Tower ravens 'just a piece of Victoriana'

The Tower of London ravens, whose presence is said to guarantee the survival of both Tower and monarchy, have only been there for a century, it was claimed today.

The Tower's official historian, Geoff Parnell, scoured 1,000 years of records for references to the birds. The earliest was in 1895.

He said some may have been a punning gift from the Earl of Dunraven, an antiquarian fascinated by raven myths.

Today a spokeswoman for the Historic Royal Palaces said: "So much of the appearance of the tower that we see today does date back to the Victorian period that it is quite appropriate the ravens should be a Victorian legend."