On the left hand observe the beheading axe, which has been here since 1687, also the block on which Lord Lovat, in 1747, lost his head at one stroke for the share he took in the attempt of the Pretender in 1745.

Beyond this, against the wall, is a model by John Bell of a monument for the Great Duke of Wellington.  It was presented by the late Sir Daniel Lysons, Constable of the Tower, 1890-1898.  Still on the left hand, in a glass case, is the soldier’s cloak on which General Wolfe expired in the moment of victory, at Quebec, 1759.

Beyond, in another case, is the uniform worn as Constable of the Tower by the Great Duke of Wellington from 1826 until his death, in 1852.

Near this is a portion of the wooden pump of the Mary Rose, sunk in action off the Isle of Wight in 1545.

In a case at the end of the room is a mass of fused gun flints, a relic of the fire which in 1841 destroyed the Great Store in the Tower and many thousand stand of arms, cannon, &c.

The staircase in the S.W. corner is now ascended leading to the great upper chamber, generally known as the Council Chamber, 95 feet by 40 feet, and, like the smaller room, 21 feet high.  Round this top floor runs a passage cut in the thickness of the walls, with numerous openings inwards opposite the windows, and widening somewhat when forming as it does the triforium of St. John’s Chapel.  At the entrance are cases containing velvet-covered brigandines and canvas-covered jacks, garments which were much used in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as giving protection by means of numerous small plates of metal disposed between the thicknesses of the material covering and lining them, and also great flexibility.  In the cases on the right hand are specimens of chain mail in form of hoods, coats, sleeves, &c, mostly, if not all, of Eastern origin.  Observe also some bronze swords and other very early weapons.

Round the walls of the two rooms are arranged the various staff weapons used in England and the continent.  In the first enclosure on the left are cases in which are ancient bronze tools, weapons, and ornaments from various localities, stone implements and weapons, and a suit of bronze armour from Cumae, an ancient Greek settlement near Naples.  In the centre of the enclosure are grouped many varieties of staff weapons of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries.  Among them are boar spears for the chase and for war, halberds, partizans, bills, glaives, holy water sprinkles (a staff with a ball with spikes at its extremity), and the 18 foot pikes of the Civil War period.

The first case on the left contains a fine archer’s salade with its original lining, from the de Cosson collection.  A Venetian salade, with the stamp of the maker of the Missaglia family, a heavy salade for jousting, a combed morion and the tilting helmet of Sir Henry Lee, K.G., Master of the Armouries to Queen Elizabeth and James I. In the lower case are finely engraved and parcel gilt chamfrons for horses’ heads, a gilt vamplate for the tilting lance belonging to Lord Chancellor Hatton, an officer’s gorget of the time of Queen Anne, and various pieces of rich armour.