The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-12-29

family securely before starting on their
operations, In the inner quadrangle
of the mansion was a very remarkable
and ingenious device. large stone
of the solid wall could be pushed aside.
Though of immense weigh, it was so
nicely balanced and adjusted that it
required only a slight pressure upon
one side to effect an entrance to the
hiding place within. Upon the APP
proach of the enemy Father Blount
and his servant fastened to the court
yard and entered the vault, but in their
hurry to close the weighty door a
small portion of one of their girdles
got damned in, so that a part was
visible from the outside. Fortunately
for the fugitives some one in the Sc
cret in passing the spot happened to
catch sight of this telltale fragment,
and called gently to those within to
endeavor to pull it in, which they
eventually succeeded in doing.
AT this moment the pursuers were
at work in another part of the castle,
but, hearing the voice in the court
yard rushed into 1t and commenced
battering the walls, and at times upon
the very door of the hiding place, which
would have given way had not those
within put their combined weight
against /, to keep it from yielding. 1t
was a pitchy dark night, and it was
pelting with rain, so after a time, dis
couraged at finding nothing and wet
to the skin, the soldiers put off fur
Their search until the following morn
ing"
Few hiding places are associated
with so tragic a story as that at
Moyles Court, Hants, where the ven
cradle Lady Alice Lsle, in pure char
ity, hid two partisans of Monmouth
John Hickes and Richard Nelthorpe-
after the battle of Sedgemoor, for
which humane action she was con-
demned to be burned alive by Judge
Jeffreys-a sentence communted aftr-
ward to beheading. 1t is difficult to
associate this 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 additionally said to
be the place of concealment of the fu-
gitives who threw themselves on Lady
Aliee.s- mercy but a ddfTgeonIiKe eel
lar not unlike that represented in E.
NJ. Wards well-known picture looks
a much more likely place"
"A weird story clings to the ruins of
Minister Lowell manor house, Oxford
shire, the ancient seat of the Lords
Lowell After the battle of Stoke,
Francis, the last Viscount, who had
sided with the cause of Simnel against
King Henry VII, fed back to his
disguise, but from the night OI his re-
turn was never seen or heard of again,
and for nearly two centuries his dis
appearance remained a mystery. In
the meantime the manor house mad
been dismantled, and the remains ten
anted by a farmer, but strange dis
covery was made in the year 17OS. A
concealed vault was found, and in 1t,
seated before a table, with a prayer
book lying open upon it, was the en-
tire skeleton of a man. In the secret
chamber were certain barrels and jars,
which had contained food suff1cient TO
last perhaps some weeks, but the man.
sion having been seized by the King
soon after the unfortunate Lord Lowell
is supposed to have concealed himself,
the probability is that, unable to re-
gain his liberty, the neglect of a serv-
ant brought about this tragic end.
Charles II. and James II. were fire.
quently forced to seek hiding places.
Hale House, Islington, had con-
cealed 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 1850,
locally known as old NolPs Hole also
afforded him shelter when his life was
in danger"