In The Tower of London, Volumes I and II, Lord Ronald Gower offers a richly documented history of England's most symbolically charged fortress, tracing its evolution from Norman stronghold to royal palace, prison, treasury, armoury, and national monument. Written in an elegant late-Victorian antiquarian style, the work combines architectural description, political narrative, and biographical portraiture, placing the Tower within the broader literature of historical topography and constitutional memory. Gower, an aristocrat, sculptor, politician, and cultivated man of letters, was well positioned to interpret the Tower as both material structure and historical theatre. The son of the Duke of Sutherland, he moved within circles attentive to heritage, monarchy, and public commemoration; his artistic training sharpened his eye for form, while his historical interests drew him toward the figures—royal, noble, and condemned—whose lives made the Tower legendary. This work is recommended to readers seeking more than a guidebook: it is a learned meditation on power, ceremony, imprisonment, and national identity. Though shaped by its period's assumptions, it remains valuable for its breadth, atmosphere, and reverent attention to one of Britain's defining monuments.

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Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916) was a British sculptor, best known for his statue of Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon. He also wrote biographies of Marie Antoinette and Joan of Arc and a history of the Tower of London.