The Tower of London

Arthur Poyser

Literature | Ongoing

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The history of the Tower of London is so closely bound up with the history of England, from the Norman Conquest onwards, that it is very difficult to write a record of the one without appearing to have attempted to write a record of the other. A full history of the Tower may read like an attenuated history of England.

CHAPTER VI ALLHALLOWS BARKING BY THE TOWER

11-21 20:58

PREFACE

Then again, if a detailed account of Tower annals has been given in a preliminary chapter, there is nothing of any interest left to say when describing a visit to the several buildings within the Tower walls. If the dramatic scene in the Council Chamber of the White Tower, which ended in Lord Hastings being sent, with scant ceremony, to the block on the Green below by Richard III., be described in its proper place in the Historical Sketch (Chapter II.) it cannot again be spoken of in detail when the visit is paid (Chapter III.) to the room in which the event took place. Yet it is beyond doubt that a visitor to the Tower would rather be reminded of that tragic Council meeting when in the Council Chamber itself, than come upon it in the course of the sketch of Tower history, which he would probably have read at home beforehand and forgotten in detail. Still, those who read this book and have no opportunity of visiting the Tower expect that the characters in the moving drama of its history shall have some semblance of life as they walk across the stage. Such a reader demands more than mere names and dates, or he will skip an historical chapter as being intolerably dull. It is no consolation to him to be told that if he will take patience and walk through and round the Tower, in imagination, by keeping his temper and kindly reading Chapters III. and IV., he will discover that much of the human interest omitted in the "history" will be found by the wayside in the "walks."

In former and larger books on the Tower it will be seen that either the purely historical record under the headings of successive Kings and Queens dwarfs to insignificance the account of the buildings themselves, or the description of the several towers and buildings which constitute the fortress-prison occupies the bulk of the volume, to the exclusion of any adequate historical record giving names and dates in chronological order. But like most difficulties, I think this one can be solved by a judicious compromise; the chapters must be tuned to "equal temperament." I have endeavoured to keep the balance of the several sections as even as possible; and an historic candidate for the honour of the headsman's axe, who has been given immortality in the pages of English history by reason of the manner in which he was put to death, passed over in one chapter will have some justice done to his memory in another.

I have attempted no pictorial description of the Tower as a whole or in its several parts. I dared not carry the theory I have just propounded into the realms of word-painting. Mr. Fulleylove has relieved me of that duty. He has brought the Tower buildings, as they stand to-day, before the eyes of all who turn these pages. This he has done with the brush infinitely better than I could do it with the pen.

Though the pages at my disposal are so few in number, I have had the temerity to attempt a description of much that is of interest outside Tower walls. I trust that this boldness may not prove, after all, to be a misplaced virtue. My wish has been to persuade those who come to visit the Tower that there is a great deal to be seen in its immediate vicinity that the majority of visitors have hitherto neglected, either for want of time or want of guidance. A noble and historic building like the Tower resembles a venerable tree whose roots have spread into the soil in all directions, during the uncounted years of its existence, far beyond the position of its stem.

I tender grateful thanks to Lieutenant-General Sir George Bryan Milman, K.C.B., Major of the Tower, for much kindness, both to Mr. Fulleylove and myself; and I can hardly express my indebtedness to the Rev. W. K. Fleming, who has so ungrudgingly given of his time to the task of correcting the proof-sheets.

ARTHUR POYSER.