Authorised Guide to the Tower of London

26
It was in this chapel that Queen Mary was betrothed
to Count Egmont, proxy for Philip of Spain, in 1554.
From St. John's Chapel the visitor passes by a staircase
in the South wall to the round floor of the building,
known as the " Gun Floor,' used as a store for service
arms between the years 1841 and 1916. There are two,
original fireplaces on this floor. The first room entered
is the " Small Arms Room." The la,rO'e opening to the
left is the original entrance to the White Tower, now
filled with glass. Near to it are shown kettle-drums
taken at Blenheim, cavalry boots of the seventeenth
century, the horse-furniture of William III and the
bronze hinges taken from the Magazine at Flushing in
1809. On the right are five richly decorated cannon.
Two of these were made for the Duke of Gloucester, son
of Queen Anne and two were taken from Paris in 1815,
having bdonged to Colbert, Minister of Finance to
Louis XIV. The other gun, elaborately ornamented.
with laurel branches and medallions, mounted on a
carriage carved to represent two Furies, was captured by
the French at Malta in 1798. The ship which carried
it to France was taken by the British Frigate H.M.S.
Seahorse and with it . was taken the banner of Baron
Ferdinand Hompesch, last Grand Master of the Knights
of Malta, which hangs near to it. In the centre of the
room are cases showing the development of firearms from
the matchlock to the flintlock, and the cross cases show
a series of interesting experimental weapons of the nineteenth
century. The two small sloping cases contain
powder flasks, bandoliers and other furnishings for the
musketeer. Round the walls are stands of arms, mostly
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. At the end
of the room are two finely inlaid gun carriages and
limbers made at Lahore and taken by Viscount Hardicge
at Moodkee in 1845. They were transferred from
Windsor by Command of King Bdward VII in 1901.
From this room the visitor passes to the Crypt of
the Chapel of St. ,T ohn which contains several inscriptions
carved by prisoners who took part in Wyatt's
rebellion in 1554. Here are shown the block used at