A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Tower Drums, The
TOWER DRUMS, THE. Handel frequently borrowed a pair of kettledrums from the Master-General of the Ordnance for his own performances of his oratorios; and as they were kept in the Tower of London, they were usually called 'the Tower Drums.' They were in frequent request after his death, including the Commemoration Festival in Westminster Abbey in 1784. Dr. Burney, in his account of this Festival, says they were taken by Marlborough at the battle of Malplaquet in 1709.
A much larger pair, 39 and 35 inches in diameter, were made expressly for that Festival from the design of a Mr. Asbridge, of Drury Lane orchestra, and have since obtained the name of 'Tower Drums,' from a notion that the head of one of them was made from the skin of a lion in the Tower menagerie. These drums came into the possession of the late T. P. Chipp, the well-known kettledrummer, and on the sale of his instruments were bought by H. Potter & Co., military musical instrument makers. They added a brass T-shaped key to each tuning-screw, and presented them (1884) to the Crystal Palace Company, who have placed them in their large orchestra.
Larger drums were made for the Sacred Harmonic Society (47 and 43 inches in diameter), but no tone can be got from such overgrown instruments.[ V. de P. ]