Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1895-12-02
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,
to be sure, Londoner does not consider
this part of the town as in 1.-The city.
By ''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 part of London you have prob
ably heard of Ciarlng Cross, was
country town too, and the church OF
St Martin s-in-the- Fields, on Trafalgar
square, was called so on account of its
rural situation. All Of these places are
now in the most densely crowded part
of London. London is not like New
York or Chicago, having one great busl-
ness center surrounded by many resi-
dence suburbs, but consists of great
number of villages, each having its own
business center, and originally at dis
lance from each other and from London,
which have grewn until they overlap
and form one great city, the chief center
Of all being old London.
OF course the oldest buildings are IN
''the city," and one of the most interest
ing, historically, is London tower.
had always supposed it to be a single
tower, with a court, but instead 1T is a
collection of buildings, mostly towers,
built around several concentric courts.
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 palace
and prison, but it is now merely a
huge relic of the past. In the center
stands the White tower and the other
buildings cluster around it. Here were
the rooms of the little Princes in the
Tower" but they are not shown; how
ever, we saw the fight of narrow wind
ing stairs at the foot of which their bodies
were found after their murder. In the
armory, which covers two floors of the
building, we saw coat of cap-a-ple
armor belonging to Henry Will, which
was very handsomely engraved, and a
suit of the same belonging to the Earl
of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's favor1te,
as we'll rs 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
Nictoria's crown contains POO diamonds
and many other precious stones, the
finest Of which were taken from older
crowns st. Edwards staff is scepter
of pure gold surmounted by an orb
which is supposed to contain q frag
ment of the true cross. Besides these
there are many other crowns and jewels
which are displayed in. a rouTd 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
window receSSes was used as chapel
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 a 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.
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, on payment of guinea
a professional would do it for him. The
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 a wreath of roses, for Ambrose, oak
leaves, for Robert (robur, meaning oak),
honeysuckles for Henry and another
flower for Guildford, which i have for
gotten Except that the name sounds
suspiciously like a weed.
Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, who
was a rigorous Roman Catholic, wrote
above the fireplace, in Latin, ''The more
suffering for Christ in this world the
more glory with Christ in the next" and
signed his name and the date, Arundel,