TOWER OF LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 84, 10 April 1937, Page 10

TOWER OF LONDON.

LONG, GRIM STORY.

CONSTRUCTION BEGITi ;« 1078

•A REFLECTION OF HISTORY.

"In- the Tower of London," «aya Walter Bell, who is London's most devoted historian, "you look back almost the full length of England's history, which this building has touched at so many points. Where is its equal rival to be found, in this country or elsewhere? There is none. The Continent, it is true, has castles larger than this, but none with such rich and continuous association. The Tower as a Royal palace makes others mere charlatans, things of yesterday. The Kremlin in Moscow, the Doge's Palace in Venice, are of the fourteenth century, Mr. Bell writes. The Seraglio in Stainboul was built by Mohammed II.; the oldest part of the Vatican was commenced by the Borgia whose name it bears. The Louvre was begun in th« reign of King Henry VIII., the Tuilerie* in that oi Elizabeth. Versailles wa almost a swamp whea Oliver Cromwel was fighting the Civil War. Thi Escurial is eighteenth century. A« < prison the castle of San Angelo in Ronu alone can compare with the Tower ii antiquity.

antiquity. > The White Tower, from which ths castle derives its name, was built by William of Xormandy—the '"Conqueror."' The work was bejrun in the year 1078. It rises to a height of 90 feet and its walls are from 12 to 15 feet thick. All four sides are of different lengths and there is not a corner angle which a careful surveyor would pass as correct. The First Prisoner. A priest—Gundulf, a monk from tha Abbey of Bee, in Xormandy —supervised the building, and another —Ranulf Flambard, who afterwards built Durham Cathedral—wafi the first recorded prisoner, and the first to make an escape. The richest jewel in the Tower, not excepting even the Regalia, is the Norman chapel, the- earliest in Srig'and. It is in the second storey of the Whit© Tower. All the great floor spuce of the White Tower is used to-day for the display of military arms, from the long bow of Crecy to weapons of the Great War,, and the ire is a magnificent array of armour.

I From the turret in whiclk Flamstead, the first astronomer Royal of the time of Charles, had his observatory before (Ireenwicli was ready for him, to the I dungeons, in one of which is the original eleventh century circular well, 40ft deep, the White Tower is packed with grim relics and yet grimmer memories. Once within these encircling walls, the visitor to-day moves about a medieval fortress, complete as planned, wanting nothing. Keep and dungeons, curtain wall and enfilading towers, and the encompassing ditch, the well for water supply, all are there. In two of the | turrets that guard entrances, the Bvward Tower and the Bloody Tower, even the iron-shod wooden portcullis, keeps in place, each with its winch and tackle, and may be lowered. Some of the towers have a melancholy history as places in which State | prisoners languished, or went to execu- ! tion on Tower Green within the tower precincts, or on Tower Hill outside. In the Bloody Tower the two young Princes—sons of Edward IV.—were foully murdered by their uncle Richard, Duke. of as a prelude to usurping tti'e throne. Most of*tjie 13 years' imprisonment which Sir 'Walter Raleigh Underwent, was passed there. The wails of a room in the Beauchatnp Tower bear close upon a hundred inscriptions that were cut by prisoners. They are pathetic memorials.. Torture was not the only ordeal the prisoner had to endure; there was tedium, too. "Close prisoner here 8 monethes, 32 wekes, 224 days, 5.356 houres," run? one inscription. "The most unhappy man in the world,"' runs another, "<i he that is not pacient in adversities, for men are not killed with the adversities they have, but with the iinpacience j with which tliev suffer." i

Tower Green, with its tame raven l , tall trees and mellow old houses, ; s one of the most delightful spots in London, but it is also one of the saddes*.. Among the women who were beheaded here were Anne Bolevn, the second of Ilenry VIII.'s six wives, Katlierine Howard, the fifth, and Lady Jane Grey, the 17-vear-old queen for a few brief days.

Church of St. Peter ad Vincula. Sadder still than Tower Green is the church of St. Peter ad Vincula. to the north of it. "In truth, there is no sadder spot on earth." Lord Macaular declared. In a small place within th.» altar rails, "there lie two Queens of England—three, indeed, if one coun's among them Lady Jane Grey. Room is found there for one who was Protector of England. Four others beside Somerset were English dukes, heads of the proudest territorial families, and one of Royal blood, who died violently because they plotted against the throne A queens favourite, Elizabeth's Earl of tssex, keeps them eompanv." A brass plate on the west wall «ives the names of 34 prisoners of distinction who are buried in the chapel. Of the« all but ten perished by the headsman's axe.

One queer fact is that the towe.tiroiigh its centuries of imprisonment Miffenng and violent death, has accumulated no ghosts. The last man who saw f. E ' wa ® a sentry of the 00th Rifle,, ■n 1864, who lunged ineffectually with h.s bayonet at a spectral woman's figure as it emerged from the Kind's H = , .„ d then M ,