s, after being set down at the Bank by an omnibus, brought
me to the gate of the Tower. A party of friends who were to meet me
there had not arrived, so I had an opportunity of inspecting the grounds
and taking a good view of the external appearance of the old and
celebrated building. The Tower is surrounded by a high wall, and around
this a deep ditch partly filled with stagnated water. The wall incloses
twelve acres of ground on which stand the several towers, occupying,
with their walks and avenues, the whole space. The most ancient part of
the building is called the "White Tower," so as to distinguish it from
the parts more recently built. Its walls are seventeen feet in
thickness, and ninety-two in height, exclusive of the turrets, of which
there are four. My company arrived, and we entered the tower through
four massive gates, the innermost one being pointed out as the "Water,
or Traitors' Gate"--so called from the fact that it opened to the river,
and through it the criminals were usually brought to the prison within.
But this passage is now closed up. We visited the various apartments in
the old building. The room in the Bloody Tower, where the infant princes
were put to death by the command of their uncle, Richard III.; also, the
recess behind the gate where the bones of the young princes were
concealed, were shown to us. The warden of the prison who showed us
through, seemed to have little or no veneration for Henry VIII.; for he
often cracked a joke, or told a story at the expense of the murderer of
Anne Boleyn. The old man wiped the tear from his eye, as he pointed out
the grave of Lady Jane Grey. This was doubtless one of the best as well
as most innocent of those who lost their lives in the Tower; young,
virtuous, and handsome, she became a victim to the ambition of her own
and her husband's relations. I tried to count the names on the wall in
"Beauchamp's Tower," but they were too numerous. Anne Boleyn was
imprisoned here. The room in the "Brick Tower," where Lady Jane Grey was
imprisoned, was pointed out as a place of interest. We were next shown
into the "White Tower." We passed through a long room filled with many
things having a warlike appearance; and among them a number of
equestrian figures, as large as life, and clothed in armour and
trappings of the various reigns from Edward I. to James II., or from
1272 to 1685. Elizabeth, or the "Maiden Queen," as the warden called
her, was the most imposing of