MUMMIFIED HISTORY

Evening Star, Issue 19710, 10 November 1927, Page 9

MUMMIFIED HISTORY

A VISIT TO THE TOWER OF LONDON [By Bkiixadd Dakwlx, in ‘ John o’ London’s. ’] The Tower of London is a very nice place; it is instructive to the mind and stimulating to the romantic feelings ; but it is entirely prostrating to the legs. Such at least is my humble opinion after paying it a visit shamefully long deferred. It was indeed so long since I had been there that ray only recollection of my last visit was that a valued aunt, who shepherded me there, had taken. a Beefeater’s number, as you take the number of a recalcitrant cabman. What his crime was I do not remember, but my aunt wanted iris blood on Tower Green, and I felt a rather embarrassed littlo boy. A HEAVY TASK. ' Clearly it was a duty to go there again. So I read up tho Tower hastily in that delightful book, Augustus Hare’s ‘ AValks in London,’ and went to Mark Lane Station, and when I got out there I thought I had been transported to a performance of 4 The Yeomen of tho Guard.’ Mr Hare says in rather a severe manner that “ tho armories and tho regalia arc tho sights usually shown to strangers. Those really interested in the Tower wil lobtain leave to make the circuit of the smaller towers, of which there are 12.” Twelve, and my legs felt like brown paper after just two! I could not live up to Mr Hare. I just bought my tickets for tho White Tower and the Bloody Tower and tho Jewel House, and did my round as an inglorious stranger, and goodness knows that round is interesting enough. The Tower is an extraordinarily well managed institution, for there are notices everywhere to tell the visitor exactly where to go. It is a little reminiscent of those shops in which the purchaser’s change and his receipt corne buzzing to him in an overhead tube. Having taken his ticket, the visitor feels as if lie were in a tube which buzzes him inevitably in the right direction from tho first moment when ho reads: 44 To the White Tower” till tho last, when, with mingled regret and relief, he reads: 44 Way Out.” THE AMERICAN INVASION. There was a steady stream of wanderers on tho afternoon of ray visit, many of them Americans. There were so many of these that I could not help thinking that one of them would say to mo, as General Choke said to Martin Chnzzlewit; 44 When you say, sir. that your Queen does not reside in the Tower of London, you fall into an error not uncommon to your countrymen, even when their abilities and moral elements are such as to command respect. But, sir, you are wrong, she does live there.” However, nothing of the kind occurred. Indeed, the American visitors seemed to say surprisingly little. When we came to the Crown Jewels, I did hear one lady remark to afspthcr, in awe-stricken tone: “ Well, we’ve seen nothing like this,” and that was all. The Crown Jewels come at tho end of the tour. The first thing you sec—or that I saw—is the Traitor’s Gate under St. Thomas’s Tower, whore the prisoners used to land on their way back from being tried at Westminster. It was here that Sir Thomas More’s daughter saw him laud, with the reversed axe, the sign of death, carried in front of him. She broke through the guard, and embraced him, and he, 44 remitting nothing, of his steady gravity,” blessed her, and told her to 44 resign herself to God’s blessed pleasure, and to bear her loss with patience.” After that comes tho White Tower and the Armories, and there is really no limit to the time that could be spent there. First of all come all manner of arms and gun-carriages that have figured in illustrious funerals. Those are interesting, but hardly give the real thrill. That comes with the Crypt of the Chapel of St. John at tho farther end of the room. Here is the blockused at the execution of Lord Lovat, who was surprised that a great crowd should assemble 44 to see an old grey head taken off.” There is also the axe, as to which there came irreverently into my head the definition of a golf club given by Mr Horace Hutchinson’s logic tutor at Oxford—namely, that it was an 44 instrument singularly ill-adapted to tho purpose.” There are also various instrumonts of torture, and under glass some Inscriptions on the wall cut by luckless prisoners. They are, I admit, rather difficult to decipher. One of the sightseers was conscientiously trying to spell them out to her companion, who, growing weary, remarked: 44 Ah, but have you seen the first bomb that fell on Loudon?” And they melted away. EMBLEMS OF ROMANCE. In another room on tho ground floor are the most wonderfully inlaid weapons of all sorts. They arc miracles of beautiful workmanship, but they look so unwieldy that, I think, if one know that a gentleman was aiming at one* one would have a very good chance of getting out of tho way. Having looked at them as Jong as one wants, or as long as one can hear, as the case may be, there is a winding stair to climb to tho first floor, and it was here, I confess, that I was happiest:, not amid ancient armor, hut among the old helmets and shakos of no more than 60 or 70 years ago. 1 suppose it all depends on which kind of romance appeals to one. Some people like 4 The Little Duke ’ and 4 Tho Lances of Lynwood,’ others like 4 Lo Conscript ’ of Ercknmnn-Chatrian. I am all for the conscript. These shakos were, nob even Napoleonic, hut they were ponderously beautiful. There, was one worn by tho Scots Guards in 1865, with the loveliest plume, and a gorgeous golden helmet of the Shropshire Yeomanry. Best of all was the helmet of a French Cuirassier. I used to possess a scrap book of pictures of tho time of the Crimea, and the moat magical and enchanting of them ah was a body of French Cuirassiers trotting over a bridge. They wore helmets like this one, and I almost shod tears in remembering them. Up another weary llighb in the Knights Departmonl—figures of knights, in tho manno rof Madine Tussnud’s, in full armor. But I liked the shakos best, THE BLOODY TOWT.It.

Emerging limply from the White Tower, one proceeds to the Bloody Tower, feeling _ so tired ns to utter its name with a certain unnecessary emphasis. Here, the visitor lias the advantage of a short lecture from a Beefeater. In fact, hy singular good fortune, I stood at a. spot whore I could hear two at once, the Beefeater below expatiating on the little Princes who are reputed to have been murdered hero, the one above on Sir Walter Raleigh, who walked up and down the balcony called Raleigh’s Walk. I have always been told that if yon interrupt a Beefeater with a question lie lias to begin all over again at the beginning. 1 do not believe it is true; in any case, •I.- had not the courage to’try; besides, I am. not sure that J wanted him to begin again. When ' the' visitor gets out of the Bloody dower ho may be advised to have a little rest before facing the Jewels; and hero on Tower Green is a; delightfully green and restful place on which to have it. Ho can sit on a bench under tho shade of a piano tree, and contemplate a little paved square plot which marks Hie spot where three queens—Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, • and Lady Jane Grey—were executed. THE CROWN JEWELS. Thus refreshed lie can pass on to tho Waki%e.l(l Tower, where the Jewels are, and they certainly are of a surpassing gorgeousuess, so. gorgeous that they

look sham. They arc almost, hut not quite, as - beautiful as “a penny plain and twopence colored.” The imperial State Crown, with its four arches, contained, according to tho guidebook, at ibc time of King Edward Vli.’s coronation, 2,818 diamonds, 297 pearls, and a gre-flt manv other jewels, and weighed in ail 390 a silwt. Moreover, it has been added to since. Orbs and sceptres and gold plate glitter in ail directions, but if is difficult realTy to take them in; **ore is no room here ns there is in the White Tower; one cannot wander quite as leisurely as one would wish; somebody clue’s head gets in the way, and at tho door there stands a tall gentleman telling one in an automatic voice to keep moving round. When it was all over lea was extraordinarily pleasant. “ Business first, pleasure afterwards, as King Richard the Third said veil he ,stabbed the t’other King in tho 'lower, afore he smothered the babbies.”-