The Tower of London: 5/41 Edward Underhill, the 'Hot Gospeller', preaching to the Giants in the By-Ward or Gate Tower

In this etching Edward Underhill is shown as ' the hot gospeller preaching to the giants in the by-ward or Gate Tower'. In the novel The Tower of London he was burnt at the stake but the real life character actually survived into the reign of Elizabeth I.

The Tower of London, a novel by William Harrison Ainsworth, was published in 1840. It tells the story of the ill fated Lady Jane Grey who was Queen of England for nine days in 1553, before being executed by Queen Mary.

The novel is illustrated with forty etchings and fifty-eight wood engravings by George Cruikshank. The former depict episodes in the narrative while the latter show architectural aspects of the Tower of London which forms the backdrop to the story. The dark images of the Tower vividly created by Cruikshank cemented its reputation as a place of torture and imprisonment.