Thus much of the Tower as an ancient and very curious military structure, which, throughout the additions, alterations, and subtractions of eight centuries, still preserves the character of an early fortress, and very much of original and peculiar work. It may be that, in some respects, the Tower cannot be compared with others of the great feudal castles of England. It does not, like Dover and Bambro', stand on the edge of a lofty cliff, commanding an equal expanse of land and water. It has not the solitary grandeur of Corfe, nor its old associations with the Anglo-Saxon times. It does not, like Conway, Carnarvon, Beaumaris, and Harlech, bear the impress of one mind in its design, of one hand in its execution: neither can it boast the rich surroundings of Ludlow, Warwick, or Kenilworth, nor the proud pre-eminence of Windsor, the present residence of the Sovereign, the seat of the oldest and most illustrious order of Christian chivalry, the cynosure of four fair counties, rising amidst a rich mantle of forest verdure diversified with the silver windings of the Thames, and the venerable walls and courts of Eton.

The Tower of London can put forth none of these various claims to our attention, but it is not the less the most interesting fortress in Britain. It is the work of the great Norman conqueror of England, founded by the Founder of her monarchy. It is the citadel of the metropolis of Britain, and was long the most secure residence of her greatest race of kings. Here they deposited the treasure of the empire and the

jewels and regalia of their crown. Here they secured the persons of their prisoners, and minted and stored up their coin. Here the courts of law and of exchequer were not unfrequently held; here the most valuable records were preserved; and here were fabricated and preserved long-bow and cross-bow, sword lance and pike, armour of proof, balista scorpions and catapults, then the artillery and munitions of feudal war. Here, too, as these older machines were laid aside, was first manufactured that "subtle grain," that "pulvis ad faciendum le crak," and these "gonnys and bombards of war," which were to revolutionise the military art, until they themselves should be superseded by later inventions, of which the ancient keep is still the grand storehouse and armoury of the country.

But the Tower has memories surpassing even its associations with the military glories of the state. It has been the prison and the scaffold of not a few of the best and bravest of English blood. Percy and Mortimer, Hastings and Clinton, Neville, and Beauchamp, Arundel, Devereux, Stafford and Howard,-those "old stocks who so long withstood the waves and weathers of time,"―have here found a grave. Here the great house of Plantagenet flourished and was cut down. Here England's Elizabeth learned the uses of adversity, and here Raleigh solaced his confinement with the composition of that History which has made his name. great in letters as in naval enterprise.

Here too, captive within these walls, and through these gates led to death, were More and Fisher, martyrs for the ancient, and Anne Askew for the

purer faith; Lady Jane Grey, the most innocent and accomplished of victims; Strafford and Laud, firm for the old tyranny; Sir John Elliot, who died brokenhearted in the prison for the new liberty.

No other fortress, no bastile in France, no bargello in Italy, no prison-castle in Spain or Germany, is so deeply associated with the history of its nation, or with the progress of civil and religious liberty.

III.

THE CHAPTER-HOUSE OF WESTMINSTER.

BY GEORGE GILBERT SCOTT, R.A.

THE works of King Henry III. at Westminster Abbey hold a very marked position among the productions of English Architecture of the thirteenth century, both on account of their intrinsic excellence, and as being among the earliest of the more developed examples of the second of the two great classes into which the architecture of that century divides itself— that which is characterised by the fully developed tracery window, as distinguished from the detached or grouped lancets of the beginning of the century, and from what Professor Willis has called the "plate tracery" windows, which both accompanied and immediately succeeded them.

The plate tracery, though, as a matter of fact as well as of theory, the transitional link between the lancet and the tracery systems, can hardly be said to have originated at the period of that transition, but seems rather to have been adopted at that time from amongst older forms, and developed as peculiarly fitted to aid in the striving after greater size and unity in the windows than had previously existed.

The principle of placing two or more openings