Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 2 (of 2)

by George Thomas Clark

DETAILED DESCRIPTION.

The White, or Cæsar’s Tower, is the keep of the fortress. It stands a little to the south-east of the centre of the inner ward, upon ground which, on the north, is 40 feet, and on the south 15 feet above the ordnance mean water-mark, so that the basement is at the ground level on one side, and above it on the other. It is quadrangular, 107 feet north and south by 118 feet east and west. Its two western angles are square. That on the north-east is capped by a round stair-turret, 22 feet diameter, about one-third engaged, and having 3 feet more projection upon the north than upon the east face. The south wall terminates eastward in a bold, half-round bow of 42 feet diameter, projecting on the east wall. This marks the apse of the chapel, and is the great peculiarity of this tower.

The keep rises 90 feet from the floor to the crest of the present battlement. It is composed of three floors, or four stages. The walls are reinforced by the usual pilaster strips; on the east face two, on the north three, on the west and south four each. The round turret has four pilasters, two being at its junction with the walls, and the bow four. They vary from 3 feet to 6 feet broad, and all are of 18 inches projection. They lessen by two sets-off, at 50 feet and 75 feet from the ground, and die away 8 feet below the battlement. Also upon the flank of each front containing the two square angles is a strip 12 feet broad, two to each angle, but so placed as not quite to cover it, so that three salient angles appear at each of the two corners. These four pilasters rise from the plinth unbroken to 16 feet above the battlement, forming square turrets. A third turret, also square, is placed on the roof, where, but for the bow, would be the south-east angle. Thus the keep is crowned by three square turrets and one round one.

The loops of the basement are seen to open just below those, now windows, of the second stage. The openings of the third stage, once probably single-light windows of moderate size, but now enlarged, appear, one between each pair of pilasters, and each below a large plain round-headed and slightly-recessed relieving arch, springing from a strip of wall left as a sort of pier against each pilaster. The base of this arcade is a set-off in the wall stopped by the pilasters.

The lights of the fourth or upper stage may be of about their original size. On the south wall, between the two western pilasters, the windows, of 2 feet opening, are in pairs, having a plain baluster in common, and each pair being within a shallow, round-headed recess, so that the eight windows form a short arcade. One pair are probably the only windows in the keep that present quite their original appearance; for the baluster, long since removed, was found bricked up in the adjacent wall, and is now in its proper place. It is believed to have been from one of these windows that Bishop Flambard, here a prisoner, let himself down. The exterior has been defaced by pointing with flint chips and mortar, and the substitution of Portland for the old ashlar dressings, but the windows, though enlarged into casements, represent the old openings.

The staircase, 11 feet diameter, contained within the circular or north-east turret, rises from the floor to the summit, and communicates with every floor, and with the leads.

The basement is slightly below ground on the north, and at the ground level on the south front. The walls are from 12 feet to 15 feet thick, and the internal area about 91 feet by 73 feet. This is crossed by a wall 10 feet thick, built with much neglect of the plumb-line. It rises to the summit, and divides the building into a larger western and smaller eastern portion. The latter is again subdivided into a larger northern and smaller southern part, by another wall, also carried through, so that every floor is divided into three chambers. The larger chambers are all ceiled with timber; all the smaller are vaulted. The basement was reached only from above by the great well-stair. The west chamber is 91 feet by 35 feet; the eastern, 67 feet by 28 feet; and the vault, the lower or sub-crypt of the chapel, known in Tower phrase as “Little Ease,” is 15 feet by 47 feet, the east end being semicircular. A door leads from the east into the west chamber, and from the former into Little Ease. Bold recesses in the walls ascend to a line of loops, giving air, but very little light.

In modern times a shaft has been sunk 10 feet in the south-west angle of this floor, and a tunnel cut through its 24 feet of foundation towards the river quay, and another door on the other side of the angle has been cut at the ground level. The two larger chambers have been vaulted in modern brick. Little Ease was, until recently, fitted up as a powder magazine, and passages cut through its east and west ends. These have now been carefully made good with old stone, and the vault cleared out. The well has lately been discovered. It is a plain pipe, 6 feet diameter, lined with ashlar. It is in the floor of the keep, a few feet from its south-western angle.

The second stage much resembles the basement. The walls are about 13 feet thick, the cross-wall 8 feet. In the latter are three openings, 6 feet wide and 15 feet high, round-headed and quite plain, between a doorway at the north end, 4 feet 6 inches wide and 12 feet high, and one at the south end, 4 feet wide and 9 feet high. These five openings communicate between the eastern and western chambers. The western room, 92 feet by 37 feet, has in its west wall five plain round-headed recesses, once converging into loops, but now enlarged into windows. In the south wall is a similar recess, and in the north wall are two. Between one of these and the west angle is a small mural passage, 2 feet 10 inches wide, and bent at right angles. This is vaulted, quadripartite, with plain hips, very rough, but good. Under its exterior loop was the garderobe shaft.

The eastern room, 68 feet by 30 feet, has in its east wall three recesses for loops. In its north wall is a recess, now cut into a door, and communicating with the outside by a double flight of modern stone steps. There is also an original door of 3 feet opening, leading by a short mural passage, 5 feet wide, to the well-stair, which supplies each stage. In the south wall a door leads into the crypt of the chapel, 13 feet 6 inches broad by 39 feet long, having an apsidal east end, and 17 feet high to the crown of its very plain vault. In the north wall of the crypt, near the apse, a passage 2 feet broad leads into a vaulted cell, 8 feet by 10 feet, formed in the wall, and quite dark. In the south wall three round-headed recesses, 6 feet broad and 13 feet high, terminated in loops, as did one at the east end. This crypt was fitted up as an armoury, but has been cleared out, and the injured vaulting restored in good taste.

The two larger rooms on this stage are 15 feet high, and recently their respective open ceilings were supported by eighteen and twelve large posts in double rows. These no doubt were inserted when the rooms were given up to stores and records. They have now been removed, and the beams stiffened with iron, to carry the weight of small-arms here stored up. Possibly there was originally a single line of posts, as 30 feet and 37 feet are large spans for single untrussed beams. Recently, two plain original fireplaces have been discovered in the east wall. Their smoke was discharged, as at Colchester, by two small apertures in the wall.

THE KEEP.—THIRD STAGE.

Ascending by the well-stair from this stage, a Tudor door is seen cut in the shell of the staircase, and leading into the adjacent armourers’ shops. A similar door, below this, has been cut at the ground level.

The third stage, or second floor, has also three chambers: the western, 95 feet by 40 feet; the eastern, 64 feet by 32 feet; both 15 feet high, and until recently propped by posts. The cross chamber is the chapel, which occupies this and the upper stage, to the roof. The exterior walls are here 10 feet to 11 feet, and the party-wall 6 feet thick. In the latter are five openings, as below, all apparently doorways. The rebates show that the doors of the four to the south opened into the east chamber, and the north door the other way. In the north wall, close to this door, are two mural garderobes, resembling that already described, one serving the west, and one the east room.

FIREPLACE IN KEEP.

Within the north-west and south-west angles of this stage commence well-stairs, 9 feet diameter, which rise to the roof. They do not open, as usual, direct into the room; but, by short passages, into the jamb of the nearest loop recess. The east chamber is entered from the main stair in a similar way, by a passage 3 feet wide, in the north wall. In the south wall of this room is only a small door opening into the north aisle of the chapel. In its east wall are three loop recesses, and from the jamb of one a garderobe opens, resembling those described. In this wall also is the plain round-headed opening of a fireplace, with an inclined back and vertical flue, the outlet of which has not been followed. It resembles somewhat a fireplace in Colchester keep. This room is called the “Banqueting Chamber.”

Besides its regular recesses for loops, 7 feet wide and 14 feet high, of which there are five on the west side, two on the north, and one on the south, the west room has in its south wall a round-headed opening, which is the summit and landing of a well-stair, which commences, about 15 feet above the ground level, by an external door, and thence leads to the third stage. From its head there is also a mural passage leading into the west end of the south aisle of the chapel. This was, no doubt, the private way from the palace to the chapel and state-rooms of the keep. It was at the foot of this stair, in the wall, that were found the bones supposed to be those of the children of Edward IV., and now in Westminster Abbey.

The fourth, or upper stage, is the “state floor.” Its tripartite arrangement resembles those below, and the two larger chambers have open ceilings 21 feet high, until recently supported by posts, as below. The outer walls range from 10 feet to 11 feet thick, the party-wall is 6 feet, and the short cross-wall which shuts off the triforium of the chapel is 4 feet. The western, or great council-chamber, is 95 feet by 40 feet; the eastern, 65 feet by 32 feet. Between them are three plain openings, 7 feet wide and 14 feet high, and, flanking these, two doorways of smaller dimensions. It may be remarked that the square of the two western turrets is preserved in the council chamber. The angles project about 7 feet into the room. The north-eastern angle is hollow as usual. The exterior wall of these two chambers is threaded by a vaulted mural gallery, 13 feet high and 3 feet to 3 feet 6 inches wide. One end of it opens into the west end of the south aisle of the chapel triforium, and the other end into its north aisle near the chevet. It communicates with the main stair in the north-east turret, and with those in the two western turrets. It pierces the jambs of each of the window recesses, of which there are in the west room five in the west wall, two in the north, and two in the south wall; and in the east room three in the east wall, and one in the north. Where the gallery traverses the window recesses, the vault is raised a step. In this gallery, in the south wall of the state-room, are the coupled windows already described as escaped through by Flambard. This was the royal council-chamber, at least as late as the reign of Richard III. Here Charles of Orleans, and probably John of France, were confined. And hence Edward, Lord Hastings, the celebrated Chamberlain, was taken from the council-board to execution.

ST. JOHN’S CHAPEL.—SOUTH AISLE.
(From Lord de Ros’s Memorials.)

THE KEEP.—UPPER STAGE.

The vertical section of the keep, upon a line east and west, looking south, and here given, shows on the ground floor “Little Ease,” and the lower store-room; on the first floor, the chapel crypt, and the upper store-room. On the second floor is the chapel nave and aisle, and the lower armoury; on the third floor, the chapel triforium and space above the vault, and the upper armoury or council-chamber.

The chapel, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, is a rare, if not a singular example of such an apartment, so large and so complete, in the original and interior arrangements of a Norman keep. It is in plan a rectangle, 40 feet by 31 feet, terminating eastward in a semicircular apse of its full breadth; its extreme length, therefore, with this addition, being 55 feet 6 inches.

It is divided into a nave and aisles, the latter being continued as a chevet round the apse.

THE KEEP.—VERTICAL SECTION, EAST AND WEST.

