JEZREEL'S TOWER 139 



of the phenomenal simpheity which they had exhibited 

 in giving up their j^roperty to the House. " Queen 

 Esther " was incapable of fooling these simple folk 

 as completely as " Jezreel " had done, and minor 

 prophets sprang up to dispute her sovereignty over 

 the elect. Perhaps they were jealous of the state in 

 which this quondam sawyer's daughter drove about in a 

 carriage and pair, attended by liveried servants. 

 Perhaps also they had visions and Divine inspirations. 

 At any rate, " Queen Esther " presently drooped, and 

 died in 1888, in her twenty-eighth year ; whereupon 

 the sect swiftly collapsed under the rival seers who 

 followed. Lawsuits succeeded to the fine religious 

 frenzy in which the " Temple " was raised, and it 

 still stands unfinished, visible on its hilltop over a 

 great part of Chatham. It would be a pity to pull 

 it down, or to complete it ; or, indeed, to do anything 

 at all to it, for, as it is now, it furnishes perhaps as 

 eloquent a sermon on human wickedness and folly 

 as could well be delivered. 



The great tower, framed in steel and built of yellow 

 brick with ornamental lines of blue Staffordsliire brick, 

 has stone panels carved with a trumpet with a scroll, 

 " The Flying Roll," suspended from it ; with the 

 Prince of Wales feathers and the motto " I serve," and 

 other devices. The unfinished tower itself cost £44,000. 

 The foundation-stone was laid, as an inscription savs, 

 19th September, 1885, " by Mrs. Emma Cave, on behalf 

 of the 144,000. Revelations {sic) 7th, 4." 



It was understood that ^Irs. Cave, who at that time 

 owned a large part of Tufnell Park, found the money for 

 the tower, selling her pro}:)erty for the cause. The 

 unfinished tower was seized by the building contractors 

 for debt, and offered for sale by auctioneers, who stated 

 it " would do for a lunatic asylum, prison, infirmary, 

 etc." This suggestion failed, and the contractors, 

 unable to sell the incomplete carcase, let it to the sect 

 under a lease, which terminated in 1905. There were 

 at that time Jezreelite workrooms and printing-offices 



