<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER V">CHAPTER V</SPAN></h2>
<p class="subtitle">
HARVINGTON, UFTON, AND INGATESTONE</p>
<p>We will now go in search of some of the most curious hiding-places
in existence. There are numerous known examples all over the
country, and perhaps as many again exist, which will preserve
their secret for ever. For more than three hundred years they
have remained buried, and unless some accident reveals their
locked-up mysteries, they will crumble away with the walls which
contain them; unless, indeed, fire, the doom of so many of our
ancestral halls, reduces them to ashes and swallows up the weird
stories they might have told. In many cases not until an ancient
building is pulled down are such strange discoveries made; but,
alas! there are as many instances where structural alterations
have wantonly destroyed these interesting historical landmarks.</p>
<div class="image"><ANTIMG src="images/fig009.jpg" width-obs="248" height-obs="301" alt="Fig. 9"><br/>ENTRANCE TO "PRIEST'S HOLE," HARVINGTON HALL</div>
<div class="image"><ANTIMG src="images/fig010.jpg" width-obs="408" height-obs="310" alt="Fig. 10"><br/>HARVINGTON HALL, WORCESTERSHIRE</div>
<p>Unaccounted-for spaces, when detected, are readily utilised.
Passages are bodily run through the heart of many a secret device,
with little veneration for the mechanical ingenuity that has
been displayed in their construction. The builder of to-day,
as a rule, knows nothing of and cares less, for such things,
and so they are swept away without a thought. To such vandals
we can only emphasise the remarks we have already made about
the market value of a "priest-hole" nowadays.</p>
<p>A little to the right of the Kidderminster road, and about two
miles from the pretty village of Chaddesley Corbet, with its old
timber houses and inn, stands the ghostly old hall of Harvington.
The ancient red-brick pile rises out of its reed-grown moat with
that air of mystery which age and seeming neglect only can impart.
Coming upon it unexpectedly, especially towards dusk, one is
struck with the strange, dignified melancholy pervading it. Surely
Hood's <i>Haunted House</i> or Poe's <i>House of Usher</i> stands
before us, and we cannot get away from the impression that a
mystery is wrapped within its walls. Harvington Hall dates from
the reign of Henry VIII., but it has undergone various changes,
so it is difficult to affix any particular period or style to
its architecture; indeed, it is this medley of different styles
which forms such a poetically picturesque outline. In its day
Harvington could doubtless hold its own with the finest mansions
in the country, but now it is forgotten, deserted, and crumbling
to pieces. Its very history appears to be lost to the world, as
those who go to the county histories and general topographical
works for information will find.</p>
<p>Inside the mansion, like the exterior, the hand of decay is
perceptible on every side; the rooms are ruined, the windows
broken, the floors unsafe (excepting, by the way, a small portion
of the building which is habitable). A ponderous broad oak staircase
leads to a dismantled state-room, shorn of the principal part of
its panelling, carving, and chimney-pieces.[1] Other desolate
apartments retain their names as if in mockery; "the drawing-room,"
"the chapel," "Lady Yates's nursery," and so forth. At the top
of the staircase, however, we must look around carefully, for
beneath the stairs is a remarkable hiding-place.</p>
<p class="footnote">
[Footnote 1: Most of the interior fittings were removed to Coughton
Court, Warwickshire.]</p>
<p>With a slight stretch of the imagination we can see an indistinct
form stealthily remove the floorboard of one of the stairs and
creep beneath it. This particular step of a short flight running
from the landing into a garret is, upon closer inspection, indeed
movable, and beneath gapes a dark cavity about five feet square, on
the floor of which still remains the piece of sedge matting whereon
a certain Father Wall rested his aching limbs a few days prior to
his capture and execution in August, 1679. The unfortunate man
was taken at Rushock Court, a few miles away where he was traced
after leaving Harvington. There is a communication between the
hiding-place and "the banqueting-room" through, a small concealed
aperture in the wainscoting large enough to admit of a tube,
through which a straw could be thrust for the unhappy occupant
to suck up any liquid his friends might be able to supply.</p>
<p>In a gloomy corridor leading from the tower to "the reception-room"
is another "priest's hole" beneath the floor, and entered by a
trap-door artfully hidden in the boards; this black recess is
some seven feet in depth, and can be made secure from within.
Supposing the searchers had tracked a fugitive priest as far
as this corridor, the odds are in favour that they would have
passed over his head in their haste to reach the tower, where
they would make sure, in their own minds at least, of discovering
him. Again, here there is a communication with the outside world.
