Chapter XIV: Part 14

As Garden Tower, this building was a well-known Tudor prison. From hence to Bell Tower, 150 feet, the original curtain remains, of its full height of about 40 feet, and its base thickness about 10 feet. It is, however, so defaced outside, and inside so encrusted with houses of the Tudor period, that but little of its detail can be seen. It is pretty clear that there is no range of loopholes in its substance. A cell, recently a stable, is really a Tudor brick vault built against it.

Near to Bell Tower is an original mural chamber, probably a garderobe, lighted by a recess and loop. This recess shows the original wall, about 7 feet thick; and an interior addition of 3 feet more. The original recess has an acute, and the addition a drop arch. The one may be early English, and the other of Decorated date. Above this the full thickness of the wall is seen in the great modern window, cut through it, in the constable’s lodging.

Bell Tower is so called from the alarm bell once suspended from its summit. The bell now discharges the less exciting duty of summoning the garrison to St. Peter’s Church, and the bell turret has been replaced by a _gazebo_. The tower caps the south-west angle of the ward, and stands 40 feet within the Byward Gate, which it commands. It is in plan an irregular octagon, about 35 feet mean diameter, and 60 feet high, from the level of the outer ward. Five and a half of its sides project beyond the curtains. Above, the angles are rudely rounded off, and the upper 20 feet is cylindrical, and may be an early addition. The two southern faces have a chamfered plinth, 6 feet high. The walls have been stuck over with chips of flint, and the parapet is a brick addition; but it is evident that the basement was originally of fine jointed ashlar, almost equal to Wakefield. Five cruciform loops mark the line of the interior basement, about 14 feet above the exterior ground.

The lower 10 feet of this tower is solid, and above this are two stages. The basement, now a cellar and boot-hole, is of irregular plan, and may be called a rectangular figure with inclined ends. The walls are from 9 feet to 13 feet thick, and contain four pointed arched recesses with loops, and a mural chamber, also looped. The entrance passage from the gorge is bent at right angles.

This chamber is vaulted and ribbed, its outer end terminating in a rude pentagon, traversed by five hip-ribs, of plain rectangular section, and meeting by a high-pitched arch, in a central boss. This boss and the capitals whence spring three of the ribs are of early English character. The shafts are wanting.

The upper chamber is rudely circular, and about 18 feet across. The walls are 8 feet thick. From the well-stair, which commences at this level, a short passage opens into a rectangular lobby, also vaulted, 4 feet by 5 feet 6 inches, from which a door leads into the chamber, and another into a small flag-roofed mural gallery, which threads the south wall for 22 feet, and has two loops, one raking the south curtain, the other lighting a garderobe, which seems to have another opening direct into the tower.

The main chamber was lighted by four loops, of which two have been 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Develin Tower, in 4 Richard II. “Galighmaies Tower,” when no cart or dray was to come before it into St. Katherine’s unless the brethren paid a fine to the constable, was, in 1549, Galleyman, and in 1641, Iron Gate Tower. Until recently it was a powder-magazine, and not to be entered with a light. These conditions are not favourable to the study of its interior. It is a long rectangular tower, 18 feet by 32 feet, and built wholly in the ditch, one end being applied to the face of the curtain, so that it projects like a buttress from the south end of the east curtain, while its south side is a prolongation of the river front. The exterior has been partially cased, but it is evidently old, and in substance as originally built. Its basement is solid, but about 10 feet above the ditch is a line of loops on the north and south, or two longer faces. There has been an upper story, the walls of which remain, but seem later than the lower. At this level, in the east face, is the outline of a door, which, if a postern, opened 20 feet above the ditch. The view of 1597 shows a double wall, probably an embattled dam serving as a bridge, extending from this tower across the ditch, and crowned on the counterscarp by a small work, called the “Iron Gate.” If this drawing be correct, the roadway was through the basement chamber, and the upper floor led to the rampart of the wall. This gate led into the precinct of St. Katherine’s. The tower is probably the work of Henry III., and connected with an original dam for keeping up the water of the ditch. Forty feet west of Develin is Well Tower.

