Secret Chambers and Hiding Places

Secret Chambers and Hiding Places

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Title: Secret Chambers and Hiding Places Historic, Romantic, & Legendary Stories & Traditions About Hiding-Holes, Secret Chambers, Etc.
Author: Allan Fea
Release Date: November 1, 2004 [EBook #13918]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SECRET CHAMBERS AND HIDING PLACES ***

Produced by Robert J. Hall.

[Illustration: MOSELEY HALL, STAFFORDSHIRE]

SECRET CHAMBERS AND HIDING-PLACES
HISTORIC, ROMANTIC, & LEGENDARY STORIES & TRADITIONS ABOUT HIDING-HOLES, SECRET CHAMBERS, ETC.
BY ALLAN FEA
AUTHOR OF "THE FLIGHT OF THE KING," "KING MONMOUTH," ETC.
WITH EIGHTY ILLUSTRATIONS
THIRD AND REVISED EDITION

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
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