The nave, 14 feet 6 inches broad, and 40 feet long, has an eastern apse, giving 7 feet 3 inches additional for the altar. It is divided from the aisles by four columns, and a western respond or half-column, on each side; and by four columns which contain the apse. The whole support thirteen arches. The columns are cylinders of 2 feet 6 inches diameter, and 6 feet 6 inches high, with plain torus bases resting upon a square stone of two stages, giving, with the base, an additional 20 inches. The capitals vary in pattern, some being plain cushion, others a combination of four cushions, giving a scalloped or indented outline in the elevation; others, again, are chamfered at the angles; and others finished with a stiff rude volute of an Ionic aspect.

The capitals of the eight eastern columns are unfinished, having a block in the form of a Tau, or cross-potent, upon each face, evidently intended to be carved into the usual central flower of a Corinthian capital; and the astragal is set round with a row of stiff upright feathers, like a plume. Each capital has a plain abacus, with varieties of the half-round, ogee, and hollow mouldings, excepting the western responds, of which the faces of the abaci are cut into the star-pattern found in early Norman work. Beneath is a light cable bead. These capitals vary from 34 inches to 40 inches square, and are 22 inches high, so that from the floor to the top of each is 10 feet. Each capital is a single block, and each abacus a single slab.

The thirteen arches springing from these capitals in the nave are 7 feet, and in the apse 2 feet 9 inches, diameter. The five apsidal arches are stilted, the rest semicircular, the crowns of all being level. The whole are perfectly plain openings in a 22-inch wall, without chamfer or rib.

Twenty inches above these crowns is a plain chamfered stringcourse, and upon this the arcade of the triforium, each arch being exactly above, and of the same diameter with, that below. These arches spring from piers 30 inches square, and 4 feet 3 inches high, without either base or cap. As the apsidal arches are not stilted, the piers are taller, so that the crowns still range.

The nave roof is a barrel vault, commencing imperceptibly at the crown level of the triforial arches, and ending eastwards in a semi-dome. The height to the crowns of the nave arches is 13 feet 6 inches, to those of the triforium 23 feet 9 inches, and to the crown of the vault 32 feet. The vault abuts against the west wall, in which is a plain round-headed recess, 18 inches deep, 12 feet diameter, and 13 feet 6 inches high.

The aisle is 6 feet 6 inches broad. Opposite to each nave column is a flat pilaster, advanced three steps from the wall surface, and having a plain chamfered abacus, or string-cap, and from each springs a broad flat rib. The aisle is thus divided into thirteen bays, four on each side, and five in the chevet, the sides of these latter being convergent. Each bay is hip-vaulted, the vaults being groined, and entirely in rubble work. The aisle is 13 feet 6 inches high. The wall of each bay is recessed, and the recesses form an arcade. In the southern recesses are four windows, of which two open between, and two upon the exterior pilaster strips. Four of the five apsidal bays also have windows, one being to the east. There are two doors: one in the north aisle, opening into the eastern room on the third stage of the keep, and one in the west wall of the south aisle, leading by a short mural gallery to the well-stair in the south wall, and into the great or western chamber of the keep.

The triforium is 7 feet 6 inches diameter. It is a mere plain gallery, without pilasters, stringcourse, or moulding of any kind, 8 feet high to the spring of its side barrel-vault, which gives 3 feet 9 inches more.

In its south wall are three windows, one opening in the face of an outer pilaster; and in the apse are five. In the north wall, and at the west end of the south limb, are the openings of the mural gallery which surrounds the keep at this, the council-chamber level; the chapel, as has been stated, rising through the two upper stories to the roof. The walls of the aisle are 4 feet thick; of the west and east ends, 5 feet. Of the triforium, the north, south, and east walls are 4 feet, and the west wall 5 feet 6 inches thick.

This, the earliest and simplest, as well as most complete Norman chapel in Britain, must have witnessed the devotions of the Conqueror, and his immediate descendants; the church, when afterwards built, having evidently been intended rather for the garrison at large than for the sovereign. The upper gallery, communicating with the state-rooms, was, no doubt, as was often the case in domestic chapels, intended for the principal persons, the household occupying the floor below. Always architecturally plain, the walls were probably painted and hung with tapestry, and the eastern windows contained stained glass, placed there, with other ornaments, by the piety of Henry III.

Henry also, in 1261, on the death of his sister-in-law, Saunchia, Countess of Cornwall, wife of his brother Richard, charged upon the Exchequer, in favour of the adjacent Hospital of St. Katherine, fifty shillings per annum for the support of a chaplain, here to pray for her soul; he having already, 1240–1, provided a similar endowment for the sustenance of a regular priest there, with vesture, and chalice, and everything necessary for his office. The obit payment probably fell into arrear; for, in 1290 (18 Edward I.), the Brethren and Sisters of St. Katherine petition for the fifty shillings given by Henry III. for the spiritual benefit of Saunchia. This chapel was dismantled by an Order of Council, August 22, 1550, directing, in both church and chapel, all such crosses, images, and plate of gold as remain, to be melted down. The chapel thus desecrated was long employed as a repository for records. Very recently these have been removed, the walls restored to their primitive simplicity, and the whole paved with tiles of a plain and suitable character. It is due to the interference of the late Lord de Ros that this chapel did not become a tailor’s warehouse.

Above the fourth stage of the keep is the flat leaded roof, affording an area between the parapet wall, of 100 feet east and west, by 113 feet north and south. The turrets rise about 16 feet above the platform, upon which they open by doors, the north-west, south-west, and north-east crowning well-stairs. The fourth, or south-east turret, is built over the chapel wall, and contains a chamber entered from the leads. The large circular, or north-east turret, of 16 feet interior diameter, and of two floors, was used as an observatory by Flamsteed, before the construction of the present building at Greenwich. Its upper floor seems to have been entered by an exterior stair, on the south side, for the support of which the parapet, as may be seen, has an exterior projection. These turrets have been cased, but the old Norman masonry may still be detected.

There is a sort of “entre-sol” between the chapel-vault and the roof, which, over the aisles, is about 7 feet high, and capable of being turned to account. Some of the old drawings show loopholes pierced in the south wall, and there are traces in the south-west turret of a doorway, which seems, from its level, to have led into this vacant space.

The place and manner of the original entrance to the keep are unknown. One notion is that it was on the north side, at the second stage, or first-floor level, near the east end of the wall, where there is at present an entrance by stone steps, 12 feet above the ground. This, however, is certainly an enlarged loop, the interior arch of the recess remaining. A close examination of the exterior shows that the present door has been cut through masonry not intended to cover a large opening, for the joints are horizontal, and there is no relieving arch. West of this in the next, or floor above, where also a modern door has been cut, through which stores are lifted into the armouries, there are traces of an arch of relief, intended to cover an opening of unusual size, and this also has been regarded as the original entrance. But this only seems to have been an enlarged loop; the recess has been enlarged by cutting away the wall, which at the sides has been refaced. This would have been unnecessary had the recess been intended for a doorway. More probably the entrance was on the south side near the west end, where, on this floor level, is a large and original opening with parallel sides and niches in the sides. Evidently this was the main entrance. The masonry shows where the doorway jambs and arch have been cut away, and a window inserted.

Very near this doorway, to the east, is a small but original door opening into the base of the small well-stair. These two doors, being at some height above the ground, pretty certainly opened into a forebuilding which covered the south side of the keep, having its outer entrance at the east end. The armoury is now being removed, and possibly below it may be found the foundations of the Norman forebuilding.

Although much injured and obscured by injudicious repairs, parts of the original surface may be detected. The base, quoins, and pilaster strips were evidently of ashlar, very open jointed. The rest of the wall was of rubble, rudely coursed, but with a great preponderance of mortar, much resembling the earliest work at Malling Abbey and St. Leonard’s Tower. The arches throughout are semicircular, and quite plain. The vaulting, though sometimes groined, is never ribbed. It may also be remarked that there is no subterranean chamber in the keep, or anywhere throughout the fortress.

The arrangements within the keep are very peculiar, and show a prevision against surprise, carried, if not to excess, yet to a degree fatal to the convenience of the royal personages and great officers of state, for whose deliberations and occasional residence the building was designed.

The main door, supposing it to be as indicated, opened upon a very gloomy first floor, from which a turnpike stair led downwards to the basement, and upwards to the second floor. To this floor the way from the stair was along a bent and narrow mural passage, and from the inner room by two staircases to the upper story and battlements. Having attained the upper story, the entrance to the state-rooms was again only by mural galleries, admitting but one person abreast.

For purely military purposes all this was advantageous. Supposing a score of resolute men to garrison the keep, they could hold the main door and postern against an army; or supposing them, by surprise, to have lost the lower stories, they could still defend the passage to the second floor without fear of being outflanked; while above there was easy access from the state-floor to the battlements, whence the enemy could be assailed to most advantage. There remained indeed to the besiegers the last and most terrible resource of firing the place, and, once within the walls, this would be easy and irresistible. Not even this immensely solid masonry would have resisted the conflagration which a torch flung upon the wooden floors of the building would be sure to kindle.

For the purposes of state the great height of the council-chamber, its excessive coldness, the difficulty of access, the inconvenience of the frequent posts probably necessary for the support of its roof, and finally, the entire absence of privacy in a room so large and with so many lateral openings, must have been serious drawbacks. No doubt the rooms were bratticed off into smaller chambers, and hung with tapestry, but even then the presence of the floors, ceilings, and partitions must have rendered the employment of stoves and bratticed chimneys very dangerous.

Neither is it easy to understand the intention of the arches in the party wall. Where, as at Rochester, these openings were of large span, the chambers admitted, on occasions of state, of being thrown into one. Here, however, though inconveniently large for doorways, they were far too small to make the rooms common. They could scarcely be intended to economise material, else the wall might have been safely much reduced in thickness, without piercing it completely through; and below they have no rebates or recesses for doors, or wooden partitions. On the third floor, where the doors are rebated, it is clear that they opened opposite ways, so that one, if not both the chambers, was subdivided. The rebates, however, may not be original.

The absence of all ornament, the very sparing use of ashlar, and the general roughness of the work, especially of the lower floor of this keep, lead to the conclusion that it was executed in haste, and with an insufficient command of good material. The vaulting especially is very coarse, and impressions remaining upon, and the occasional fragments of oak imbedded in, the mortar, show that the centering was composed of small rough oak slabs, not even cut to lengths, but overlapping, and that occasionally the form of the arch was preserved by the intervention of a rough coat of mortar. This used to be apparent even in the vaults of the chapel, and may still be seen in the mural galleries and staircases.

Against the east wall of the keep, a large rectangular building, now removed, was constructed, it is said, by Edward III. The lower walls were thick, and its south-east angle, which remains, seems to have been rounded off, perhaps as a turret. It is evidently an addition, and had nothing to do with any raised or covered entrance to the keep.

The inner ward is enclosed within a curtain wall, having four sides, twelve mural towers, and a gatehouse. The base or longest side faces the river. The east and west sides incline inwards, so that the north face is narrower than the base. This face is broken by an obtuse angle, having a central salient.

