A GREAT DEVISER OF "PRIEST'S HOLES"
CHAPTER II
HINDLIP HALL
CHAPTER III
PRIEST-HUNTING AT BRADDOCKS
CHAPTER IV
THE GUNPOWDER PLOT CONSPIRATORS
CHAPTER V
HARVINGTON, UFTON, AND INGATESTONE
CHAPTER VI
COMPTON WINYATES, SALFORD PRIOR, SAWSTON, OXBURGH, PARHAM, PAXHILL, ETC.
CHAPTER VII
KING-HUNTING: BOSCOBEL, MOSELEY, TRENT, AND HEALE
CHAPTER VIII
CAVALIER-HUNTING, ETC.
CHAPTER IX
JAMES II.'S ESCAPES
CHAPTER X
JAMES II.'S ESCAPES (_continued_): HAM HOUSE, AND "ABDICATION HOUSE"
CHAPTER XI
MYSTERIOUS ROOMS, DEADLY PITS, ETC.
CHAPTER XII
HIDING-PLACES IN JACOBITE DWELLINGS AND IN SCOTTISH CASTLES AND MANSIONS
CHAPTER XIII
CONCEALED DOORS, SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGES, ETC.
CHAPTER XIV
MINIATURE HIDING-HOLES FOR VALUABLES, ETC.
CHAPTER XV
HIDING-PLACES OF SMUGGLERS AND THIEVES
CHAPTER XVI
THE SCOTTISH HIDING-PLACES OF PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MOSELEY HALL, STAFFORDSHIRE
HINDLIP HALL, WORCESTERSHIRE
BRADDOCKS, ESSEX
FIREPLACE AT BRADDOCKS
ASHBY ST. LEDGERS, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
THE PLOT ROOM, ASHBY ST. LEDGERS
HUDDINGTON COURT, WORCESTERSHIRE
ENTRANCE PORCH, HUDDINGTON COURT
ENTRANCE TO "PRIEST'S HOLE," HARVINGTON HALL
HARVINGTON HALL, WORCESTERSHIRE
UFTON COURT, BERKSHIRE
" " GARDEN TERRACE, BERKSHIRE
HIDING-PLACE, UFTON COURT
" " "
INGATESTONE HALL, ESSEX
" " "
"PRIEST'S HOLE," SAWSTON HALL
SCOTNEY CASTLE, SUSSEX
COMPTON WINYATES, WARWICKSHIRE
THE MINSTRELS' GALLERY, COMPTON WINYATES
SAWSTON HALL, CAMBRIDGESHIRE
PICKERSLEIGH COURT, WORCESTERSHIRE
SALFORD PRIOR HALL, WARWICKSHIRE
" " " "
HIDING-PLACE, SALFORD PRIOR
SHOWING ENTRANCE TO HIDING PLACE, SALFORD PRIOR
OXBURGH HALL, NORFOLK
ENTRANCE TO HIDING-PLACE, PARHAM HALL
PAXHILL, SUSSEX
CLEEVE PRIOR MANOR HOUSE, WORCESTERSHIRE
BADDESLEY CLINTON HALL, WARWICKSHIRE
HIDING-PLACE BENEATH "THE CHAPEL," BOSCOBEL, SALOP
HIDING-PLACE IN "THE SQUIRE'S BEDROOM," BOSCOBEL
ENTRANCE TO HIDING-PLACE IN THE GARRET, OR "CHAPEL," BOSCOBEL
SECRET PANEL, TRENT HOUSE, SOMERSETSHIRE
BOSCOBEL
ENTRANCE TO HIDING-PLACE, TRENT HOUSE
HIDING-PLACE, TRENT HOUSE
TRENT HOUSE IN 1864
HEALE HOUSE, WILTSHIRE
MADELEY COURT, SHROPSHIRE
" " THE COURTYARD, SHROPSHIRE
" " SHROPSHIRE
ENTRANCE TO "PRIEST'S HOLE," THE UPPER HOUSE, MADELEY, SHROPSHIRE
INTERIOR OF "PRIEST'S HOLE," MOSELEY HALL, STAFFORDSHIRE
SECRET PANEL AT SALISBURY
SECRET CHAMBER, CHASTLETON, OXFORDSHIRE
OLD SUMMER HOUSE, SALISBURY
CHASTLETON, OXFORDSHIRE
" FRONT ENTRANCE, OXFORDSHIRE
BROUGHTON HALL, STAFFORDSHIRE
ST. JOHN'S HOSPITAL, WARWICK
STAIRCASE, BROUGHTON HALL
SHIPTON COURT, OXFORDSHIRE
BROUGHTON CASTLE, OXFORDSHIRE
ENTRANCE GATE, BRADSHAWE HALL, DERBYSHIRE
MOYLES COURT, HAMPSHIRE
TODDINGTON MANOR HOUSE, BEDFORDSHIRE, IN 1806
"RAT'S CASTLE," ELMLEY
KING'S HILL FARM, ELMLEY, KENT
ENTRANCE TO SECRET PASSAGE, "ABDICATION HOUSE," ROCHESTER
"ABDICATION HOUSE," ROCHESTER
MONUMENT OF SIR RICHARD HEAD
"RESTORATION HOUSE," ROCHESTER
ARMSCOT MANOR HOUSE, WORCHESTERSHIRE
ENTRANCE GATE, ARMSCOT MANOR HOUSE
WOODSTOCK PALACE, OXFORDSHIRE
MARKYATE CELL, HERTFORDSHIRE
