The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-23
A HISTORICAL SKETCH.
the TOWER AND ITS TENANTS.

and that historical associations for deeds of
high.handed oppression; for memories of life
long persecution; but none of these possess a
record equal in interest to that of any ono of
the score of dungeons In that grey. isolated pile,
In which our kings have lived, and our mobiles
have perished for so many hundred years. Each
one of its many towers is long chapter of our
history, full of violence and blood, and yet not
without some noble incidents also; each stone
walled chamber is page out of human life
more romantic than novelist would dare TO paint.
what scenes have those walls witnessed What
creams have they heard A royal palace; a
state prison; slaughter.house, where the noble
and base have perlshed by the indiscriminate
axe; burial place OF murdered queens! Aud
vet how little we know about this wondrous
SpOt that lies at the very door of so many OF u.s.
Who visits it save humble countrytolk, who
'don it and the Thames Tunnel in the same
afternoon. How few of us since our boyhood,
wben we visited with some benevolent uncle,
who "gave himself upo to us for the day, aud
offered us the choice of the Tower or Madame
Tussaud's-the very eXtremltes of selt-sacr6ce,
as he considered them-hsye ever cared to
venture so far eastward as Tower Hill
cheerful nod, as we have passed 1t on our
way down tie river IN the Whlteoalt season,
and the remark, That is Traitors Cate"
is all the attention we Londoners of the better
Class--as we consider ourseves-are accustomed
to pay to the Tower OF London. II it cost half
guinea apiece to see the place, perhaps we that
are OF the Upper Ten Thousand should go; but
to be mixed up with crowd of people at six
pence head, and lectured by a professor of
History in the shape of bee feater, exactly as
If we were at a waXwork, is what we are not
likely to put up with, and don't. The meagre,
wretChed guide-books of the place, too, quite
carry out the waxwork notion, and until
lately, they have been the only accessible
sources from which typographical Information
the identification of locality with eVeut-could
be procured. This last objection, however, has
now been. removed by the publication OF ME
MORALS of the Tower by Lord de Ros its
present LieutenantG Governor, book which all
should read before they visit the place, and
which few, let US hope, will read without the
desire of visiting it. Then every stone will
have, If not sermon in it, at least an epitaph;
and if we must still run with the beeteater, we
need not read by the light Of his intelligence.
The Tower, as every one knows, is situated
on the MiddleseX side of the Thames, little
below London Bridge, and the buildings which
compose it present the appearance OF a small
fortified town of Germany or Flanders. Its
wide, deep mOat though kept dry for sanitary
reasons, is capable of being flooded, and though
of course as a fortress the place would be easily
reduced by the modern appliances of war, 1t is
still a formidable hold. The "BallIm," or
inner wall, is immensely thick, and varies from
thirty to forty feet in height. The only vestige
OF the royal palace, finally demolished by Crom-
well--is the buttress of an old archWay adioln-
ing the Salt Tower-to the southeast but most
OF the buildings have stuobornly resisted the
attacks OF Time.
That portion Of the place which is most fami-
liar to our ears is, no doubt, the Bloody Tower,
opposite the waterentrance, and so grimy as
eociated with the murder of the two young
princes by Richard III. As the fact of this
atrocity has had some doubts lately cast upon
1t by some of those skeptics who busy them
selves in this age with whitewashing the vii
lains OF history, as we'll as with deprecating
its heroes, Lord de Ros has gone into the matter
at some length. The generally received tradi-
tion runs that Richard, after giving all neces-
sary orders for his elder nephew's coronation
(there is evidence that even his robes were
prepared), suddenly sounded SIR Robert
Brackenbury, the Lieutenant of the Tower,
upon the subject of doing away with both lads.
Brackenbury, who is said to have received
this instruction while engaged in the singularly
nldldpropos occupation of dlvine.serVice in st.
Johns Chapel in the White Tower, declined the
dreadful Office. James Tyrrell was therefore
appointed to temporarily supersede him in his
prot. This being arranged, Tyrrell employed
Dghton and Forest TO do the deed; and the
bodies of the children were buried in the Tower,
and not syllable said about them. There was
not the slightest attempt to account for their
disappearanceiin any way. That every contem-
porary believed that the princes thus met their
end seems certain, and hence the general dis.
belief in England of the authenticity Of
the claims of Perkin Warbeck. 1t was
always sequel of the tradition of the mur.
der, that ''the priest of the Tower" had buried
the bodies in some concealed place-Shake
speare makes Tyrrelsconfess to the fact-"an6
surely it is not unreasonable to inter
when two children's bodies, corresponding
In age and period of decay with the date OF the
murder, were discovered in Charles ll's time, by
seventy yards from the Bloody Tower, that these
were the bones of the princes. There were two
consecrated burial grounds within the Tower
besides that of Barking Church on Tower Hill
close by; and what likelihood was there under
these circumstances, ottWo boys being buried il
this sequestered nook, under a staircase, unless
with view to secrecy and concealmenR Charles
II, a by no means credulous prince, had certainl!
no doubt of the matter, since he went to thu
trouble and expense of having the remains re
moved, with all due respect, to the vaults o
oufV RU
mulberry tree was also planted upon the spo
where the bones were found; and so late a
1853, a Warder of the Tower was alive who re
membered seeing the stump still imbedded il
the landing of the stairs. The eXtraordinar,
rewards paid to the assassns for value received
Ibut not Acknowledged must also be takeI
into account. Tyrrell was made Goyerno
OF Guines, near Calais, and further received
three rich stewarcships from Richard il
the marches of Wales Dighton was mad
ba1liH of Ayton, with a pension. Forest
widow had pension given her on his death
shortly after the murder; and ample genera
pardons were granted them, whatever yillainie
might be laid to their charge, all under tn
royal hand and seal, not naming what otfense
but covering any and ALL" Surely qIti eIcus
S'doouse is remark that applies here. Accord
-. ing TO Miss Strickland, indeed, Tyrrel actual
confessed to the murder, and Dighton also tn
Ntter with the addition, that "the Old prizes
ha0 buried the bodies first under the Wakefield
Tower, and second time in some place {
which he had no knOwledgeu That til
Bloody Tower was the locality of old assigne
TO this crime, is certain; for in complimeu
tary Grafton TO James |, with which the authC
rites OF the rover received him upon hi
first visit thereto, express mention is made