Three Years in Europe: Places I Have Seen and People I Have MetBrown, William Wells
History
Three Years in Europe: Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met
Brown, William Wells
Great Britain -- Description and travel
things having a warlike appearance; and among them a number of
equestrian figures, as large as life, and clothed in armour and
trappings of the various reigns from Edward I. to James II., or from
1272 to 1685. Elizabeth, or the "Maiden Queen," as the warden called
her, was the most imposing of the group; she was on a cream coloured
charger. We left the Maiden Queen to examine the cloak upon which
General Wolf died, at the storming of Quebec. In this room Sir Walter
Raleigh was imprisoned, and here was written his "History of the
World." In his own hand, upon the wall, is written, "Be thou faithful
unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." His Bible is still
shown, with these memorable lines written in it by himself a short time
before his death:--
"Even such is Time that takes on trust,
Our youth, our joy, our all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days."
Spears, battle-axes, pikes, helmets, targets, bows and arrows, and many
instruments of torture, whose names I did not learn, grace the walls of
this room. The block on which the Earl of Essex and Anne Boleyn were
beheaded, was shown among other objects of interest. A view of the
"Queen's Jewels" closed our visit to the Tower. The Gold Staff of St.
Edward, and the Baptismal Font used at the Royal christenings, made of
solid silver, and more than four feet high, were among the jewels here
exhibited. The Sword of Justice was there, as if to watch the rest of
the valuables. However, this was not the sword that Peter used. Our
acquaintance with De Foe, Sir Walter Raleigh, Chaucer, and James
Montgomery, through their writings, and the knowledge that they had been
incarcerated within the walls of the bastile that we were just leaving,
caused us to look back again and again upon its dark grey turrets.
I closed the day with a look at the interior of St. Paul's Cathedral. A
service was just over, and we met a crowd coming out as we entered the
great building. "Service is over, and two pence for all that wants to
stay," was the first sound that caught our ears. In the Burlesque of
"Esmeralda," a man is met in the belfry of the Notre Dame at Paris, and
being asked for money by one of the vergers says:--
"I paid three pence at the door,
And since I came in a great deal more:
Upon my honour you have emptied my purse,
St. Paul's Cathedral could not do worse."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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