The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-16
THE TOWER OF LONDON
THE MOST INTERESTING GROUP OF BUILDINGS IN THE WORLD.
Its Tragic Part in History, Norman Keep, or White Tower--Mediae- val Ceremonial Still Observed
 Every Day in its krecincts.

Despite it's iilustrious history, the | literature of the Tower of London,is fl anything like a popular form, is remark. ably meager, says The London Stand ard. Most accounts of the group oi buildings that Lord Ronald Cover con siders the most interesting in the world are either costly and inaccessible, or mere compilations which help but little to clear appreciation either of the growth of the fortress or the vast and tragic part 1t 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. It was the first of the Conqueror' s Buildings on the site of the Roman "Arx Palatina," and it has survived later ones, such as the Wardrobe and Coldhar- bor Towers. and as an. epitome of "our rough island story" Westminster Hall alone can compete with 1t. What. in deed, Rufus Hall began his fathers Tower too often completed. Some simula- crum of a trial was followed speedily by the gleam of what Shakespeare calls "thc great ax," 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. Lord Ronald Gower has much to say of the picturesqueness of the grim and time worn fortress. little town within Itself, where portcullises are still practicable" whefe the gates close every night, and where King Edward s Keys are escorted to the Governor s chamber with a mediaeval. ceremonial which reads like a page out of Sir Walter Scott or Harrison Ainsworth. These things take place within sight and sound of the waters in the pool where the 1everchanging but time-defying stream" Is crowded with machinery and modernl- ty. But while the stern dignity of the series of buildings which made up fort ress prison and palace Is obvious even to the minimizing, we find 1t more difficult to realize their colossal strength. their impregnable security before artillery be- came formidable. No stronger defense than the White Tower was ever built. Winding staircases and corridors so nar- row that one man could defend them almost against an army had to be tra- yersed before the kernal of the place could be reached, while the meurtrieres. from which molten lead or great stones could be dropped upon assailants who were endeavoring to storm an entrance, made it extremely unlikely that there would ever be any necessity to defend the interior These defensive precautions the White Tower shared, no doubt, With other fortresses. but its importance as the key of ali that the Norman had won inspired Gundulf. it's builder, to make 1t an exemplar of consummate castle build- ing.
 But, attractive as the Tower may be from such points of view as these, It IS its human interest that appeals most powerfully to the imagination. Withln those 13-sto..led acres was worked out the long tragedy of English History from the Conquest to the hour when the sey- cred heads of the Jacobite lords brought that tragedy to an end. For many cen turies the Tower was almost as terrible as death It made and deposed Kings and annihilated great houses: Its ven geance fell upon families even to the fhird and fourth generation. as In the case of the Fitzalan Towards; It was inc sovereign cure for ambition. stand ing warming against the perils or hign place and of consanguinity with thrones There Is scarce prison chamber within it's walls that has not, at some time or
 bther, oontairied the bearer or some treat historic name The Keep, the Coun- cIl Chamber-the supposed scene of Rleh- ards vengeance upon Lord Hastings- Traitors Gate. the Chamber of the Re- gaiia. the Bloody Tower, beneath whose