Well Tower, also rectangular, forms a part of the curtain, and has a projection into the ditch 10 feet by 16 feet wide. Its basement, below the present level of the inner ward, and scarcely above the water level of the ditch, contains a chamber, 14 feet by 10 feet, vaulted at a high pitch in two unequal bays, the north the larger, parted by a transverse rib. Each bay is vaulted in four cells, with four hip-ribs meeting in a plain mitred joint. There is a half or wall-rib in the gable of each cell. The ribs are 7½ inches broad by 6¾ inches deep, with a plain chamfer, and spring from four corner and two intermediate circular bell corbels, the tops of which are 3 feet 4 inches from the floor. The height of the chamber is 11 feet 6 inches. There are four loops, one pointing northwards into the ward, and the rest opening towards the ditch. All are under drop arches. In the west side is a door of 3 feet, opening in a drop-arched recess, which may have led into a mural cell in the curtain, or have been an entrance from the ward. On the east side a rectangular appendage, entered by a square-headed door, contains a well-stair of 6 feet 3 inches diameter, looped upon the inner face of the curtain and the ditch. This stair leads to an upper room on the rampart level, not vaulted, 15 feet by 10 feet, looped to the field and upon the face of the west curtain. In its north wall an original door, 2 feet 3 inches wide, opens on the rampart. The second floor is modern. Well Tower is a good example of the early English style.

Well Tower stands due south of Salt Tower, and a short curtain, with a gateway, connected them. Part of it remains, 12 feet high and 6 feet thick, pierced with loops at the ground level, and embattled against an attack on the east. This rampart was reached from Well Tower, and did not communicate with Salt Tower. A similar cross curtain connected Salt Tower with the outer ward wall westward. This also was looped, had a central gate, and was embattled for defence from a south attack. These two curtains thus enclosed the approach to the Iron Gate postern, and prevented either part of the outer ward from being entered by surprise. These arrangements are evidently as early as the time of Henry III., and are shown in the view of 1597.

Cradle Tower comes next west, at 118 feet distant. It stands on the outer wall, and projects 9 feet into the ditch, with a breadth of 16 feet. It is a gatehouse, and though of small dimension very complete in its design, and of excellent construction. It stood nearly in front of the bye-gate of the royal quarter, and allowed a direct passage thence to the quay.

It is in plan T-shaped, the portal running through the main limb, which projects into the ditch, and the lateral wings, each containing a lodge, forming a gorge or main front of 26 feet width, and flanked by two diagonal buttresses, which cap the angles and project into the ward. Between these is the doorway, and on each side of it a small lancet window, cinquefoil-headed. One of these windows is quite unaltered.

The doorway is 7 feet 2 inches broad, with a drop arch and light chamfer moulding. Two feet in is a portcullis groove, succeeded by a doorway of 5 feet opening, of which the valves move inwards. The wall is 4 feet 7 inches thick. The passage is a chamber of two squares, 7 feet broad, and 12 feet 6 inches high. It is vaulted in two equal bays, parted by a transverse rib. Each bay has four hip-ribs, and a straight rib takes the crown line of each vaulting cell, so that eight ribs meet in the centre of each bay, the point of junction being a hollow circle. There is besides a wall-rib in each gable. The rib parting the two bays, and the longitudinal rib, have a plain mitred junction. The rib and circle-mouldings are the same. They are light and bold, 5 inches broad and 7 inches deep. The base of the rib has a hollow chamfer, and its apex is an ogee. The ribs spring from four corner and two intermediate corbels, the tops of which are 7 feet from the ground. These are octagonal and embattled. The bracket below is much defaced.

The doorway in the south end, of 4 feet 6 inches opening, had gates opening inwards, and outside them is a second portcullis groove.

The lodges open from the central passage close to the ward entrance, by doors, 2 feet 10 inches wide, one of which has the remains of the cusps of a cinquefoil in the head. They are 12 feet broad by 8 feet 9 inches long and 12 feet high, having the small windows already noticed towards the ward. They are hip-vaulted in chalk, with four cells, having four ribs 7 inches broad by 7 inches deep, springing from corbels, now knocked off, but the tops of which were 7 feet above the floor. There are no wall ribs. The portal arches of the main passage are drop in recesses, of which one is so low as to be nearly, and the other is quite, segmental. The vault-arches are equilateral, or nearly so.

On each side of the part of this tower that projects into the ditch, on the outside, is a recess, on the west face 4 feet 6 inches, and on the east face 3 feet broad, and 1 foot 4 inches deep. Possibly these were the shoots of garderobes from the upper floor and battlements, now removed. On each side, at the old water level, is a half-arch admitting the water of the ditch below the drawbridge or cradle.

ST. THOMAS’S TOWER.—BASEMENT.]

In the curtain, close west of this tower, is a well-stair, leading from the west lodge to the roof.

