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mark, so that the locality may be said to be drained only for 4 hours out of the 12, and during these 4 hours very imperfectly. The sewers now empty themselves into the Thames at various levels. When the tide rises above the orifices of these sewers, the whole drainage of the district is stopped until the tide recedes again, rendering the whole river side system of sewers in Kent and Surrey a succession of cesspools.* Within the City of London alone, which is said to include about 50 miles of streets, alleys, and courts, there are 49 miles of sewerage. The late Mr. Frank Forster's scheme (adopted by the Board of Health and the Commissioners of Sewers) is to have the sewage of the N. side conveyed, by intercepting sewers or trunk drains, to a point called the "Pumping Station," on the eastern bank of the river Lea, whence it will be again transferred to a second point four miles distant, on the bank of the river Roding, at the eastern extremity of Galleons Reach, a little below Blackwall. Here there is to be a reservoir, in which the sewage will accumulate during flood tide, and be thence effectually discharged during the first 3 hours of the ebb. This, it will be seen, gets rid of cesspools, and supplies a direct drainage instead. The cost, at the lowest calculation, will be at least a million, exclusive of what may be required for land-purchases and compensations. Of this great work, the Victoria-street sewer, extending from Scotland Yard Whitehall, through Parliament-square and Victoria-street, to Shaftesbury-terrace, Pimlico, was completed 1856.

* Mr. Stephenson, in the Times of 10th August, 1850.

XIII.-TOWER OF LONDON.

TOWER OF LONDON, the most celebrated fortress in Great Britain, stands immediately without the City walls, on the left or Middlesex bank of the Thames, and "below bridge."

"This Tower," says Stow, "is a citadel to defend or command the City; a royal palace for assemblies or treaties; a prison of state for the most dangerous offenders; the only place of coinage for all England at this time; the armoury for warlike provisions; the treasury of the ornaments and jewels of the Crown; and general conserver of most of the records of the King's courts of justice at Westminster."-Stow, p. 23. Tradition has carried its erection many centuries earlier than our records :

"Prince. Where shall we sojourn till our coronation? "Gloster. Where it seems best unto your royal self. If I may counsel you, some day or two

Your highness will repose you at the Tower.

"Prince. I do not like the Tower, of any place.-
Did Julius Cæsar build that place, my lord?

"Buck. He did, my gracious lord, begin that place,
Which since succeeding ages have re-edified.
"Prince. Is it upon record, or else reported

Successively from age to age, he built it?
"Buck. Upon record, my gracious lord."

Shakspeare, King Richard III., Act iii,, sc. 1.
"This is the way

To Julius Cæsar's ill-erected Tower."

Shakspeare, King Richard II., Act v., sc. 1.

"Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame,
With many a foul and midnight murder fed."

Gray, The Bard.

Antiquaries fail to confirm tradition in the remote antiquity assigned to the Tower. No part of the existing structure is of a date anterior to the Keep, or the great white and square tower in the centre, called the White Tower, and this, it is well known, was built by William the Conqueror (circ. 1078), the King appointing Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, to be

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principal surveyor and overseer of that work. The chapel in this Tower, now the Record Room, is one of the most complete remaining specimens of a Norman church, on a small scale.

The Tower was formerly accessible by four gates only: the Lions' Gate, on the W. side, where the lions and King's beasts were kept, and still the principal entrance; by the Water Gate, for receipt of boats and small vessels; by the Iron Gate, a great and strong gate, but not usually opened; and by Traitors' Gate, a small postern with a drawbridge, fronting the Thames, seldom let down but for the receipt of some great persons, prisoners.

"On through that gate misnamed, through which before
Went Sidney, Russell, Raleigh, Cranmer, More.”

Rogers's Human Life.

