Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-09-05

l uS Sli dHSc uiSCOFSTy III ITSlduu the
other day of a vaulted subterranean
chamber under an ancient castle re-
wives the belief in the undiscovered
secrets that still await the explorer of
English medieval strongholds.
Romantic novelists have been large
ly responsible for the general indiffer-
ence to the real mysteries and TRACE
dies of these grim castles, for their
tales of hidden wrong and violence.
have come to be regarded as merely
efforts of the imagination, having no
existence in fact. How wide of the
mark this is let the following few in
stances show. A discovery almost
precisely Identical with that in County
Roscommon few days since was
made in 1926, during the restoration
works in the ancient chapel attached
to the castle of st. Michaers Mount
in Cornwall, which dates back to the
fourteenth century. The workmen, re-
moving wooden platform, discovered
walled-up door in the south wall,
and opening it narrow flight Of stone
steps was revealed, leading down into
grim stone cell six feet square, with
out any window or other opening than
in the door by which they had entered.
They were Mortified by stumbling in
the darkness of that dreadful place
upon what proved to be the skeleton
of man of extraordinary height.
What unfortunate wretch was thrust
into this living tomb to die of starva-
ton has never been discovered. Such
dungeons as these, in which you flung
your victim and then forgot" him
were known as "oubliettes."
The ruined castellated manor house
of Minister Lovel in OXfordshire, kept
its tragic secret some two hundred
and twenty years.
Oxford's Home of Romance.
This is one of the most romantic
places in England, both in the circum-
stances of it's situation and of its
story. 1t came to Francis, Viscount
Lovel, in the time Of Richard II. He
it was whose name was one Of the
subjects of political rhyme then cur
rent in the land:
Rule all England, under the Hog.
The cat was Catesby, the Rat Rad
cliffe, and the Hog King Richard him.
self, whose favorite badge was the
blue boar. The characterization of
Lowell as "the Dog sounds like the
expression of special hatred and
contempt of him; but it was merely
play upon his ancestral crest, that
of hound, or, in heraldic language, a
talbot Still he was the subject of
much hatred on the part of the Ian
castrians. for he had deserted their
cause for that of the Yorkists.
When the Lancastrians triumphed
and Henry VII. reigned, Lovel, to save
his head, fled the country, but return
ed later with the invading expedition
of the impostor, Lambert Simnel. At
the battle of Stoke, when Stimnel was
defeated, Lowell mysteriously disap-
peared. By some he was thought to
have fallen on the field, while others
declared that they had seen him in
flight, attempting to swim his horse
across the broad channel of the River
Trent.
He was never agaiD heard of until
1908. when, in the course of some al
terations in which had been the old
manor house of Minister Lowell, large
underground vault was discovered.
When the workmen accidentally broke
into it they were astounded at the
sight of the skeleton of man, seated
at table, his bony hand still support
ing shriveled countenance, dried,
parchment-like, over The skull. Before
him lay cap mouldered and decayed,
with an open book, paper and pen
Empty barrels and some gnawed
bones were also found.