HIDING-PLACES OF SMUGGLERS AND THIEVES
Horsfield, in his _History of Sussex_, gives a curious account
of the discovery in 1738 of an iron chest in a recess of a wall at
the now magnificent ruin Hurstmonceaux Castle. In the thickness
of the walls were many curious staircases communicating with the
galleries. When the old castle was allowed to fall into ruin,
the secret passages, etc., were used by smugglers as a convenient
receptacle for contraband goods.
Until recently there was an ingenious hiding-place behind a sliding
panel at the old "Bell Inn" at Sandwich which had the reputation
of having formerly been put to the same use; indeed, in many
another old house near the coast were hiding-places utilised for
a like purpose.
In pulling down an old house at Erith in 1882 a vault was discovered
with strong evidence that it had been extensively used for smuggling.
The pretty village of Branscombe, on the Devonshire coast, was,
like the adjacent village of Beer, a notorious place for smugglers.
"The Clergy House," a picturesque, low-built Tudor building
(condemned as being insecure and pulled down a few years ago),
had many mysterious stories told of its former occupants, its
underground chambers and hiding-places; indeed, the villagers
went so far as to declare that there was _another house_
beneath the foundations!
A secret chamber was discovered at the back of a fireplace in an
old house at Deal, from which a long underground passage extended
to the beach. The house was used as a school, and the unearthly
noises caused by the wind blowing up this smugglers' passage
created much consternation among the young lady pupils. A lady
of our acquaintance remembers, when a schoolgirl at Rochester,
exploring part of a vaulted tunnel running in the direction of
the castle from Eastgate House, which in those days was a school,
and had not yet received the distinction of being the "Nun's
House" of _Edwin Drood_. Some way along, the passage was
blocked by the skeleton of a donkey! Our informant is not given
to romancing, therefore we must accept the story in good faith.
All round the coast-line of Kent once famous smuggling buildings
are still pointed out. Movable hollow beams have been found
supporting cottage ceilings, containing all kinds of contraband
goods. In one case, so goes the story, a customs house officer
in walking through a room knocked his head, and the tell-tale
hollow sound (from the beam, not from his head, we will presume)
brought a discovery. At Folkestone, tradition says, a long row
of houses used for the purpose had the cellars connected one
with the other right the way along, so that the revenue officers
could be easily evaded in the case of pursuit.
The modern utility of a convenient secret panel or trap-door
occasionally is apparent from the police-court reports. The tenements
in noted thieves' quarters are often found to have
intercommunication; a masked door will lead from one house to
the other, and trap-doors will enable a thief to vanish from
the most keen-sighted detective, and nimbly thread his way over
the roofs of the neighbouring houses. There was a case in the
papers not long since; a man, being closely chased, was on the
point of being seized, when, to the astonishment of his pursuers,
he suddenly disappeared at a spot where apparently he had been
closely hemmed in.
Many old houses in Clerkenwell were, sixty or seventy years ago,
notorious thieves' dens, and were noted for their hiding-places,
trap-doors, etc., for evading the vigilance of the law. The name
of Jack Sheppard, as may be supposed, had connection with the
majority. One of these old buildings had been used in former
years as a secret Jesuits' college, and the walls were threaded
with masked passages and places of concealment; and when the old
"Red Lion Inn" in West Street was pulled down in 1836, some artful
traps and false floors were discovered which tarried well with
its reputation as a place of rendezvous and safety for outlaws.
The "Rising Sun" in Holywell Street is a curious example, there
being many false doors and traps in various parts of the house;
also in the before-mentioned Newton Street a panel could be raised
by a pulley, through which a fugitive or outlaw could effect his
escape on to the roof, and thence into the adjoining house.
One of the simplest and most secure hiding-places perhaps ever
devised by a law-breaker was that within a water-butt! A cone-shaped
repository, entered from the bottom, would allow a man to sit
within it; nevertheless, to all intents and purposes the butt
was kept full of water, and could be apparently emptied from a
tap at its base, which, of course, was raised from the ground
to admit the fugitive. We understand such a butt is still in
existence somewhere in Yorkshire.
A "secret staircase" in Partingdale House, Mill Hill, is associated
(by tradition) with the notorious Dick Turpin, perhaps because of
its proximity to his haunts upon Finchley Common. As it exists
now, however, there is no object for secrecy, the staircase leading
merely to the attics, and its position can be seen; but the door
is well disguised in a Corinthian column containing a secret
spring. Various alterations have taken place in this house, so
once upon a time it may have had a deeper meaning than is now
perceptible.
Another supposed resort of this famous highwayman is an old ivy-grown
cottage at Thornton Heath. Narrow steps lead up from the open
chimney towards a concealed door, from which again steps descend
and lead to a subterranean passage having an exit in the garden.
[Illustration: BOVEY HOUSE, SOUTH DEVON]
[Illustration: MAPLEDURHAM HOUSE, OXFORDSHIRE]
We do not intend to go into the matter of modern secret chambers,
and there are such things, as some of our present architects and
builders could tell us, for it is no uncommon thing to design
hiding-places for the security of valuables. For instance, we
know of a certain suburban residence, built not more than thirty
years ago, where one of the rooms has capacities for swallowing
up a man six feet high and broad in proportion. We have known such
a person--or shall we say victim?--to appear after a temporary
absence, of say, five minutes, with visible signs of discomfort;
but as far as we are aware the secret is as safe in his keeping
as is the famous mystery in the possession of the heir of Glamis.