The superstructure of Cradle Tower is said to have formed a part of the palace quarter, and the view of 1597 shows it as a water-gate, with a square turret on its west flank, where was the supposed staircase. It shows also, west of this, a considerable tower extending across the ward, here very narrow, to the Lanthorn Tower, and which no doubt contained the Lanthorn Gate.

The details of Cradle Tower are rather Decorated than early English; and if, as is historically probable, it be the work of Henry III., it must be late in his reign, and was perhaps completed by his son. Owing to the cumbrous character of the sluices and gates of St. Thomas’s Tower, state prisoners were sometimes admitted by this gate, then fitted with a cradle or drawbridge.

St. Thomas’s Tower, better known from its ancient function as Traitors’ Gate, is the water-gate of the Tower, and also contained and commanded the communication between the Thames and the main ditch. It is, in fact, a barbican, and a very singular one, placed astride upon the ditch, here 40 feet broad, and perforated by a passage leading from the river. It stands considerably west of the south front, being in advance of the Bloody Tower 30 feet, the breadth, at this point, of the outer ward.

The quay, in front of this tower, is traversed by a channel, 28 feet broad and 13 feet 6 inches deep, partly arched over and newly lined with granite, which opens from the Thames, through an archway 21 feet broad, into a rectangular basin or pool, 66 feet by 40 feet, and 18 feet deep, lined and paved with stone, and containing, when the gates are opened, about 8 feet of water at high water. A flight of steps from the water, on the inner or north side of this basin, landed the prisoner within 30 feet of the gateway of the inner ward.

The tower proper is placed above the outer 18 feet of this basin, but its side walls are prolonged backwards, so that both the front and sides of the basin are protected. The south wall, 9 feet thick, is pierced below by a low-browed water portal, already mentioned, beneath a drop arch, ribbed and chamfered. Between the ribs is a groove, 6 inches broad, for an iron sluice or portcullis, worked in the building above; and in the jambs are two holes, 6 inches diameter, lined with iron, for the passage of a chain. Within this, on the inner face of the portal, were folding gates opening inwards.

DETAIL OF RING STONES.]

Seventeen feet within this outer wall the basin is crossed by an arch, supporting a light wall of brick and timber, which was the rear wall of the tower. This arch is a very remarkable piece of construction. It springs from two half-octagonal piers, and is segmental, of 61 feet span and 15½ feet rise. The voussoirs form two ribs, and the inner one is composed of seventy-five stones, united by a simple joggle or rebate. The rectangular tower, which thus rises from the walls of the outer half of the basin, is 86 feet east and west by 18 feet north and south, and capped at its two Thames-ward angles by light cylindrical turrets, three-quarters engaged, and rising above the parapet of the tower. The side walls, prolonged backwards an additional 30 feet, terminate in two square turrets, which occupy the northern angles, and also rise above the battlements.

Two doors on the north faces of these turrets, on the ground level, open into a mural gallery in each wall, looped on one face towards the ditch and on the other towards the basin. These galleries communicate with the southern turrets, and are continued within the south wall, having each two loops towards the Thames and two towards the basin. They do not meet, being stopped by the jambs of the sluice-gate. They were also used to receive the slack of the chain when drawn up.

The floor of the tower, which is above the level of these galleries, contained the machinery for lifting the sluice, which must have been heavy. The walls of this floor are also pierced with loops, and contain two garderobes. In the river-front are two early Decorated windows, of two lights each. The two upper chambers in the south turrets open into this floor, which is reached by a winding stair in the north-east turret, and by an exterior stone stair in the north-west turret.

The four chambers in the two cylindrical turrets are of excellent design and delicate workmanship, as may be seen from the plate in the “Vetusta Monumenta.” They are in plan octagons, having slender columns, with high bases and bell caps, all cylindrical, and slightly engaged, in each angle, from each of which springs a light chamfered rib, meeting in a plain joint at the centre. There are thus eight cells, each with a lancet gable, supported by two half-ribs. Three of the faces have windows or loops, and another is occupied by the door. In the lower rooms the loops have chamfered recesses beneath drop arches. In the upper, the loops are larger, but still square-headed, and their recesses have an arch-rib with a hollow chamfer. The south-east upper chamber was an oratory. The window-sills on each side the east windows are Purbeck slabs, hollowed into bowls,—on the south for a piscina, on the north for holy water. Both slabs projected, and have been broken off when the walls were wainscoted.