The level of much of this enclosure is 15 to 20 feet above that of the outer ward. Possibly part of the clay from the ditch, excavated by Longchamp, in the reign of Richard I., was here piled up. By reason of this difference, the lower part of this ward wall is a revetment, retaining the ground along the west and north, and part of the south and east fronts. The inequality is seen at the gatehouse, the passage through which rises one foot in ten to the middle of the ward; and, at St. Martin’s Staircase, at the north-east corner. Where the palace stood, from Wakefield to Salt Tower, the levels are nearly equal. This ward is much encumbered with buildings, some of the age of Henry VIII., some later, while others have been lately removed. No doubt this ward was always thus occupied, as the Tower was a depôt for all sorts of military stores, and a residence for petty officers of the court and garrison. In 1213, King John ordered to be salted and hung up “bacones nostros qui sunt apud Turrim”; and, in 1224, he drew upon the Tower for thirty dolia of wine; so that pigstyes and wine-stores formed a part of its contents. Lead, and the more expensive building-materials, were also kept here.

The Church of St. Peter ad Vincula, mentioned in the reign of John, and rebuilt in the late Perpendicular period, still occupies the north-west quarter of the ward. In the south-east quarter stood the Royal Palace, destroyed, at various times, by James, Cromwell, or after the Restoration. The keep in Norman castles was intended rather for the occasional than the regular residence of the lord, whose ordinary lodgings were more conveniently placed in the inner ward. This was so at Rochester, in 1281, at Bamborough, Carlisle Porchester, and elsewhere. Here the palace stood between the keep and the ward wall, and, besides, had walls of its own; one crossing from Wakefield Tower to the keep, where were drum-towers and a gateway known as Cold Harbour, and another called the Wardrobe Gallery, crossing from Broad Arrow Tower to the keep, and having upon it Wardrobe Tower, also circular, with a circular turret. The Queen’s Gallery extended from Salt to Lanthorn Tower, on the line of the curtain, and the great hall was connected with Wakefield Tower. The whole space was occupied by small courts and gardens, lodgings, and offices; and the buildings in the reign of Henry III. seem to have encroached upon the outer ward, where were two posterns for the service of the palace. These buildings, after the manner of royal houses, were always under repair; and seem to have absorbed much of the money expended on the Tower. The main guardhouse stands on the site of Cold Harbour. The foundation of the Queen’s Gallery and great hall have lately been laid open. Norman masonry, part of the ward-wall, has also been discovered. In the earlier surveys, the palace quarter is called the “Inner Ward.” Cold Harbour was probably very lofty; for, in 1572, complaint was made that Sir Owen Hopton, the lieutenant, allowed his prisoners to meet and walk on the “leads of Cold Harbour”; and about that time the Earl of Southampton stayed leaping upon the tower, his wife being on the opposite side of the ditch.

Of the twelve mural towers of this ward one caps each of the five angles. Two were intermediate on the south face, as two still are upon the east, and two upon the north, one on each side of the salient. The west, or shortest face, has one large intermediate tower. The gatehouse, called the Bloody Tower, stands considerably west of the centre of the south front, and opposite to Traitor’s Gate. It is contiguous to Wakefield Tower, which flanks it on the east, and probably determined its position and that of Traitor’s Gate.

Commencing with Wakefield, and passing westwards, the towers are, Bloody, Bell, Beauchamp, Devereux, Flint, Bowyer, Brick, St. Martin’s or Jewel, Constable’s, Broad-Arrow, Salt, and Lanthorn Tower, now destroyed.

Wakefield Tower deserves very close attention, its lower story being next to the keep in antiquity. It is also known as the Record Tower, records having been kept there from an early period until a short time ago. In the survey of Elizabeth it is called the Hall Tower, from its proximity to the royal hall, destroyed during the Commonwealth.

It is in plan a cylinder of 50 feet diameter, and is about 50 feet high. Its projection from the line of the south curtain is about 22 feet. Whether it was originally intended to cap an angle, is uncertain. No doubt the curtains from Lanthorn Tower on the east, and Cold Harbour on the north, abutted upon it on two faces, and were coëval with it; but it is unknown whether the third curtain from the west, now replaced by the gatehouse, was of the same date; and, in fact, whether the original design included the present inner ward.

This tower has two, and had three, stages. The basement, the floor of which is upon the ground level, contains an octagon chamber, 23 feet from face to face, with walls 13 feet 6 inches thick. In each face is a recess, 6 feet broad, having a semicircular head, the edge of which has a double chamfer, with an angular recess between. The northern and the three southern recesses are 8 feet deep, and have a flat end also 6 feet across, so that there is no splay. In the end is an opening, round-headed, and about 4 feet across, which contracts rapidly to a loophole. The north-east and north-west recesses are 7 feet and 6 feet deep, and are blank, without loops. The west recess is only 2 feet 6 inches deep, and was probably closed when the Bloody Tower was built. The eastern recess is the present entrance, but the curtain must have abutted on this side, so that it is not improbable that the original entrance was in the north-eastern recess. The chamber is, however, so dark, and the recesses so obscured and encumbered by stores and brick walls, that it is difficult to examine them minutely.

BLOODY AND WAKEFIELD TOWERS.—BASEMENT.

The chamber is 10 feet high. It has a flat timber covering, which, if not original, is very old, and may well represent the original. Probably it actually dates from the rebuilding of the upper story, in the reign of Henry III. In the centre of the chamber, upon a plain stone cheese-like base, is set up an oak post, 18 inches square, with the angles taken off. Upon this rest two beams, 11 inches square, at right angles, crossing the chamber east and west, and north and south. Parallel to the former, 2 feet from it on each side, are two other similar beams also crossing the chamber. There are, therefore, left outside these beams, and divided by the north and south beam, four quadrants, and these are filled up each with five beams, also 11 inches square, which radiate fan-like towards the walls, where all seem to have rested upon a stone ledge or wall-plate. The radiating beams are mortised into the main beams. All this work is original. These timbers have rotted at the wall ends, and to support them, and the load of records above them, two octagonal frames have been placed beneath, one close to the wall, and one half-way between the walls and the central post, and these are supported each by eight props, so that the interior of the chamber is disfigured by a regular forest of seventeen posts. East of this tower the foundation of the old curtain has been laid open.

Since these lines were written, all this timber work has been swept away, and the tower has been converted into the jewel office. On the north-east side of the tower is a later well-stair, 6 feet 6 inches diameter, which ascends to the first floor and the battlements.

This upper or first floor, also an octagon chamber, is of 30 feet diameter, and has a recess in seven of its eight faces. Of these three to the south, and that to the north-west, terminate in modern enlargements of the old windows, as does that of the west, of which the opening is skewed, to avoid the Bloody Tower. In the north face is a fireplace, probably representing an original one. The north-east recess is closed at 4 feet deep, and that to the east is occupied by two openings; one, the present door, evidently not original; close north of which, beneath a drop arch, is the original entrance from the palace, 5 feet 5 inches broad, and at 2 feet 6 inches deep reduced to 4 feet broad, where it forms a lofty doorway, now closed. These recesses have each a drop arch, supported by a plain chamfered rib.

The south-east recess was intended for an oratory, and its sides are produced inwards by two walls, buttressed in tabernacle work at their west ends, and connected above by a bold plain drop arch, rather light, and flatter than the rest. This no doubt is the chapel mentioned in 1238. It is possible that the recess to the north-east was the royal door, and that the narrow eastern opening led to the stair and to the rampart of the curtain.

The south recess also differs from the rest, in having within it a second rib, of 3 feet opening, as though above a doorway, and the opening is twisted to bring it opposite to the door of St. Thomas’s Tower, between which openings, 18 feet apart, there was evidently either a cross-wall or a light bridge, giving a short cut from the palace to the ramparts of the water-gate.

The intention was to vault this chamber, and in each angle is a semi-octagon pier, with a rude base, and without a cap. The total height of the ceiling, now flat, is 25 feet, so that the vault was to have had a high pitch with eight cells. It is clear that this never was executed.

This tower has now undergone complete restoration, all the interior fittings have been cleared out, the masonry laid bare, and the two floors vaulted, and the bridge suggested as having led to St. Thomas’s Tower has been actually built.

PALACE ENTRANCE. WAKEFIELD TOWER. ORATORY.

A line of blocked-up arches in the outer wall shows that an uppermost story was contemplated, and probably constructed, since in St. Thomas’s Tower is a second or upper door, evidently intended for a second bridge, or a passage along a cross rampart, above that already mentioned.

The arch-rings within, and the whole of the basement story without, of this tower, are of finely-jointed ashlar, and it appears from the decay of some of the stones, and from other indications, that the joints were not mere face-work, but were equally fine through the whole depth of each outer stone, a degree of precision not common now, and rare at any age. The upper story is of uncoursed rubble. It has been pointed and stuck over with chips of flint, but the acute relieving arches over the windows are seen, both of the first and second floor. The parapet is of brick, and encrusts an older wall of stone.

The basement of Wakefield Tower is probably late Norman, perhaps of the reign of Stephen, or Henry II., although this is no doubt early for masonry so finely jointed. The superstructure is early in the reign of Henry III., perhaps 1220–30, as in 1238 mention is made of the chapel in the new tower next the hall, and towards the Thames. The records of the realm were lodged in the New Temple as late as 20 Edward I., but 33 Edward I., they were in the Tower, no doubt the keep, whence “extra magnam turrim,” to make room for King John of France, they were removed, 1360, probably to this tower. In August of that year the clerk of the works was to repair the roof, doors, and windows of the house provided for the records, and this is repeated next year for the tower in which are the Chancery rolls.

The Wakefield Tower was the subject of a restoration in 1867, when all its modern disfigurements were removed, and the original masonry exposed. The brick casing was stripped from the parapet, the roof taken down, the interior fittings cleared away, and the brick and stone work with which the loops, enlarged into windows, had been made good, was removed.

The clearance included certain public garderobes, built against the north face of the tower, and a private garderobe, niched into the junction with the Bloody Tower, and thus was shown the original base of the latter, and the remains of a bold cordon encircling it 6 feet from the ground. Here also was exposed a loop and a curious hole, about 3 feet diameter, and 3 feet or 4 feet deep, of doubtful use. Besides the removal of these additions, the timber work of the ground-floor was cleared out, and the double circle of posts shown to be of modern date, inserted to support the additional weight of the records. The timbers of the ceiling were original. The main beams of oak, 6 feet by 6 feet, went deep into the wall, and were evidently laid when the upper floor was added by Henry III. They rested upon fragments of early roofing tiles.

