The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1910-07-14
A GLIMPSE OF
LONDON TOWER
Interesting Description OF Old
English City By Miller
Girl
continued from last week.

tiny cell IN the wall with no light or
ventilation. Here Sir Walter Raleigh
is said to have been confined for Is
years and wrote his History of the
World. During the day he was al
lowed to walk in the larger room.
We assembled to the second floor by
a narrow winding staircase in the
wall. The room we entered was the
Chapel of ST. John. This chapel
dates from the 18th or 18th century
and though very small, it is a won
derful speciman of Norman archi-
lecture with its massive pillars and
vaultel ceiling. The other 0 ms
on this floor contain the armoury,
both ancient and modern.
Now White Tower. is divided into
two parts by a wall which has no
openings in it. In order to reach
the other side. we assembled to the
third floor and descended upon a
similar staircase on the opposite side
of the Tower. All the prisoners
were Caken to the torture chamber
and underground dungeons by this
route. The first room we entered
at the foot of these long spiral
staircases was the Torture Chamber,
but there is nothing in it now to
bespeak the horrors it once contain
ed. The water no longer oozes
through the floor, modern windows
give it light and air and a few
trophies of war replace the instru-
ments of torture.
In a wall of this chamber is Little
Ease" cell. Perhaps you have for
gotten the details of that terrible
conspiracy called the Gunpowder
Plot? 1t was in the year 1905, dur
ing the reign of James |, that weak
cowardly king, who in his perseru-
ton Of the Roman Catholics, imposed
such fines that many families were
completely ruined. Among these
was the family Of Robt. Catesby and
into his mind came a horrible dream
of vengeance, he would blow up
the House of Parliament with gun
powder. Guy Fawkes had been ap-
pointed to watch the vault where
the mine was prepared, but the plot
was discovered and that night q
party of soldiers were sent to the
vault and Fawkes was seized and
imprisoned. They took him before
the Council. but he would reveal
nothing, so he was led to the Tower
and the Torture Chamber. but that
: horrible inhuman device, the rack
could not make him betray his &C
completes. So he was chained in
Little Ease" cell, which was sc
small that he could neither sit MOI
stand. and | touched the iron ring
in the floor to which his chain was
fastened.
The wall to Little Ease cell is now
: torn down and we passed through il
into a dark dungeon in which, so we
were told, so MANY people were con
fined at one time that there was not
a square inch of space left, and OF
course they died from lack cf air
The old warder pushed me into this
place, shut and bolted the door or
me. | heard him chuckle to himself,
but the sensation did not altogether
touch my sense OF humor, and | felt
relieved when he opened it and join.
ed me with his lantern.
Outside of White Tower is an in
t resting collection of old cannon,
chiefly of the time Of Henry VIII.
Some of these cannon are very
crudely made of stone and it is won
derfulIy interesting to examine
them.
In crossing Tower Green, we pass
ed the site of the scaffold where the
priv ate executions took place, among
them those of Anne Boleyn, the
Countess of Salisbury, and Lady
Jane Grey. My sympathies were
newly aroused for Lady Jane when
| visited the scene Of her unhappy
ending.
At the northwest corner of the
!. Tower Green is the church of st.
Peter AID Vincula. The organ is
one of the first built in England and
the warder assured us that it retains
a beautiful tone quality. Beneath
the floor of the church are buried
many celebrated Tower prisoners