No; we first visited the
Beauchamp Tower, famous as the prison of many historical personages.
Some of its former occupants have left their initials or names, and
inscriptions of piety and patience, cut deep into the freestone of the
walls, together with devices--as a crucifix, for instance--neatly and
skilfully done. This room has a long, deep fireplace; it is chiefly
lighted by a large window, which I fancy must have been made in modern
times; but there are four narrow apertures, throwing in a little light
through deep alcoves in the thickness of the octagon wall. One would
expect such a room to be picturesque; but it is really not of striking
aspect, being low, with a plastered ceiling,--the beams just showing
through the plaster,--a boarded floor, and the walls being washed over
with a buff color. A warder sat within a railing, by the great window,
with sixpenny books to sell, containing transcripts of the inscriptions
on the walls.
We now left the Tower, and made our way deviously westward, passing St.
Paul's, which looked magnificently and beautifully, so huge and dusky as
it was, with here and there a space on its vast form where the original
whiteness of the marble came out like a streak of moonshine amid the
blackness with which time has made it grander than it was in its newness.
Pages:
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470