The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1895-12-13
b (. , NJ EE5s : - * - -ssl- ~ x. r
In London Tower.

/
70" = ~ III, :. = --Harper's Razar =
~ In London Tower. -
| In London / was rather pleasantly dis
appointed IN New York or Chicago we
| cannot escape from the noise and con-
fusion Of the city without going COM
pletely away from it, We stayed at
the west end and it is as quiet and
pleasant as in Milwaukee,. But then,
tolbe sure, a Londoner does not consider
this part of the town as in .sthe city"
BY 1.-The city" he means the very heart
of London, which once stood within the
old city wall. Many years ago West.
minister abbey was in the little village
of Westminster, lying quite away from
London. The little town of Charing,
now u part Of London (you have prob
ably heard of Claring Crosse, was a
country town too, and the church of
ST. Martin's-in-the-Ficlds, on Trafalgar
square, was called so ON account of it's
rural situation. All Of these places are
now i'll the most densely crowded part
OF, London. London is not like New
York or Chicago, having one great BUSH
ness center surrounded by many resi-
dence suburbs. but consists of a great
number of villages, each having it's own
business center. and originally at dis
tance from each other and from London,
which have grown until they overlap
and form one great city, the chief center
of all being old London - 49,
Of course the Oldest buildings are in
1.-THE city," and one of the most interest,"
ing. historically, is London tower. l
had always supposed it to be single
tower, with q court. but instead it is a
collection of buildings, mostly towers.
~
The buildings look very old, as indeed
they are, most of them having been,
built by. William the Conqueror in the,
Eleventh century. 1t was erected as
a fortress and has since been. u palace
and IL prison, but it is now merely a
huge relic Of the past. In the center
stands the White tower and the other
the rooms Of the Little Princes in the
Tower but they are not shown; how
ever, we saw the flight of narrow wind
ing stairs Mt the foot of which their bodies
were found after their murder. In the
armory, which covers two floors of the
building, we saw a coat of cap-a-pic
armor belonging to Henry Will, which
was very handsomely engraved, and Il
suit of the same belonging to the Earl
of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's favorite,
as we'll us many other interesting speci-
mems of old-time arms and armor. The
crown jewels are kept in round stone
room of the Wakefield tower. Queen
Nlctoria's crown contains 200 diamonds
and many other precious stones, the
finest OF which were taken from older
crowns. st. Edwards staff is sceDtcr
of pure gold surmounted by IN orb
which is supposed to contain frag-
ment of the true cross. Besides these
there are many other crowns and Jewels
which are displayed in round glass
case in the center of the room In the
deep window recesses are cases filled
with the stars and badges of various
orders of knighthood. One Of these
by Henry vi. when he was imprisoned
in London tower, and he was there muir
dered.
In the Beauchamp tower pronounced
Beacham) is the room where the Dudley
brothers and many other historic charac-
tiers were imprisoned. 1t is round,
stone room, much like the room contain
ing the crown jewels, with deep recesses
at the windows. Here the prisoner had
every luxury; he was not restricted to
tiny cell but had this large room; in
short, he had everything that he might
wish for except his liberty. A very un.
fortunate thing to lack. D..
l. Each one in turn left his inscription
upon the WALL his name, sentence, or
his coat of arms, and if he could not
carve it himself, OH payment of Il guinea
Dudley brothers left their arms upon the
wall, the bear and ragged staff" which
consists of bear standing upright and
half embracing the ragged staff which
looks like a tree with chopped branches.
This was carved by John, the eldest of
the Dudleys and under the arms is the
name John Dudle" Around the whole
was wreath of roses, for Ambrose, oak
leaves, for Robert (robur, meaning oak),
flower for Guildford, which I have for
gotten Except that the name sounds
suspiciously like weed).
Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, who
was a rigorous Roman Catholic, wrote
above the fireplace, in Latin, 1.-THE more
suffering for Christ in this world, the
more glory with Christ in the next and
signed his name and the date, arundel,
June @, 1887" There is another inter.
esting one, the simple word, "Jane," with
the arms beneath. This refers to Lady
that room it is supposed to have been
cut by her husband, Lord Guildford
Dudley or one of his brothers. In the
inner court. opposite Beauchamp- tower,
we saw the site of the scaffold for pri-
yate executions. It is marked by large
square stone pavement in the gravel of
the courtyard and a small square slab
i'll the center marks the exact spot where
Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catharine
Howard and Lady Jane Grey were be-
headed. 1t was we'll for England that
Princess Elizabeth did not share the
fate of her innocent mother, which she
barely escaped in the hands of her sister
Mary, the royal butcheress. The years
of Mary's reign would not have been
blot on the history of England had Lady
Jane Grey lived and reigned, for how
could so beautiful character make
other than a wise Queen?
In the outer court, opposite the en-.
trance to the inner one is the Traitors
gate, a wide, low, arched gate through
which Princess Elizabeth passed when
down on a stone in the chilling rain and
refused, to go in, saying, Better to sit
here than. in worse place." but when
she came again, it was preliminary to
her own coronation.
Tower Green. opposite the tower,
where executions generally took place, is
now park. The site of the scaffold is
marked by square stone pavement like
that Of the private execution place oppo-
ago the custodians of the tower were
dubbed ''beef-eaters" because they were
assigned portions of beef when that diet
was very cheap. Their successors still
continue to bear the name, and wear the
old quaint dress. Few buildings have
been as closely connected with the sad
phase of English history, yet amid the
crowd of curiosity seekers always surg
ing through it, it is difficult to recall the
sad scenes enacted there. r. -.
Elizabeth Tappan Macomber.. :
(DYfnr6