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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.