After the defeat of Wigan the gallant Earl of Derby sought refuge at Boscobel, and after a sojourn of two days proceeded to Gatacre Park—now rebuilt, but also famous for its hiding holes—where he was concealed by a Mr. Humphrey Elliot. When the day was lost on the disastrous 3rd of September, the Earl suggesting his recent place of concealment and the loyalty of the Penderels, Boscobel House was decided upon as the safest place for the King in his dire extremity. "I chose to trust them," says King Charles, "because I knew they had hiding holes for priests that I thought I might make use of in case of need."
A door now occupies the position of the sliding panel in the wainscoting of "the squire's bedroom," behind which one of the hiding places is situated. In the floor a trap-door can be raised, below which is a recess some five feet square, and this communicated by a narrow flight of steps in the great chimney to an outlet screened by creepers, leading to the garden.
The other hiding place is entered from the floor above through a small square hole at the top of a staircase leading to what is known as "the gallery"—a large attic from the windows of which Charles II. could get a good view of the surrounding country, and where he could take some exercise and stretch his limbs after the narrow confinement of his uncomfortable sleeping quarters. The hiding place in the garret is five feet two inches in depth and 3¼ by 4½ feet wide.
SECRET CHAMBER UNDER A WINDOW SEAT AT PARHAM HALL.
The priest's hole at Moseley Hall, whither His Majesty removed when he left Boscobel, is situated at the back of a large brewhouse chimney, and is entered through a trap-door in the floor of a small room or closet adjoining the apartment which was occupied by the fugitive King. His narrow escape when the house was visited by Southall, the notorious priest-catcher, has thus graphically been described by Charles' host, Mr. Thomas Whitgreave:—
"In the afternoon, reposing himself on his bed in the parlour chamber, and inclining to sleep, as I was watching at the window, one of the neighbours I saw came running in, who told the maid soldiers were coming to search, who therefore presentlie came running to the staires' head and cried, 'Soldiers! Soldiers are coming!' which His Majesty hearing, presentlie started out of his bedd, and ran to his privacie, where I secured him the best I could, and then leaving him, went forth into the street to meet the soldiers who were comeing to search; as soon as they saw me and knew who I was, they were readie to pull mee to pieces, and take me away with them, saying I was come from the Worcester fight, but after much dispute with them, and by the neighbours being informed of their false information that I was not there, being very ill a great while, they let mee goe, but till I saw them clearly all gone forth of the town, I returned not. But as soon as they were I returned to release him."
In a corner of the priest's hole is a low brick seat. The walls are of brick, and huge oak beams, in one of which we noticed a wooden pin, about an inch in diameter, that could be easily pulled out by the fingers. In all likelihood a straw or reed could be passed through to supply an inmate with liquid food, as we shall see was the case at Harvington.
Window seats often contained secret means of ingress to priests' holes. In the long gallery of Parham Hall, Sussex, not far from "the chapel," is an example wherein Charles Paget was concealed for some days after the failure of the Babington Conspiracy.
