Carvings in the Beauchamp Tower of the Tower of London. Photo June 2000.
If I remember correctly, the oak in the middle is thought to have been carved by Robert Dudley while he and some of his family members were imprisoned in the Tower after the plot to put Jane Grey on the throne.
Would really like to know if that oak leaf story is just that…a story. Have heard that the Beefeater guides really do a grand job for tourists, but some of their history is a bit wonky. Still…it’s a impressive site in the Beauchamp Tower…powerful! What immediately jumped out at me was the name “Thomas Steven”. Hard letters, in a straight line. My guess is an educated man…wonder what his tale would be?
I have some research papers (somewhere in my stash that still needs organizing) about the carvings that I’m going to dig into one of these days. There is some decent circumstantial evidence for this one being from Robert though since there are the initials “RD” below and the oak leaf was the symbol for Robert used in the larger carving done by his brother (here: http://tudorhistory.org/blog/2010/07/07/picture-of-the-week-79/).
BTW, I did find mention of Thomas Steven on the official Tower site: http://www.hrp.org.uk/MediaPlayer/ViewPlaylist.aspx?PlaylistId=72
Interesting!