AMAZING STORY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 6 September 1927, Page 7

AMAZING STORY

50 YEARS’ SECLUSION

A JILTED LOVER’S VOW. London, Sept. 5. The “Daily Mail” states that 50 years ago James Mason, a 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 in 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 his lifetime.

The same afternoon they purchased two acres in a wild part of Essex, and at nightfall commenced to build a sort of jungle fortress, secure from intercourse with mankind, surely the most extraordinary home in the world.

A representative of the “Daily Mail,’’ describing the discovery of the entrance to the retreat, says: “A thousand yards from the roadway I encountered a morass, deliberately formed by the drainage of surrounding streams. Then a high barbed wire fence, interwoven among trunks and branches of trees. Moveable planks provided a crossing for several 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, secreted somewhei'fe beyond.

YEARS OF LABORIOUS EFFORT.

“Everywhere there is barbed wire representing years of laborious effort. The outer defence consisted of a twelve feet hedge liberally wired. “I then crawled through a brushwood tunnel so dense that the sunlight does not penetrate. The end of the tunnel was blocked by wire. An ingenious catch revealed a two-feet square opening. I found a similar trapdoor before reaching the main fortification, a palisade of corrugated iron 80 yards square and eight to ten feet high. Each sheet was deeply embedded in the ground and so cleverly knitted that there wa s 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 iron fencing, another trap door covered by wire, then the final and most remarkable defence, a chain of hives emitting black swarms of wild bees. There were thousands oi o««s, necessitating covering the head to pass tho barrage, but before the front of the hennit's hut was reached there was another two-feet trapdoor through an iron fence. It was found and opened, LONG WHITE BEARD. “Failing to get a reply at the door, I lapped a tiny window. A match flickered inside and . 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 show himself.

“Thomas later told me that apart from u visit hy a clergyman, whom James called in when he believed he was dying from rheumatism, and a pensions official. James, who is now 70, has seen nobody since he made his vow in 1877. During his seclusion James ha a read only the Bible and a weekly religious journal. There were over 2000 copies stacked around the wall as a shield against wind and rain. James never once inquired or Was told about his former sweetheart, who is celebrating her golden wedding at Tottenham this year.—(Sydney “Sun” cable.)