St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1890-12-25
Gbe Californian
{. John-bury, Thur-day, Dec. 25, 1890
THE TOWER OF LONDON.

Especial Correspondence of the Caledonian ]
GoTTINGEN, GERMANY, Dec. 9.
Perhaps the most interesting build
ing in England, at least from an
historical point of view, is the Tower
of London, the ancient prison and
fortress of the state BY reason of
its connection with the misery and
ignominy and fate of many eminent
I'm the history of the land and be
cause it was the scene of the bloody
and lawless and mOmentOus events
of troubled and unsettled times ii
possesses a melancholy attraction
# which it can never lose. Begun by
Ell William the Conqueror soon after
the battle of Hastings it grew gradu
ally until finally the irregular mass
Of buildings covered more than thir-
teen acres. The core of the prison IS
the White Tower, a huge mass of
masonry nearly hundred feet high
with walls fifteen feet thick The
entire fortress with its turrets, its
battlements, its forty separate build
ings. Is encircled by wide and deep
moat once filled with water but now
dry and in which we saw numerous
small boys pursuing their peaceful
Il occupation of cricket These build
Il ings are mostly in the Norman style
of architecture, the ponderous, mas
sive soIiditv of which seems eminent
" appropriate for such uses. From
the first of the twelfth century down
was. rarely without it's distinguished
political prisoners, English or for
eign, men and women of that rank
and Importance which earned the
enmity of the rulers. In the guide
book we had no less than ninety
II pages were devoted to short BIZ
ographical sketches of the persons
who have been imprisoned here and
q this includes only the more eminent
IA ones
Here they show you where the
Il two Young princes fell victims to the
u savage ambition of their uncle; the
grim and cheerless cell where Sir
Walter Raleigh wore out a thirteen
years imprisonment the tower in
which the Princess Elizabeth was
kept by her sister, Queen Mary, and
her favOrite promenade upon the
4 parapet. still called Queen Eliza
4 beth's Walk the spot where the
gibbet stood which ruthIessly de
manded so much noble blood for real
or alleged political offences against
the Tudor rulers; the spot where
Queen Catharine Howard, Anne
Bolevn and Lady Jane Gray were
beheaded Surely this is one of the
places whose history Is written in
blood If any walls are eloquent
with suffering and woe, these are.
Il They show you one room the walls
of which are all scratched over with
the names and coats-of-arms of un-
fortunate prisoners who 1anguished
here for years generally only to meet
a bloody death.
The Tower has been obliged to
Weld to the increasing humanity of
the ages has lost much of its terrible
aspect and has become finally sort
of museum Thus place, former
" decidedly to be avoided, is now
eagerly visited by scores of people
every day. In one chamber the
crown Jewels are exhibited, preserved
in glass case, protected by a double
iron cage. The regalia shown CON
sists of crowns, sceptres and other
things worn or carried at the corona
ton ceremony sacred vessels used IN
Westminster Abbey on the same oc-
casion: the gold and silver-gilt plate
used at the coronation banquet and
a set of the superbly enamelled and
iewelled insignia of the different
ilIustriOus orders of chivalry, St.
George and the Dragon, the Garter,
tII1 Thistle, the Bath.
Queen NictOria's crown occupies
the highest place in the case, radiant
with its two thousand eight hundred
diamonds, its two hundred and sew
enty-five pearls and its rubies and
sapphires and emeralds, all upon a
frame of velvet and gold. Here is
also the crown of Anne Boleyn,
while but few steps off is the spot
where she was beheaded and but a
little farther is the little chapel where
she now lies buried Such tragedies
as these come home to one with re
sistIess force when he stands in the
places where they happened. Here,
too, are the orb placed i'll the SOver-
eign's right hand at the coronation,
the vessel which contains the conse-
Grafton oil and the baptismal font
used at the christening of royal chill
dren. The total value of the regalia
is estimated at fifteen million dollars
The mournful, unsatisfactory pleas
ure of walking al bout so much wealth
IS similar to that one feels when
walking around those millions of
silver dollars in the basement of the
treasury building in Washington
The famous White Tower is now
used as an arsenal and here more
than 100000 guns are stocked