In the northeast corner of the White Tower is a massive staircase, connecting the three stories. The column around which the stairs wind is a remarkable and well preserved specimen of ancient masonry. A wall seven feet in thickness runs north and south, which divides the tower from base to summit. Another wall extending east and west subdivides the southern portion into unequal parts, forming in each story one large and two small rooms. The smallest division on the ground floor is called Queen Elizabeth’s Armory, being filled with armor and trappings of her day. On the north side of this room, one is shown a cell formed in the thickness of the wall, ten feet long and eight wide, receiving no light save from the entrance. In this dark and dismal room was imprisoned for twelve long years the gay and brilliant courtier, Sir Walter Raleigh, on suspicion merely of being implicated in a plot to place the Lady Arabella Stuart, the niece of the unfortunate Queen of Scots, on the throne of England. This ill-fated lady also perished in the tower, her reason having been dethroned by her long and cruel captivity. In the year she died, Sir Walter was released and sent to South America to search for gold mines; returning unsuccessful he was remanded to the Tower, and beheaded in 1618 to please the Spaniards. James First wished to gain their favor, as his son Prince Charles was to be married to the Infanta. Raleigh’s bravery and valor had been too often directed against the Spaniards for them not to exult over his cruel fate. In this wretched and gloomy cell, it is said, he wrote his “History of the World.” In the center of this armory are various instruments of torture; about the room are stands of weapons, halberds, battle axes, maces and bills, and military instruments for cutting the bridles of horses; at the end of the room is a figure on horseback, representing Queen Bess. Her dress is copied from an ancient portrait, and she is attended by officers and pages. Just back of these figures hangs a very old picture of St. Paul’s cathedral. But the most terribly fascinating objects in this room are the block, the headsman’s hideous, grinning mask and the original axe. With horror the visitor looks upon the block, dented here and there where the executioner’s nervous blows struck wide of the mark, and upon the ponderous axe, whose blade has cleft the necks of so many royal and noble victims.
One is glad to leave this chamber of horrors and go above into St. John’s Chapel, which is considered one of the finest specimens of Norman architecture left in the kingdom. It terminates in a semi-circle, and the twelve enormous pillars are arranged in similar fashion. These pillars are united by arches which admit the light into the nave from the windows. In the reign of Henry III. three immense windows of stained glass were added to the chapel. It is not known at what time or from what cause it ceased to be used for religious purposes. A large room directly above, on the third floor, was used as a council chamber by the kings, when they held their court in the Tower. It was in this room that the infamous Richard, Duke of Gloucester, ordered Lord Hastings to instant execution in front of St. Peter’s Chapel.
This room is now used as a depository for small arms, and the arrangement of weapons in the form of various flowers is wonderful and artistic, the entire ceiling being covered by curious and intricate combinations of these arms.
Encircling the great White Tower, as has been said, is a row of twelve smaller towers. Perhaps the one first in interest is that directly opposite the Traitor’s Gate, and rightly named, known as the Bloody Tower. It is rectangular in form, being the only one of that shape in the inner ward. It closely joins Record or Wakefield Tower on the west. Its grand gateway was built in the reign of Edward III., and is the entrance proper to the inner ward. The massive portcullis gives signs of immense age. It was in this tower in 1483, that the most infamous order of the hateful Gloucester, the murder of the innocent princes, the children of Edward IV., was consummated.
“The tyrannous and bloody act is done—
The most arch deed of piteous massacre
That ever yet this land was guilty of.”
The little victims are supposed to have been buried at the foot of the staircase in the White Tower, but a strange mystery surrounds their fate.
Joining Bloody Tower is the tower next in size to the Great or White Tower, known as the Record Tower, from its having been for many centuries the depository for the records of the nation, and Wakefield Tower, from the imprisonment there of the Yorkists, after the victory of Margaret of Anjou, the Amazonian queen of the good but weak Henry VI., at Wakefield, in 1460. This victory gave the House of Lancaster the ascendency for a short time. The next year the Yorkists were successful, Henry was remanded to the tower, and was soon after found dead, murdered by Gloucester’s command, it is supposed.
“Within the hollow crown