Tottenham court road, St. Giles’s.
Tottenham High Cross, a village on the west side of the river Lea, five miles north-east from London in the road to Ware. David King of Scotland being possessed of this manor, after it had belonged to the Earls of Northumberland and Chester, gave it to the monastery of the Trinity in London; but Henry VIII. granted it to William Lord Howard of Effingham, who being afterwards attainted, it reverted again to the King, who then granted it to the dean and chapter of St. Paul’s to whom it still belongs. The present Earl of Northumberland and the Lord Colerain have seats here, and there are also a great number of pretty houses belonging to the citizens of London, the church stands on a hill, which has a little river called the Mosel at the bottom, to the west, north and east.
The parish is divided into four wards, viz. 1. Nether ward, in which stands the parsonage and vicarage: 2. Middle ward, comprehending Church end, and Marsh street. 3. High Cross ward, containing the hall, the mill, Page green, and the High cross; and 4. Wood Green ward, which comprehends all the rest of the parish, and is bigger than the three other wards put together.
The cross, which gives name to the place, was once much higher than it is at present, and upon that spot Queen Eleanor’s corps was rested, when on the road from Lincolnshire to London. St. Loy’s well, in this parish, is said to be always full, and never to run over; and the people report many strange cures performed at Bishop’s Well. In 1596, an almshouse was founded here by one Zancher, a Spaniard, the first confectioner ever known in this kingdom. Here are also a free-school, and a charity school for twenty-two girls, who are cloathed and taught.
Tower of London, on the east side of the city, near the Thames. This edifice, at first consisted of no more than what is at present called the White Tower; and without any credible authority, has been vulgarly said to have been built by Julius Cæsar; though there is the strongest evidence of its being marked out, and a part of it first erected by William the Conqueror in the year 1076, doubtless with a view to secure to himself and followers a safe retreat, in case the English should ever have recourse to arms to recover their liberties. That this was the Conqueror’s design, evidently appears from its situation on the east side of London, and its communication with the Thames, whence it might be supplied with men, provisions, and military stores, and it even still seems formed for a place of defence rather than offence.
S. Wale delin. Elliot sculp.
The Tower.
However the death of the Conqueror in 1087, about eight years after he had begun this fortress, for some time prevented its progress, and left it to be completed by his son William Rufus, who in 1098 surrounded it with walls, and a broad and deep ditch, which was in some places 120 feet wide, several of the succeeding Princes added additional works, and Edward III. built the church.
Since the restoration, it has been thoroughly repaired: in 1663 the ditch was scoured; all the wharfing about it was rebuilt with brick and stone, and sluices made for letting in and retaining the Thames water as occasion may require: the walls of the White Tower, have been repaired; and a great number of additional buildings have been added. At present, besides the White Tower, are the offices of Ordnance, of the Mint, of the keepers of the records, the jewel office, the Spanish armoury, the horse armoury, the new or small armoury, barracks for the soldiers, handsome houses for the chief officers residing in the Tower, and other persons; so that the Tower now seems rather a town than a fortress. Lately new barracks were also erected on the Tower wharf; and the ditch was in the year 1758, railed round to prevent for the future those melancholy accidents which have frequently happened to people passing over Tower Hill in the dark.
The Tower is in the best situation that could have been chosen for a fortress, it lying only 800 yards to the eastward of London Bridge, and consequently near enough to cover this opulent city from invasion by water. It is to the north of the river Thames, from which it is parted by a convenient wharf and narrow ditch, over which is a drawbridge, for the readier taking in or sending out ammunition and naval or military stores. Upon this wharf is a line of about sixty pieces of iron cannon, which are fired upon days of state.