Authorised Guide to the Tower of London by W. J. Loftie
page 17 of 37 (45%)
page 17 of 37 (45%)
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the room are models showing the Tower buildings in the years 1842 and
1866. The Large Room is now entered, and on the left is a case containing firearms, hand grenades, and a series of the _rifled_ arms in use in the British Army since 1801. These include the two Baker rifles of 1801 and 1807; the Brunswick rifle, 1836; the Minie rifle, 1851; the Enfield rifle musket, 1855; the Snider, 1865; the Martini-Henry, 1871; and the Lee-Metford magazine rifle. On the right, between two grotesque figures, called Gin and Beer, from the entrance to the Buttery of the old Palace of Greenwich, is a case containing executioners' swords (foreign), thumb-screws, the Scavenger's Daughter for confining the neck, hands, and feet, bilboes for ship use, and thumb-screws. Observe also the so-called "Collar taken from the Spanish Armada," which however was here in 1547, and has been in later times filled with lead to make it more terrible. It was only a collar for detention of ordinary prisoners. A conjectural model of the rack is also shown, but the only pictorial authority for this instrument (at no time a legal punishment) is a woodcut in Foxe's Martyrs, the illustrations for which were drawn from German sources. On the left hand are cases of European firearms of the first half of the present century, and two cannon made for the Duke of Gloucester, the son of Queen Anne. In the S.E. corner, on a platform, are several early cannon, including one, and part of another, from the wreck of the _Mary Rose_, sunk in action with the French off Spithead in 1545. These display the early mode of construction of such weapons, namely; bars of iron longitudinally welded together and encircled by hoops of the same metal. On the window side in the recesses are wall pieces, which belonged to the Honourable East India Company. The figure of Queen |
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