The Tower of London

s wither on

o more your

h's purpl

he victor-v

eads m

e col

actions o

and blossom i

Shi

allows also, for we find frequent record of criminals being "hanged in chains" there, either for State or other offences. Under an oak tree that grew on the slope towards the Tower gateway, the public stocks stood, and in the vestry minutes of Allhallows Barking, under the date December 16, 1657, we find it recorded that an order was given "for the erection of stocks and whipping-post required by the statute at the churchyard corner in Tower Street against Mr. Lowe's, the draper's, with a convenient shed over them." How Mr. Lowe, the draper, took the proposition we are not informed, but if he expressed his feelings in forcible language he{155} might, perchance, have met the fate of his neighbour, Mr. Holland, who, three years previously, on April 26, 1654, "was fined 3s. 4d. by Alderman Tichbourne for vain oaths sworn" within the parish of Allhallows. Tower Hill would seem, in those days, to have had a peculiar attraction for "beggars and common vagrants." It was a popular resort for those who lived to beg and those who begged to live-two very different classes of people, but both equally inconvenient. In the middle seventeenth century the condition of a

phe which reduced it, to quote its owner's words, "to nothing but a ruinous heap of rubbish," sought exemption, in 1669, from arrears of lawful dues. These old inns bordering Tower Hill were the scene of frequent "Parish dinners," at which the consumption of food

AND TOWER HILL, SHOWING SITE

L, SHOWING SITE OF THE

of beef, a side of lamb, 2 legges of mutton, 2 capons; and did drink wine and beer to the value of ￡l:7s." This reminds one of Falstaff's feeds in Eastcheap and his capacity for imbibing Canary sack. At one meal, in

ngs it is shown as an open space, but singularly devoid of trees. The artists may have been so intent upon crowding their pictures with tightly packed citizens gazing upon the decapitation of some unfortunate nobleman that they forgot to put in the trees. Ce

red by the new roadway leading to the Minories. Penn was sent to school at Chigwell, in Essex, and it was during those days of boyhood that he had been impressed by the preaching of a Quaker preacher which led him to forsake the Church of his baptism (he was baptized, as we shall see in the following chapter, in Allhallows Barking), and join the Society of Friends. Thomas Otway, the poet, abused by Rochester in his Session of the Poets, and praised by

for his sign, which continued until the year 1808, when a person of the name of Waxel took a fancy to the old sign and offered the then occupier of the house to paint him a new one for it. A copy was accordingly made from the{160} original, which maintains its station to the present day as the sign of the Czar's Head." The house has since been rebuilt and the sign removed, but the name remains. While the Earl of Rochester was in disgrace at Court in Charles II.'s time he is said to have "robed and bearded himself as an Italian quack or mountebank physician, and, under the name of Bendo, set up at a goldsmith's house, next door to the Black Swan

n June, 1703, the service being taken by his friend Dr. Hickes, Vicar of Allhallows Barking. The registers of the parish show that from July 4 to December 5, 1665, there were buried 326 people who had died of the plague. A quaint skull and crossbones carving can still be seen

t sky, makes a noble crown to the church hidden from sight. St. Dunstan's list of rectors dates back to the early fourteenth century. In 1810 the church became ruinous, and the walls of the nave, owing to insecurity of foundation, showed signs of collapsing altogether. The p

which visitors are shown if application be made beforehand to the Deputy-Master. The art of "making money" is here shown from the solid bar of gold to the new sovereign, washed and tested, sent out on its

e exclusive right of lighting and buoying the coast" was given to the Board of Trinity House. Within Trinity House to-day may be seen models of practically all the important lighthouses and lightships on the English coast. The regulations of Trinity House in former times are described by Strype, and among them we find rules to the effect that "Bumboats with fruit, wine, and strong waters were not permitted by them to board vessels. Every mariner who swore, cursed, or blasphemed on board ship was to pay one shilling to the ship's poor-box. Every mariner found drunk was fined one shilling, and no mariner could absent himself from prayers unless sick, without forfeiting sixpence." The present House on Tower Hill was bui

rought, also covered with black cloth." The leaden plates from the lids of these coffins are those now preserved on the west wall of St. Peter's on Tower Green. "At a quarter after ten," the account proceeds, "the Sheriffs went in procession to the outward gate of the Tower, and after knocking at it some time, a warder within asked, 'Who's there?' The officer without replied, 'The Sheriffs of London and Middlesex.' The warder then asked, 'What do they want?' The officer answered, 'The bodies of William, Earl of Kilmarnock, and Arthur, Lord Balmerino,' upon which the warder within said, 'I will go and inform the Lieutenant of the Tower,' and in about ten minutes the Lieutenant with the Earl of Kilmarnock, and Major White with Lord Balmerino, guarded by several of the warders, came to the gate; the{166} prisoners were then delivered to the Sheriffs, who gave proper receipt for their bodies to the Lieutenant, who as usual said, 'God bless King George!' to which the Earl of Kilmarnock assented by a bow

THE BLOCK, AXE, AND

XE, AND EXEC

small portion of the skin which was immediately divided by a gentle stroke. The head was received in a piece of red baize and, with the body, immediately put into the coffin." Lord Balmerino followed shortly aft

his execution, a scaffolding, which had been erected at the eastern end of Barking Alley, fell and brought to the ground a thousand spectators who had secured places upon it to view the execution. Twelve were killed outright and scores of others inju