There is a second floor, reached by a well-stair in the square turrets, which ascend further to the roof, but it contains nothing of interest. The well-stair in the north-east turret leads to a door that opens on the north face, 20 feet from the ground, and which opened outwards, and was barred on the outside. The meaning of this is only explicable on the supposition that a bridge, or perhaps an embattled cross-wall, connected this door with the corresponding opening in Wakefield Tower, 18 feet distant. By this means a person leaving St. Thomas’s Tower, and barring the door behind him, would reach Wakefield Tower, and therefore the palace, and cut off pursuit. In the second floor of St. Thomas’s Tower is another door, above and similar to the first, which in like manner communicated with the top floor of Wakefield Tower; so that either there were two drawbridges, or a wall pierced by a mural gallery at 20 feet high, and with a rampart walk at its summit.

St. Thomas’s Tower was, until lately, occupied by a water-engine, to the great injury of its walls. The upper rooms were cut up into lodgings by means of wainscot and lath and plaster. All has lately been cleared out, and the tower restored in good taste.

St. Thomas’s Tower is attributed, and no doubt justly, to Henry III.; but, although the octagon chambers have an early English aspect, the grand arch, the staircase doors, and the windows towards the river are decidedly Decorated, though probably early in that style. If, therefore, this tower be of one date, it must be very late in the reign of Henry, but more probably it was completed and the grand arch turned in that of his son. The material is a rag-stone laid in uncoursed rubble masonry, like Beauchamp and Salt Towers, with ashlar dressings. The pool below was extensively repaired by Henry VIII. There is some reason to suppose that this was the tower that fell twice while being built.

The curtain along this front is original, though capped and patched in modern times. It seems to have been about 20 feet high above the water, and from 12 feet to 14 feet on the inner side. In parts it was 12 feet thick; but the addition of brick casements in Tudor times, to enable the ramparts to carry cannon, prevents an accurate examination. It is no doubt the work of Henry III. From St. Thomas’s to Byward Tower is 160 feet.

Byward Tower is the great gatehouse of the outer ward, and is placed upon the scarp of the west ditch, at its junction with the south ditch. It is in plan rectangular, 50 feet broad by 24 feet deep, and its two outward angles are capped by drum towers, 23 feet diameter, one quarter engaged, which rise out of the moat. Between them is a curtain of 14 feet, pierced by the main entrance. The towers, below the roadway, are solid; above it they are of three stages, and 49 feet high to the crest of the parapet, which, with most of the casing, is modern.

The portal opens from the bridge by a low drop arch, 12 feet broad and 12 feet high, reduced by two deep chamfers to 10 feet opening, followed by a broad jamb, in which are loop openings from the lodges. This is succeeded by a 6-inch portcullis groove, with a chase of 16 inches in the vault, to allow of the passage of a heavy wooden grate. Then follows a heavy rib, pierced with three round holes, which slightly converge, and are probably for the beams of a stockade, supposing the gates to be forced; and behind is a rebate with hinges for the valves of a door, opening inwards. The middle portion of the portal, which begins here, has a flat timber roof, 18 feet high. In it is a second portcullis groove, and the doors of the warders’ lodges. Finally is the inner archway, without jambs, but with a bold triple rib forming the arch.

The south lodge door enters a lobby, 8 feet by 4 feet, vaulted in chalk, with a southern loop raking the postern. A pointed door on the left or east face opens into a garderobe, with a loop to the east, now closed. Opposite, a short passage, also vaulted, and with a cross rib, leads into the south or warders’ lodge.

This is an octagon, 15 feet 9 inches from face to face. In each angle is a slender octagonal pier, engaged on a face and two half-faces, with a sort of bell-cap and stilted base, both octagonal. From each pier spring a main rib and two half-ribs. The former meet in the centre in a plain joint; the latter form lancet arches at the gable of each cell. All are narrow and plainly chamfered. Of the eight vaulting cells the ridge lines are horizontal, and have no ribs. The ribs and piers are of freestone, the vaults of chalk. From the floor to the pier caps is 6 feet 11 inches. The total height is 17 feet.

In each of the faces is a recess. That on the north-east is the entrance. The south-east is occupied by a fireplace, no doubt representing an original one; The other six are looped.

The north lodge is entered through a lobby, 7 feet 9 inches square, and 15 feet high, vaulted in four cells, with four slender chamfered hip-ribs, springing from octangular corbels, one at each angle. There is no boss. Each cell has a profile half-rib in its gable.

In the east side is a long two-light window beneath a segmental recess, which seems original. This window, and the proportions and general elegance of this chamber, point to its possible use as an oratory. Those who entered the Tower might well need to be met by spiritual support on the threshold.

