The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-03-16
"REsTORING, THE TOWER.
LOndon's Famous Fortress TO Re.
appear I'm ITS Pristine
Grandeur.

Tower of London. For 800 years, as
palace, fortress, and prison, 1t has
been continuously inhabited. Re-
cent discoveries have justified the
ancient tradition that on this same
site there stood an important Roman
fertilization, and the fact stands
proved that important Roman
works occupied the spot for a thou
sand years or more before Gundulf,
the weeping monk of Bee, in Nor
mandy, whom the Conqucror sum- |
moned to act as his builder, laid one |
stone of the great White Tower on |
another. Gundulf was said to have |
tempered his cement with the blood |
of beasts, and to have watered with |
his tears the theatre of so many fu-
ture tragedies. Probably he pound
ed up the old red tiles and bricks of |
the Romans, and so gave to his NOR
tar the red color which the common
folk regarded with so much awe.
Successive kings, notably William
Rufus, who 'pilled and shaved the |
people with tribute especially to |
spend about the Tower of London
and the Great Hall at Westminster"
and Henry I'LL, the first deviser of a
Thames embankment, added to the
Tower of London-not without |
many murmurings on the part of |
their subjects, who saw in the tower
standing menace to their liberties.
In the sixteenth century the Tower
of London, with its outer and inner
ballium, the great keep of the White
Tower, and the grim portal of the
Traitors Gate, must have been
looked upon from the river as a
most imposing monument of the
feudal system. Unhappily, under
the glories of the tower were suf-
fered to decay. On the south side
the inner wall with the Lantern
Tower became ruins, and during the
latter part of the last century their
place was filled by huge and hide
Gus brick building, with all the I'M
wieldy ugliness of a Thames street
warehouse, by which the view of
the tower from the river was effect
ually blotted out.
During the last twenty-five years
better judgment and better taste
have been shown in the treatment of
this great standing record of the
history of England. The prince con-
sort was one of the first to take an
active interest in the antiquities and
beauties of the place. Mr.. Salyin,
who died last year, and who only
short time before his death visited
the tower in order to see the work
that had been done and the discov-
cries that had been made at the
Cradle tower, was called in as con-
sulting architect. Under his advice
the chapel of st. John, in the White
tower, was restored, and is now per-
haps the finest specimen of Norman
architecture in the Kingdoms and the
ruinous tumble-down wardens'Quar-
tiers were replaced by appropriate
buildings in the style of the Yudors.
For some time, owing to the pres
sure of work in other directions,
little was done beyond mere
maintenance and repair. Six years
ago, however, the work. of restora-
ton was actively begun again. The
chapel of st. Peter ad Vincula, the
burial place of Queen Anne Boleyn,
with the other illustrious victims of
royal displeasure or political neces-
sity down to the time of the Jacobite
Lords of the AS, had fallen into q
most discreditable state of decay.
The interior was chOked by the
ugliest of modern galleries, with tall
unsightly pews; sinking of the
pavement of the altar was becoming
more and more apparent, and it
became necessary to take immediate
steps to prevent the whole building
from falling into ruins. When this
chapel had been repaired and purg-
ed of the monstrosities by which
it was defiled, the next work of i'm
portance to be undertaken was the
restoration of the outer wall on the
south or river side, together with
the Well and Cradle towers.
This has now been done, and
in the meantime certain mean
buildings on the east side of the
White tower, which were used by
the royal engineers as stores,
showed such unmistakable signs of
an immediate intention of falling in
bodily that they had to be swept
away. On that side, therefore, the
White Tower is unmasked and clear
as it was erected by Gundulf. 1t
was in course of this removal that
the Roman remains, to which allu-
sion has been made in the early
part of this paper, were discovered.
At tie same time the dirty slums
known as the Irish Barracks were
cleared away, and the space between
the inner and outer Notifications on
the eastern side being thrown open
the Salt and Broad Arrow towers
stand fully revealed.
The great work of all, however,
remains. The Tower of London is
still screened from the Thames by
the great warehouse of which men
ton has been made. Fortunately,
there is prospect that remedy will
be found for the eclipse. An ar
rangement has at last been come to
between the secretary of state for
war and the first commissioner of
works, by which the former will
give up the warehouse, which is no
longer required by the war depart
ment, and the upper stories of which
are so rotten and ofsuch f1imsy con-
struction that no bulky goods can
be stored there. The first commits
sioner of works on his part will re-
move these buildings, and then pro-
poses to complete the restoration of
the inner wall of the tower and the
lantern tower, of which, no doubt,
the foundations will be fonnd be-
meath the wareh ouse. The whole
circle of the tower of London will
thus again reappear, and the cen
trail tower will stand out, I'M
incumbered by other buildings, in
all its pristine grandeur. Ample
authorities exist for the restoration,
and though it is impossible TO give
back the very stones, it is easy to re-
construct an exact and authentic
presentment of the. old fortress as it
stood in those days. Careful draw
ings have been prepared at the office
of works, together with models of
the tower as 1T is and as it will be
when the work is accomplished, and
these have received the approval
of some of the chief authorities on
archaeology and architecture. Nor
need the public fear less they should |
be spilled and shaved" for the pur-
pose, as their forbears were by Will
liam Rufus, for the total cost of the |
work is only estimated at about six |
thousand five hundred pounds, OF |
which some two thousand pounds |
or more will be recouped to the ex-
chequer by the sale of the old mate
rails of the storehouse.