SECRET CHAMBERS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 116, 14 May 1909, Page 2

SECRET CHAMBERS.

MYSTERY AND SUPERSTITION HAUNT OLD MANSIONS.

ROMANTIC STORIES

(From The Scrap Book.)

The secret chamber played an important part in the building of many old houses. Necessity drove men to desperate measures in the days when "might made right," and nearly all of the old feudal castles had some cunningly hidden room contrived with much skill by the architect. On© house would have its secret room in a chimney, entered from the hearth-stone, though cases are recorded in which a chimney-pot unsullied by smoke has led to the detection of the person in hiding. Another would utilise a sliding or swinging picture, like that one m Lyne Hall, Cheshire; an innocent-looking "settle-" would prove the entrance to a hole, or a false floor would accommodate refugees. Many an old English country-house to-day has.as one of its most interesting features a concealed room, the whereabouts of which is kept secret from all except the members of the family. Thus in the North of England may be mentioned Netherall, near Maryport. Cumberland, the seat of the old 'family of Senhouse. In this time-honoured mansion there is said to be a real secret chamber, its exact position being known to only two persons—the heir'-in-law and the family solicitor. DETECTION DEFIED. According to a popular tradition the 'secret of the hidden room has never been revealed to more than two living persons at a time. This mysterious room has no window, and, despite every effort to discover it, has, it is said, defied the .ingenuity of every visitor staving in the house. With this secret chamber may be compared the one at Glamis, the latter I possessing a window, which has not, however, led to the identification of the mysterious room. The transmisison of the secret of Glamis takes place behind locked j doors, upon the day the Strathmore heir comes of age. For centuries this has been the rule, and the secret has been guarded so well that by no efforts have the curious been able to discover even an inkling of its nature. Antiquaries tell remarkable stories of the place, and there is no house in Great Britain which affords such great opportunities for speculation and superstitious wonder. The peasantry, taking full advantage of its mystery, have invented all sorts of tales, which have grown to be more than half believed. The historic old pile was built in the tenth century, and is famous for the many tragedies which have taken place within it. Here it was that Shaks73ere laid the scene of his most tragic work, "Macbeth," and here Malcolm 11. of Scotland, in 1033, breathed out his life after being carried from Birnam Wood, where he had been mortally wounded. One countess determined to discover the location of the room, and one time, when the earl was away, she made the rounds of the castle with a party of friends, and hung a towel in every window. Upon going outside and looking up at each of the casements they found one window from which no towel hung. Returning, they searched the castle, but the room in which the unmarked window was could not be found.

A workman who was once repairing the roof is said to have descended in great terror and afterward to have been closeted with the earl for a long time. When he left the place, the steward accompanied him to his home, where he gathered up his belongings, and was thence escoi'ted to Glasgow, supplied with a large sum of money, and sent away to Australia.

THE ABODE OF A HUMAN TOAD

The most gruesome of all the stories told to account for the room and its mystery, and the story which is most generally believed by the Scotch peasants, is that'hundreds of years ago a monster was born into the Strathmore family, half-toad and half-man, endowed with almost endless life, as toads are said to be. The existence of this horror gives a reason for the secret chamber, and the care of it is the incubus upon the family. The room is said to have been walled off from the rest of the building not very long ago, and the claim seems to be pretty well substantiated that sounds are heard Avhich cannot be accounted for in natural ways. The most reasonable tradition says that during one of the feuds between the clans of Lindsay and Ogilvie, a number of the latter, flying from their enemies, begged shelter and concealment from the owner of Glamis. He admitted them and, on pretence of hiding them, placed them in a large out-of-the-way chamber and there kept them confined and left them to starve. Their bones are believed to lie there to this day. The wall was built by one of the earls who once entered the chambers; but the noises continue, though the sights are shut away for all time.

The Castle of Rushen, in Castletown, Isle of Man, has an apartment which, it is said, has never been opened within the memory of man, though no reason is given for the fear in which it is held. Many magnificent apartments are said to be under this old stronghold, but _ the descriptions of them are so mixed with superstition that it is impossible to tell how much _is _ true and how much imaginery. Doubtless there are secret rooms, but the fact of their existence is all one may safely assert. Blenkinsopp Castle, an ancient stronghold on the western frontier of Northumberland, is now only a fragment of what it was five centuries ago, but its ruined condition only serves to add to tlio glamour which tradition casts about it. A few years ago, while cleaning the vaults underneath the keep, where rubbish had accumulated for ages, some workmen discovered a small doorway. When the discovery was announced people flocked there in great numbers, but only one man had the courage to enter the passage which was revealed. IN THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH. He was able to walk forward for a few yards in a passage so low, Lowever, that he could not stand ere^t, then came a flight of steps, then Enother straight passage and then a doorway. This had fallen to pieces, only hinges and bolt remaining, and here his courage failed him, for the passage took a sudden turn and a long aiid steep flight of steps ltd down into complete darkness. His light was extinguished at this point, and he groped his way back, and though he made a second trial he was no more successful than at first. The man who had employed the workmen to clean the vaults, that he might keep his cattle in them over the winter, was so lacking in curios- j