In its north wall is a small lancet doorway, leading to a well-stair, but probably always closed. A west door leads through a short passage into the lodge, now a police barrack. This lodge resembles closely that on the south side, save that the east recess is closed up, and the fireplace, the brackets of which are original, occupies the north-east face. The upper part of this chamber, towards the ditch, has been pierced, probably for musketry, so as to command the approach from Tower Street. In the north-east angle of this gatehouse is a well-stair, entered by a separate door from the east and outer side.

The first floor contains two large octagonal chambers in the towers. The staircase opens into one of these in the north-east angle, and a chamber 8 feet square occupies the south-east angle. The rear wall between these two turrets is wanting, so that this gatehouse, with its portcullis chamber, was intended to be open in the rear, or was closed, as now, by a lath-and-plaster brattice. There was a small window to the west, over the entrance-gate, looking on the bridge.

The arrangements of the second floor are still more simple. The staircase remains, and the two octagon chambers, but the small south-east chamber is wanting. The rear is open.

At the battlement level the staircase and its turret cease. There is now nothing above the parapet.

In the rear of and attached to the south-east part of this gatehouse is a low tower, of later date, intended to cover a postern bridge, traversing the south ditch, and dropping on the quay. The tower is rectangular in plan, 14 feet broad and 29 feet long, besides an acute salient of 12 feet more, which projects into the south ditch, and prevents it from being raked.

It is pierced north and south by a portal 6 feet 9 inches broad, which commences by a square cell, vaulted, with a cross and longitudinal rib, chamfered, and pierced at the intersection by an octagonal cavity. Two door jambs then reduce the opening by a foot, and between them, in the vault, is a hole 9 inches diameter, apparently intended for a chain which passed out over the rib of the further door, and worked, still within the tower, a light bridge, the recess for which is seen outside the door. The chamber here widens by 3 feet, to allow space for those defending the east wall. When this bridge was down, a way was opened to a door in the west wall, outside which is a platform, whence a second bridge dropped southwards across the ditch. The upper story of this postern tower was one large chamber for working the inner bridge. A door leads from it upon the rampart walk of the east curtain. Above this were the battlements of the postern, two stages below that of the contiguous tower. In the Tudor reigns these buildings were encumbered with additions in brick, timber, and plaster, which still remain, and much obscure the original details. This postern tower is Perpendicular, perhaps the work of Richard II.

Besides the bulwarks and towers just described, the inner ward was strengthened against surprise by several cross walls and gates, breaking it up into independent sections. One of these gates crossed from Bell to Byward Tower, and another, it is said, crossed north of Beauchamp Tower. There were walls with gates across the ward, on either side of Traitors’ Gate, so that prisoners could be brought in by water and led across into the Bloody Tower gate, without any chance of rescue in the outer ward, and indeed without being seen. Another gateway of a stronger description, and with towers, extended from Lanthorn to near Cradle Tower; and another also, already mentioned, opened in the small curtain between Salt and Well Tower. There was at least one more gateway in the short curtain east from Salt Tower. The ward, between all these gates, must have been intended to be open; but, at least since the Tudor reigns, it has been encumbered with private houses. Here the operations of the Mint were carried on with much inconvenience; and the north and west limbs of the ward still bear the name of Mint Street, and the east limb, of Irish Mint Street.

The curtain or scarp wall of this ward was, no doubt, the work of Henry III., and much of the wall is still original. In the west wall, near Byward, below a modern battery of two guns, are six loops, probably old, but lighting modern casemates, and beneath each an air-hole. Also, on the north front, close west of the new bastion in the wall, is a pointed arched door, long closed up, but probably an original water-gate. West of this also is an original loop, no doubt marking the place of a mural chamber not now accessible.

The modern additions to this curtain consist in a line of casemates, storehouses, canteens, magazines, and workshops, built against and concealing its inner face, and giving a rampart or platform of 30 feet width.

This exterior wall has been built with great care on a broad and deep foundation, since it shows no sign of settlement, though built in what, until recently, was a deep and muddy ditch. At one part indeed, close south of Brass Mount, it has been strengthened by three very clumsy buttresses of 12 feet in breadth and 22 feet projection. One covers the internal angle of the bastion; the next is about 40 feet distant; and the third, at about the same space, is in fact a rectangular mural tower resembling Galleyman, and contains a small chamber having two loops on each of its three free faces. Its parapet is new, and pierced for two guns.