There is a gallery situated in the attic story of the mansion at Stanford Court, in Worcestershire, in which Arthur Salwin—an ancestor of the present proprietor of the estate, who lived in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.—and his four sons and seven daughters, together with others of their kindred, are portrayed on the oak-panelled walls of the room in the costume of the day; the ladies in embroidered dresses, with jewelled ornaments. Underneath each figure is a motto in Latin. Behind the panels are secret passages, which, previous to the alterations of modern times, extended over a great part of the mansion.
Sanston Hall, the seat of the ancient family of Huddlestone, in Cambridgeshire, was destroyed on account of the owner’s adherence to the ancient faith, and rebuilt in the time of Queen Mary, when the precaution was taken to erect a chapel in the roof. It is approached by a winding staircase, which also gives access to a secret chamber. In the hiding-place near the chapel in the roof at the top of the old winding staircase, there were found some oyster-shells; and a fowl’s bone was picked up in the one belonging to Lydiate Hall—relics of some poor prisoner’s solitary meal.
Upton Court, near Reading, the former residence of the Perkyns family, has also its hidden retreat, which is difficult of access, being approached by a trap-door in the midst of a chimney-stack near the lesser Hall.
About the beginning of the present, or the end of last century, a secret chamber was accidentally discovered in the ancient mansion of Bourton-on-the-Water, a ‘large rambling house of many gables,’ situated in Gloucestershire. The door appeared on tearing off the paper which was about to be removed. It was on the second (or upper) floor landing-place, and opened into a small chamber about eight feet square, containing a chair and a table. On the back of the former lay a black robe; and the whole had the appearance as if some one had recently risen from his seat and left the room. On the same floor there were several other apartments, of which three only were in use, the other (called the Dark Room) having been locked up for many years. Of the three in use, one was styled the Chapel, and another the Priest’s Room. The former had a vaulted roof or ceiling. All three were supposed by the villagers to be haunted, and they had been known by the above appellations in the family long anterior to the discovery of the door. This interesting old mansion was sold in 1608 to Sir Thomas Edwards, treasurer of the royal household, and subsequently privy-councillor to Charles I., and it was probably during his occupancy that Charles is said to have passed the first night there on his way from Oxford. Since 1834, this house—except a small part of the south front—was pulled down, the fine old trees in which it was embosomed felled, the shrubberies made away with, the pleasure-grounds converted into pasture, and the remains of the house into a dispensary!
The hiding-place in Heale House, near Amesbury, in Wilts, for several days formed a retreat for King Charles II. after the battle of Worcester.
In the course of this century, a movable panel was discovered in a small panelled room in the old manor-house of Chelvey, county of Somerset. This aperture, for some unexplained reason, was closed up hastily, and the spring by which it was opened was said to be lost. In an adjoining room, which was much larger, and panelled in a similar manner, there was a cupboard, the floor of which—afterwards nailed down—had been formerly movable. Underneath was a short flight of steps, which again ascended, and led to a pretty long but very narrow room at the back of the fireplace. This concealed chamber was furnished with an iron sconce projecting from the wall, to hold a candle, and was also provided with a small fireplace.
Parham, which belongs to the Curzon family, has a secret chamber close to the chapel in the roof of the house, and the way down to it is through a bench standing out from the wall.
Captain Duthy, in his History of Hampshire, says ‘that the old house at Hinton-Ampner, in that county, was subjected to the evil report of being haunted; that strange and unaccountable circumstances did occur there, by which the peace and comfort of a most respectable and otherwise strong-minded lady, at that time occupier of the mansion, were essentially interfered with by noises and interruptions that to her appeared awful and unearthly, and which finally led to her giving up the house. Afterwards, on its being taken down, it was discovered that in the thickness of the walls were secret passages and stairs not generally known to exist, which afforded peculiar facilities for any one carrying on without detection the mysteries of a haunted house.’
The following extract, taken from a state paper in the public Record Office, is preserved among others relating to the Rebellion of 1745, and obviously has reference to the search that was being made all over the country for suspected persons. Worksop Manor as it then stood is said to have been burned down in 1761. Examination of Elizabeth Brown, taken upon oath before Richard Bagshaw, the 24th November 1745—‘Who says that nine years ago last spring, upon that Easter Monday, she, Catherine Marshall, and another young woman, went to Worksop Manor to see Elizabeth Walkden, who lived as a servant with the Duke of Norfolk there; and desiring to look at the house, the said Elizabeth Walkden, she believed, showed them most of the rooms of the house; and at last coming upon the leads of the house, and walking and looking about them, the said Elizabeth Walkden said she would let them see a greater variety than they had yet seen; after which she raised up the ledge of a sheet of lead with her knife till she got her fingers under it, and then she desired them to assist her, which they did; and then under that she took up a trap-door where there was a flight of stairs, which they went down, into a little room which was all dark; that the said Elizabeth Walkden opening the window-shutter, there was a fireplace, a bed, and a few chairs in the said room; and asking her what use that room was for, she said it was to hide people in trouble—sometimes. Then the said Elizabeth Walkden went to the side of the room next to the stair-foot, and opened a door in the wainscot about the middle of the height of the room, which they looked into, but it being dark, they could not see anything in it; but the said Elizabeth Walkden said they could not go into it, as it was full of arms; upon which the said Elizabeth Walkden shut the door, and they went up-stairs; and then she shut the trap-door, and laid down the sheet of lead as it was before, which was so nice she could not discern it from another part of the leads, and believes she could not find it if she were there again.’
In a very old house entered from the High Street of Canterbury, and nearly facing Mersey Lane, which leads straight to the cathedral, one of the rooms had a window opening into an adjoining church. In the thickness of the walls there were two or three secret stairs. It was said to have been a nunnery formerly; and that a subterranean passage, it was ascertained, used to unite it with the cathedral.