The Grenada sentinel., 1903-11-21
BARONIAL HALL MYSTERIES.
Secret Rooms In English Castles In.
to Which Hut Few Persons
Have Ever Entered.

/ Have Ever Entered.
The celebration at Glamis castle
England. by the earl and countess oi
Strathmore OF their golden wedding
recalls to mind the secret of the fam
lily. which tor innumerable genera
t1ons has bsen closely guarded mys-
terry. 1t has been shared only by the
holder of the title, his eldest son or
heir presumptive, and the steward OF
the estate. What it is no one outside
those three has the faintest idea. The
secret has never been divulged, states
a London paper.
When the heir to the title comes OF
age he is solemnly conducted to a hid
den chamber of the castle and there
told what the mystery is. The mys-
| terry is in that room, whatever it is.
Naturally the guild Scot who has
superstitious leanings has a fund OF
stories at his finger ends concerning
| the mystery Of Glamis castle. A
plumber was one day at work on the
| room, and through a hole in it he
saw something that paralyzed him.
With fear and trembling he slid down
| the earl, whom he told what he had
seen. The next day that workman
took ship for the other side of the
| world, with his pockets lined with
Strathmore gold.
But Glamis castle is not the only
baronial hall with secret. There are
score of others within these realms.
One cannot forget the mystery of Lit
tlecote house, an old hall in Wiltshire,
more than once referred to both by
the historian, John Timbs, and by
Alexander Gum. In one of the bed
chambers which you pass in going to-
wards the gallery is bedstead with
blue Grapery, which time has made
dingy and threadbare, and in the bot
tom of one of the bed curtains you
are shown place where small piece
has been cut out and sewn in again.
1t is only tritie in it's way, but for
three or four centuries that simple
patch has bothered antiquarians. 1t
perplexed Macaulay, it puzzled Sir
Walter Scott, and it dazed the biogra-
piers of the Darrell family. who own
the mansion. but never live there
Everyone has heard of Bolingbroke
castle. in Lincolnshire. Henry w.,
son of John of Gaunt, was born there
III the Harleian MS there is an ac-
count Of mystery which is unknown
to the thousands of visitors to the cas-
tie. In the tower at the southwest
ern angle OF the castle lives an un-
tanny something which no one in our
generation or past generations has
ever seen at close range.
1t is white hare, which has the
run of the place. 1t has been known
to emerge from its secret hiding place
for a moment, and then decamp-
goodness knows where. The tower
has been Investigated hundreds of
times, but the lurking place of that
strange white hare has never been
discOvered-that is the mystery.
One of the greatest of our old r,an-
sions is Haddon hall. 1t is owned by
the duke of Rutland. The mystery
here is Dorothy Ve-non's Door,
This damsel-Dorothy Vermont: IS
known was the last of the Vernons
who owned the hall, and it is equally
well known that she ran off with
handsome John Manners, the ancestor
OF the Rutland family, and that Ter
marriage with him gave Haddon hall
into the hands of it's present owners,
The door which 1s called after her
leads out of the anteroom on TO a
flight of stone steps, showing the way
to the terrace and winter gardens.
That door is unlike any of it's fel-
lows. in that it is strongly barred 1t
is a question whether even the pres
ent ducal owner, or any member of
the family, knows why that particular
door is barred. and stoutly barred. :co.
But the successive dukes respect the
mystery, and none has made any at
tempt to remove the bars
The name of Queen Katherine of Ar
ragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. is
closely associated with the remarkable
history of Kimbolton castle, one Of the
seats of the duke of Manchester.
There is in the grand old pile an
apartment called the "queen's cham
ber," and within this sanctum The
reigning duke, with the heir presump-
tive and the reigning duchess, meet
once year, the doors of the room be-
ing locked.
To the outside world this interesting
proceeding, which takes place every
Thursday. has a significant
as in reality it has; but it
is robbed of it's glamour and rays+e--y
when it is stated that all the members
Of the ducal family are in this secret.
which is unlike the Glamis castle nys-