two and two.
10. Spanish shot, which are of four sorts; spike-shot, star-shot,
chain-shot, and link-shot; all admirably contrived, as well for the
destruction of the masts and rigging of ships, as for sweeping the men
off the decks.
11. The banner, with a crucifix upon it, which was to have been carried
before the Spanish General. Upon it is the Pope’s benediction before
the Spanish fleet sailed; for the Pope, it is said, came to the water
side, and seeing the fleet, blessed it, and stiled it INVINCIBLE.
12. An uncommon piece of arms, being a pistol in a shield, so contrived
that the pistol might be fired, and the body covered at the same time.
It is to be fired by a match-lock, and the sight of the enemy taken
through a little grate in the shield, which is pistol proof.
13. The Spanish rançeur, made in different forms, and intended either
to kill the men on horseback, or to pull them off their horses. At
the back is a spike, which your attendants say, was to pick the roast
beef out of the Englishmen’s teeth. And on one of them is a piece of
silver coin, which they intended to make current in England. On this
coin are three heads, suppos’d to be the Pope’s, Philip the II’s and
Queen Mary’s.——This is a curiosity which most Spaniards who arrive in
London come to see.
14. The Spanish officers lances finely engraved. These were formerly
gilt, but the gilding is now almost worn off with cleaning. ’Tis said,
that when Don Pedro de Valdez, a captain of one of the Spanish ships
that was taken, passed his examination before Lord Burleigh, he told
his Lordship, that those fine polish’d lances were put on board to
bleed the English with; to which that Nobleman, merrily replied, that,
if he were not mistaken, the English had performed that operation
better on their good friends the Spaniards with worse instruments.
15. The common soldiers pikes eighteen feet in length, pointed with
long sharp spikes, and shod with iron; designed to keep off the horse,
to facilitate the landing of their foot.
16. The last thing shewn of these memorable spoils, is the Spanish
General’s shield, not worn by him; but carried before him as an ensign
of honour. Upon it are depicted in most curious workmanship, some of
the labours of Hercules, and other allegories which seem to throw a
shade upon the boasted skill of modern artists. This was made near an
hundred years before the art of printing was known in England: and upon
it is the following inscription in Roman characters, ADVLTERIO DEIANIRA
CONSPURCANS OCCIDITR CACVS AB HERCVL. OPPRIMITVR 1379.
17. The other curiosities deposited here, are Danish and Saxon clubs,
weapons which each of those people are said to have used in their
conquest of England. These are, perhaps, curiosities of the greatest
antiquity of any in the Tower, they having lain there above 850
years. The warders call them the Womens weapons, because, say they,
“the British women made prize of them, when, in one night, they all
conspired together, and cut the throats, of 35,000 Danes; the greatest
piece of secrecy the English women ever kept, for which they have ever
since been honoured with the right-hand of the man, the upper end of
the table, and the first cut of every dish of victuals they happen
to like best.” The massacre of the Danes, was not however performed
by the women alone, but by the private orders of Ethelred II. who in
1012, privately commanded his officers to extirpate those cruel and
tirannical invaders.
18. King Henry the VIII’s walking staff, which has three match-lock
pistols in it, with coverings to keep the charges dry. “With this
staff, the warders tell you, the King sometimes walked round the city,
to see that the constables did their duty; and one night, as he was
walking near the bridge foot, the constable stopt him to know what he
did with such an unlucky weapon, at that time of the night. Upon which
the King struck him; but the constable calling the watch-men to his
assistance, his Majesty was apprehended, and carried to the Poultry
Compter, where he lay till morning, without either fire or candle. When
the keeper was informed of the rank of his prisoner, he dispatched a
messenger to the constable, who came trembling with fear, expecting
nothing less than to be hanged, drawn and quartered: but instead of
that, the King applauded him for his resolution in doing his duty,
and made him a handsome present. At the same time he settled upon
St. Magnus’s parish an annual grant of 23_l._ and a mark, and made a
provision for furnishing thirty chaldron of coals and a large allowance
of bread annually for ever, towards the comfortable relief of his
fellow prisoners and their successors; which, the warders say, is paid
them to this day.”
