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EXECUTION OF DERWENTWATER.

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to connive in his flight. Lord Nairn was respited and subsequently pardoned, and, lastly, the Earl of Carnwath and Lord Widdrington were released by the Act of Grace in

1717.

The Earl of Derwentwater and Lord Kenmure were executed on the same scaffold, on the 24th of February, 1716. The gallant Derwentwater was the first who suffered. About ten o'clock in the morning he was brought in a coach from the Tower to the Transport Office on Tower Hill, where he remained a short time, and was then led through an avenue of soldiers to the scaffold, which was erected directly opposite, and was entirely covered with black. As he ascended the fatal steps, his countenance was observed to turn pale; yet his voice remained firm, and he preserved his natural composure. Having passed about a quarter of an hour in prayer, he read aloud a paper to the bystanders, in which he professed the most unshaken loyalty to the chevalier St. George, whom alone he acknowledged as his lawful sovereign. He then closely examined the block, and finding a rough place on it, desired the executioner to chip it off with his axe. This being done, he took off his coat and waistcoat, telling the executioner, who knelt down to receive his forgiveness, that he would find something in the pockets to reward him for his trouble. Having knelt down, he repeated a short prayer, after which he intimated to the executioner that the sign for him to strike would be his third repetition of the words "Lord Jesus, receive my soul!" and the stretching forth of his arms. He then fitted his neck to the block, and having given the appointed signal, the exccutioner performed his office at a single blow.

The virtuous and amiable Lord Kenmure was then brought on the scaffold, attended by his son, a few friends, and two clergymen of the Church of England. Having

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EXECUTION OF LORD KENMURE.

mounted the steps with great firmness, he advanced to one side of the scaffold, where he passed some time at his devotions, in the course of which he was heard to pray audibly for the exiled Prince in whose cause he was about to suffer. Having concluded his devotions, he presented the executioner with some money, telling him he should give him no sign, but that, when he had lain down, he was to strike whenever he thought fit. He then knelt down, and having passed a few moments in inward devotion, placed his neck upon the block with his arms clasped tightly round it, when the executioner, seizing his opportunity, raised his axe, and at two blows severed his head from his body.

On the 24th of August, 1722, was committed to the Tower the celebrated Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester. During his confinement within its walls, he was subjected to a series of privations and oppressions which were disgraceful to the ministry which authorized them, but which he endured with the piety of a Christian, and the dignity of a philosopher.

"How pleasing Atterbury's softer hour;

How shines his soul unconquered in the Tower!"

Here he remained a prisoner till the 18th of June, 1723, on which day he was conducted on board the "Aldborough' man-of-war, where he bade farewell for ever to his native country. The Bishop died in exile in Paris on the 15th of February, 1731.

The fate of the "Rebel Lords" who were committed to the Tower after the fatal battle of Culloden, is too familiar to most of us to require recapitulation in these pages. Here, a few months after his committal, died the old Marquis of Tullibardine

"High-minded Moray, the exiled, the dear;"

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and on the 18th of August, 1746, were beheaded on Tower Hill Lord Kilmarnock and the intrepid Lord Balmerino.

On the same spot, on the 8th of December following, was decapitated Charles Radcliffe, brother of the unfortunate Earl of Derwentwater; and lastly, the hoary traitor, Lord Lovat-after a hearty meal, and with a jest on his lips-laid. down his life on the scaffold on Tower Hill, on the 7th of April, 1747. The only other prisoner of note in the reign of George the Second, was Laurence, fourth Earl Ferrers, who was hanged at Tyburn on the 5th of May, 1760, for killing his steward, Mr. Johnson.

As we approach nearer to more humane and civilized times, the annals of the Tower naturally present fewer incidents of stirring or romantic interest. Nevertheless, during the reigns of George the Third and Fourth we find the Tower containing more than one prisoner whose name has been rendered familiar to us. Among these may be enumerated the celebrated John Wilkes, committed in 1762 for his libel on the King in the forty-fifth number of the "North Briton;" Lord George Gordon, sent to the Tower in 1780 as the principal author of the Protestant riots; Horne Tooke, and his seditious associates, in 1794; Arthur O'Connor, and others, for high treason, in 1798; Sir Francis Burdett, for the same offence, in 1810; and lastly, here were confined, in 1820, Arthur Thistlewood and the other actors in the notorious Cato Street conspiracy.

TOWER HILL, ALLHALLOWS BARKING, CRUTCHED FRIARS, EAST SMITHFIELD, WAPPING.

ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGES EXECUTED ON TOWER HILL.-MELANCHOLY DEATH OF OTWAY.-ANECDOTE OF ROCHESTER.-PETER THE GREAT. CHURCH OF ALLHALLOWS BARKING.-SEETHING LANE. THE MINORIES.-MISERABLE DEATH OF LORD COBHAM.-GOODMAN'S FIELDS THEATRE.-ST. KATHERINE'S CHURCH.-RATCLIFFE HIGHWAY.-MURDERS OF THE MARRS AND WILLIAMSONS.-EXECUTION DOCK.-JUDGE JEFFERYS.-STEPNEY.

HO is there whose heart is so dead to every generous

W impulse as to have stood without feelings of deep

emotion upon that famous Hill, where so many of the gallant and the powerful have perished by a bloody and untimely death? Here fell the wise and witty Sir Thomas More; the great Protector Duke of Somerset; and the young and accomplished Earl of Surrey! Here died the lofty Strafford, and the venerable Laud; the unbending patriot, Algernon Sidney, and the gay and graceful Duke of Monmouth! Who is there who has not sought to fix in his mind's eye the identical spot where they fell,-the exact site of the fatal stage and of its terrible paraphernalia? Who is there who has not endeavoured to identify the old edifice* from which the gallant Derwentwater and the virtuous Kenmure were led through avenues of soldiers to the block? or who has not sought for the house "adjoining the scaffold"

The old Transport Office.

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where the gentle Kilmarnock breathed his last sigh, and where the intrepid Balmerino grasped affectionately, and for the last time, the hand of the friend who had so often dashed with him through the ranks of the foe on the field of battle?

Among a host of scarcely less illustrious personages who perished by the hand of the executioner on Tower Hill, may be mentioned Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, son of the false and perjured Clarence; the handsome and accomplished adventurer, Perkin Warbeck; the gallant Sir William Stanley, who placed the crown on the head of Henry the Seventh on the field of Bosworth; the powerful Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham; Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, the successor of Wolsey in the favour of Henry the Eighth; George Lord Rochford, brother of Anne Boleyn; Margaret Countess of Salisbury, mother of Cardinal Pole; the ambitious Lord Seymour of Sudeley, uncle to Edward the Sixth, and brother to the Protector Somerset; the turbulent John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland; Sir Thomas Wyatt; Lord Guildford Dudley, the husband of Lady Jane Grey; her father, Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk; Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, the ambitious lover of Mary Queen of Scots; the crafty visionary, Sir Henry Vane; William Howard, Earl of Stafford, condemned on the false evidence of Titus Oates; Sir John Fenwick; the gallant Charles Radcliffe, brother of the Earl of Derwentwater; and lastly, the infamous Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat.

But it is not entirely from the illustrious blood with which it has been drenched, that Tower Hill derives its interest. Here, at a cutler's stall, the assassin Felton purchased the knife which cut short the life of the mighty Buckingham; and here, at the sign of "the Bull," died, in extreme poverty, the unfortunate dramatic poet, Thomas Otway!

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