Chill And Chill

Ghosts don't come when they're called.That's what I thought.Then my new pen suddenly stopped working ...I had come to the Tower of London to hear the stories of uneasy spirits that are said to share the landmark's 18 acres with 35 yeoman warders (sometimes called Beefeaters), a governor and two deputies, a pastor, a doctor and their families.Secretly, I hoped to encounter one of the specters.Phil Wilson, a sergeant among the men and one woman who are guardians of the 900-year-old fortress, met me as shadows oozed across the grounds and seeped over stones worn by history and its players.Only a corporate group on a special tour and I invaded the nighttime privacy of the 100 or so year-round residents, soldiers on guard duty and those wraiths that piqued my curiosity. If I were ever to see a ghost, this could be the place.Storied, historic and bloody, this mass of 21 towers beside the chilly River Thames has seen lives anointed, destroyed and redeemed. Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard died here, victims of King Henry VIII's obsessive quest for a son. Among others who gave up their heads in the tower's sloping courtyard were Baron Hastings, an adviser to Edward IV who was executed by Edward's successor; Lady Jane Grey, queen for nine days; and the Earl of Essex, a traitorous favorite of the first Queen Elizabeth.It was considered a benevolence to be dispatched within the fortress's confines, away from the baying crowds on Tower Hill, about 200 yards from the entrance at Middle Tower. And imprisonment in the tower's dungeons was reserved for nobles and educated people who ran afoul of the monarch's favor or agenda.

Common criminals had their own jails and their own execution grounds elsewhere.Although many dozens died on Tower Hill after being held in the fortress, only seven people were dispatched on Tower Green. It's some of these who are said to be among the wraiths that reside and occasionally roam in the tower."I won't believe until I see them," Wilson told me as we began a walk among the darkening passageways.