THE TOWER OF LONDON

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 3, 3 July 1926, Page 21

THE TOWER OF LONDON

A MANY-TOWERED EDIFICE,

'' A Short History of the Tower of London," by Major-General Sir George Younghusband. London: Herbert Jenkins, Ltd.-

One fault can be found with this short history, it is too short, but it certainly gives many pictures from the wider gallery presented in a larger volume by Sir George Youughusband, whose official capacity at the Tower is Keeper of the Jewel House. To those who may some day visit the Tower tho book is better than a guide, and to those who cannot it will give thought of its significance in English history. The Tower is much more than the White Tower,, the Bloody Tower (formerly known as the "Garden Tower"), Traitors' Gate, and The Moat (now long drained), for there are more like twenty towers, majoj and minor, with tragedies engraved on every flagston6 of every one of them. The good old days are gone, and such, a history as this assists one greatly in being glad about their passing. That is not to say that the book makes gloomy reading; on the contrary, it is bright in each chapter, whether descriptive of the Tower itself or retelling the stories of famous people, and' infamous, who sojourned in royal prisoners' quarters or in dungeons. There are stories also of the Crown jewels, of ancient customs still observed, of modes of warfare and defence adopted and rejected since William the Conqueror ordered Gundolph of Bee, a Norman prelate, to commence the building, with stone brought across from France, of "La Tour Blanche." Pen and ink illustrations assist th 6 reader in forming his pictures of the Tower as it is, to-day.