BIRTSMORTON COURT, WORCESTERSHIRE
PORCH AT CHELVEY COURT, SOMERSETSHIRE
HURSTMONCEAUX CASTLE, SUSSEX
BOVEY HOUSE, SOUTH DEVON
MAPLEDURHAM HOUSE, OXFORDSHIRE
" " "
ENTRANCE TO SECRET STAIRCASE, PARTINGDALE HOUSE, MILL HILL, MIDDLESEX
INTRODUCTION
The secret chamber is unrivalled even by the haunted house for
the mystery and romance surrounding it. Volumes have been written
about the haunted house, while the secret chamber has found but
few exponents. The ancestral ghost has had his day, and to all
intents and purposes is dead, notwithstanding the existence of
the Psychical Society and the investigations of Mr. Stead and
the late Lord Bute. "Alas! poor ghost!" he is treated with scorn
and derision by the multitude in these advanced days of modern
enlightenment. The search-light of science has penetrated even
into his sacred haunts, until, no longer having a leg to stand
upon, he has fallen from the exalted position he occupied for
centuries, and fallen moreover into ridicule!
In the secret chamber, however, we have something tangible to deal
with--a subject not only keenly interesting from an antiquarian
point of view, but one deserving the attention of the general
reader; for in exploring the gloomy hiding-holes, concealed
apartments, passages, and staircases in our old halls and manor
houses we probe, as it were, into the very groundwork of romance.
We find actuality to support the weird and mysterious stories
of fiction, which those of us who are honest enough to admit
a lingering love of the marvellous must now doubly appreciate,
from the fact that our school-day impressions of such things
are not only revived, but are strengthened with the semblance
of truth. Truly Bishop Copleston wrote: "If the things we hear
told be avowedly fictitious, and yet curious or affecting or
entertaining, we may indeed admire the author of the fiction, and
may take pleasure in contemplating the exercise of his skill. But
this is a pleasure of another kind--a pleasure wholly distinct from
that which is derived from discovering what was _unknown_, or
clearing up what was _doubtful_. And even when the narrative
is in its own nature, such as to please us and to engage our
attention, how, greatly is the interest increased if we place
entire confidence in its _truth_! Who has not heard from
a child when listening to a tale of deep interest--who has not
often heard the artless and eager question, 'Is it true?'"
From Horace Walpole, Mrs. Radcliffe, Scott, Victor Hugo, Dumas,
Lytton, Ainsworth, Le Fanu, and Mrs. Henry Wood, down to the
latest up-to-date novelists of to-day, the secret chamber (an
ingenious _necessity_ of the "good old times") has afforded
invaluable "property"--indeed, in many instances the whole vitality
of a plot is, like its ingenious opening, hinged upon the masked
wall, behind which lay concealed what hidden mysteries, what
undreamed-of revelations! The thread of the story, like Fair
Rosamond's silken clue, leads up to and at length reveals the
buried secret, and (unlike the above comparison in this instance)
all ends happily!