The central post, also of oak, was found to stand upon a plain stone cylinder 2 feet 6 inches diameter and 3 feet 6 inches high. This again rested upon a thick square slab of oak, which was placed upon the head of a short pile, only partially decayed. Beneath the floor was laid 2 feet of broken tiles, and below this, gravel, so charged with moisture that a pit sunk 5 feet stood with 2 feet of water.

Of the arched recesses the masonry was sound, save a crack in the spandrels of that to the west. It was clear that the three southern recesses had contained original loops. That to the west seemed to have been walled up when the Bloody Tower was built. The northern recess was different, as though the loop had been lifted on account of the exterior ground having been raised.

The vaulting ribs of the first floor did not seem to have been completed. The north-western recess had been a fireplace, which the original herring-bone fire-back showed to have been very shallow, so as to require a hood, which two holes in the wall indicated to have been of timber. The south-eastern aperture was double. There was a small window with a drop arch and hollow chamfer, and steps up to it, and by its side a doorway pointing to the Water Tower, and no doubt intended to open on a small bridge.

The eastern recess now shows the oratory. The original window was narrow and drop pointed. On the wall are traces of fresco painting. There is also a piscina and a locker, and on each side a recess as for a sedile. That in the north wall has been cut as though for a doorway. The original door to this floor seems to have been in the north-east side.

There was evidently a floor above this. In the exterior wall are some cylindrical holes about 2 feet deep and 2 inches diameter. Their use is not clear. There were gurgoyles below the embrasures of the parapet. It is well to rebuild the bridge to the Water Tower, but to vault the ground-floor would be a mistake. The lower floor covering was always timber, and of a curious pattern. It should be replaced.

The Bloody Tower is the gatehouse of the inner ward. It stands in the south front, west of the centre, opposite to the earlier Traitor’s Gate, and it abuts against the also earlier Wakefield Tower. The exterior face ranges with the curtain. Its position was no doubt determined by the Traitor’s Gate, and by the advantages offered by the flanking defence of Wakefield Tower on the outside, and Cold Harbour Wall on the inside.

It is rectangular or nearly so in plan, 25 feet broad and 38 feet deep, and pierced by a vaulted passage, the axis of which has a twist to the east. It is of three stages, and 47 feet high from the outer gate cill to the parapet, which is modern, and of brick.

The portal, 15 feet wide, opens under a low-browed drop arch, 8 feet high at the spring, and 14 feet at the crown; 3 feet 6 inches within the entrance is a 6-inch portcullis groove, working through the vault in a chase 2 feet 6 inches broad, so as to admit a heavy wooden frame. Then follows a double chamfered gateway, reducing the passage to 11 feet 8 inches. Next is the body of the gatehouse, 21 feet long and vaulted, having a pair of gates at each end, and on the right a porter’s lodge. The inner pair of gates are succeeded by another chamfered gateway of 11 feet opening, and this by a second portcullis, with a chase only 1 foot 4 inches broad, followed by a portal of 15 ft. opening. The passage rises about one foot in ten, and this rise, giving a great advantage to the defenders, is continued to a point opposite to the White Tower, where it ends in a short flight of steps.

The vaulted space occupying the central part of the passage is about 22 feet long by 13 feet broad, and is divided into two not quite equal bays. The vaulting ribs spring from four corner and two intermediate corbels, representing lions’ heads, each supporting an octangular bracket.

Each bay is divided by four main hip ribs into four cells, and along the axis of each cell is a ridge rib, longitudinal and transverse. These cells are subdivided each by a secondary rib, springing also from the six corbels, and, with the ridge rib, dividing each cell into four compartments. Thus, besides the two wall half-ribs, from each intermediate corbel spring seven ribs, and from each angle corbel three ribs.

There are no regular bosses, but at each point of intersection the ribs abut upon an open circle, the centre of which is occupied by a lion’s face, dropped in from above. There are, therefore, three main and eight smaller circles, besides six half-circles at the junction of the ridge and wall-ribs. The ribs and circles, though of one pattern, are of two sizes. All have been clumsily cobbled with Roman cement.

The porter’s lodge, on the east side of the entrance, is a vaulted chamber, 10 feet square, with a window of two lights, no doubt replacing a loop towards the south or front. A door, now closed, on its north side, seems to have led into a staircase to the upper floors. About 4 feet of this lodge is excavated in the thickness of the wall of Wakefield Tower.

The entrance-way, on passing the gatehouse, lies between a retaining wall on the left, or west, and the main guard, which supersedes Cold Harbour wall, on the right. A modern staircase, no doubt representing an old one, ascends in the substance of the west wall, and opens on the parade before the constable’s house, and here also is the entrance to the first floor of the gatehouse.

This is by a Decorated, or early Perpendicular door, leading into a chamber 28 feet by 18 feet, having a large double-light window in the west wall by the door, and in the east wall a loop towards Cold Harbour, and a passage which, through a Caernarvon-headed door, leads into a small vaulted and ribbed garderobe on the left, and onward into what is no doubt the well-stair from below, now closed; and which seems to have ascended to the roof.

This, which was the portcullis chamber, has also windows at either end over the portals, and across its south end a low four-centred arch, in which are fastened two sheaves carrying the portcullis, which rises through a chase in the floor, and is lifted by a rude long wooden windlass worked by three sets of capstan bars.

The northern portcullis was lighter, and perhaps never actually inserted. The only trace of its working arrangements is a part of a flat-topped recess, from which it might have been suspended.

An upper floor, reached by a well-stair cut in the wall between this and the Wakefield Tower, contains a room 25 feet long by 18 feet broad, at the south end of which is walled off a passage 26 feet long by 4 feet broad, at the west end of which a door, now walled up, opened upon the ramparts, showing that this curious passage made a part of the rampart walk, which accounts for a door and loop which opens upon it from the gatehouse upper floor. The well-stair is continued to the leads of the tower, 10 feet above the curtain.

The doors, window, and portcullis arch in the first floor, all have a deep bold quarter-circle hollow, replacing the angle, instead of the usual chamfer.

This gatehouse is generally attributed to Edward III., who may have constructed it in the later part of his reign; or it may be the work of Richard II. The vaulting and portcullis-arch appear of later date than the walls, but the whole is probably of the transition period between Decorated and Perpendicular.

In the survey of Henry VIII. this is called the Garden Tower, being close to the constable’s garden, now the parade. In the survey of 1597, it is called by its present name; and popular prejudice, rather than Tower tradition, has attributed that name to the murder of the sons of Edward IV., idly said to have been perpetrated here.

BELL TOWER.—BASEMENT.

As Garden Tower, this building was a well-known Tudor prison. From hence to Bell Tower, 150 feet, the original curtain remains, of its full height of about 40 feet, and its base thickness about 10 feet. It is, however, so defaced outside, and inside so encrusted with houses of the Tudor period, that but little of its detail can be seen. It is pretty clear that there is no range of loopholes in its substance. A cell, recently a stable, is really a Tudor brick vault built against it.

Near to Bell Tower is an original mural chamber, probably a garderobe, lighted by a recess and loop. This recess shows the original wall, about 7 feet thick; and an interior addition of 3 feet more. The original recess has an acute, and the addition a drop arch. The one may be early English, and the other of Decorated date. Above this the full thickness of the wall is seen in the great modern window, cut through it, in the constable’s lodging.

Bell Tower is so called from the alarm bell once suspended from its summit. The bell now discharges the less exciting duty of summoning the garrison to St. Peter’s Church, and the bell turret has been replaced by a gazebo. The tower caps the south-west angle of the ward, and stands 40 feet within the Byward Gate, which it commands. It is in plan an irregular octagon, about 35 feet mean diameter, and 60 feet high, from the level of the outer ward. Five and a half of its sides project beyond the curtains. Above, the angles are rudely rounded off, and the upper 20 feet is cylindrical, and may be an early addition. The two southern faces have a chamfered plinth, 6 feet high. The walls have been stuck over with chips of flint, and the parapet is a brick addition; but it is evident that the basement was originally of fine jointed ashlar, almost equal to Wakefield. Five cruciform loops mark the line of the interior basement, about 14 feet above the exterior ground.

BELL TOWER.—FIRST FLOOR.

The lower 10 feet of this tower is solid, and above this are two stages. The basement, now a cellar and boot-hole, is of irregular plan, and may be called a rectangular figure with inclined ends. The walls are from 9 feet to 13 feet thick, and contain four pointed arched recesses with loops, and a mural chamber, also looped. The entrance passage from the gorge is bent at right angles.

This chamber is vaulted and ribbed, its outer end terminating in a rude pentagon, traversed by five hip-ribs, of plain rectangular section, and meeting by a high-pitched arch, in a central boss. This boss and the capitals whence spring three of the ribs are of early English character. The shafts are wanting.

The upper chamber is rudely circular, and about 18 feet across. The walls are 8 feet thick. From the well-stair, which commences at this level, a short passage opens into a rectangular lobby, also vaulted, 4 feet by 5 feet 6 inches, from which a door leads into the chamber, and another into a small flag-roofed mural gallery, which threads the south wall for 22 feet, and has two loops, one raking the south curtain, the other lighting a garderobe, which seems to have another opening direct into the tower.

The main chamber was lighted by four loops, of which two have been converted into windows, and two stopped up. These recesses are of irregular breadth, with high drop arches, the crowns 10 feet 3 inches from the ground, with traces of a broad moulding above each. The north loop rakes the west curtain, and has cupboards right and left under flat drop arches for archers’ tools. Another has a lateral squint towards the south, and another, with a hole in its arch, widened by the rubbing of the old bell-rope, has evidently been used as a doorway. No doubt it opened upon the gatehouse, now removed, which crossed the outer ward at this point, close north of the Byward gate. This chamber is rudely domed in with overhanging courses of tile stone and flat rubble, like an ancient dovecote. No doubt a proper vault was intended. To the spring of the dome is 14 feet, to its crown 22 feet.

It was in this chamber that, in 1830, was discovered an inscription commemorating the imprisonment here, 20th June, 1565, of Lady Mary Douglas, Countess of Lennox, on account of the marriage of her son, Lord Darnley, to the Queen of Scots.

The well-stair ascends from this floor to the battlements; and at its foot a narrow door, set in a square recess, opens upon the rampart wall of the west curtain, leading to the Beauchamp Tower. The Bell Tower has been the subject of an interesting paper by the Rev. Thomas Hugo, read in Suffolk Street, in 1858. It may safely be attributed to the reign of John, or even of Richard I., that is, to the last twenty years of the twelfth century.