19. A large wooden cannon called _Policy_, because, as we are informed,
when King Henry VIII. besieged Bulloign, the roads being impassable
for heavy cannon, he caused a number of these wooden ones to be made,
and mounted on proper batteries before the town, as if real cannon;
which so terrified the French commandant, that he gave up the place
without firing a shot.——The truth is, the Duke of Suffolk, who
commanded at this siege under the King, soon made himself master of
the lower town; but it was not till seven weeks afterwards that the
upper town capitulated, in which time the English sustained great loss
in possessing themselves of the Bray. The warders must therefore be
greatly mistaken in their account of this piece.
20. The ax with which Queen Anne Bullen, the mother of Queen Elizabeth,
was beheaded, on the 19th of May 1536. The Earl of Essex, Queen
Elizabeth’s favourite, was also beheaded with the same ax.
21. A small train of ten pieces of pretty little cannon, neatly mounted
on proper carriages, being a present from the foundery of London to
King Charles I. when a child, to assist him in learning the art of
gunnery.
22. Weapons made with the blades of scithes fixed strait to the end
of poles. These were taken from the Duke of Monmouth’s party, at the
battle of Sedgemoore, in the reign of James II.
23. The partizans that were carried at the funeral of King William III.
24. The perfect model of the admirable machine, the idea of which was
brought from Italy by Sir Thomas Lombe, and first erected at Derby, at
his own expence, for making orgazine or thrown silk. This model is well
worth the observation of the curious.
You now come to the grand storehouse, a noble building to the northward
of the White Tower, that extends 245 feet in length, and 60 in breadth.
It was begun by King James II. who built it to the first floor; but it
was finished by King William III. who erected that magnificent room
called the New, or Small Armoury, in which that prince, with Queen
Mary, his consort, dined in great form, having all the warrant workmen
and labourers to attend them, dressed in white gloves and aprons, the
usual badges of the order of masonry.
This structure is of brick and stone, and on the north side is a
stately door case adorned with four columns, with their entablature and
triangular pediment of the Doric order, and under the pediment are the
King’s arms, with enrichments of trophy work.
_The Small Armoury._ To this noble room you are led by a folding door
adjoining to the east end of the Tower chapel, which leads to a grand
staircase of fifty easy steps. On the left-side of the uppermost
landing-place is the workshop, in which are constantly employed about
fourteen furbishers, in cleaning, repairing, and new placing the arms.
On entering the armoury you see what they call a wilderness of arms,
so artfully disposed, that at one view you behold arms for near 80,000
men, all bright, and fit for service at a moment’s warning: a sight
which it is impossible to behold without astonishment, and besides
those exposed to view, there were before the present war sixteen chests
shut up, each chest holding about 1200 muskets. Of the disposition
of the arms no adequate idea can be formed by description; but the
following account may enable the spectator to view them to greater
advantage, and help him to retain what he sees.
The arms were originally disposed in this manner by Mr. Harris, who
contrived to place them in this beautiful order both here and in the
guard chamber of Hampton Court. He was a common gunsmith, but after
he had performed this work, which is the admiration of people of all
nations, he was allowed a pension from the crown for his ingenuity.
The north and south walls are each adorned with eight pilasters, formed
of pikes sixteen feet long, with capitals of the Corinthian order
composed of pistols.
At the west end, on the left-hand, as you enter, are two curious
pyramids of pistols, standing upon crowns, globes, and scepters, finely
carved and placed upon pedestals five feet high.
At the east, or farther end, in the opposite corner are two suits of
armour, one made for that warlike prince Henry V. and the other for his
son Henry VI. over each of which is a semicircle of pistols: between
these is represented an organ, the large pipes composed of brass
blunderbusses, the small of pistols. On one side of the organ is the
representation of a fiery serpent, the head and tail of carved work,
and the body of pistols winding round in the form of a snake; and on
the other an hydra, whose seven heads are artfully combined by links of
pistols.
The inner columns that compose the wilderness, round which you are
conducted by your guides, are,
1. Some arms taken at Bath in the year 1715, distinguished from all
others in the Tower, by having what is called dog locks; that is, a
kind of locks with a catch to prevent their going off at half-cock.
