of the Tower which tell of the dark deeds done within its walls have been preserved; for, of the Royal Palace, the abode of our Sovereigns to the time of Charles II., no view exists. The site is now occupied by wharves and machinery. TWO PRISONERS IN THE BELL TOWER. THE Rev. Thomas Hugo, F.S.A., in his admirable paper, read to the London and Middlesex Archæological Society, upon the Bell Tower of the Tower of London, thus picturesquely introduces two of the illustrious tenants of this historical prison-house-this gloomy dungeon, and the scarcely less gloomy chamber immediately above it. Of course, the identification of particular prisoners with particular spots is legendary, and we can very rarely adduce precise and historical proof of the correctness of such attribution. Where, however, tradition has constantly gone in one direction, and where, age after age, the same legend has obtained, it seems to savour of perverse incredulity to hesitate to accept what is not plainly and flagrantly opposed to likelihood. Assuming as a fact what tradition asserts, -that these walls once looked upon two faces, among, doubtless, many others, whose owners possess considerable attractions for the minds of Englishmen. The first of the two was the venerable Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who fell under the headsman's axe for denying the spiritual supremacy of Henry VIII. The Bishop of Rochester was one of the foremost men of his age, and was for many years confessor to the king's grandmother, the Countess of Richmond; and it is supposed that her munificence towards our two universities-by founding St. John's and Christ's Colleges at Cambridge, and the professorships of divinity in both Oxford and Cambridge—was mainly owing to his pious advice and direction. He sided, as was likely, against the king in the matter of Queen Katharine, whose cause he warmly advocated, and, as also was likely, drew down upon himself the displeasure of his unscrupulous sovereign. At length, when called before the Lambeth council, and commanded to acknowledge the king's supremacy, he resolutely refused to do so, and was forthwith committed to the Tower. He had now reached his eightieth year, and the cold damp dungeon into which he was thrust was not calculated to prolong his days. Perhaps his enemies desired that death should naturally remove him, and remove from them also the odium which could not fail to attach to all who should be instrumental in his more direct and manifest destruction. His constitution, however, was proof against his position, and for many months he bore his privations as became a good soldier in a cause on which his heart and soul were set. Out of his painful dungeon he wrote to Mr. Secretary Cromwell in these words:"Furthermore, I beseech you, to be good master to me in my necessity, for I have neither suit nor yet other clothes that are necessary for me to wear but that be ragged and rent shamefully. My diet also, God knoweth how slender it is at many times; and now in mine age my stomack may not away with but a few kinds of meat, which, if I want, I decay forthwith, and fall into coughs and diseases of my body, and cannot keep myself in health. And as our Lord knoweth, I have nothing left unto me to provide any better, but as my brother of his own purse layeth out for me to his great hindrance. Therefore, good Master Secretary, I beseech you to have some pity upon me, and let me have such things as are necessary for me in mine age, and especially for my health. * Then shall you bind me for ever to be your poor beadsman unto Almighty God, who ever have you in His protection and custody." * * This was written in the depth of a bitter winter, for the aged writer concludes :-" This, I beseech you, to grant me of your charity. And thus our Lord send you a merry Christmas, and a comfortable, to your heart's desire. At the Tower, the 22 day of December." The Bishop left this abode of persecution for his bloody death on Tower Hill. The scene again changes, and this time a very different prisoner enters the portals of the Bell Tower. It is now the fair and blooming face of a young and noble lady, afterwards the Queen of this great country, then known by the name of the Princess Elizabeth. Her sister, ever sullen and suspicious, had removed her, to the danger of her life, from her home at Ashridge, in Hertfordshire, and after necessary delay at Redborne, St. Alban's, South Mimms, and Highgate, she at length, some days after the beginning of her journey, arrived at Whitehall. Within a fortnight she was lodged in her prison in the Tower. Doubtless you know the story; but her entrance into the fortress deserves a moment's mention. The barge was directed to enter by Traitors' Gate, much to the annoyance of the fair prisoner. It rained hard (an old chronicler says), and a certain unnamed lord offered her his cloak; but she "put her hand back with a good dash," and then, as she set her foot on the dreaded stairs, she cried out aloud-" Here landeth as good a subject, being a prisoner, as ever landed at these stairs: and before Thee, O God, I speak it, having none other friends but Thee." A few minutes afterwards found her a fast prisoner, and, as tradition tells, in the very turret to which we have been drawing your attention. WHAT BECAME OF THE HEADS OF BISHOP FISHER FISHER, Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, were two of the most eminent persons who were executed for not acknowledging King Henry VIII. as supreme head of the Church of England. Bishop Fisher was executed on St. Alban's Day, the 22nd of June, 1535, about ten in the morning; and his head was to have been erected upon Traitors' Gate, London Bridge, the same night; but that it was delayed, to be exhibited to Queen Anne Boleyn. We gather these particulars from a curious duodecimo, written by Hall, but attributed to Dr. Thomas Baily, 1665, who further relates "The next day after his burying, the head, being parboyled, was pricked upon a pole, and set on high upon London Bridge, among the rest of the holy Carthusians' heads that suffered death lately before him. And here I cannot omit to declare unto you the miraculous sight of this head, which, after it had stood the space of fourteen dayes upon the bridge, could not be perceived to wast nor consume: neither for the weather, which was then very hot, neither for the up parboyling in hot water, but grew daily fresher and fresher, so that in his lifetime he never looked so well; for his cheeks being beautified with a comely red, the face looked as though it had beholden the people passing by, and would have spoken to them; which many took for a miracle that Almighty God was pleased to shew above the course of nature in thus preserving the fresh and lively colour in his face, surpassing the colour he had being alive, whereby was noted to the world the innocence and holiness of this blessed father that thus innocently was content to lose his head in defence of his Mother the Holy Catholique Church of Christ. Wherefore the people coming daily to see this strange sight, the passage over the bridge was so stopped with their going and coming, that almost neither cart nor horse could passe; and therefore at the end of fourteen daies the executioner was commanded to throw down the head, in the night-time, into the River of Thames; and in the place thereof was set the head of the most blessed and constant martyr Sir Thomas More, his companion and fellow in all his troubles, who suffered his passion" on Tuesday "the 6th of July next following, about nine o'clock in the morning.” The bodies of Fisher and More were buried in the chapel of St. Peter in the Tower; the head of More, says his great-grandson, in his life of him, printed in 1726, "Was putt upon London Bridge, where as trayters' heads are sett vpon poles; and hauing remained some moneths there, being to be cast into the Thames, because roome should be made for diuerse others, who in plentiful sorte suffered martyrdome for the same supremacie, shortly after it was bought by his daughter Margarett, least,-as she stoutly affirmed before the |