The Tower was not always used as a dungeon; until the era of Elizabeth it was a Royal Palace, in which it was the custom of the sovereigns to spend the first week after their accession. It is now many years since i has been used as a state prison; the last state prisoners being Thistlewood and his associates in the Cato Street Conspiracy, who were committed in 1820, five of whom were executed on the 1st of May in the same year. The entrance is through four successive gateways, which are opened at five in the morning in summer, and at daylight in the winter, with as much formality as if London was in a state of siege. The Bloody Tower" derives its name and chief interest from its having been the place where Edward V. and his brother the Duke of York were murdered.

THE WHITE TOWER.

This structure, the most ancient of all the existing buildings, and generally supposed to have been erected, or at least begun, by the Conqueror, about 1078, when he employed Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, for his architect, is a quadrangular and nearly square edifice, measuring about one hundred and sixteen feet on its north and south sides, and ninety-six on the east and west; and is about ninety feet high, exclusively of the turrets at the four angles. After being repaired in the reign of Henry VIII. (1552), it was again put into good condition in that of George II., and the windows modernised, by being converted into the present very unNorman-looking, large, arched, sash-windows.

The Norman Chapel, in the upper part of the Keep or White Tower, once used for worship, or shown as a sacred place, is now devoted to the preservation of a portion of the public records; and the celebrated state prisons are mostly closed by military stores, or used for office purposes.

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At the foot of the White Tower, on its south side, runs the long and low building used as

It is a long, low, and not very wide room, with a sort of aisle on its south side, with pillars and arches meant to pass for Gothic. Here are ranged a long line of British monarchs and warriors on their war-steeds, and cased in complete armour, the whole forming a very interesting record of the various changes which have taken place in the use of armour from the time of Edward I. to the present period. The ceiling is characteristically ornamented with devices and decorations, composed of spears, pistols, and other military weapons.

On the right of this armoury is a room containing specimens of the different kinds of fire-arms in use at various times since the first invention of gunnery; also

three swords, a helmet, and girdle, which belonged to Tippoo Saib; and some Chinese military dresses, taken in the conflicts between the British and Chinese.

Is entered by a staircase from the north-east corner of the Horse Armoury. It contains a great variety of specimens of all the weapons in use in Europe during the period preceding the introduction of fire-arms-the bill, the glaive, the gisarme, the ranseur, the spetum, the spontoon, the boar-spear, the partizan, pike, halbert, &c., with many other curiosities of that period relating to warfare; and at one end of the room a figure of Queen Elizabeth, seated on a cream-coloured horse, held by a page.

On leaving the Horse Armoury, the visitor passes near the place where stood the great Storehouse, destroyed by the disastrous fire in 1841, on the site of

which the Waterloo Barracks are erected. The Train of Artillery was on the ground floor of that building, and contained some extraordinary engines of war, immense numbers of cannon of the most curious shapes, taken from different parts of the world, and many pieces of singular manufacture, cast in this country. Some of those articles, preserved from the fire, are now deposited in the White Tower and the Horse Armoury.

THE JEWEL OFFICE.

Here are preserved all the coronation regalia, including the new imperial crown, and other emblems of royalty, used by the sovereigns of England at their coronation, the cost of which has been upwards of three millions of money. The crown worn by her present Majesty cost

ONE MILLION STERLING.

THE CHAPEL.

Perhaps the most interesting spot in the ancient fortress is the Tower Chapel, erected in the reign of Edward I. Who is there that has ever entered that narrow portal, through which so many of the headless dead have been carried in their bloody shrouds to their last home, without feelings of the deepest emotion? What turbulent passions, what fair forms, rest calmly beneath our feet! Here, for a time, rested the headless trunk of Sir Thomas More. In front of the altar sleep the two ill-fated wives of Henry VIII.-Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard; between them, in the same grave with his turbulent and ambitious brother, Lord Seymour, of Sudley; and side by side with his powerful rival, Lord Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sleeps the Protector Somerset. Here also lies the wise and powerful minister of Henry VIII., Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex. History fails to trace the burial-place of Lady Jane Grey, or of her ambitious,

father, Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, who was executed a few days after his accomplished daughter. It is certain that her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley, who was beheaded on the same day with her, lies in the Tower Chapel; it is not, therefore, improbable that Lady Jane and her turbulent father were laid in the same grave.

Here also lie the remains of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth; and under the communion-table reposes the unfortunate James, Duke of Monmouth. Lastly, here lie buried more than one of the devoted men who lost their lives in the cause of the Stuarts. In one grave were interred the Lords Balmerino, Kilmarnock, and Simon Lord Lovatt.

The Tower, being a state prison, is under the government of the Duke of Wellington, who is Constable, and has under him a Lieutenant, Deputy Lieutenant, Tower Major, and other officers. The garrison is composed o a detachment of the Guards.

Open daily (Sundays excepted), from ten till four. Warders accompany parties every half-hour. Admission to the Armouries, 6d.; to the Jewel Office, 6d. Descriptive Guide, 6d. The Tower Parade is open to visitors on Sundays without charge.

GREENWICH HOSPITAL.

"Greenwich, with palace reared for kingly state,
With walls majestic, courted by the wave,
Now destined to a nobler, holier fate-

A nation's haven for a nation's brave."

There are few spots so replete with glorious recollections as Greenwich-the resting-place of science and of national prowess on the deep ocean. From hence we date the longitude of a commercial world, among which