Page 359 - The Secret Museum

it easier to hide underneath his cloak. His son started sawing the Royal Sceptre in

half and Perod stuck the Orb down his breeches. Just as they were about to make a
get-away with as many jewels as they could possibly carry, Edwards’s son popped
over to his father’s quarters in the Tower, found him in a terrible state and raised the
alarm. Blood pulled a gun but didn’t manage to get away with his jewels. This dagger
was taken off him and he was arrested. He and his son were imprisoned in the
Tower.

Strangely enough, Blood requested an audience with King Charles II with no one
else allowed in the room. The king granted his wish. Blood was pardoned, with no

punishment, and instead was offered a pension. What did he say to get himself off the
hook? We will never know.

The Crown Jewels are kept in cases, guarded by men with guns. Meanwhile, the
dagger that was used in the attempt to nick the lot is in the Royal Armouries archive.
It is a ballock dagger; its name comes from the hilt’s phallic appearance. It is dated
to 1620 and was made in England or Scotland. It isn’t on display in the Tower of
London museum, as no one is quite sure who owns it. It came to the Tower
Armouries in 1926, as a gift from the Royal Literary Fund, who were given it by

Thomas Newton, a relative of Sir Isaac Newton. The Tower Armouries don’t exhibit
it because they figure they have a better chance of keeping it if it’s tucked away on a
shelf in storage rather than out on display where other departments might notice it.

To see it, I was taken up a winding staircase within the Tower. It wasn’t really my
kind of place: there were a lot of guns, some belonging to Henry VIII, a jousting kit
and a mummified cat that used to be kept inside the roof of the Tower. I found a pile
of medieval castle decorations made entirely out of scrap pieces of weapons –
bullets, knives and swords. They aren’t displayed any more at the museum, as they

are out of fashion at the moment among the curators. There was one I liked, a snake
made solely from bullets, but I wouldn’t put it up at home …

What interests me about the Tower, not being so keen on weapons and prisons, is
that for over 600 years it was home to a royal menagerie. Founded by King John in
the early 1200s, it filled up with exotic animals given as royal gifts for the
entertainment and curiosity of the court. The first animals to arrive were lions, an
elephant and a polar bear, which would hunt for fish in the River Thames. Later came
tigers, kangaroos and ostriches.

The menagerie was as big a tourist attraction at its height as the Crown Jewels are

today. However, it closed in 1835, as the Duke of Wellington couldn’t stand the
smell and the animals in the Tower became the first animals in London Zoo, in
Regent’s Park.

The skulls of two male Barbary lions from North Africa, once kept as royal pets
and now an extinct subspecies, were found in the moat surrounding the Tower of
London. They have been carbon dated, one to 1280–1385, and the other to 1420–80,
making them the first lions to live in Britain since the Ice Age. The skulls are in the