Widnes Examiner. — 1886-10-30 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

SECRET CHABERS IN SOME ANCIMENT HOUSES.—Plowden Hall, county of Salop, with " gable ends, high chimneys, its floors, staircases, and doors of solid oak, and walls covered with oak panelling," is described as being full of nooks and corners. There is a hiding hole in the closet of one of the bedrooms, where the boards of the flooring are so arranged as to be easily moved; and underneath is a trap-door, by which a small ladder leads down into a dark hole, where there is just room enough for a man to change his position with ease from a standing to a sitting posture. There is a shelf, on which the concealed person could eat his food. Tradition states that a priest was actually concealed there fora fortnight whilst Cromwell's soldiers were posted outside the gates; and that these were obliged to leave without having discovered him. Besides this hiding place, there is an escape about the width and form of a chimney, reaching from one of the bedrooms down to the ground floor of the house, to which a man might be lowered by means of a. rope. There is also an outlet over the chapel through two trap-doors on to the roof, where a person might escape between the eaves of the house; and a portion of the flooring of the chapel is so formed as to lift up and cover a hiding place below for concealing the sacred vessels. Recusants and priests found refuge in Little Malvern Court in nee days of their persecution, the position of one or two hiding-places in the roof being still pointed out. A secret chamber in Lowstock Hall, in the parish of Bolton, Lancashire, which was pulled down in 1816, was associated with blood-stains on the hearth-stone of one of the rooms, and the supposed murder of a priest in the troubous times. In connection with Yorkshire, the old Red House is made mention of as having had a secret chamber and gallery underneath the roof. These were brought to light some years ago when workmen were employed in making repairs and alterations on the mansion. The noted royalist, Sir Henry Slingsbv, lay for a time concealed in the hiding-place thus skilfully contrived; but venturing forth one moonlight night to enjoy the freedom of a walk in his garden, he was seen by a man-servant, Iwho betrayed him to his enemies ; and soon after the gallant old colonel was seized, conveyed to London, and beheaded on Tower Hill. Kingerby Old Hall, situated in the same county, was also possessed of one or more secret chambers. Ashbourne Place, in Sussex, which was said to have been built by a brother of Bishop Juxon, was often made use of as a place of refuge by that persecuted prelate after the death of Charles I. At the time when his royal master was beheaded, Juxon was Bishop of London and Clerk of the Closet; and being implicitly trusted by his royal master, to whom he was devotedly attached, he received his last confidences on the scaffold, and his George, with the oftreferred-to word, "Remember !" The father of the present proprietor of Ashbourne, in opening a communication between the back and front chambers, discovered a room, the existence of which was previously unknown, and to which access could only have been gained through the chimney-. In all probability, this curious retreat was Bishop Juxon's hiding-place. There is a gallery situated in the attic storey of the mansion at Stanford Court, in Worcestershire,-in which Arthur Salvin—an ancestor of the present proprietor of the estate, who lived in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.—and his four sons and seven daughters, together with others of their kindred, are pourtrayed on the oak-pannelled walls ef the room as the costume of the day; the ladies in embroidered dresses, with jewelled ornaments. Underneath each fignre is a motto in Latin. Behind the panels are secret passages, which, previous to the alterations of modern times, extended over a great part of the mansion. Sanston Hall, the seat of the ancient family of Huddlestone, in Cambridgeshire was destroyed on account of the owner's adherence to the 'ancient faith, and rebuilt in the time of Queen Mary, when the precaution was taken to erect a chapel in the roof. It is approached by a winding staircase, which also gives access to a secret chamber. In the hiding place near the chapel in the roof at the top of,the old winding staircase, there were found some oyster-shells; and a fowl's bone were picked up in the one belonging to Lvdiate Hall—relics of some poor prisoner's solitary meat —Chambers's Journal.