Remarkable Secret Chambers.
STORIES OF QUEER HIDING PLACES
Written and Illustrated by Allan Fea.
The secret chamber is a favourite item in the properties of the novelist, but few people are aware how many secret chambers really exist. They are not quite so numerous as "ghosts," but many of our country houses still possess these queer hiding places. The majority of them owe their origin to the religious persecutions of Queen Bess.
CAPTAIN ARTHUR JONES WAS HARDLY CONCEALED IN THE SECRET CHAMBER AT CHASTLETON, WHEN THE ENEMY ARRIVED TO SEARCH THE HOUSE.
In the mansions of the old Roman Catholic families we often find an apartment in a secluded part of the house or garret in the roof, named "the Chapel," where religious rites could be performed with the utmost privacy; and close handy was usually an artfully contrived hiding place, not only for the officiating priest to slip into in case of emergency, but also where the vestments, sacred vessels, and altar furniture could be put away at a moment's notice.
It appears that most of the hiding places for priests, called "Priests' Holes," were invented and constructed by the Jesuit, Nicholas Owen, a servant of Father Garnet, who devoted the greater part of his life to constructing these places in the principal Catholic houses all over England.