2. Bayonets and pistols put up in the form of half moons and fans, with
the imitation of a target in the center made of bayonet blades. These
bayonets, of which several other fans are composed, are of the first
invention, they having plug handles which go into the muzzle of the
gun, instead of over it, and thereby prevent the firing of the piece,
without shooting away the bayonet. These were invented at Bayonne in
Spain, and from that place take their name.
3. Brass blunderbusses for sea service, with capitols of pistols over
them. The waves of the sea are here represented in old fashioned
bayonets.
4. Bayonets and sword-bayonets, in the form of half moons and fans, and
set in carved scollop-shells. The sword-bayonet is made like the old
bayonet, with a plug handle, and differs from it only in being longer.
5. The rising sun irradiated with pistols set in a chequered frame of
marine hangers of a peculiar make, having brass handles, and a dog’s
head on their pommels.
6. Four beautiful twisted pillars formed of pistols up to the top,
which is about twenty-two feet high, and placed at right angles; with
the representation of a falling star on the cieling exactly in the
middle of them, being the center of this magnificent room. Into this
place opens the grand staircase door, for the admission of the royal
family, or any of the nobility, whose curiosity leads them to view
the armoury; opposite to which opens another door into the balcony
that affords a fine prospect of the parade, the Governor’s house, the
Surveyor General’s, the Storekeeper’s, and other general officers in
the Tower.
7. The form of a large pair of folding gates made of serjeant’s
halberts, of an antique make.
8. Horsemen’s carbines, hanging very artificially in furbeloes and
flounces.
9. Medusa’s head, vulgarly called the witch of Endor, within three
regular ellipses of pistols, with snakes. The features are finely
carved, and the whole figure contrived with the utmost art. This figure
terminates the north side.
10. Facing the east wall, as you turn round, is a grand figure of a
lofty organ, ten ranges high, in which are contained upwards of two
thousand pair of pistols.
11. On the south side, as you return, the first figure that attracts
attention is Jupiter riding in a fiery chariot drawn by eagles, as if
in the clouds, holding a thunderbolt in his left hand, and over his
head is a rainbow, this figure is finely carved, and decorated with
bayonets.
The figures on this side answer pretty nearly to those on the other,
and therefore need no farther description, till you come again to the
centre; where, on each side the door leading to the balcony, you see,
12. A fine representation in carved work, of the star and garter,
thistle, rose and crown, ornamented with pistols, _&c._ and very
elegantly enriched with birds, _&c._
13. The arms taken from Sir William Perkins, Sir John Friend, Charnock,
and others concerned in the assassination plot, in 1696; among which
they shew the very blunderbuss with which they intended to shoot King
William near Turnham Green, in his way to Hampton Court: also the
carbine with which Charnock undertook to shoot that Monarch, as he rode
a hunting.
14. Lastly, the Highlanders arms, taken in 1715, particularly the Earl
of Mar’s fine piece, exquisitely wrought, and inlaid with mother of
pearl: also a Highland broad sword, with which a Highlander struck
General Evans, and at one blow cut him through the hat, wig, and iron
skull cap; on which that General is said to have shot him dead; others
say he was taken prisoner, and generously forgiven for his bravery.
Here is also the sword of justice, with a sharp point, and the sword
of mercy, with a blunt point, carried before the Pretender on his
being proclaimed King of Scotland, in 1715. Here are likewise some of
the Highlanders pistols, the barrels and stocks being all iron; also
a Highlander’s Loughabor ax, with which it is said Col. Gardner was
killed at the battle of Preston Pans.
A discerning eye will discover a thousand peculiarities in the
disposition of so vast a variety of arms, which no description can
reach, and therefore it is fit that every one who has a taste for the
admirable combinations of art, should gratify it with the sight of the
noblest curiosities of this kind in the whole world.
_The Royal Train of Artillery._ Upon the ground floor under the small
armoury, is a large room of equal dimensions with that, supported by
twenty pillars, all hung round with implements of war. This room which
is twenty-four feet high, has a passage in the middle sixteen feet wide.
