JUNGLE FORTRESS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 6 September 1927, Page 5

JUNGLE FORTRESS

HOME OF ESSEX HERMITS. DISCOVERY OF RETREAT, BARBED-WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS tV CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. LONDON, Sept. 5. The “Daily Mail’’ states that, fifty years ago James Mason, the sensitive, ill-treated son of a Crimean Army sergeant, living at Great Chanfield, Essex, •was jilted. It was a strange courtship. According to accounts, James, from the solitude of his father’s garden, responded to the girl’s whistle by throwing notes weighted with sixpences over a high hedge, but the rejection of his suit resulted :n an impulsive vow never to see a human face again, except that of his devoted brother Thomas, who also vowed to guard James from intrusion for hi.s life-time. The same afternoon they purchased two acres in a wild park of Essex and, at nightfall, commenced to build a sort of jungle fortress secure against intercourse with 'mankind, surely the most extraordinary home in the'world. A representative of the “Dady Mail,” describing the discovery of au entrance to the retreat, says: “A thousand yards from the roadway I encountered a morass, deliberately formed by the drainage of surrounding streams, and then a 7ft high barked-wire fence, interwoven among the trunks and branches of the trees. Moveable planks provided a crossing over several of the streams.

“I then came upon a corrugated iron hut, .surrounded by years’ accumulation of debris. This is Thomas’ home. His sentry-box, from which he guards his brother, is secreted somewhere beyond. ‘ • Everywhere there is barbed wire, representing years of laborious effort. The outer defence consisted of a 12ft hedge, liberally wired. I then crawled through a -brushwood tunnncl, so dense that sunlight did not penetrate. The end of the tunnel was- blocked by wire, but an ingenious catch revealed a 2ft square opening. “I found a similar trapdoor in another wired fence before reaching the main fortification palisade of corrugated iron, 80 yards square and eight to ton feet high. Each sheet was deeply embedded in the ground and so cleverly knitted that there was not a chink through which the interior could be seen.

“A person would search long to discover the entrance, which was formed by one of the iron sheets swinging open on concealed hinges. On the inside there was more sheet irqn fencing, another trap-door covered by wire, and then a final and most remarkable defence, a chain of hives emitting black swarms of wild bees.

‘ ‘ There were thousands of bees, necessitating the covering of the head to pass' through the barrage, but before the front of the hermits’ hut was reached there was another 2ft trap-door through the iron fence. It was found opened. “Failing to get a reply at the door 1 tapped at a tiny window. A match flickered inside and the lantern revealed a man with a long white beard lying on a bunk constructed from an orange box, and partly screened by a canvas curtain.

"A tremulous voice said; "Please go away, stranger!’’ He refused either to talk or to shqw himself. Thomas later told me that, apart from a visit by a clergyman whom James had called in when he believed he was dying from rheumatism and the pensions official, .Tames, who is now 70, has seen nobdy since he made his vow in 1577. "During his seclusion James read only the Bible and a weekly religious journal. There were over 2000 copies stacked' around the wall as a shield against, the wind and rain. James never once inquired of or was told about his former sweetheart, who is celebrating her golden wedding at Tottenham this -year. ’’