The Content Reader

Many important, high ranked and famous people spent time in the Tower, either to be released later on or go directly to the executioner. Many of them wrote poems to describe their peril. Here is one very touching from a Chideock Tichborne, a young gentleman writing to his wife. My prime of youth is but a frost of cares, My feast of joy is but a dish of pain, My crop of corn is but a field of tares And all my good is but vain hope of gain; The day is past, and yet I saw no sun, And now I live, and now my life is done.   My tale is hear and yet it was not told, My fruit is fall’n and yet my leaves are green My youth is spent and yet I am not old,  I saw the world and yet I was not seen; My thread is cut and yet it is not spun, And now I live, and now my life is done.   I sought my death and found it in my womb, I looked for life and saw it was a shade, I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb, And now I die, and now I was but m...

A while ago, when in London, I visited The Tower for the first time. All of you who have been there know that it is a very nice experience to visit today. This was not always the case. Somehow the Tower of London has been the synonym for a prison with torture, often leading to execution in the end. A place of horror! As this excellent book, that I found in the museum shop, tells us,  The Tower  is much more than that. If you want to know more about the place, this is the book. Reading the history of The Tower is like reading the history of the kings and queens of England. This was their turf and many, if not all, have put their marks on the grey stones that, still today, give an impression of power and glory, mixed with the darker sides of power. In the beginning it was William the Conqueror who began building the White Tower, which to start with was just a timber fortification. Not much is known about it, but its name comes from the whitish stones by which it was bu...