At the sight of such a variety of the most dreadful engines of
destruction, before whose thunder the most superb edifices, the noblest
works of art, and numbers of the human species, fall together in
one common undistinguished ruin, one cannot help wishing that these
horrible inventions had still lain, like a false conception, in the
womb of nature, never to have been ripened into birth. But when, on
the other hand, we consider, that with us they are not used to answer
the purposes of ambition; but for self defence and in the protection
of our just rights, our terror subsides, and we view these engines of
devastation with a kind of solemn complacency, as the means providence
has put into our hands for our preservation.
1. You are shewn two large pieces of cannon employed by Admiral Vernon
before Carthagena; each of which has a large scale driven out of their
muzzles by balls from the castle of Bocca Chica.
2. Two pieces of excellent workmanship, presented by the city of London
to the young Duke of Gloucester, son to Queen Anne, to assist him in
learning the art of war.
3. Four mortars in miniature, for throwing hand granadoes, invented by
Col. Brown. They are fired with a lock like a common gun, but have not
yet been introduced into practice.
4. Two fine brass cannon taken from the walls of Vigo in 1704, by the
late Lord Cobham. Their breeches represent lions couchant, with the
effigy of St. Barbara, to whom they were dedicated.
5. A petard for bursting open the gates of a city or castle.
6. A large train of fine brass battering cannon, 24 pounders.
7. Some cannon of a new invention from 6 to 24 pounders. Their superior
excellence consists, first, in their lightness, the 24 pounders not
weighing quite 1700 weight, whereas formerly they weighed 5000; the
rest are in proportion; and secondly, in the contrivance for leveling
them, which is by a screw, instead of beds and coins. This new method
is more expeditious, and saves two men to a gun, and is said to be the
invention of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland.
8. Brass mortars of thirteen inches diameter, which throw a shell of
300 weight; with a number of smaller mortars, and shells in proportion.
9. A carcase, which they fill at sieges with pitch, tar, and other
combustibles to set towns on fire. It is thrown out of an eighteen inch
mortar, and will burn two hours where it happens to fall.
10. A Spanish mortar of twelve inches diameter, taken on board a ship
in the West Indies.
11. Six French pieces of cannon, six pounders, taken from the rebels at
the battle of Culloden, April 16, 1745.
12. A beautiful piece of ordnance, made for King Charles I. when Prince
of Wales. It is finely ornamented with emblematical devices, among
which is an eagle throwing a thunder bolt in the clouds.
13. A train of field-pieces, called the galloping train, carrying a
ball of a pound and half each.
14. A destroying engine, that throws thirty hand granadoes at once, and
is fired by a train.
15. A most curious brass cannon made for Prince Henry, the eldest son
of King James I. the ornamenting of which is said to have cost 200_l._
16. A piece with seven bores, for throwing so many balls at once, and
another with three, made as early as Henry the Eighth’s time.
17. The Drum-major’s chariot of state, with the kettle drums placed.
It is drawn by four white horses at the head of the train, when upon a
march.
18. Two French field-pieces, taken at the battle of Hochstadt in 1704.
19. An iron cannon of the first invention, being bars of iron hammered
together, and hooped from top to bottom with iron hoops, to prevent its
bursting. It has no carriage, but was to be moved from place to place
by means of six rings fixed to it at proper distances.
20. A very large mortar weighing upwards of 6600 weight, and throwing
a shell of 500 weight two miles. This mortar was fired so often at the
siege of Namur by King William, that the very touch hole is melted, for
want of giving it time to cool.
21. A fine twisted brass cannon twelve feet long made in Edward the
Sixth’s time, called Queen Elizabeth’s Pocket pistol; which the
warders, by way of joke, tell you she used to wear on her right side
when she rode a hunting.
22. Two brass cannon three bores each, carrying six pounders, taken by
the Duke of Marlborough at the glorious battle of Ramelies.
23. A mortar that throws nine shells at a time; out of which the
balloons were cast at the fire-works, for the last peace.
Besides those above enumerated, there were in the stove-room before the
present war, a vast number of new brass cannon; together with spunges,
ladles, rammers, handspikes, wadhooks, &c. with which the walls were
lined round; and under the cieling there hang on poles upwards of four
thousand harness for horses, besides men’s harness, drag-ropes, &c. And
besides the trophies of standards, colours, &c. taken from the enemy,
it is now adorned with the transparent pictures brought hither from the
fire-works played off at the conclusion of the last peace.