Bulwer Lytton honestly confesses that the spirit of romance in his
novels "was greatly due to their having been written at my ancestral
home, Knebworth, Herts. How could I help writing romances," he
says, "after living amongst the secret panels and hiding-places
of our dear old home? How often have I trembled with fear at
the sound of my own footsteps when I ventured into the picture
gallery! How fearfully have I glanced at the faces of my ancestors
as I peered into the shadowy abysses of the 'secret chamber.' It
was years before I could venture inside without my hair literally
bristling with terror."
What would _Woodstock_ be without the mysterious picture,
_Peveril of the Peak_ without the sliding panel, the Castlewood
of _Esmond_ without Father Holt's concealed apartments,
_Ninety-Three, Marguerite de Valois, The Tower of London, Guy
Fawkes_, and countless other novels of the same type, without
the convenient contrivances of which the _dramatis personæ_
make such effectual use?
Apart, however, from the importance of the secret chamber in
fiction, it is closely associated with many an important historical
event. The stories of the Gunpowder Plot, Charles II.'s escape
from Worcester, the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745, and many
another stirring episode in the annals of our country, speak
of the service it rendered to fugitives in the last extremity
of danger. When we inspect the actual walls of these confined
spaces that saved the lives of our ancestors, how vividly we can
realise the hardships they must have endured; and in wondering
at the mingled ingenuity and simplicity of construction, there
is also a certain amount of comfort to be derived from drawing
a comparison between those troublous and our own more peaceful
times.
SECRET CHAMBERS AND HIDING-PLACES
CHAPTER I
A GREAT DEVISER OF "PRIEST'S HOLES"
During the deadly feuds which existed in the Middle Ages, when
no man was secure from spies and traitors even within the walls
of his own house, it is no matter of wonder that the castles and
mansions of the powerful and wealthy were usually provided with
some precaution in the event of a sudden surprise--_viz._
a secret means of concealment or escape that could be used at
a moment's notice; but the majority of secret chambers and
hiding-places in our ancient buildings owe their origin to religious
persecution, particularly during the reign of Elizabeth, when the
most stringent laws and oppressive burdens were inflicted upon
all persons who professed the tenets of the Church of Rome.
In the first years of the virgin Queen's reign all who clung to
the older forms of the Catholic faith were mercifully connived
at, so long as they solemnised their own religious rites within
their private dwelling-houses; but after the Roman Catholic rising
in the north and numerous other Popish plots, the utmost severity
of the law was enforced, particularly against seminarists, whose
chief object was, as was generally believed, to stir up their
disciples in England against the Protestant Queen. An Act was
passed prohibiting a member of the Church of Rome from celebrating
the rites of his religion on pain of forfeiture for the first
offence, a year's imprisonment for the second, and imprisonment
for life for the third.[1] All those who refused to take the
Oath of Supremacy were called "recusants" and were guilty of
high treason. A law was also enacted which provided that if any
Papist should convert a Protestant to the Church of Rome, both
should suffer death, as for high treason.
[Footnote 1: In December, 1591, a priest was hanged before the
door of a house in Gray's Inn Fields for having there said Mass
the month previously.]
The sanguinary laws against seminary priests and "recusants"
were enforced with the greatest severity after the discovery of
the Gunpowder Plot. These were revived for a period in Charles
II.'s reign, when Oates's plot worked up a fanatical hatred against
all professors of the ancient faith. In the mansions of the old
Roman Catholic families we often find an apartment in a secluded
part of the house or garret in the roof named "the chapel," where
religious rites could be performed with the utmost privacy, and
close handy was usually an artfully contrived hiding-place, not
only for the officiating priest to slip into in case of emergency,
but also where the vestments, sacred vessels, and altar furniture
could be put away at a moment's notice.
