garden; the earl of Chesterfield's house, near Hydepark;

the young duke of Gloucefter, fon to queen Anne, to affift him in learning the art of war. 3. Four mortars in miniature, for throwing hand granadoes, invented by colonel Brown. They are fired with a lock like a common gun, but have not yet been introduced into practice. 4. Two fine brafs 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 caftle. 6. A large train of fine brafs battering cannon, 24 pounders. 7. Some cannon of a new invention, from 6 to 24 pounders. Their fuperior excellence confifts, firft, in their lightnefs, the 24 pounders not weighing quite 1,700 weight, whereas formerly they weighed 5,000; the rest are in proportion; and fecondly, in the contrivance for levelling them, which is by a fcrew, inftead of beds and coins. This new method is more expeditious, and faves two men to a gun, and is faid to be the contrivance of his royal highness the duke of Cumberland. 8. Brafs. mortars of 13 inches diameter, which throw a shell of 300 weight; with a number of fmaller mortars, and fhells in proportion. 9. A carcafe, which they fill at fieges with pitch, tar, and other combuflibles to fet towns on fire. It is thrown out of an 18 inch mortar, and will burn two hours where it happens to fall. 10. A Spanish mortar of 12 inches diameter, taken on board a fhip in the Weft Indies. 11. Six French pieces of cannon, 6 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 thunderbolt in the clouds. 13. A train of field-pieces, called the galloping train, carrying a ball of a pound and a half each. 14. A deftroying engine, that throws 30 hand-granadoes at once, and is fired by a train. 15. A most curious brafs cannon, made for prince Henry, the eldeft fon of king James 1. the ornamenting of which is faid to have coft 2001. 16. A piece with feven bores, for throwing for many balls at once, and another with three, made as early as Henry VIII's time. 17. The drum-major's chariot of flate, with kettle-drums placed. It is drawn by four white horses at the head of the train, when upon a march. 18. Two French fieldpieces taken at the battle of Hochftadt 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 fix rings, fixed to it at proper diftances. 20. A very large mortar, weighing upward of 6,6co weight, and throwing a hell of 500 weight two miles. This

mortar

park; the duke of Devonshire's, and the earl of Bath's,

mortar was fired fo often at the fiege 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, 12 feet long, made in Edward VI's time, called queen Elizabeth's pocketpiflol; which the warders, by way of joke, tell you the ufed to wear on her right-fide when the rode a hunting. 22. Two brafs cannon, three bores each, carrying fix pounders, taken by the duke of Marlborough at the glorious battle of Ramelies. 23. A mortar that throws nine fhells at a time; out of which the baloons were caft at the fire-works, for the last peace.

Befide those above enumerated, there were in the stove-room, before the prefent war, a vast number of new brafs cannon; together with fpunges, ladles, rammers, handfpikes, wadhooks, &c. with which the walls were lined round; and under the cieling there hang on poles upward of 4,0co harness for horfes, befide men's harness, drag-ropes, &c. And befide the trophies of ftandards, colours, &c. taken from the enemy, it is now adorned with the transparent pictures brought hither from the fire-works played off at the conclufion of the peace in 1748.

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 fpectator is entertained with a reprefentation of thofe kings and heroes of our own nation, with whofe gallant actions it is to be fuppofed he is well acquainted; fome of them equipped and fitting on horfeback, in the fame bright and fhining armour they were used to wear when they performed thofe glorious actions that give them a diftinguished place in the British annals. In afcending the ftair-case, just as you come to the landing-place, on cafting your eye into the room, you fee the figure of a grenadier in his accoutrements, as if upon duty, with his piece refted upon his arm; which is fo well done, that at the first glance you will be apt to mistake it for real life. When you enter the room, your conductor prefents to your notice, 1. The figures of the horse and foot on your left-hand, fuppofed to be drawn up in military order, to attend the kings on the other fide 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 VIII's general in France; a nobleman who excelled at the then fashionable diversion of tilting. 3. A compleat fuit of tilting armour, fuch as the kings, nobility, and gentlemen at arms used to wear; with the tilting lance, the reft for the lance, and grand guard. 4. A compleat fuit of armour, made for king Henry VIII. when he was but 18 years of age, rough from the hammer. It is at least fix feet high, and the joints in the hands, arms and thighs, knees and feet, play like the joints of a rattle

Bath's, in Piccadilly; Northumberland-house, in the

a rattle-fnake, and are moved with all the facility imaginable. The method of learning the exercife of tilting, was upon wooden horfes fet upon caftors, which by the fway of the body could be moved every way; fo that by frequent practice, the rider could fhift, parry, ftrike, unhorfe, and recover with furprifing dexterity. Some of the horses in this armoury have been ufed for this purpose; and it is but lately that the caftors have been taken from their feet. 5. A little fuit 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 filver. 6. Lord Courcy's armour. This nobleman, as the warders tell you, was champion of Ireland, and as a proof, fhew you the very sword he took from the French champion; for which valiant action, he and all his fucceffors have the honour to wear their hats in the king's prefence; which privilege is still enjoyed by the lord Kinfale, as head of that ancient and noble family. 7. Real coats of mail, called brigantine jackets. They confift of fmall bits of fteel, fo artfully quilted one over another, as to refift the point of a fword, and perhaps a musket-ball, and yet are fo flexible, that the wearer might bend his body as well as in his ordinary cloaths. 8. An Indian fuit of armour, fent by the great mogul as a prefent to king Charles II. This is very great curiofity; it is made of iron quills about two inches long, finely japanned and ranged in rows, one row flipping easily over another: these are bound very strong together with filk twift, and are used in that country as a defence against darts and arrows. 9. A neat little fuit of armour, worn by a carved figure, reprefenting Richard duke of York, the youngest fon of king Edward IV. who, with his brother Edward V. were fmothered in the Tower, by order of their uncle and guardian, Richard III. 10. The armour of John of Gaunt duke of Lancafter, who was the fon of a king, the father of a king, and the uncle of a king, but was never king himfelf: and Dugdale obferves, that more kings and fovereign princes fprang from his loins, than from any king of Christendom. The armour here fhewn is seven feet high, and the fword and lance of an enormous fize. droll figure of Will Somers, who, as the warders tell you, was king Henry VIII's jefter. They add, he was an honest man of a woman's making - he had a handfome 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 fpectacles to fee, being a little dim-fighted, as all cuckolds fhould be:" in which antic manner he is here represented. 12. What your conductors call a collar of torments, which, fay they, "ufed formerly to be put about

