London (Volume II) (page 1/2)

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[p.242] The Bloody Tower

The portcullis stands open, and some soldiers with spears and shields are about to enter. From the crosses on their shields (the symbol of death) they are probably crusaders. [more...]

[p.210] The Tower of London

A birds-eye view: a map or plan of the castle.

From a Print published by the Royal Antiquarian Society, and engraved from the Survey made in 1597, by W. Haiward and J. Gascoigne, by order of Sir J. Peyton, Governor of the Tower.—a. Lion’s Tower; b. Bell Tower; c. Beauchamp Tower; d. The Chapel; e. Keep, also called Cæsar’s, or the White Tower; f. Jewel-house; g. Queen’s Lodgings; h. Queen’s Gallery and Garden; i. Lieutenant’s Lodgings; k. Bloody Tower; l. St. Thomas’s Tower (now Traitor’s Gate); m. Place of Execution on Tower Hill.

“The names which we have affixed to this plan are those which the respective portions of the fortress at present [1842] bear, with the exception of those parts here called “The Queen’s lodgings” and “the Queen’s gallery and garden.” Those who are familiar with the Tower will feel little difficulty in tracing upon this plan the exact buildings which remain; but the casual visitor, to whom the Tower has conveyed a notion of a town within a fortress, will not so easily understand how this place could once have been, even in times of comparative comfort and sploendour, a palace for the monarch, a treasury for the chief wealth of the Crown, a royal mint, an armoury, a menagerie, a state prison.

Here, in the plan before us, are large areas, courts within courts, ranges of offices communicating with the chief buildings upon a common arrangement, unencumbered external walls and bulwarks, something altogether which gives a notion of power and splendour, such as befit the abode and the defence of a long line of warrior kings.

At the date of this plan [approx. 1597] the Tower had ceased to be the residence of the sovereign. The chattels of the Crown were no longer moved about from the Tower to Westminster and Greenwich. Whitehall had [more...] [$]

Milton at the age of 19

A woodcut of the teenaged boy Milton, the famous poet, when he was nineteen years old. I’m sure I didn’t have such a frilly neck as a boy.

Houses of Parliament from the River, temp Charles II.

The Houses of Parliament in Westminster, in the time of King Charles II, so between (roughly) 1650 and 1685; this is of course long before th 19th century changes, and before Big Ben was built. [more...]

Priot Bolton’s Garden-house at Canonbury

From the house we pass to the lawn, which is terminated by a wall with a raised and embowered terrace, from which we look over on the other side to the kitchen-garden, the New River, and thence onwards towards London. At each extremity of this wall is an octagonal garden-house, built by Prior Bolton—the one to the left having a [...] [more...]