The curtain, from Bell to Beauchamp Tower, 138 feet in length, 37 feet high above the outer, and 18 feet above the inner ward, and 10 feet thick, is very perfect, but still much encrusted by dwelling-houses. The exterior of this wall shows eleven loops about 12 feet from the ground, and 12 feet apart, and these are found within to represent eleven recesses of 7 feet 4 inches opening, with drop arches of 3 feet 4 inches rise, so that the curtain was pierced by an arcade intended for the defence of its base against the outer ward, but which would have been fatal to the security of the heavy superstructure, had the most ordinary battering engine been brought to bear upon it. The recess next to Beauchamp Tower seems to have been walled up when that tower was built. At the base of the parapet was a stringcourse, now much mutilated. The rampart walk remains open, but a part of it lies between the roofs of houses. The loops are of one pattern, of about four inches opening, and cruciform. The three upper ends are square; the lower expands into a round oillet.

THE CURTAIN.—GROUND PLAN.

This mural arcade is very singular. Such of the recesses as are accessible are found to be lined with brick, and can scarcely, in their present form, be earlier than the reigns of Edward IV. or Richard III., if so early. In fact, they much resemble the work of Henry VIII. The openings themselves are, however, original. They evidently exist also beyond the Beauchamp to the Devereux Tower, as the loops are visible, although the back of the wall is so shut in with dwelling-houses and the vaults of the church, as to be inaccessible. Nothing like them has been detected between the Bell and Bloody Tower, or in the fragments of the original curtain on the east side, about the Broad Arrow Tower. In the short low cross curtains connected with Salt Tower, something like these recesses may be seen, and apparently of early date. In rebuilding the curtain next to Broad Arrow Tower these recesses have very judiciously been copied.

The Beauchamp, or Cobham Tower, stands towards the centre of the west wall, into which it has been inserted, either as an addition, or more probably in place of an earlier tower. Its plan is a semicircle of 36 feet exterior diameter, and 18 feet projection beyond the curtain. The exterior wall is 8 feet, and the gorge wall 4 feet thick, and ranging with the inner face of the curtain.

This tower is of three stages, not vaulted, the middle being at the rampart level. A well-stair, 9 feet diameter, in the curtain, close south of the tower, opens from the inner ward, and communicates with each floor, the curtain ramparts, and the battlements of the tower. The stair is looped toward the field, and its passage has a small window towards the inner ward.

The middle chamber is that possessing most interest, from the number and quality of the memorials cut upon its walls by its distinguished prisoners. Its plan is rectangular, with a western bow of three sides of an octagon. In the gorge wall is a large modern restored window, and in the bow two loops and one central window, no doubt once a loop, towards the field. One face is occupied by a fireplace, perhaps of modern date. Though used as a prison, it was evidently constructed for defence only, as a place d’armes upon the rampart. Hence the rampart walk is continued right through it, and from the passage opens a small mural chamber 6 feet by 8 feet, with a loop to the field, and near it a small mural garderobe, 5 feet by 4 feet. The staircase on the south, and these chambers on the north, occupy the two square turrets which flank the Beauchamp Tower.

Beauchamp Tower is in the Decorated style, and the work of the fourteenth century, probably of Edward III. It is evidently later than the contiguous curtain into which it has been inserted. Its name of Beauchamp is probably derived from Thomas Earl of Warwick, who was imprisoned here towards the end of the fourteenth century, and it has also been called “Cobham,” from the well-known prisoner of that name, who was lodged here in consequence of Wyatt’s conspiracy. It is built of uncoursed rubble, much resembling St. Thomas’s and Salt Tower, and very different from the basements of Wakefield, Bell, and Martin towers. The rubble is broken into vertical compartments by lines of ashlar, or single stones, set like coign stones, though on a plain surface.

The curtain from Beauchamp to Devereux Tower is 148 feet in length, and about 30 feet high outside, the rampart being level, and the ground rising. It is original, and about 10 feet thick, except where it expands to 14 feet on joining the Beauchamp Tower. The cells in its base are indicated by their exterior loops. Near to Devereux Tower this curtain has been altered and renewed, and a raised platform, covering the church vaults, and a brick chamber, annexed to the tower, have been built against it.

Devereux Tower caps the north-west angle of the ward. In plan it is about three-quarters of an irregular circle, 35 feet across at the gorge, and of about 30 feet projection. It is of two stages; the lower 10 feet or 12 feet being solid. A well-stair at its junction with the north curtain leads downwards from the church platform to the basement, and to a vaulted garderobe, 7 feet 10 inches by 6 feet 7 inches with two exterior loops, and one towards the inner ward. This is in the curtain.

The basement is of an irregular figure, a sort of polygon of four very unequal sides, with a curved outer end. It is vaulted, and its outward portion has three, and its inward four hip-ribs, plain, chamfered, and 13 inches broad, springing from the wall without pier or corbel, and meeting irregularly in mitred joints at the crown. The wall is about 12 feet thick, and in two of the sides and the curved end are three round-headed recesses of 7 feet 6 inches opening, intended for loops, but now fitted with windows. The ring-stones of these recesses appear original, and much resemble those in Wakefield Tower.

The entrance door from the stairs has a slightly drop arch, and near it another similar but larger door, set in a deep recess, opens into a vault about 22 feet by 16 feet, looped outwards. This vault is a Tudor casemate of brick, but half of it is in the old curtain, and probably old, though lined. As the door is certainly old, this may have been an original mural chamber, or it may have opened on the “terre-plein” before the church vaults were built. The vaulting of the tower is chalk, the ribs and coigns of harder material. Possibly the walls and recesses of this tower are late Norman, of the age of the Wakefield, and the ribs and vaulting early English, or later additions, or, which is more probable, the whole is of one date, Richard I., or John. It is a very curious structure. Bayley says that courses of tiles were seen in the masonry like those found in the adjacent city wall, of the fragments of which it may certainly have been constructed. If the whitewash were removed, and the exposed masonry examined, we should probably learn whether the base of the tower be a part of the ancient enceinte of the fortress, the work of Henry II. or his son.

DEVEREUX TOWER.—BASEMENT.

The survey of 1597 shows two circular turrets at its junction with its curtains, and calls it “Robyn the Devyll’s Tower,” or, later, “Develin Tower.” Its present appellation is derived from Robert Earl of Essex, confined here in 1601. The superstructure is modern.

Flint Tower was taken down in the last century, and rebuilt of brick, and was again rebuilt in stone, a few years ago. In its present form it is a rectangle, 40 feet square, having a slight interior and bold exterior projection, and its outer face is rounded. The survey of 1597 shows the interior projection and the usual flanking turrets, but the whole of the present tower appears new, and even the exterior base is either new or has been cased. In the curtain, close west, is a modern staircase in the wall.

The curtain from Devereux to Flint Tower, 90 feet, though capped with a modern parapet, and casemated within, seems in substance to be old; as does the curtain, also 90 feet, from Flint to Bowyer Tower.

Bowyer Tower caps the salient of 160 degrees which breaks the north front of this ward. It is in plan half-round, flat-sided, of 45 feet diameter, 28 feet projection from the exterior of the curtain, and ranging with its interior face, here thickened by the addition of modern casemates. It had in 1597 one circular turret at its junction with its east curtain. The basement is original, and only altered by the substitution of windows for loops. In plan it is rectangular, with a bow of three faces, in each a recess for a loop, the walls being 10 feet thick. There is also a blank recess in the west wall. The entrance door is in the south side, and close east of it is a smaller door, communicating with a chamber in the east wall. Above the entrance door is a trace of a large closed-up arch in the wall. The arches are all drop pointed. The chamber is vaulted, and from its angles, without piers or corbels, spring four plain, heavy, chamfered hip-ribs, which meet, without boss or ornament, in the crown. They are of the pattern of those in Devereux Tower, and no doubt of rather early Decorated date, and probably of the reign of Edward III.

The upper floor is wholly new, as is the whole casing of the exterior.

Bowyer Tower was, from an early date, the residence and probably workshop of the royal maker of bows. In 1223, Grillot was making “balistas corneas”; and, for his encouragement, he had, in 1224, a robe for his wife. Soon afterwards the Archbishop of York had orders to send up Roger Balistarius, with all his implements, to the Tower, paying his expenses. Bayley gives a good perspective drawing of the interior.

From Bowyer to Brick Tower, 62 feet, the curtain is lined with modern casemates, but seems in substance original, though capped with a new parapet, and cased at its exterior base.

Brick Tower, in 1532 Burbidge Tower, was, in 1597, shown as a half-round, with a circular turret upon its eastern flank, in the base of which was a mural chamber, and no doubt a staircase. It appears to have been recently rebuilt from the foundation, and is now a horseshoe tower, of 44 feet diameter, and 42 feet at the gorge, applied to very ignoble purposes. Its projection from the curtain is 36 feet.

The curtain from hence to Martin’s Tower, 65 feet, seems to have been rebuilt. It is casemated, and, close to the latter tower, is pierced for a staircase of twenty-seven steps, which ascends from the outer to the inner ward, and shows the point of greatest difference of level between them.

Martin’s, or Jewel, formerly Brick, Tower, was, until recently, the residence of the keeper of the jewels. It caps the north-east angle of the ward, and is in plan an irregular circle 40 feet diameter. Its base for 12 feet or 14 feet, seen in the outer ward, is solid; but, unlike the other towers, is mere rough foundation work, evidently intended to be covered up. Possibly Brass Mount, a bastion of the outer ward, just in front of this tower, was a small mound or cavalier, and extended backwards to the tower. But, however this may have been, the outer ward, at the base of this tower, was certainly 10 feet to 12 feet higher than it now is.

Above the foundation, the wall of the tower, some way up the basement floor, is of fine close-jointed ashlar, like that of Bell Tower. Still higher, the wall is rubble, with vertical lines of ashlar, as described in Beauchamp Tower.

The interior of this tower is so disfigured with lath-and-plaster partitions, and linings of wood, and so cut up into small domestic apartments, that little or nothing can be made of its original details, which probably remain but slightly altered. The basement floor, until recently the jewel-house, and now a kitchen, is circular, or nearly so, in plan, with three loops opening beneath pointed arch recesses. This floor has plain chamfered ribs. The entrance was at the gorge; and on the right, or south, is a well-stair; and on the left traces of a mural chamber. These, no doubt, occupied the two circular turrets shown appended to this tower in the view of 1597. The first floor is evidently original, though still more obscured than that below. This tower is probably of the reign of Henry III.

The jewels seem to have been moved here soon after 1641, from the south side of the White Tower, then used as a powder-magazine, which it was feared might be endangered by the adjacent chimneys.

The Crown jewels, regalia, and the public treasures were originally lodged in the New Temple. King John, however, employed the Tower as a treasury; and sent 4,000 marks thither in 1212. The Bishop of Winchester was his treasurer there in 1215. In 1218, when De Faukenberg was treasurer, money was kept both here and at the Temple. 37 Henry III. (1252–3), the royal jewels and treasure were kept at both places. But, in that year, the regalia were sent, sealed up, to the Tower; and, from this reign, the treasury was here. Thus (14 Edward III.) certain jewels are described as “En la Blaunche Tour deinz la tour de Londres.” And (18 Edward III.) are mentioned: “Claves interioris cameræ juxta aulam nigram in Turre Londˢ. ubi jocalia Regis privata reponuntur.” And (30 Edward III.) we hear of the “Tresorie deinz la haute Toure de Londres.” Long afterwards there were, perhaps, two strong places; for (20 James I.) occurs: “His Majesty’s secret Jewell house in the Tower.”—[“Kal. of the Exch.,” iii. 197, 208, 225, 424.] And such entries are numerous.

