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.
HISTORY.
Having decided to build an “Arx Palatina,” and having some years’ experience of the value of the proposed site as a temporary camp, the Conqueror at length determined to erect a regular castle, and entrusted the work to Gundulf, a monk of Bec, who, in 1077, soon after his arrival in England, was consecrated Bishop of Rochester.
Gundulf brought with him from Normandy some reputation as an architect, which vocation he pursued in this country. Rochester Keep, that strong but graceful tower, placed so judiciously above the ancient passage of the Medway, and long attributed to the bishop, is now known to be of later date; and the only existing buildings, besides the White Tower, which can safely be attributed to him, are the north tower of Rochester Cathedral, parts of the old crypt, and perhaps a small part of its west front; also the very perfect and unaltered shell of Malling Keep, known as St. Leonard’s Tower; possibly the broad, massive tower of the adjacent church, and, it may be, the Norman portions of that of Dartford. These remains, however, the White Tower, and the testimony of many generations, may be regarded as sufficient for the confirmation of his fame.
A direct evidence for the employment of Gundulf upon the White Tower is afforded by the “Textus Roffensis,” written about 1143, or within eighty years of the Conquest, and printed by Hearne. This record preserves incidentally the fact that Gundulf, while so employed, lodged at the house of Eadmer Anhœnde, a burgess of London, and a donor to the bishop’s church at Rochester, where he directed his body and that of his wife to be buried, and to have an annual obit.[5]