An example of a sliding panel in an old house in Essex (near
Braintree) was used as a pattern for the entrance to a modern
secret chamber;[1] and no doubt there are many similar instances
where the ingenuity of our ancestors has thus been put to use
for present-day requirements.
[Footnote 1: According to the newspaper reports, the recently
recovered "Duchess of Devonshire," by Gainsborough, was for some
time secreted behind a secret panel in a sumptuous steam-launch
up the river Thames, from whence it was removed to America in
a trunk with a false bottom.]
Our collection of houses with hiding-holes is now coming to an
end. We will briefly summarise those that remain unrecorded.
"New Building" at Thirsk has, or had, a secret chamber measuring
three feet by six. Upon the outside wall on the east side of
the house is a small aperture into which a stone fitted with
such nicety that no sign of its being movable could possibly be
detected; at the same time, it could be removed with the greatest
ease in the event of its being necessary to supply a person in
hiding with food.
Catledge Hall, Cambridgeshire, has a small octangular closet
adjoining a bedroom, from which formerly there was a secret way
on to the leads of the roof.
[Illustration: MAPLEDURHAM HOUSE, OXFORDSHIRE]
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO SECRET STAIRCASE, PARTINGDALE HOUSE,
MILL-HILL, MIDDLESEX]
At Dunkirk Hall, near West Bromwich, is a "priest's hole" in the
upper part of the house near "the chapel," which is now divided
into separate rooms.
Mapledurham House, axon, the old seat of the Blounts, contains
a "priest's hole" in the attics, descent into which could be
made by the aid of a rope suspended for that purpose.
Upton Court, near Slough, possesses a "priest's hole," entered
from a fireplace, provided with a double flue--one for smoke,
the other for ventilation to the hiding-place.
Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, formerly had a secret chamber
known as "Hell Hole."
Eastgate House, Rochester (before mentioned), has a hiding-place
in one of the upstairs rooms. It has, however, been altered.
Milsted Manor, Kent, is said to have a secret exit from the library;
and Sharsted Court (some three miles distant) has a cleverly
marked panel in the wainscoting of "the Tapestry Dressing-room,"
which communicates by a very narrow and steep flight of steps
in the thickness of the wall with "the Red Bedroom."
The "Clough Inn," Chard, Somersetshire, is said by tradition to
have possessed three secret rooms!
Cawdor Castle, Nairnshire--a hiding-place formerly in "the tower."
Bramhall Hall, Cheshire--two secret recesses were discovered
not long ago during alterations. The following also contain
hiding-places:--Hall-i'-the-wood, Bolling Hall, Mains Hall, and
Huncoat Hall, all in Lancashire; Drayton House, Northants; Packington
Old Hall, Warwickshire; Batsden Court, Salop; Melford Hall, Suffolk,
Fyfield House, Wilts; "New Building," Southwater, Sussex; Barsham
Rectory, Suffolk; Porter's Hall, Southend, Essex; Kirkby Knowle
Castle and Barnborough Hall, Yorkshire; Ford House, Devon; Cothele,
Cornwall; Hollingbourne Manor House, Kent (altered of late years);
Salisbury Court, near Shenley, Herts.
Of hiding-places and secret chambers in the ancient castles and
mansions upon the Continent we know but little.
Two are said to exist in an old house in the Hradschin in Prague--one
communicating from the foundation to the roof "by a windlass or
turnpike." A subterranean passage extends also from the house
beneath the street and the cathedral, and is said to have its
exit in the Hirch Graben, or vast natural moat which bounds the
château upon the north.
A lady of our acquaintance remembers her feeling of awe when,
as a school-girl, she was shown a hiding-place in an old mansion
near Baden-Baden--a huge piece of stone masonry swinging aside
upon a pivot and revealing a gloomy kind of dungeon behind.
The old French châteaux, according to Froisart, were rarely without
secret means of escape. King Louis XVI., famous for his mechanical
skill, manufactured a hiding-place in an inner corridor of his
private apartments at the Palace of Versailles. The wall where
it was situated was painted to imitate large stones, and the
grooves of the opening were cleverly concealed in the shaded
representations of the divisions. In this a vast collection of
State papers was preserved prior to the Revolution.[1]
[Footnote 1: Vide _The Memoirs of Madame Campan._]
Mr. Lang tells us, in his admirable work _Pickle the Spy_,
that Bonnie Prince Charlie, between the years 1749 and 1752,
spent much of his time in the convent of St. Joseph in the Rue
St. Dominique, in the Faubourg St. Germain, which under the late
Empire (1863) was the hotel of the Minister of War. Here he appears
to have been continually lurking behind the walls, and at night
by a secret staircase visiting his protectress Madame de Vassés.
Allusion is made in the same work to a secret cellar with a "dark
stair" leading to James III.'s furtive audience-chamber at his
residence in Rome.
So recently as the year 1832 a hiding-place in an old French
house was put to practical use by the Duchesse de Berry after
the failure of her enterprise to raise the populace in favour of
her son the Duc de Bordeaux. She had, however, to reveal herself
in preference to suffocation, a fire, either intentionally or
accidentally, having been ignited close to where she was hidden,
recalling the terrible experiences of Father Gerard at "Braddocks."