It was in 1673, while the regalia were in Martin’s Tower, that the attempt of the notorious Colonel Blood was made upon them.

Constable’s Tower stands 102 feet south of Martin’s Tower. It seems to have resembled Broad Arrow Tower in pattern and dimensions; but it has, to all appearance, been recently rebuilt from the foundations. It is now a half-round tower of 32 feet diameter, rising a story above the curtain, which seems also to have been rebuilt. It bore its present name under Henry VIII., and was a prison at least as early as 1641.—[Harl. MS., 1326.]

From hence to Broad Arrow Tower, the curtain, 102 feet in length, seems, for the most part, to be old; but it is completely locked in, on both faces, by houses.

Broad Arrow Tower, though obscured by modern buildings, does not seem to have been much altered. In general arrangement it resembles Beauchamp Tower, but has only two stages, and is much smaller, being 26 feet diameter, with a projection on the curtain of 13 feet. Its inner face is flush with the curtain. On each flank is a small square turret. That on the north contains a steep narrow stair, not a well, entered below by a Caernarvon doorway. That on the south contains a small chamber, probably a garderobe. The ground floor is entered from the gorge, and is a rude, half-round chamber with three loops under drop-pointed arches.

The upper chamber seems to have had four outward faces, and a loop in each; and another in the gorge wall. The mural chamber, 6 feet by 4 feet, has a lancet vault and door, and a loop commanding its curtain southward. A passage from the rampart traverses the upper floor, making it a place d’armes. The stair is continued to the battlements. In 1532, this was “the tower at the east end of the wardrobe,” and as late as the reign of Elizabeth, the wardrobe gallery abutted on this tower, extending from it towards the keep.

The curtain from Broad Arrow to Salt Tower, 156 feet, is so completely locked in by high buildings on each face, that its rampart walk serves as a gutter between the two lines of roof. It is evidently original, about 30 feet high, and 12 feet thick at the base. It does not appear to contain any cells like those in the west curtain.

Salt Tower, in 1532 Julius Cæsar’s Tower, caps the south-east angle of the ward. It is circular in plan, 30 feet in diameter, and 62 feet high. It is constructed of uncoursed rubble, with vertical lines of ashlar, resembling coigns, as in Beauchamp Tower.

SALT TOWER.—BASEMENT.

The ground floor, entered from the inner ward between the two curtains, is an irregular pentagon with five loops beneath drop-arched recesses. The door opens into a short passage at the north end of the west wall under a segmental arch, against which abuts a similar but half arch in the north wall, under which a small door with a drop-arch leads into the ascending well-stair. The arch-rings are all of good ashlar, but the room is not vaulted.

The well-stair, which lies between the tower and its north curtain, at a height of about 10 feet, leads by a narrow branch to a niche or recess in the curtain, having a drop-arch, reinforced by a plain chamfered rib. This recess is open in the rear, and has a loop raking the outside of the tower and the cross-wall of the outer ward.

The stair goes on to the first and second floor and leads. The first floor, also a pentagon, has on the south face a good but plain early Decorated stone chimney hood, with scroll moulding and plain corbels. In the two eastern faces are loops. In the west is a large two-light window, a modern restoration, and close to it a lancet opening, no doubt once a door leading to the south curtain. The staircase door enters on the north side, and close to it is a loop pointing north along the face of the curtain. From this floor a passage leads along the curtain towards the Broad Arrow Tower; from it opens a small garderobe.

There is a third stage, and above it the battlements.

Salt Tower was the meeting point of four curtains. These were the east and south walls of the inner ward, of equal height and thickness, and two walls of smaller dimensions, of which one ran east, and traversed the east member of the outer ward, and one ran south to Well Tower, and traversed the south member. Each of these had a gateway, opening into the space between them, and leading to the Iron Gate postern. Of the five loops on the ground-floor of Salt Tower, two opened north-eastward upon the outer ward, two south-westward upon that ward towards Cradle Tower, and one south-eastwards towards Galleyman Tower and the postern.

Salt Tower has undergone recent and complete restoration. Its original features, however, seem to have been preserved.

A section of the curtain between Salt and Lanthorn Tower seen against the wall of the former show it to have been 10 feet thick and about 20 feet high, but the rest of it was probably removed before 1532 to make way for the Queen’s Gallery. This curtain terminated in the Lanthorn Tower.

SALT TOWER.—FIRST FLOOR.

The Lanthorn Tower has been long since pulled down, but its foundation has lately been discovered. It formed a part of the palace, and contained the king’s bedchamber and private closet. It was circular, and probably originally of the age, size, and fashion of Wakefield Tower. As in 1532 it was called the New Tower, it may have been rebuilt in that or the preceding century. It was injured by fire in 1788 and pulled down, with a contiguous gateway which traversed the outer ward at this point.

Lanthorn Tower is stated in the survey of 1532 to have been 106 feet distant from Wakefield Tower. The actual distance occupied by Lanthorn Tower and its curtains, that is from Salt to Wakefield Tower, was 343 feet.

The Outer Ward is a strip of from 20 feet to 110 feet in breadth, which completely surrounds the inner ward, and is itself contained within the ditch, of which its wall forms the scarp. This wall, though generally, is not strictly, parallel to the inner curtain. Like it, its east and west faces are straight, and the north face has a salient angle near its centre. The river front is also bent, though slightly.

On the south side this ward varies in breadth from 20 feet to 80 feet; on the east from 60 feet to 90 feet; on the west from 60 feet to 70 feet; and on the north, the salient of which is rather bolder than that behind it, and a little nearer to the east end, the breadth ranges from 90 feet to 110 feet. The lengths of the faces upon the ditch in the same order are, 750 feet, 580 feet, 460 feet, and 620 feet, being a girth of 800 yards.

The wall has been so altered and strengthened by modern casemates, and so encrusted by buildings, that it is difficult to arrive at its original dimensions. The height varies from 15 feet to 20 feet inside, and is about 12 feet more to the bottom of the present ditch. The usual thickness is about 6 feet. On the river front the wall was only 10 feet high, and apparently only of moderate thickness.

The north-east and north-west angles are capped by drum bastions, parts of circles of about 80 feet diameter. They are called Brass Mount and Legge’s Mount, probably from cavaliers once upon them. Legge’s Mount has the lesser projection, and seems to be solid. The lower part of its exterior wall looks as old as the adjacent curtains, but the upper part is new, and contains a casemate pierced for six guns. Brass Mount, that towards Little Tower Hill, is pierced by a well-stair from above and a cross gallery below. This leads from a door in the gorge to the middle of a circular gallery, vaulted in brick, which envelopes the bastion and has numerous loops for musketry, and others altered to suit small cannon. This gallery is probably an addition of the Tudor period, excavated within the old retaining walls. The salient between these two mounts has recently been capped by the north bastion, an additional and perfectly new work, being two-thirds of a circle of about 60 feet diameter, with flattened sides, and containing three tiers of casemates, each pierced for five guns.

The only regular towers of the outer ward are upon the south front, where the ditch is narrow and the palace buildings were most exposed. These are five, Develin, Well, Cradle, St. Thomas’s, and Byward Tower.

Develin Tower, in 4 Richard II. “Galighmaies Tower,” when no cart or dray was to come before it into St. Katherine’s unless the brethren paid a fine to the constable, was, in 1549, Galleyman, and in 1641, Iron Gate Tower. Until recently it was a powder-magazine, and not to be entered with a light. These conditions are not favourable to the study of its interior. It is a long rectangular tower, 18 feet by 32 feet, and built wholly in the ditch, one end being applied to the face of the curtain, so that it projects like a buttress from the south end of the east curtain, while its south side is a prolongation of the river front. The exterior has been partially cased, but it is evidently old, and in substance as originally built. Its basement is solid, but about 10 feet above the ditch is a line of loops on the north and south, or two longer faces. There has been an upper story, the walls of which remain, but seem later than the lower. At this level, in the east face, is the outline of a door, which, if a postern, opened 20 feet above the ditch. The view of 1597 shows a double wall, probably an embattled dam serving as a bridge, extending from this tower across the ditch, and crowned on the counterscarp by a small work, called the “Iron Gate.” If this drawing be correct, the roadway was through the basement chamber, and the upper floor led to the rampart of the wall. This gate led into the precinct of St. Katherine’s. The tower is probably the work of Henry III., and connected with an original dam for keeping up the water of the ditch. Forty feet west of Develin is Well Tower.

WELL TOWER.

Well Tower, also rectangular, forms a part of the curtain, and has a projection into the ditch 10 feet by 16 feet wide. Its basement, below the present level of the inner ward, and scarcely above the water level of the ditch, contains a chamber, 14 feet by 10 feet, vaulted at a high pitch in two unequal bays, the north the larger, parted by a transverse rib. Each bay is vaulted in four cells, with four hip-ribs meeting in a plain mitred joint. There is a half or wall-rib in the gable of each cell. The ribs are 7½ inches broad by 6¾ inches deep, with a plain chamfer, and spring from four corner and two intermediate circular bell corbels, the tops of which are 3 feet 4 inches from the floor. The height of the chamber is 11 feet 6 inches. There are four loops, one pointing northwards into the ward, and the rest opening towards the ditch. All are under drop arches. In the west side is a door of 3 feet, opening in a drop-arched recess, which may have led into a mural cell in the curtain, or have been an entrance from the ward. On the east side a rectangular appendage, entered by a square-headed door, contains a well-stair of 6 feet 3 inches diameter, looped upon the inner face of the curtain and the ditch. This stair leads to an upper room on the rampart level, not vaulted, 15 feet by 10 feet, looped to the field and upon the face of the west curtain. In its north wall an original door, 2 feet 3 inches wide, opens on the rampart. The second floor is modern. Well Tower is a good example of the early English style.

Well Tower stands due south of Salt Tower, and a short curtain, with a gateway, connected them. Part of it remains, 12 feet high and 6 feet thick, pierced with loops at the ground level, and embattled against an attack on the east. This rampart was reached from Well Tower, and did not communicate with Salt Tower. A similar cross curtain connected Salt Tower with the outer ward wall westward. This also was looped, had a central gate, and was embattled for defence from a south attack. These two curtains thus enclosed the approach to the Iron Gate postern, and prevented either part of the outer ward from being entered by surprise. These arrangements are evidently as early as the time of Henry III., and are shown in the view of 1597.

