Roll Back The Centuries:"Tumb - screw and rack" have a chilling sound-well, here's the thumb-screw used to crush the thumbs of dissenting spirit during the English religious persecutions of the 19th century.The history of a country is written in many hands - in the ambitious seals of political treaties, in the agony of war, in the songs of its poets - and no less in the halls of its museums. British museums in particular are rich in memories of the past. Here under prim glass cases, or ranged against sober walls are a thousand keys to unlock the halls of history. July 16, 1946.