11. The

the Strand; the houfes of the duke's of New

caftle

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 fmiths enough to make them, as moft married men are fure to want at one time or other."

You now come to the line of kings, which your conductor begins by reverfing the order of chronology; fo that in following them we must place the laft first. 1. His late majesty king George I. in a compleat fuit of armour, fitting with a truncheon in his hand, on a white horfe richly caparifoned, having a fine Turky bridle gilt, with a globe, crefcent and flar; velvet furniture laced with gold, and gold trappings. 2. King William III. dreffed in the fuit of armour worn by Edward the Black Prince, fon to Edward III. at the glorious battle of Creffey. He is mounted on a forrel horfe, whofe furniture is green velvet embroidered with filver, and holds in his right-hand a flaming fword. 3. King Charles II. dreffed in the armour worn by the champion of England, at the coronation of his prefent majefty. He fits with a truncheon in his hand, on a fine horse richly caparifoned, with crimfon velvet laced with gold. 4. King Charles I. in a rich fuit of his own armour gilt, and curiously wrought, prefented to him by the city of London when he was prince of Wales, and is the fame that was laid on the coffin at the funeral proceffion of the late great duke of Marlborough, on which occafion a collar of SS was added to it, and is now round it. 5. James I. who fits on horfeback, in a compleat fuit of figured armour, with a truncheon in his right-hand. 6. King Fdward VI. dreffed in a curious fuit of fteel armour, whereon are depicted, in different compartments, a great variety of fcripture hillories. He fits like the reft on horfeback, with a truncheon in his hand. 7. King Henry VIII. in his own armour, which is of polifhed fteel, with the foliages gilt or inlaid with gold. He holds a fword in his right-hand. 8. King Henry VI. who alfo holds a fword. He fits on horseback in a compleat fuit of armour, finely wrought, and washed with filver. 9. King Edward V. who with his brother Richard was fmothered in the Tower, and having been proclaimed king, but never crowned, a crown is hung over his head. He holds a lance in his right-hand, and is dreffed in a rich fuit of armour. 10. King Edward IV. father to the two unhappy princes above-mentioned, is diftinguished by a fuit of bright armour ftudded. He holds a drawn fword in his hand. 1. King Henry VI. who, though crowned king of France at Paris, loft that kingdom, and was at laft murdered in the Tower by the duke of Gloucester, afterward Richard II. 12. The victorious Henry V. who by his conquefts in France caufed himself to be acknowledged regent,

and

castle and Queenfberry; of lord Bateman; of general Wade,

and prefumptive heir to that kingdom. 13. Henry IV. the fon of John of Gaunt. 14. King Edward III. John of Gaunt's father, and father to Edward the Black Prince, is reprefented here with a venerable beard, and in a fuit of plain bright armour, with two crowns on his fword, alluding to his being crowned king both of England and France. 15. King Edward I. dreffed in a very curious fuit of gilt armour, and in shoes of mail. He has a battle-axe in his hand. 16. William the Conqueror, the firft in the line, though laft fhewn, fits in a fuit of plain armour. 17. Over the door where you go out of the armoury is a target, on which are engraved, by a masterly hand, the figures, as it should feem, of Juftice, Fortune, and Fortitude; and round the room, the walls are every where lined with various uncommon pieces of old armour, for horfes heads and breafts, targets, and many pieces that now want a name.

In a dark, ftrong, ftone room, about 20 yards to the eastward of the grand ftore-house or new armoury, the crown jewels are depofited. I. The imperial crown, with which it is pretended that all the Kings of England have been crowned fince Edward the Confeffor, in 1042. It is of gold, enriched with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, faphires and pearls: the cap within is of purple velvet, lined with white taffety, turned up with three rows of ermine. They are however mistaken in fhewing this as the ancient imperial diadem of St. Edward; for that, with the other moft ancient regalia of this kingdom, was kept in the arched room in the cloifters in Westminster Abbey till the grand rebellion; when in 1642, Harry Martin, by order of the parliament, broke open the iron cheft in which it was fecured, took it thence, and fold it, together with the robes, fword, and scepter of St. Edward. However, after the refloration, king Charles II. had one made in imitation of it, which is that now fhewn.. II. The golden orb or globe, put into the king's right-hand before he is crowned; and borne in his left with the fcepter in his Fight, upon his return into Weltminster Hall, after he is crowned. It is about fix inches in diameter, edged with pearl, and enriched with precious ftones. On the top is an amethyst, of a violet colour, near an inch and a half in height, fet with a rich crofs of gold, adorned with diamonds, pearls, and precious ftones. The whole height of the ball and cup is 11 inches.. III. The golden fcepter, with its crofs fet upon a large amethyst of great value, garnished round with table diamonds. The handle of the fcepter is plain; but the pummel is fet round with rubies, emeralds, and fmall diamonds. The top rifes into a fleur de lis of fix leaves, all enriched with precious tones, from whence iffues a mound or ball, made of the amethyst already mentioned. The crofs is quite covered with precious ftones. IV. The feep

ter