It was also defended by a broad, deep ditch of water, long an eyesore and unwholesome, more like a sewer than the wet ditch of a fortification; till it was drained and made a garden, as we now see it, in 1843. The towers within the fortress are called the Lion Tower; the Middle Tower; the Bell Tower, said to have been the prison of Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and afterwards of Queen Elizabeth; the Bloody Tower, so called, it is said, from the sons of Edward IV. supposed to have been murdered there, and described by the Duke of Wellington as the best if not the only good place of security, at the disposition of the officers of the Tower, in which state prisoners can be placed; the Beauchamp, or Wakefield Tower, on the W. side, carefully restored in 1853 by Mr. Salvin, the place of imprisonment of Anna Boleyn, and scratched over with inscriptions cut by prisoners confined within its walls. It derives its name from Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, imprisoned in it in 1397;-the Develin Tower; the Bowyer Tower, on the N. side, where the Duke of Clarence, it is traditionally believed, was drowned in a butt of Malmsey; the Brick Tower, on the N.E. side, the prison, it is said, of Lady Jane Grey; the Martin Tower, near the site of the Jewel House; and the Salt Tower, on the E. side, containing the curious sphere, with the signs of the zodiac, &c., engraved on the walls, May 30th, 1561, by Hugh Draper, of Bristol, committed to the Tower in 1560, on suspicion of sorcery and practice against Sir William St. Lowe and his lady. It is much to be regretted that the several Towers, more especially the fine old Norman chapel in the White Tower, are not accessible to the public. The keeper of the Tower was

* Appendix I. to Eighth Report of Deputy Keeper of Public Records.

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called the Lieutenant of the Tower, whose lodgings were in the S.W. part of the building, to the left of the Bloody Tower. Opposite to the church, at the S.W. corner of the Tower Green, are "The Lieutenant's Lodgings," a structure of the time of Henry VIII., now the residence of the Governor. In a room of this house, called the Council Chamber, the commissioners met to examine Guy Fawkes and his accomplices; an event commemorated by a curious monument, constructed of party-coloured marbles, and with inscriptions in Latin and Hebrew. In another part of this building is an inscription carved on an old mantelpiece relating to the Countess of Lenox, grandmother of Jaines the First, commitede prysner to thys Logynge for the Marige of her Sonne, my Lord Henry Darnle and the Queene of Scotlande." The present representative of the "Lieutenant" is called Constable of the Tower, an office held by the late Duke of Wellington. The visitor is conducted over the Tower armouries by the warders of the Tower, who wear the dress of the yeomen of the guard of the reign of Henry VIII. The entrance is by the eastern gate, and tickets must be bought at the Ticket-office, on your right as you enter. The Armoury tickets and the Jewel-house tickets are the same price, 6d. each. The warders conduct parties of twelve in number every half-hour from half past 10 to 4 inclusive.

The Horse Armoury is contained in a handsome gallery 150 feet long by 33 feet wide, built in 1826 on the south side of the White Tower. The general assignment of the suits and arrangement of the gallery were made by the late Sir Samuel Meyrick, of Goodrich Court, and author of A Critical Inquiry into Ancient Armour. The centre is occupied by a line of equestrian figures, 22 in number, clothed in the armour of various reigns, from the time of Edward I. to James II. (1272-1688). Each suit is assigned, for the sake of chronology, to some king or knight, but none are known to have been worn by the persons to whom they are assigned, except in a very few instances (such as Henry VIII.; Dudley, Earl of Leicester; Henry, Prince of Wales; and Charles I.). Observe. In the centre of this gallery, suit of the time of Edward I. (1272-1307), consisting of a hauberk with sleeves and chausses and hood with camail; the emblazoned surcoat and baudric are modern; the spurs are prick-spurs. Suit of the time of Henry VI. (1422-1461); the back and breastplates are flexible armour, the sleeves and skirt of chain mail, the gauntlets fluted, the helmet a salade armed with a frontlet and surmounted by a crest. Suit of the time of Edward IV. (1461-1483); the vamplate or guard of the

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