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CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.

CONTENTS

QUEEN VICTORIA’S KEYS.
IN ALL SHADES.
THE TURQUOISE.
THE HAUNTED JUNGLE.
A STICK OF INDIAN INK.
THE GREAT JEWEL ROBBERY.
THE CULTIVATION OF CELERY.
SPRING’S ADVENT.



No. 116.—Vol. III.

Priced.

SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1886.


QUEEN VICTORIA’S KEYS.

The time-honoured ceremony that is stillobserved when the gates of Her Majesty’s Towerof London are ‘locked-up’ is probably notunfamiliar to the public. What actually occurs,however, can be witnessed by a very limited numberof persons who are not resident within theTower; for a night’s immurement in that celebratedfeudal ‘strength’ is essential in order thatthe proceedings of the ‘escort for the Keys’ maybe satisfactorily seen and heard, the verbal portionof the formalities being by no means the leastimportant. But the present writer having frequentlybeen called upon to accompany theQueen’s Keys in their nightly perambulations,has enjoyed opportunities, not open to all, forviewing the curious ceremony of ‘locking-up’from the best possible vantage-ground. A briefsketch of the somewhat unique details connectedwith it may perhaps prove interesting to theuninitiated reader.

When not engaged in making their midnightor early-morning progresses, the Queen’s Keysare deposited in the residence of the DeputyConstable of the fortress. Not very remarkablefrom an architectural point of view, this housestands almost in the shadow of the weather-beatenwalls of the White Tower—the famousNorman ‘keep’ that can boast of eight centuries’authentic history, and around which asa nucleus the various other buildings now collectivelyknown as the ‘Tower’ have from time totime been erected. And the dwelling-place ofthe Keys overlooks the spot—now inclosed bya railing—where so many political offences, realor imputed, have been expiated on the block.The Keys, when brought forth, are invariablycarried by a warder, who is a member of thecorps of Yeomen of the Guard, or Beefeaters asthey are familiarly called. It may quite fairlybe said that the antiquated, but picturesque,costume of these men constitutes one of the‘sights’ of the Tower; though in recent timesthe garments have been to a considerable extentshorn of their medieval characteristics. Besidesthe onerous duty of carrying the Queen’s Keys,the Beefeaters are in other ways employed withinthe precincts

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