The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-08-11
THE TOWER OF LONDON.
Lortion Times

i-nnLOT lS SloAlN 4NdAG1thk AO SCC tuAk |. !. TO, only the biggest and the riches, CIV ln the world. but Tn many ways the q,.ndes. and the most his oric. Rome bas her ruins: aris has her boulevards paiaces and quays Moscow has her E1ernlin. and Constantinople her nina ,e.s and domes. Each of these, and per hsY;. some famous cities in Italy or Spar, ,,e superior 10 London in the single ele- ,.er; of beauty. of magnihcence or ase. U: the greatness of London lies in i;s h.s:o,lc continuity. in the survival of It's re eganie centres in all their essential -hagac,er. l. possesses Tn the Abbey. m Westminster hall. and in the Tower. :hree of the nobles, buildings in ;he world all ot them have an unbroken history of eigh, centuries all are still de- voted to the uses for which they were de signed. and tor Soo years they have al been the local seats of our national exist ence These three great monuments are bound Up with each other as well as bound up with the history of England. As cathedral hall and castle no one of them has any superior in Europe. But, in the way that they are intcrwoven with the greatness, the genius, the poetry. the des- ,inies of the country. as also in length and continuity of service, no one has its equal in Europe. The city which pos sesses all three has at once dignity ot her own nor need we think of St. Paul's and the Temple Guildhall and the Palace of Westminster. the Parks. the bridges and the docks, to believe ,ha, we are truly citizens of no mean city. Neither mud. nor smoke, nor stuoco-neither ves- ratfu.a,-u v.at.n nnAn, mean. For in the mass. in the antiquity. in the histonc splendor Of her aation4l monuments. in the halo which the here- ism. .he crimes and the imagination ot eigh, centuries have shed over them. London remains 10 the thou sh;tcl splrit the most venerable city ot the modern world
 And now, it seems. London has an .tdile. We have Gow a Minister oi the Crown who conceNes II to be par; of his duty 70 preserve. cherish and open 10 the pubic our giea; public monuments. l, belongs 10 our national habits that an English Minister of Public Works should regard his office as a sort of society for the preservation of ancient buildings rather than as syndicate for the des,ruc- tion and transformation of ancient cities. which IS the i,xed idea of the Continental Haussmann. These Aullas and Gen shis khans of modern society. with the aid oi the railway and building companies who form their natural allies, are rapidly achieving the Haussmaniza,ion. and no, enly of Paris, bu, of Ror,e, Vienna. Milan, Florence and every medieval city of Europe. 1, is a comfort to think that, while projects. mayors and town coun- cls everywhere on the continen, are seek ing to make their cities fair imitation of New York, our Firs: Commissioner of Works IS occupied in prese' ving to us our ancient monuments ,u the form in which they were built. And :. is not little curious that a, the present momen, he IS busy about the preservation of all three of our great monuments. He has just revealed to us what Westminster Hall was in the days of the Normans. He has still before him the cruel problem of refacing the Abbey. And now he IS showing us the Tower-no,. alas as !; was when 1t still served the Tudor Kings as palace, bu, freed from the eyesore with which the stupid vandalism of the last hundred years had loaded i..
 The Tower IS the oldest of the three grea, monuments of London, and assured.y II stands at the head of all buildings ofi;s order in the world. It is the mos, perfect extant example of feudal castle of the first class, continuously used as fortress by the same dynasty. and as seat of the same government since the times of the Crusades. It is. in fact, the civil building in the world which can show the longest and most splendid history. The Pan- skA De-. icas, the Byzantine Church of the Holy Wisdom. and few religious buildings on the continent. can show a longer life bat there IS no civic building, being neither a ruin nor a restored ruin, but still great seat of government, which can show so vas, a record. The Tower of London has entered upon the ninth century of its continuous life in the ser vice of the English crown. When the White Tower frs, rode beside the Thames, as the buttress and symbol of the Con- quest, the nations we call France, Ger many and Spain did not exist. It had already seen centuries of great and mem orable things before the oldest of the palaces and halls of Europe had their foundations laid. Men talk Of the tradi- tons of the kremlin. the Vatican and the Escurial: but the 6rst half of the wild history of the Tower was over before stone was laid of these vas, piles. The races who raised the fantastic domes of Moscow or the minarets of Constanti- ncple were wandering herdsmen and rob Der tribes in Asia. when the Tower was the home of the mos, powerful kings In Europe The old palaces of state of Venice, Florence. Chen, and Bruges have traditions of great antiquity. and are memorable sources of arr. romance and poetry. Bl, their real life has closed for ages they are little now but monuments or museums. The Tower. which began so long before them. has outlived them al in permanen, vitality. The descendan: of the ConSreror $ still mistress Of the White Tows-. which for