Tower of London II
I hadn't realized until I was inside the grounds that the Tower of London doesn't refer to simply one building but to a fully defensive medieval keep, bailey, surrounding buildings etc... Over the centuries the Tower also referred to the surrounding grounds. A number of executions were carried out not within the Tower walls but across the way at Tower Green so that hundreds of people could gather around the gallows to watch.
After spending much of my time at the museums it came as rather a shock to suddenly find myself having to join a very, very long queue. It was worth the wait though to get inside. The exhibits in the different buildings vary greatly. The outlaying buildings where many prisoners were held are quite pleasant looking from the outside. They might have been pleasant from the inside also, with their views of the gardens, if one could afford to pay for food, fuel for heating, furnishings, visitors etc... They've preserved the graffiti carved into the soft-stoned walls. Some of them are quite long, others are detailed carvings of family crests etc...
The Crown Jewels were...sort of disappointing really. I rather wished that Nick was there (I mean, aside from my standard and consistent wishing that he was here) just so that he could discuss them with me from the point of view of having been a jeweller. To me they looked, not tacky (oh god, I'm offending so many Brits right now aren't I :P) but a bit like costume jewellery. They didn't realy look that different from something that you could whip up for a costume party. I suppose the problem was that the gems were so large that with minimal facets and cuts they looked rather like polished glass. The only one that I really liked was a little diamond tiara of Victoria's which did sparkle beautifully.
The White Tower was gorgeous. I found it both amusing and irritating though listening to the American's in front of me who were bitching about how inconsiderate it was for them to have built narrow, circular staircases instead of large, wide, sweeping ones - reminiscent of Gone With the Wind no doubt. The fact that they were in a defensive structure seemed to have quite passed them by.
The exhibits inside range from the armouries to showcases of weapons and armour. They had a showcase of full plate mail armour and a fully armoured warhorse. You would have to be immensely strong to fight in that get-up and they commented that it was probably for ceremonial purposes. They also had a preserved hollow tournament lance. The movies don't do them credit, I hadn't realized just how immensely long they are. Trying to balance and use it without an equal length or weight to counterbalance it would have required so much skill. Thing must be damn heavy too even if it is partially hollow (so that it shatters on impact).
It was interesting to read about the different uses that the Tower has had over the centuries. For instance it used to be used as almost the sole stockpile of London's gunpowder. Barrels upon barrels upon barrels..... until eventually they realized that perhaps this was a bad idea as one stray spark would be utterly catastrophic.
They also had a whole lot of information on the different torture methods that were used on the prisoners and showed some of the devices. Gruesome and horrible stuff. They also gave contemporary accounts, from records or letters, that indicate that some became infamous for their delight in torture whereas other's ended up weeping at the tasks they had to perform.
After spending much of my time at the museums it came as rather a shock to suddenly find myself having to join a very, very long queue. It was worth the wait though to get inside. The exhibits in the different buildings vary greatly. The outlaying buildings where many prisoners were held are quite pleasant looking from the outside. They might have been pleasant from the inside also, with their views of the gardens, if one could afford to pay for food, fuel for heating, furnishings, visitors etc... They've preserved the graffiti carved into the soft-stoned walls. Some of them are quite long, others are detailed carvings of family crests etc...
The Crown Jewels were...sort of disappointing really. I rather wished that Nick was there (I mean, aside from my standard and consistent wishing that he was here) just so that he could discuss them with me from the point of view of having been a jeweller. To me they looked, not tacky (oh god, I'm offending so many Brits right now aren't I :P) but a bit like costume jewellery. They didn't realy look that different from something that you could whip up for a costume party. I suppose the problem was that the gems were so large that with minimal facets and cuts they looked rather like polished glass. The only one that I really liked was a little diamond tiara of Victoria's which did sparkle beautifully.
The White Tower was gorgeous. I found it both amusing and irritating though listening to the American's in front of me who were bitching about how inconsiderate it was for them to have built narrow, circular staircases instead of large, wide, sweeping ones - reminiscent of Gone With the Wind no doubt. The fact that they were in a defensive structure seemed to have quite passed them by.
The exhibits inside range from the armouries to showcases of weapons and armour. They had a showcase of full plate mail armour and a fully armoured warhorse. You would have to be immensely strong to fight in that get-up and they commented that it was probably for ceremonial purposes. They also had a preserved hollow tournament lance. The movies don't do them credit, I hadn't realized just how immensely long they are. Trying to balance and use it without an equal length or weight to counterbalance it would have required so much skill. Thing must be damn heavy too even if it is partially hollow (so that it shatters on impact).
It was interesting to read about the different uses that the Tower has had over the centuries. For instance it used to be used as almost the sole stockpile of London's gunpowder. Barrels upon barrels upon barrels..... until eventually they realized that perhaps this was a bad idea as one stray spark would be utterly catastrophic.
They also had a whole lot of information on the different torture methods that were used on the prisoners and showed some of the devices. Gruesome and horrible stuff. They also gave contemporary accounts, from records or letters, that indicate that some became infamous for their delight in torture whereas other's ended up weeping at the tasks they had to perform.
posted by Nixie! at 6:45 am
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