Authorised Guide to the Tower of London | Page 6

belong to long periods of time.
The arms and armour are now placed on the two upper floors of the

White Tower, the earlier weapons and all the armour, being on the top
floor, while the later weapons and the Indian arms and armour, with
various personal relics, are placed on what is the third stage or second
floor. To this the visitor ascends by a circular staircase in the south
front of the Tower. At the foot observe a brass plate recording the
finding in 1674 of the supposed remains of the "Princes in the Tower,"
Edward V and his brother Richard Duke of York. The visitor then
enters the Chapel of St. John, and on leaving passes into the smaller of
the two rooms on this floor.
At the end of the room is a Persian horse armour of brass scales
connected by chain mail. Near this is the quilted armour of the
Burmese General Maha Bundoola, killed in 1824. At the other end of
the room is a large bell from Burmah, presented by the late General Sir
William Gomme, G.C.B., and near it are two figures with Japanese
armour, one of them presented to Charles II when prince by the Mogul.
It is interesting as being one of the earliest examples of Eastern armour
which has an authentic record of its presence in this country, and it also
exhibits the persistence in early forms so common in the East. The
cases on either hand contain weapons, helmets, and armour from most
parts of our Indian Empire, as well as weapons from Cabul, Persia,
Africa, America, and the South Seas. Some of these were presented by
the Honourable East India Company, some were acquired by purchase
after the Great Exhibition of 1851, and others have been added at
various times. In the centre of the room are models showing the Tower
buildings in the years 1842 and 1866.
The Large Room is now entered, and on the left is a case containing
firearms, hand grenades, and a series of the rifled arms in use in the
British Army since 1801. These include the two Baker rifles of 1801
and 1807; the Brunswick rifle, 1836; the Minie rifle, 1851; the Enfield
rifle musket, 1855; the Snider, 1865; the Martini-Henry, 1871; and the
Lee-Metford magazine rifle. On the right, between two grotesque
figures, called Gin and Beer, from the entrance to the Buttery of the old
Palace of Greenwich, is a case containing executioners' swords
(foreign), thumb-screws, the Scavenger's Daughter for confining the
neck, hands, and feet, bilboes for ship use, and thumb-screws. Observe

also the so-called "Collar taken from the Spanish Armada," which
however was here in 1547, and has been in later times filled with lead
to make it more terrible. It was only a collar for detention of ordinary
prisoners. A conjectural model of the rack is also shown, but the only
pictorial authority for this instrument (at no time a legal punishment) is
a woodcut in Foxe's Martyrs, the illustrations for which were drawn
from German sources.
On the left hand are cases of European firearms of the first half of the
present century, and two cannon made for the Duke of Gloucester, the
son of Queen Anne. In the S.E. corner, on a platform, are several early
cannon, including one, and part of another, from the wreck of the Mary
Rose, sunk in action with the French off Spithead in 1545. These
display the early mode of construction of such weapons, namely; bars
of iron longitudinally welded together and encircled by hoops of the
same metal. On the window side in the recesses are wall pieces, which
belonged to the Honourable East India Company. The figure of Queen
Elizabeth is supposed to represent her as on her way to St. Paul's
Cathedral after the destruction of the Spanish Armada. Near the lift are
partizans carried by the Yeomen of the Guard, and round the pillars are
the sergeants' halberds used in the Army till about 1830. Observe the
kettledrums captured at the battle of Blenheim, 1704.
On the left hand observe the beheading axe, which has been here since
1687, also the block on which Lord Lovat, in 1747, lost his head at one
stroke for the share he took in the attempt of the Pretender in 1745.
Beyond this, against the wall, is a model by John Bell of a monument
for the Great Duke of Wellington. It was presented by the late Sir
Daniel Lysons, Constable of the Tower, 1890-1898. Still on the left
hand, in a glass case, is the soldier's cloak on which General Wolfe
expired in the moment of victory, at Quebec, 1759.
Beyond, in another case, is the uniform worn as Constable of the Tower
by the Great Duke of