Evening star., 1902-02-22
THE TOWER OF LONDON
WORLDS MOST INTERESTIN
GROUP OF BUILDINGS.
Medi@val Ceremonial Observed Daily
Within It's Walls-Historic
Precincts.
From the Lcndon Standard.

despite lis 1lluStr1ouS history, the 1ftera-
ture Of the Tower of London, in anything
like a popular form, is remarkably meager.
Most accounts of the group of buildings
that Lord Ronald Cover considers the
most interesting in the world are either
costly and inaccessible or mere compila-
tions which help but little to a clear appre-
citation either of the growth of the fortress
or the vast and tragic part it has played
in the history of England
Interest In the tower centers naturally in
the Norman Keep, better known to history
and the visitor as the White Tower. 1t was
the first of the conQuerors buildings on
the site of the Roman ARK Palatina," and
1t has survived later ones, such as the
Wardrobe and Coldharbor towers. and,
an epitome of ''our rough island story"
Westminster Hall alone can compete with
1t. What. indeed, Rufus Hall began his
fathers tower too often completed. Some
simulacrum of trial was followed speed
lily by the CLEAN of what Shakespeare calls
the great AK. and another turbulent and
ambitious. or, as often as not simple and
innocent, spirit was added to the terrible
roll OF Plantagenet and Tudor tragedies.
The White Tower.
Lord Ronald Cover has much to say of
the picturesqueness of the grim and time
worn fortress. a little town within itself.
where portcullises are still practicable"
where the gates close every night, and
where king Edwards keys" are escorted
to the governors chamber with q mediae-
val ceremonial which reads like page out
OF Sir Walter Scott or Harrison Ainsworth.
These things take place within sight and
sound or the waters in the pool where the
eVer-changinls but tme-defying stream
Is crowded with machinery and modernity
But while the stern dignity of the series
OF buildings which made up fortress, prison
and palace is obvious even to the ,Inthin.-
10 hot,
colossal strength, their impregnable Sc
curlty before artillery became formidable
NO stronger defense than the White
IoWer was ever built. Winding staircaseS
and corridors narrow that one man
could defend them almost against an army
had to be trayersed before the kernel Of
the place could be reached, while the meur-
trieres. from which molten lead or great
stones could be dropped upon assailants
who were endeavoring to storm an en-
trance. made 1t extremely unlikely that
there would ever be any necessity to de-
fend the interior. These defensive precau-
tlons the White Tower shared, no doubt
with other fortresses, but it's importance
as the key of all that the Norman had won
inspired Gundulf, its builder, to make it an
exemplar of consummate castle building.
Rich in Human Interest
But attractive as the tower may be from
such points Of view as these, it is its hu-
man interest that appeals most powerfully
to the imagination. Within those 13-stor-
led acres was worked out the long tragedy
of English history from the conquest to the
hour when the severed heads of the Jaco-
bite lords brought that tragedy to an end.
For many centuries the tower was almost
as terrible as DEATH 1t made and deposed
kings and annihilated great houses; its
vengeance fell upon families even to the
third and fourth generation, as in the case
OF the FitZalan Howards; it was the SOW
ereign cure for ambition. standing warn
ing against the perils of high place and of
consanguinity with thrones. There is scarce
a prison chamber within its walls that has
not. at some time or other. contained the
bearer Of some great historic name.
/ The keep, the council chamber-the sup
posed scene of Richards vengeance upon
Lord Hastings-traitor's gate, the chamber
of the regalia the bloody tower. beneath
whose stairs the murdered princes were
buried: the chapel of the pathetically
named st. Peter and Vincula. where SO many
at last found peace to whom it had been
denied in life-these are. perhaps, the most
interesting portions Of the Tower Of Lon
don. Either their story is especially well
ascertained or they have been the scene of
outstanding events Of which everybody
knows something. Possibly the place Of
execution is the most touching spot of
them all. II the rapacious Somerset. the
ambitious Suffolk and the guilty Catherine
Howard died there, SO too did the sanity
More. the gentle Jane Dudley, the still hot
ly debated Anne Boleyn. Need we wonder
Cover. that the shadow of an AK is some
times seen on Tower Green and the walls
of the White Tower? OF the block and AK
which are now shown nothing appears to
be known beyond the fact that the former
was used for the execution of Lord Lovat
in 1747. It seems, indeed to have been the
custom to make new block for each occa-
sion.