CRADLE TOWER.—BASEMENT.

Cradle Tower comes next west, at 118 feet distant. It stands on the outer wall, and projects 9 feet into the ditch, with a breadth of 16 feet. It is a gatehouse, and though of small dimension very complete in its design, and of excellent construction. It stood nearly in front of the bye-gate of the royal quarter, and allowed a direct passage thence to the quay.

CRADLE TOWER,
WINDOW.

It is in plan T-shaped, the portal running through the main limb, which projects into the ditch, and the lateral wings, each containing a lodge, forming a gorge or main front of 26 feet width, and flanked by two diagonal buttresses, which cap the angles and project into the ward. Between these is the doorway, and on each side of it a small lancet window, cinquefoil-headed. One of these windows is quite unaltered.

The doorway is 7 feet 2 inches broad, with a drop arch and light chamfer moulding. Two feet in is a portcullis groove, succeeded by a doorway of 5 feet opening, of which the valves move inwards. The wall is 4 feet 7 inches thick. The passage is a chamber of two squares, 7 feet broad, and 12 feet 6 inches high. It is vaulted in two equal bays, parted by a transverse rib. Each bay has four hip-ribs, and a straight rib takes the crown line of each vaulting cell, so that eight ribs meet in the centre of each bay, the point of junction being a hollow circle. There is besides a wall-rib in each gable. The rib parting the two bays, and the longitudinal rib, have a plain mitred junction. The rib and circle-mouldings are the same. They are light and bold, 5 inches broad and 7 inches deep. The base of the rib has a hollow chamfer, and its apex is an ogee. The ribs spring from four corner and two intermediate corbels, the tops of which are 7 feet from the ground. These are octagonal and embattled. The bracket below is much defaced.

The doorway in the south end, of 4 feet 6 inches opening, had gates opening inwards, and outside them is a second portcullis groove.

The lodges open from the central passage close to the ward entrance, by doors, 2 feet 10 inches wide, one of which has the remains of the cusps of a cinquefoil in the head. They are 12 feet broad by 8 feet 9 inches long and 12 feet high, having the small windows already noticed towards the ward. They are hip-vaulted in chalk, with four cells, having four ribs 7 inches broad by 7 inches deep, springing from corbels, now knocked off, but the tops of which were 7 feet above the floor. There are no wall ribs. The portal arches of the main passage are drop in recesses, of which one is so low as to be nearly, and the other is quite, segmental. The vault-arches are equilateral, or nearly so.

On each side of the part of this tower that projects into the ditch, on the outside, is a recess, on the west face 4 feet 6 inches, and on the east face 3 feet broad, and 1 foot 4 inches deep. Possibly these were the shoots of garderobes from the upper floor and battlements, now removed. On each side, at the old water level, is a half-arch admitting the water of the ditch below the drawbridge or cradle.

TRAITORS’ GATE.

ST. THOMAS’S TOWER.—BASEMENT.

In the curtain, close west of this tower, is a well-stair, leading from the west lodge to the roof.

The superstructure of Cradle Tower is said to have formed a part of the palace quarter, and the view of 1597 shows it as a water-gate, with a square turret on its west flank, where was the supposed staircase. It shows also, west of this, a considerable tower extending across the ward, here very narrow, to the Lanthorn Tower, and which no doubt contained the Lanthorn Gate.

The details of Cradle Tower are rather Decorated than early English; and if, as is historically probable, it be the work of Henry III., it must be late in his reign, and was perhaps completed by his son. Owing to the cumbrous character of the sluices and gates of St. Thomas’s Tower, state prisoners were sometimes admitted by this gate, then fitted with a cradle or drawbridge.

St. Thomas’s Tower, better known from its ancient function as Traitors’ Gate, is the water-gate of the Tower, and also contained and commanded the communication between the Thames and the main ditch. It is, in fact, a barbican, and a very singular one, placed astride upon the ditch, here 40 feet broad, and perforated by a passage leading from the river. It stands considerably west of the south front, being in advance of the Bloody Tower 30 feet, the breadth, at this point, of the outer ward.

The quay, in front of this tower, is traversed by a channel, 28 feet broad and 13 feet 6 inches deep, partly arched over and newly lined with granite, which opens from the Thames, through an archway 21 feet broad, into a rectangular basin or pool, 66 feet by 40 feet, and 18 feet deep, lined and paved with stone, and containing, when the gates are opened, about 8 feet of water at high water. A flight of steps from the water, on the inner or north side of this basin, landed the prisoner within 30 feet of the gateway of the inner ward.

The tower proper is placed above the outer 18 feet of this basin, but its side walls are prolonged backwards, so that both the front and sides of the basin are protected. The south wall, 9 feet thick, is pierced below by a low-browed water portal, already mentioned, beneath a drop arch, ribbed and chamfered. Between the ribs is a groove, 6 inches broad, for an iron sluice or portcullis, worked in the building above; and in the jambs are two holes, 6 inches diameter, lined with iron, for the passage of a chain. Within this, on the inner face of the portal, were folding gates opening inwards.

ST. THOMAS’S TOWER.

DETAIL OF RING STONES.

Seventeen feet within this outer wall the basin is crossed by an arch, supporting a light wall of brick and timber, which was the rear wall of the tower. This arch is a very remarkable piece of construction. It springs from two half-octagonal piers, and is segmental, of 61 feet span and 15½ feet rise. The voussoirs form two ribs, and the inner one is composed of seventy-five stones, united by a simple joggle or rebate. The rectangular tower, which thus rises from the walls of the outer half of the basin, is 86 feet east and west by 18 feet north and south, and capped at its two Thames-ward angles by light cylindrical turrets, three-quarters engaged, and rising above the parapet of the tower. The side walls, prolonged backwards an additional 30 feet, terminate in two square turrets, which occupy the northern angles, and also rise above the battlements.

Two doors on the north faces of these turrets, on the ground level, open into a mural gallery in each wall, looped on one face towards the ditch and on the other towards the basin. These galleries communicate with the southern turrets, and are continued within the south wall, having each two loops towards the Thames and two towards the basin. They do not meet, being stopped by the jambs of the sluice-gate. They were also used to receive the slack of the chain when drawn up.

The floor of the tower, which is above the level of these galleries, contained the machinery for lifting the sluice, which must have been heavy. The walls of this floor are also pierced with loops, and contain two garderobes. In the river-front are two early Decorated windows, of two lights each. The two upper chambers in the south turrets open into this floor, which is reached by a winding stair in the north-east turret, and by an exterior stone stair in the north-west turret.

ST. THOMAS’S TOWER.—PISCINA.

The four chambers in the two cylindrical turrets are of excellent design and delicate workmanship, as may be seen from the plate in the “Vetusta Monumenta.” They are in plan octagons, having slender columns, with high bases and bell caps, all cylindrical, and slightly engaged, in each angle, from each of which springs a light chamfered rib, meeting in a plain joint at the centre. There are thus eight cells, each with a lancet gable, supported by two half-ribs. Three of the faces have windows or loops, and another is occupied by the door. In the lower rooms the loops have chamfered recesses beneath drop arches. In the upper, the loops are larger, but still square-headed, and their recesses have an arch-rib with a hollow chamfer. The south-east upper chamber was an oratory. The window-sills on each side the east windows are Purbeck slabs, hollowed into bowls,—on the south for a piscina, on the north for holy water. Both slabs projected, and have been broken off when the walls were wainscoted.

There is a second floor, reached by a well-stair in the square turrets, which ascend further to the roof, but it contains nothing of interest. The well-stair in the north-east turret leads to a door that opens on the north face, 20 feet from the ground, and which opened outwards, and was barred on the outside. The meaning of this is only explicable on the supposition that a bridge, or perhaps an embattled cross-wall, connected this door with the corresponding opening in Wakefield Tower, 18 feet distant. By this means a person leaving St. Thomas’s Tower, and barring the door behind him, would reach Wakefield Tower, and therefore the palace, and cut off pursuit. In the second floor of St. Thomas’s Tower is another door, above and similar to the first, which in like manner communicated with the top floor of Wakefield Tower; so that either there were two drawbridges, or a wall pierced by a mural gallery at 20 feet high, and with a rampart walk at its summit.

St. Thomas’s Tower was, until lately, occupied by a water-engine, to the great injury of its walls. The upper rooms were cut up into lodgings by means of wainscot and lath and plaster. All has lately been cleared out, and the tower restored in good taste.

St. Thomas’s Tower is attributed, and no doubt justly, to Henry III.; but, although the octagon chambers have an early English aspect, the grand arch, the staircase doors, and the windows towards the river are decidedly Decorated, though probably early in that style. If, therefore, this tower be of one date, it must be very late in the reign of Henry, but more probably it was completed and the grand arch turned in that of his son. The material is a rag-stone laid in uncoursed rubble masonry, like Beauchamp and Salt Towers, with ashlar dressings. The pool below was extensively repaired by Henry VIII. There is some reason to suppose that this was the tower that fell twice while being built.

The curtain along this front is original, though capped and patched in modern times. It seems to have been about 20 feet high above the water, and from 12 feet to 14 feet on the inner side. In parts it was 12 feet thick; but the addition of brick casements in Tudor times, to enable the ramparts to carry cannon, prevents an accurate examination. It is no doubt the work of Henry III. From St. Thomas’s to Byward Tower is 160 feet.

Byward Tower is the great gatehouse of the outer ward, and is placed upon the scarp of the west ditch, at its junction with the south ditch. It is in plan rectangular, 50 feet broad by 24 feet deep, and its two outward angles are capped by drum towers, 23 feet diameter, one quarter engaged, which rise out of the moat. Between them is a curtain of 14 feet, pierced by the main entrance. The towers, below the roadway, are solid; above it they are of three stages, and 49 feet high to the crest of the parapet, which, with most of the casing, is modern.

The portal opens from the bridge by a low drop arch, 12 feet broad and 12 feet high, reduced by two deep chamfers to 10 feet opening, followed by a broad jamb, in which are loop openings from the lodges. This is succeeded by a 6-inch portcullis groove, with a chase of 16 inches in the vault, to allow of the passage of a heavy wooden grate. Then follows a heavy rib, pierced with three round holes, which slightly converge, and are probably for the beams of a stockade, supposing the gates to be forced; and behind is a rebate with hinges for the valves of a door, opening inwards. The middle portion of the portal, which begins here, has a flat timber roof, 18 feet high. In it is a second portcullis groove, and the doors of the warders’ lodges. Finally is the inner archway, without jambs, but with a bold triple rib forming the arch.

The south lodge door enters a lobby, 8 feet by 4 feet, vaulted in chalk, with a southern loop raking the postern. A pointed door on the left or east face opens into a garderobe, with a loop to the east, now closed. Opposite, a short passage, also vaulted, and with a cross rib, leads into the south or warders’ lodge.

