It is much more probable that the two inscriptions were
placed on the wall either by Lord Guildford Dudley, her husband, or
by his brother, whose large device has been described above.
66. In the window is the rebus, or monogram, of Thomas Abel: upon
a bell is the letter A. This was Dr. Abel, a faithful servant to Queen
Katharine of Arragon, first wife of King Henry VIII. He acted as her
chaplain during the progress of the divorce, and by his determined
advocacy offended the King. For denying the supremacy he was condemned
and executed in 1540.
The visitor who has time to spare will find many other records of this
kind in the Beauchamp Tower, the oldest of all being the name of "Thomas
Talbot 1462" (89), supposed to have been concerned in the Wars of the
Roses. Emerging again upon Tower Green we see on the right the
_Lieutenant's Lodgings_ (Pl. VI),
now called the King's House. The Hall door, where a sentry stands, is
the same through which Lord Nithisdale escaped in female dress, the
night before he was to have been beheaded, 1716. Some parts of the house
are of great antiquity, among them the rooms in the Bell Tower, those on
the upper storey which open on the leads and the rampart known as The
Prisoners' Walk, and the Council Room, a handsome apartment containing a
curious monument of the Gunpowder Plot. In this room Guy Fawkes and his
associates were examined, 1605.
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