It appears from the writings of Father Tanner[1] that most of
the hiding-places for priests, usually called "priests' holes,"
were invented and constructed by the Jesuit Nicholas Owen, a
servant of Father Garnet, who devoted the greater part of his
life to constructing these places in the principal Roman Catholic
houses all over England.
[Footnote 1: _Vita et Mors_ (1675), p. 75.]
"With incomparable skill," says an authority, "he knew how to
conduct priests to a place of safety along subterranean passages,
to hide them between walls and bury them in impenetrable recesses,
and to entangle them in labyrinths and a thousand windings. But
what was much more difficult of accomplishment, he so disguised
the entrances to these as to make them most unlike what they
really were. Moreover, he kept these places so close a secret
with himself that he would never disclose to another the place
of concealment of any Catholic. He alone was both their architect
and their builder, working at them with inexhaustible industry
and labour, for generally the thickest walls had to be broken
into and large stones excavated, requiring stronger arms than
were attached to a body so diminutive as to give him the nickname
of 'Little John,' and by this his skill many priests were preserved
from the prey of persecutors. Nor is it easy to find anyone who
had not often been indebted for his life to Owen's hiding-places."
How effectually "Little John's" peculiar ingenuity baffled the
exhaustive searches of the "pursuivants," or priest-hunters,
has been shown by contemporary accounts of the searches that
took place frequently in suspected houses. Father Gerard, in
his Autobiography, has handed down to us many curious details of
the mode of procedure upon these occasions--how the search-party
would bring with them skilled carpenters and masons and try every
possible expedient, from systematic measurements and soundings to
bodily tearing down the panelling and pulling up the floors. It
was not an uncommon thing for a rigid search to last a fortnight
and for the "pursuivants" to go away empty handed, while perhaps
the object of the search was hidden the whole time within a wall's
thickness of his pursuers, half starved, cramped and sore with
prolonged confinement, and almost afraid to breathe, lest the
least sound should throw suspicion upon the particular spot where
he lay immured.
After the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, "Little John" and
his master, Father Garnet, were arrested at Hindlip Hall,
Worcestershire, from information given to the Government by Catesby's
servant Bates. Cecil, who was well aware of Owen's skill in
constructing hiding-places, wrote exultingly: "Great joy was
caused all through the kingdom by the arrest of Owen, knowing
his skill in constructing hiding-places, and the innumerable
number of these dark holes which he had schemed for hiding priests
throughout the kingdom." He hoped that "great booty of priests"
might be taken in consequence of the secrets Owen would be made
to reveal, and directed that first he should "be coaxed if he
be willing to contract for his life," but that "the secret is
to be wrung from him." The horrors of the rack, however, failed
in its purpose. His terrible death is thus briefly recorded by
the Governor of the Tower at that time: "The man is dead--he
died in our hands"; and perhaps it is as well the ghastly details
did not transpire in his report.
The curious old mansion Hindlip Hall (pulled down in the early
part of the last century) was erected in 1572 by John Abingdon, or
Habington, whose son Thomas (the brother-in-law of Lord Monteagle)
was deeply involved in the numerous plots against the reformed
religion. A long imprisonment in the Tower for his futile efforts
to set Mary Queen of Scots at liberty, far from curing the dangerous
schemes of this zealous partisan of the luckless Stuart heroine,
only kept him out of mischief for a time. No sooner had he obtained
his freedom than he set his mind to work to turn his house in
Worcestershire into a harbour of refuge for the followers of
the older rites. In the quaint irregularities of the masonry
free scope was given to "Little John's" ingenuity; indeed, there
is every proof that some of his masterpieces were constructed
here. A few years before the "Powder Plot" was discovered, it
was a hanging matter for a priest to be caught celebrating the
Mass. Yet with the facilities at Hindlip he might do so with
comfort, with every assurance that he had the means of evading
the law. The walls of the mansion were literally riddled with
secret chambers and passages. There was little fear of being
run to earth with hidden exits everywhere. Wainscoting, solid
brickwork, or stone hearth were equally accommodating, and would
swallow up fugitives wholesale, and close over them, to "Open,
Sesame!" again only at the hider's pleasure.