The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-09
THE TOWER OF LOND ON.
From work entitled Her Majesty's
rover" by w. Hepworth Dixon, we take
the following extracts

the following extraots;-
ASPECT OF THE TOWER.
"Hah-a-mile below London Bridge, on
ground which was oncS a bluff, commanding
the Thames from st. Saviours creek to St.
Olave's wharf, stands the Tower; a mass of
Rampant walls and gates, the most ancient and
most poetic pile in Europe. Seen from the
NIL outside, the Tower appears to be white
with age and wrinkled by remorse. The home
OF our stoutest kings, the grave of our noblest
knights, the scene of our gayest revels, the
neld OF our darkest crimes, that edifce
speaks at once to the eye and to the soul.
1rey Keep, green tree, black gate, and
frowning battlements stand out, apart
Hom all objects far and near them,
menaoing, picturesque, enchanting, working
on the senses like a spell; and calling us away
from our daily mood into a world Of romance,
like that which we find painted in light and
shadow on Shakespeare's page. Looking at
the Tower as either q prison, palace, or q
court, picture, poetry and drama crowd upon
the mind; and if the fancy dwells most fre-
quently on the state prison, this is because
the soul is more readily kindled by human
interest than fired by an archaic and official
TACT. For one man who would care to see the
room in which council met or a court was
held, hundred men would like to see the
chamber in which Lady Jane Grey was lodged,
the cell in which Sir Walter Raleigh wrote,
the tower from which Sir John 0ldoastle
escaped. Who would not like to stand for
moment by those steps ON which Ann Boleyn
knelt; pause by that slit in the wall through
which Arthur de la Pole gazed; and linger, if
he could, in that room in which Cranmer,
Latimer, and Ridley searched the New Testa-
ment together 7"
AGE OF THE TOWER.
"Even as to length of days, the Tower has
no rival among palaces and prisons; its origin
like that of the Iliad, that OF the Sphinx, that
OF the Newton Stone, being lost in the nebu-
lous ages, long before our definite history
took shape. Old writers date it from the days
OF Cesar a legend taken up by Shakespeare
and the poets, in favor OF which the name of
Casars tower remains in popular use to this
very day. A Roman wall can even yet be
traced near some parts of the ditch. The
Tower is mentioned in the "Saxon Chronicle"
in way not incompatible with the fact of
Saxon stronghold having stood upon this
spot. The buildings as we have them now
in block and plan were commenced by Will
liam the COnqueror; and the series of apart
ments in C@sar's tOwer-hall, gallery,
council chamber, chapel-were built in the
early Norman reigns, and used as royal
residence by all our Norman kings. What
can Europe show to compare against such
tale Set against the Tower of London
with its eight hundred years of historic life,
Its nineteen hundred years of tradtioal fame
all other palaces and prisons appear like
things of an hour. The oldest bit of palace
In Europe, that of the west front OF the Burg
in Vienna, is of the time of Henry the
Third. The Kremlin in Moscow, the Doge's
Palazzo in Venice, are of the fourteenth
century. The seraglio in Stamboul was
built by Mohammed the Second. The
Oldest part of the Vatican was commenced by
Borgis, whose name it bears. The old Louvre
was commenced in the reign of Henry the
Eighth; the Tuileries in that of Elizabeth In
- the time of our Civil War Versailles was yet
swamp. Sans Souci and the Escurial belong
to the eighteenth century. The Serial of
Jerusalem is Turkish edifce. The palaces
of Athens, of Cairo, of Teheran, are all of
modern date. Neither can the prisons which
remain in fact as we'll as in history and
drama-with the one exception Of St. Angelo
in Rome--compare against the Tower. The
Bastile is gone; the Bargello has become
museum; the Piombia are removed from the
Doge's roof. Vinennes, Spandau, Spielberg,
Magdeburg, are all modern in comparison with
ajail from which Ralph Flambard escaped so
long ago as the year 100, the date Of the First
Crusade"
BUILDERS OF THE TOWER.
E'Two great architects designed the main
parts of the Tower-Gundulf the Weeper and
Henry the Builder one a poor Norman monk,
the other a great English king. Gundulf a
Benediotine friar, had, for that age, seen g
! great deal of the world; for he had not only
lived in Rouen and Caen but had travelled in
the East, Familiar with the glories of Sara.
cenic art, no less than with the Norman sim.
plicities of Beo, st. Ouen, and st. Etienne; q
pupil of Lanfranc, friend of Anselm he had
been employed in the monastery Of Bee to
y marshal, with the eye of an artist all the pic
to ial ceEemonies of his church. But he was
iefy Known in that convent as a weeper.
o monk at Bee could cry so often and so
much as Gundulf. He could weep with those
who wept; nay, he could weep with those whe
sported; for his tears welled forth from what
\ seemed to be an unfailing source. As the
price Of his exile from Bee, Gundulf received
the crozier of Rochester, in which city he
rebuilt the cathedral, and perhaps de-
signed the castle, since the great keep on the
Medway has a SISTERS likeness to the great
keep on the Thames. His works in London
were-the White tower, the first st. Peters
church, and the old barbcan, afterwards
known as the Hall tower, and now used as the
Jewel house. x Henry the Third, prince
Of epical fanoies, as Corfs, Conway, Beau
maris, and many other fine poems in stone
! attest, not only spent much of his time in the
Tower, but much of his money in adding TO its
beauty and strength. Adam de Lamburn was
his master mason; but Henry was his own
chief clerk of the works. The Water gate,
n the embarked wharf, the Cradle tower, the
u Lantern, which he made his bedroom and
k private closet, the Galleyman tower, and the
irst wall, appear TO have been his gifts. But
the prince who did so much for Westminster
"A Abbey, not content with giving stone and
piles to the home in which he dWelt, enriched
the chambers with freseoes and sculpture,
4ha chaDAlS with carvinO and oIass.