This is an octagon, 15 feet 9 inches from face to face. In each angle is a slender octagonal pier, engaged on a face and two half-faces, with a sort of bell-cap and stilted base, both octagonal. From each pier spring a main rib and two half-ribs. The former meet in the centre in a plain joint; the latter form lancet arches at the gable of each cell. All are narrow and plainly chamfered. Of the eight vaulting cells the ridge lines are horizontal, and have no ribs. The ribs and piers are of freestone, the vaults of chalk. From the floor to the pier caps is 6 feet 11 inches. The total height is 17 feet.

BYWARD TOWER AND POSTERN.

In each of the faces is a recess. That on the north-east is the entrance. The south-east is occupied by a fireplace, no doubt representing an original one; The other six are looped.

The north lodge is entered through a lobby, 7 feet 9 inches square, and 15 feet high, vaulted in four cells, with four slender chamfered hip-ribs, springing from octangular corbels, one at each angle. There is no boss. Each cell has a profile half-rib in its gable.

In the east side is a long two-light window beneath a segmental recess, which seems original. This window, and the proportions and general elegance of this chamber, point to its possible use as an oratory. Those who entered the Tower might well need to be met by spiritual support on the threshold.

In its north wall is a small lancet doorway, leading to a well-stair, but probably always closed. A west door leads through a short passage into the lodge, now a police barrack. This lodge resembles closely that on the south side, save that the east recess is closed up, and the fireplace, the brackets of which are original, occupies the north-east face. The upper part of this chamber, towards the ditch, has been pierced, probably for musketry, so as to command the approach from Tower Street. In the north-east angle of this gatehouse is a well-stair, entered by a separate door from the east and outer side.

BYWARD TOWER.—FIRST FLOOR.

The first floor contains two large octagonal chambers in the towers. The staircase opens into one of these in the north-east angle, and a chamber 8 feet square occupies the south-east angle. The rear wall between these two turrets is wanting, so that this gatehouse, with its portcullis chamber, was intended to be open in the rear, or was closed, as now, by a lath-and-plaster brattice. There was a small window to the west, over the entrance-gate, looking on the bridge.

The arrangements of the second floor are still more simple. The staircase remains, and the two octagon chambers, but the small south-east chamber is wanting. The rear is open.

At the battlement level the staircase and its turret cease. There is now nothing above the parapet.

In the rear of and attached to the south-east part of this gatehouse is a low tower, of later date, intended to cover a postern bridge, traversing the south ditch, and dropping on the quay. The tower is rectangular in plan, 14 feet broad and 29 feet long, besides an acute salient of 12 feet more, which projects into the south ditch, and prevents it from being raked.

It is pierced north and south by a portal 6 feet 9 inches broad, which commences by a square cell, vaulted, with a cross and longitudinal rib, chamfered, and pierced at the intersection by an octagonal cavity. Two door jambs then reduce the opening by a foot, and between them, in the vault, is a hole 9 inches diameter, apparently intended for a chain which passed out over the rib of the further door, and worked, still within the tower, a light bridge, the recess for which is seen outside the door. The chamber here widens by 3 feet, to allow space for those defending the east wall. When this bridge was down, a way was opened to a door in the west wall, outside which is a platform, whence a second bridge dropped southwards across the ditch. The upper story of this postern tower was one large chamber for working the inner bridge. A door leads from it upon the rampart walk of the east curtain. Above this were the battlements of the postern, two stages below that of the contiguous tower. In the Tudor reigns these buildings were encumbered with additions in brick, timber, and plaster, which still remain, and much obscure the original details. This postern tower is Perpendicular, perhaps the work of Richard II.

Besides the bulwarks and towers just described, the inner ward was strengthened against surprise by several cross walls and gates, breaking it up into independent sections. One of these gates crossed from Bell to Byward Tower, and another, it is said, crossed north of Beauchamp Tower. There were walls with gates across the ward, on either side of Traitors’ Gate, so that prisoners could be brought in by water and led across into the Bloody Tower gate, without any chance of rescue in the outer ward, and indeed without being seen. Another gateway of a stronger description, and with towers, extended from Lanthorn to near Cradle Tower; and another also, already mentioned, opened in the small curtain between Salt and Well Tower. There was at least one more gateway in the short curtain east from Salt Tower. The ward, between all these gates, must have been intended to be open; but, at least since the Tudor reigns, it has been encumbered with private houses. Here the operations of the Mint were carried on with much inconvenience; and the north and west limbs of the ward still bear the name of Mint Street, and the east limb, of Irish Mint Street.

The curtain or scarp wall of this ward was, no doubt, the work of Henry III., and much of the wall is still original. In the west wall, near Byward, below a modern battery of two guns, are six loops, probably old, but lighting modern casemates, and beneath each an air-hole. Also, on the north front, close west of the new bastion in the wall, is a pointed arched door, long closed up, but probably an original water-gate. West of this also is an original loop, no doubt marking the place of a mural chamber not now accessible.

MIDDLE TOWER.

The modern additions to this curtain consist in a line of casemates, storehouses, canteens, magazines, and workshops, built against and concealing its inner face, and giving a rampart or platform of 30 feet width.

This exterior wall has been built with great care on a broad and deep foundation, since it shows no sign of settlement, though built in what, until recently, was a deep and muddy ditch. At one part indeed, close south of Brass Mount, it has been strengthened by three very clumsy buttresses of 12 feet in breadth and 22 feet projection. One covers the internal angle of the bastion; the next is about 40 feet distant; and the third, at about the same space, is in fact a rectangular mural tower resembling Galleyman, and contains a small chamber having two loops on each of its three free faces. Its parapet is new, and pierced for two guns.

Middle Tower is the outwork of Byward Tower, and a barbican covering the landward entrance to the fortress. It stands on the counterscarp of the ditch, at the outer end of the bridge, and was originally enveloped by a special ditch of its own, a loop from the main ditch of the place, filled up in the eighteenth century. In design and execution it resembles closely Byward Tower, though rather smaller, its breadth being 40 feet, and its height 30 feet from the roadway. It is evidently of the date of Byward, and like it was open at the rear. It also has been cased with Portland stone. Its portal has a double portcullis, gateway, vertical holes, side loops and lodges, and its central part is ceiled with timber. In neither tower is there now any trace of a drawbridge. The lodges are tolerably perfect; the stair in the north-east angle is in use, and corresponds to the Byward oratory; and in the south-east turret is a lobby and a garderobe, and above these a chamber 7 feet by 8 feet 6 inches, and again on the leads another chamber 7 feet 4 inches by 10 feet 10 inches.

MIDDLE TOWER.—FIRST FLOOR.

Between the two gatehouses the ditch is traversed by a stone bridge, 130 feet long, and at the narrowest 20 feet wide. As the towers are not precisely opposite, the line of the bridge is broken by a slight zigzag. In the centre appears to have been an opening of 20 feet, now a stone arch, once the place of a drawbridge, as shown in old drawings.

The Quay does not appear to have had any permanent parapet wall, which indeed would have interfered with its uses. It was sufficiently commanded by the defences of the outer ward. It was probably the work of Henry III., in the twelfth of whose reign it is first mentioned, and called “Kaia Regis”; and John de Crumbwell, custos 8–9 Edward III., had then an order for 300 alder poles from Windsor forest for repairing it. The quay is in length about 1,130 feet, that being the full frontage of the Tower.

The Ditch.—This, by far the most formidable of the defences of the Tower, varies in breadth from 100 feet on the east to 110 feet on the north, and 120 feet on the west or City side. Along the south or river front it is only 40 feet broad, probably because on that side it was covered by the wharf, the narrow limits of which did not permit any great force of assailants to be drawn up upon it; besides which the tower covering Traitors’ Gate, and the two small postern bridges which it was convenient to have towards the wharf and river, did not allow any great breadth of ditch.

The ditch was not only broad, but of great depth, so that when filled to the level of high water it was scarcely to be passed, and indeed when the water was low, the mud which accumulated there, and which made it of late years an unhealthy nuisance, must have been quite as formidable as a defence. Nevertheless, care was taken to cleanse it, and the “Liber Albus” informs us that, in the reign of Edward III., the penalty for bathing in the Tower fosse, or in the Thames near the Tower, was death! (vol. i., p. xlix.) Its exterior circuit is computed at 3,156 feet.

Also, from the great height of the ground to the west and north, the counterscarp is so very high as to be in itself a considerable obstacle to crossing the ditch, although, no doubt, this was in other respects advantageous to besiegers. Besides the main bridge, the ditch was crossed by St. Thomas’s Tower and the dam between Galleyman and Iron Gate, all of which served to hold up the water. There were also the posterns of Iron Gate, Byward, and Cradle Tower.

No doubt the Conqueror’s ditch, even when deepened by Longchamp, was fed by the Thames; and the water rose and fell with the tide. The intervention of the wharf and the St. Thomas’s sluice-gate were devised to make the water in the ditch independent of the tide, and thus add materially to the strength of the defences. The ditch was drained and its bottom raised and levelled by the Duke of Wellington during his constabulate. There are seen in the modern brick revetment of the counterscarp a number of walled-up arches, resembling sewer-mouths, which appear to have been intended to facilitate the mining the glacis in the event of a siege.

The outwork in advance of Middle Tower, though its ditch is filled up, and its other buildings removed, is still indicated by a line of stockades, which contain the ticket-office and a small engine-house. Here stood the Lion Tower, and the Royal Menagerie; and this whole tête-de-pont was further protected by a smaller tower and drawbridge of its own, shown in some of the early drawings.

Lions were a part of the royal state, and lodged in the Tower bulwark, in the reign of Henry I. The Emperor Frederick, in 1235, sent Henry II. three leopards; and, in 1252, Henry III. received a white bear from Norway, for whose sustenance, with his keeper, the sheriffs of London provided fourpence daily, with a muzzle and iron chain, to keep him when “extra aquam,” and a stout cord to hold him when a-fishing in the Thames. In 1254, Louis of France sent the king an elephant. He was brought from Sandwich to the Tower, where the sheriffs were to build him a strong and suitable house, 40 feet by 20 feet, and to support him and his keeper. Edward I. and Edward II. kept lions here. At a time when the allowance for an esquire was one penny per day, a lion had a quarter of mutton and three-halfpence for the keeper; and, afterwards, sixpence was the lion’s allowance; the same for a leopard, and three-halfpence for the keeper. In 16 Edward III., there were a lion and a lioness, a leopard, and two cat-lions. In 1543, the Duke of Najara saw here four large and fierce lions, and two leopards. The menagerie was finally closed about the year 1830. Its establishment on this particular spot was probably due to Henry III.

The whole outward space was, in 1597, called the Bulwark, and sometimes the Spur-yard.