Items related to The Colour of London; Historic, Personal, & Local
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V Of the Tower of London The "Towers of Julius"--Roman Origin--Gundulf--The Norman Buildings--Henry III--Richard II--The Lions--The Outer Bailey--The Lieutenant's Lodgings--Decapitations--The Block--Towers on the Curtain--The Palace--The Hall--The Regalia--The White Tower--The Chapels--The Parish Church--The Yeomen--The Armoury--The Constables--The Prisoners--Crosby and Oliver THERE is perhaps no other building which may be said to exhibit so strongly what we call the Colour of London as the Tower. It combines all the tones and tints we touched upon in the first chapter. It boasts of antiquity. It has architectural interest. It is universally known in America and Australia as well as in England and Europe. Its historical importance is greater than that of Westminster or St Paul's. And, for the purposes of this book, I would point out that its ordinary story, its true biography is more completely overlaid with fables than that of any other London building. To begin at the beginning, it has been the custom for many years to ridicule a line in Gray's Bard: Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame. It was said that neither Julius nor any other Caesar was concerned in the building of the Tower. Recent research, however, has shown that a fortification here was part of the Roman scheme for London defence, and though it is improbable that the complete wall was made before A.d. 360, it was certainly made by the direction of a Roman emperor, possibly Constantine, but more probably Julian the Apostate, whose reign began in 361, or Valentinian, who succeeded him in 364. If therefore Gray had either said "towers of Caesar" or "towers of Julian" there would have been little fault to find. Gray's ode was published in 1757, at which time a belief in the Roman ...
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- PublisherGeneral Books LLC
- Publication date2012
- ISBN 10 0217072429
- ISBN 13 9780217072427
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages64
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