_The horse armoury_, is a plain brick building a little to the eastward
of the white tower; and is an edifice rather convenient than elegant,
where the spectator is entertained with a representation of those
kings and heroes of our own nation with whose gallant actions it is to
be supposed he is well acquainted; some of them equipped and sitting
on horseback, in the same bright and shining armour they were used
to wear when they performed those glorious actions that give them a
distinguished place in the British annals.
In ascending the staircase, just as you come to the landing-place, on
casting your eye into the room, you see the figure of a grenadier in
his acoutrements, as if upon duty, with his piece rested upon his arm;
which is so well done, that at the first glance you will be apt to
mistake it for real life.
When you enter the room, your conductor presents to your notice,
1. The figures of the horse and foot on your left-hand, supposed to be
drawn up in military order to attend the kings on the other side of the
house. These figures are as big as the life, and have been lately new
painted.
2. A large tilting lance of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, King
Henry the Eighth’s general in France; a nobleman who excelled at the
then fashionable diversion of tilting.
3. A complete suit of tilting armour, such as the kings, nobility and
gentlemen at arms used to wear; with the tilting lance, the rest for
the lance, and grand guard.
4. A complete suit of armour made for King Henry VIII. when he was but
eighteen years of age, rough from the hammer. It is at least six feet
high, and the joints in the hands, arms and thighs, knees and feet play
like the joints of a rattle snake, and are moved with all the facility
imaginable.
The method of learning the exercise of tilting, was upon wooden horses
set upon castors, which by the sway of the body could be moved every
way; so that by frequent practice, the rider could shift, parry,
strike, unhorse, and recover with surprizing dexterity. Some of the
horses in this armoury have been used for this purpose; and it is but
lately that the castors have been taken from their feet.
5. A little suit of armour made for King Charles II. when Prince of
Wales, and about seven or eight years of age; with a piece of armour
for his horse’s head; the whole most curiously wrought and inlaid with
silver.
6. Lord Courcy’s armour. This nobleman, as the warders tell you, was
grand champion of Ireland, and as a proof shew you the very sword he
took from the French champion; for which valiant action he and all his
successors have the honour to wear their hats in the King’s presence,
which privilege is still enjoyed by the Lord Kinsale, as head of that
antient and noble family.
7. Real coats of mail, called Brigandine Jackets. They consist of small
bits of steel, so artfully quilted one over another, as to resist the
point of a sword, and perhaps a musket ball, and yet are so flexible,
that the wearer might bend his body any way, as well as in his ordinary
clothes.
8. An Indian suit of armour, sent by the Great Mogul as a present to
King Charles II. This is a very great curiosity; it is made of iron
quills about two inches long, finely japanned and ranged in rows, one
row easily slipping over another: these are bound very strong together
with silk twist, and are used in that country as a defence against
darts and arrows.
9. A neat little suit of armour worn by a carved figure representing
Richard Duke of York, the youngest son of King Edward IV. who, with his
brother Edward V. were smothered in the Tower, by order of their uncle
and guardian, Richard III.
10. The armour of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, who was the son of a
King, the father of a King, and the uncle of a King, but was never King
himself: and Dugdale observes, that more kings and sovereign princes
sprang from his loins, than from any King in Christendom. The armour
here shewn is seven feet high, and the sword and lance of an enormous
size.
11. The droll figure of Will Somers, who, as the warders tell you, was
King Henry the Eighth’s jester. They add, “He was an honest man of a
woman’s making—he had a handsome woman to his wife, who made him a
cuckold; and he wears his horns on his head, because they should not
wear holes in his pockets.——He would neither believe King, Queen,
nor any about the court, that he was a cuckold, till he put on his
spectacles to see, being a little dim sighted, as all cuckolds should
be:” in which antic manner he is here represented.
12. What your conductors call, a collar of torments, which say they,
“used formerly to be put about the womens necks that cuckolded their
husbands, or scolded at them when they came home late, but that custom
is left off now-a-days, to prevent quarrelling for collars, there not
being smiths enough to make them, as most married men are sure to want
at one time or other.”
You now come to the line of Kings, which your conductor begins by
reversing the order of chronology; so that in following them we must
place the last first.