TOWER BRIDGE. 382 TOWERS OF SILENCE. feet, and a central span of 200 feet, with a ris- ing draw formed by twin bascules, which can be raised in IVi minutes. There is an elevated footway above the draw, which is used when the draw' is open, 142 feet above the river, reached by elevators and stairs. The Gothic towers are of steel and masonry. The cost was over £1,- 000.000. TOWER HILL. An elevation northwest of the Tower of London, formerly the public place of execution for persons sentenced for treason. Here many of the most noted men of England were put to death, their bodies beinj; buried in the adjacent Chapel of Saint Peter ad Vincula. TOWER OF LONDON. In feudal days a powerful fortress, and long afterwards a State prison of gloomy memories. It is now a Govern- ment storehouse and armory. It is a collection of buildings in the form of an irregular quadri- lateral on rising ground adjoining the Tliames, on the north bank and immediately to the east of the City of London. The space occupied is between twelve and thirteen acres, and the wliole is surrounded by a broad but shallow moat. Usually the moat is dry, but the garrison can flood it by sluices from the Thames. The moat is bordered within by a lofty castellated wall, with massive flanking towers at frequent inter- vals. Within this wall rises another of similar construction, but of greater lieiglit, within which are the various barracks and armories : and iu the centre of all is the lofty keep or donjon known as the Yhite Tower. This last named building, erected by the Bishop of Rochester, in the time of William the Conqueror, is the most interesting in the whole structure. Its walls are in parts 16 feet thick, and of solid masonry. The White Tower was the Court of the Plantagenet kings, whereas the various other towers are principally noteworthy on account of the illustrious prisoners who liave been con- fined in them. In the northwest corner of the quadrangle is Saint Peter's Chapel, now the gar- rison church. In another part is the .Jewel Office, containing crown jewels of enormous value, crowns, sceptres, golden dishes, tankards, salt- cellars, and other plate and jewelry. Near this building is the Horse Armory, which contains a collection of ancient and media-val arms and armor, the latter exhibited in complete suits on wooden figures of men and horses. Some of these figures represent English kings arrayed in the armor which the kings actually wore w liile living. To the Jewel Office and the Armory visitors are admitted on ]>aynient of a small fee. Early writers have alleged that .Julius Cicsar built the Tower of London as a Roman fortress. The spot was in fact occupied by some structure before the time of William the Conqueror, as is sliow-n by the massive foundations discovered iu the course of later erections: but of the nature of these earlier buildings we know little. The 'hite Tower, already mentioned, is the begin- ning of the historical Tower of London. During the reigns of the first two yornian kings, the Tower seems to have been used as a fortress merely. In Henry I.'s time it was already a State prison. That monarch and his successors gradually increased the size and strength of the ramparts and towers, until the whole became a great feudal stronghold. The kings frequently lived there, holdine their courts, and often sus- taining sieges and blockades at the hands of their rebellious subjects. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, however, the Tower ceased to be a palace. Of the long list of executions for political offenses which it witnessed, those of Lords Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and Lovat, after the rebellion of 1745, were the last. In 1841 a fire broke out in the Bowyer Tower, and extended to the armories, causing the de- struction of numerous modern buildings and many thousand arms. At present the Tower of London is in charge of the War Department, and contains arms and accoutrements for the com- plete equipment of a large army. The mint and jiublic records were formerly kept in it, but have now been removed to more suitable buildings. The government of the Tower is vested in a constable, who has great privileges, and is usu- ally a military officer of long service and dis- tinguished rank, whose position is honorary; the deputj' constable, also an ollicer of repute, is the actual governor. He has under him a small staff' and the corps of yeomen of the guard, more commonly known as "beef-eaters.' (See Beef- eater.) Consult: Dixon, Her Majesiy's Tower (London. 18G9-71) : Loftie. Authorized Guide to the Tower of London (London, 1880) : Temple, Toirer of London, Its History and Contents (Lon- don, 1876). TOWER OF THE WINDS. An octagonal building, north of the Acropolis of Athens, be- longing to the second or first century B.C. The tower, 42 feet high and 26 feet in diameter, bears on the upper part of each side the representation of a wind. It was originally surmounted by a bronze weathercock in the form of a Triton. Be- sides indicating the direction of the wind, the exterior walls were marked to serve as a sun- dial, and there appears to have been connected with the tower a water clock, the method of operat- ing which has not been clearly ascertained. TO'WER-SHELL. One of the elongated, tightly coiled shells of the gastropods of the family Tur- ritellida allied to Vermetus ( see Worm-Shell), about 100 species of which are known from the warmer seas, and many fossil forms. Jlost of them are covered with a brownish epidermis, which, when removed, exhibits a delicately sculptured and often finely colored surface. Only the lower part of the s)iiral is occupied by the adult animal, the distal half of the shell being partitioned off. TOWERS OF SILENCE. The structures upon which the Parsis (q.v.) and Ghebers (q.v.) expose the bodies of their dead to be devoured by vultures or dogs in accordance with the precepts of their religion as taught by Zoroaster (q.v.). The prescription for building these structures is as old as the Avesta (q.v.) where they are de- scribed and called Dakhmas. The best modern specimens are to be seen on ilalahar Hill, Bom- bay, India, and across the Bombay Harbor at Ooran : there is also one near Teheran and an- other near Yezd in Persia, where the ruins of a deserted 'tower' are likewise to be seen. The older shape of the Dakhmas seems to have been rectansular; the modern towers are circular, but TOUER-SHKLL.