ity that he ordered the place to be | closed up, so that its exact nature was never known. _ There lived long ago, m the old, j troublous times, a Jesuit named , Nicholas Owen, who devoted the greater part of his life to constructing hiding-places for persecuted priests. . The places were called priest holes," and were made in various ways with the greatest skill and ingenuity, in the principal Catholic houses all over England. ■■■Bosobel House, near bhifnal, Shropshire, which is famed as the hidinp-place of Charles 11., after his defeat by Cromwell in 1651, has one of these* "priests' holes," and also a secret passage in the chimney, Avhich, with the other "royal" portions or the place, is shown to visitors now. Priests were the especial objects of the wrath of the masses, and frequently had to lie hidden for days at a time. Indeed, religious persecution was the occasion of most of the secret rooms which were built in the houses of those days. # At Upton Court a curious place tor concealment exists in one of the gables close to the ceiling. It is triangular in shape, and is opened by a spring bolt that can be unlatched by pulling a string which runs through a tiny li^le pierced in the framework of the door of the adjoining room. The door of the hiding-place swings upon a pivot, is thickly covered with plaster so as to resemble the rest of the wall, and is so solid that when struck there is no hollow sound from the cavity behind. REFUGES OF PERSECUTED PRIESTS. Not far off, in an upper garret, is a hiding-place in the thickness of the wall, large enough to contain a man standing upright. Like the other, the door or entrance forms part of the plaster wall. Again, in one of the passages of this curious old mansion are further evidences of the hardships to which Roman Catholic priests were subjected—a trap in the floor, which can only be opened by pulling up what exteriorly appears to be the head of one of the nails of the flooring. By raising this a spring is released and a trap-dor opened, revealing a large hole with a narrow ladder leading doAvn to it. When this hiding-place was discovered in 1830 its contents were significant—a crucifix and two ancient petronels. On the occasion that mass was to be celebrated in these secret chapels it was customary to inform the neighbourhood by some such understood sign as the hanging out of linen to dry on the hedges hard by. The narrow escapes.of some of the persecuted oriests would fill several volumes, and for thrilling excitement that of Father Blount at Scotney Castle, the old house of the Darralls on the borders of Kent and Sussex, is a good example. One Christmas night, towards the close of Elizabeth's reign, the castle was seized by a party of priesthunters, who, with their usual mode of procedure, locked up the members of the family securely before starting on their operations. In the inner quadrangle of the mansion was a very remarkable and ingenious device. A large stone of the solid wall could be pushed aside. Though of immense weight, it was so balanced and adjusted that it required only a slight pressure upon one side to effect an entrance to the hiding-place within. Upon the approach of the enemy, Father Blount and his servant hastened to the courtyard and entered the vault, but in their hurry to close the weighty door of the hiding-place one of their girdles got jammed m, so that a part was visible from the outside. Fortunately for the fugitives, someone in the secret in passing the spot happened to catch sight of this telltale fragment,. and called gently to those within to endeavour' to pull it in, which they eventually succeeded in doing. At this moment the pursuers were at work ?n another part of the castle, but hearing the voice in the courtyard, rushed into it and commenced battering the walls, and at times upon the very door of the hidingplace, which would have given way had not those within put their combined, weight against it to keep it from yielding. It was a pitch-dark night, pelting with rain, so after a time, discouraged at finding nothing, and wet to the skin, the soldiers put off further search until the following morning, thus giving the fugitives time to get away. ALICE LISLE'S TRAGIC STORY. I Few hiding;places are associated with so tragic a story as that at Moyles Court, Hants, where the venerable Lady Alice Lisle, in pure charity, hid two partisans of Monmouth, John Hickes and Richard Nelthorpe, after the battle of Sedgemoor, for which humane action she was condemned to be burned alive by Judge I Jeffreys—a sentence commuted affceri wards to beheading. It is difficult to associate tins peaceful old Jacobean mansion and the simple tomb in the churchyard hard by with, so terrible a history. A dark'hole in the wall of the kitchen is traditionally said to be the place of concealment of the fugitives who

threw themselves on Lady Alice's mercy, but a dungeon-like cellar looks a much more likely place. A weird story clings to the ruins of Minster Lovel manor house, Oxfordshire, the ancient-seat of the Lords Lovel. After the battle of Stoke, Francis, the last Viscount, who hao sided with the cause of Simnel against King Henry VII., fled back to his house in disguise, but from the night of his return was never seen or heard ot ugain, and for nearly two centuries his. disappearance remained a mystery. In the meantime, the manor house had been dismantled, and was_ then tenanted by a farmer. In 1708 a strange discovery was made. A concealed vault was found, and in it, seated before a table with a prayerbook lying open upon it, was the entire skeleton of a man. In the secret chamber were certain barrels and jars, which had contained food sufficient to last perhaps somo weeks, but the mansion having been seized by the king soon after the unfortunate Lord Lovel is supposed to have concealed- himself, the probability is that, unable to regain his liberty, the neglect of a servant brought about his tragic end. "OLD NOLL'S HOLE." Hale House, Islington, had a concealed recess behind the wainscot over the mantelpiece, in which the Lord Protector was hidden. A dark hole in one of the gable ends of Cromwell House, Mortlake (taken down in 1860), locally known as "Old Noll's Hole," also afforded him shelter when his life was in danger. America had not had occasion to use such apartments, though the traffic in slaves and the efforts made by the abolitionists to liberate them before the Civil War were responsible for a few hiding-places, especially along the line of the famous "underground railroad," which crossed the State of Pennsylvania and Ohio. The architectural difficulties of making such hiding-places in houses of wooden construction are obvious. Masonry, on the other hand, lent itself perfectly to that sort of thing, the hidden chambers in such buildings being usually hollow places in the thick walls, completely baffling discovery, even when their existence was known or suspected.