CHAPTER VI
ALLHALLOWS BARKING BY THE TOWER 169
INDEX 215
When our gallant Norman foes Made our merry land their own, And the Saxons from the Conqueror were flying, At his bidding it arose, In its panoply of stone, A sentinel unliving and undying. Insensible, I trow, As a sentinel should be, Though a queen to save her head should come a-suing; There’s a legend on its brow That is eloquent to me, And it tells of duty done and duty doing.
“The screw may twist and the rack may turn, And men may bleed and men may burn, On London town and all its hoard It keeps its solemn watch and ward!”
Within its wall of rock The flower of the brave Have perished with a constancy unshaken. From the dungeon to the block, From the scaffold to the grave, Is a journey many gallant hearts have taken. And the wicked flames may hiss Round the heroes who have fought For conscience and for home in all its beauty, But the grim old fortalice Takes little heed of aught That comes not in the measure of its duty.
“The screw may twist and the rack may turn, And men may bleed and men may burn, On London town and all its hoard It keeps its solemn watch and ward!” SIR WILLIAM GILBERT.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
1. The White Tower (Keep), with the Lanthorn Tower in the Foreground, from the Tower Bridge _Frontispiece_
2. The Byward and Bell Towers, with the King’s House on the right, looking from the Traitor’s Gate 8
3. Top of the Portcullis in Bloody Tower 24
4. Portion of the Armoury, White Tower 40
5. Panorama of the Tower and Greenwich in 1543, by Anthony van den Wyngaerde 48 and 49
6. The Council Chamber in the King’s House 56
7. Gateway of Bloody Tower with entrance to Jewel House (Wakefield Tower) 80
8. Middle Tower (West Front) 90
9. The Traitor’s Gate, from within 98
10. The Bloody Tower and Jewel House (Wakefield Tower), looking East 104
11. Interior of St. John’s Chapel in the White Tower, looking East 112
12. The King’s House from Tower Green 120
13. Principal Room, for State Prisoners, in the Beauchamp Tower 128
14. Chaplain’s House, and Entrance to Church of St. Peter ad Vincula, Tower Green 132
15. Part of a Bastion of Old London Wall, with Clock Tower of the White Tower 136
16. East End of St. John’s Chapel in the White Tower, from Broad Arrow Tower 146
17. The Tower from the Tower Bridge, looking West 150
18. The Tower from Tower Hill 156
19. The Block, Axe, and Executioner’s Mask 166
20. A True and Exact Draught of the Tower Liberties, surveyed in the year 1597 by Gulielmus Haiward and J. Gascoyne 172 and 173
21. The Tower from Great Tower Street (South Porch of Allhallows Barking) 184
22. Church of Allhallows Barking by the Tower (East side of South Aisle) 202
_Sketch Plan of the Tower at end of Volume._
THE TOWER OF LONDON