Expression it be intended that they should be wainscotted and made fitt for hangings and furniture it may cost £200 or much more but with such walls, windows and winding stairs they never can be made proper with any cost without rebuilding. I have also in pursuance of yʳ Lʳˢ Order viewed the place behinde the Chappell and considered and do approve the annex’d draught proposed to be built wch I take to be as Large as ye place will afford containing 15 square and if it be well built in 3 storeys, Cellars and garretts it will cost £600. As to the number of Prisoners the place may hold I can only report wt number of rooms each place contains. Beauchamp Tower hath a large Kitching 2 large rooms and 2 small servants rooms. Bloody Tower hath a kitching one room and one closset. The new building may contain 9 single rooms, besides cellars and garrets and a kitching all wch is humbly submitted. CHR WREN Apprill 17 1695. [Illustration: _The Tower of London, Commanded in Chief by the Rᵗ. Honᵇˡᵉ Robert Lᵈ. Lucas._] CHAPTER XVII QUEEN ANNE Few prisoners of any degree were committed to the Tower during the reign of Anne, except during the first year of her rule, when the Continental wars brought some French prisoners of war, who were confined there. In 1712, however, the famous Sir Robert Walpole was committed to the Tower “for high breach of trust and notorious corruption.” Walpole’s committal was entirely due to political intrigue, and his disgrace and imprisonment closely resembled that of the Duke of Choiseul in the reign of Louis XVI., when half of the French society of the day flocked to the fallen Minister’s house at Chanteloup. Walpole’s apartment in the Tower was crowded all day long with a succession of smart folk, among whom the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, with whom the Queen had broken off her former great intimacy, were conspicuous; Godolphin, Somers, Sunderland, and Pulteney, Earl of Bath, were also frequent visitors.