An oblong aperture in the top oak beam of the entrance gateway
to the house, measuring about four inches across, is the secret
opening—small enough to escape the most inquisitive eye, yet
large enough to allow of a written note to pass between the captive
and those upon the alert watching his interests.[1]</p>
<p class="footnote">
[Footnote 1: N.B.—In addition to the above hiding-places at
Harvington, one was discovered so recently as 1894; at least,
so we have been informed. This was some years after our visit
to the old Hall.]</p>
<p>A subterranean passage is said to run under the moat from a former
hiding-place, but this is doubtful; at any rate, there are no
evidences of it nowadays.</p>
<div class="image"><ANTIMG src="images/fig011.jpg" width-obs="410" height-obs="327" alt="Fig. 11"><br/>UFTON COURT, BERKSHIRE</div>
<div class="image"><ANTIMG src="images/fig012.jpg" width-obs="409" height-obs="324" alt="Fig. 12"><br/>GARDEN TERRACE, UFTON COURT</div>
<p>Altogether, Harvington is far from cheerful, even to a pond hard
by called "Gallows Pool"! The tragic legend associated with this
is beyond the province of the present work, so we will bid adieu
to this weird old hall, and turn our attention to another obscure
house situated in the south-east corner of Berkshire.</p>
<p>The curious, many-gabled mansion Ufton Court both from its secluded
situation and quaint internal construction, appears to have been
peculiarly suitable for the secretion of persecuted priests. Here
are ample means for concealment and escape into the surrounding
woods; and so carefully have the ingenious bolts and locks of
the various hiding-places been preserved, that one would almost
imagine that there was still actual necessity for their use in
these matter-of-fact days!</p>
<p>A remarkable place for concealment exists in one of the gables
close to the ceiling. It is triangular in shape, and is opened
by a spring-bolt that can be unlatched by pulling a string which
runs through a tiny hole pierced in the framework of the door of
the adjoining room. The door of the hiding-place swings upon a
pivot, and externally is thickly covered with plaster, so as to
resemble the rest of the wall, and is so solid that when sounded
there is no hollow sound from the cavity behind, where, no doubt
the crucifix and sacred vessels were secreted.</p>
<div class="image"><ANTIMG src="images/fig013.jpg" width-obs="416" height-obs="271" alt="Fig. 13"><br/>HIDING-PLACE, UFTON COURT</div>
<div class="image"><ANTIMG src="images/fig014.jpg" width-obs="269" height-obs="363" alt="Fig. 14"><br/>HIDING PLACE, UFTON COURT</div>
<p>Not far off, in an upper garret, is a hiding-place in the thickness
of the wall, large enough to contain a man standing upright.
Like the other, the door, or entrance, forms part of the plaster
wall, intersected by thick oak beams, into which it exactly fits,
disguising any appearance of an opening. Again, in one of the
passages of this curious old mansion are further evidences of
the hardships to which Romish priests were subjected—a trap in
the floor, which can only be opened by pulling up what exteriorly
appears to be the head of one of the nails of the flooring; by
raising this a spring is released and a trap-door opened, revealing
a large hole with a narrow ladder leading down into it. When
this hiding-place was discovered in 1830, its contents were
significant—<i>viz.</i> a crucifix and two ancient petronels.
Apartments known as "the chapel" and "the priest's vestry" are
still pointed out. The walls throughout the house appear to be
intersected with passages and masked spaces, and old residents
claim to have worked their way by these means right through from
the garrets to the basement, though now the several hiding-places
do not communicate one with another. There are said to be no
less than twelve places of concealment in various parts of the
building. A shaft in the cellar is supposed to be one of the
means of exit from "the dining-room," and at the back of the
house a subterranean passage may still be traced a considerable
distance under the terrace.</p>
<div class="image"><ANTIMG src="images/fig015.jpg" width-obs="411" height-obs="287" alt="Fig. 15"><br/>INGATESTONE HALL, ESSEX</div>
<div class="image"><ANTIMG src="images/fig016.jpg" width-obs="409" height-obs="276" alt="Fig. 16"><br/>INGATESTONE HALL</div>
<p>An interesting discovery was made some years ago at Ingatestone
Hall, Essex, the ancient seat of the Petres. The late Rev. Canon
Last, who had resided there as private chaplain for over sixty
years, described to us the incidents of this curious "find," to
which he was an eye-witness. Some of the floor-boards in the
south-east corner of a small ante-room adjoining what was once
"the host's bedroom," facing the south front, broke away, rotten
with age, while some children were playing there. These being
removed, a second layer of boards was brought to light within
a foot of the old flooring, and in this a trap-door was found
which, when opened, discovered a large "priest's hole," measuring
fourteen feet long, ten feet high, and two feet wide. A twelve-step
ladder led down into it, and the floor being on a level with the
basement of the house was covered with a layer of dry sand to
the depth of nearly a foot, so as to absorb any moisture from
the ground.[1] In the sand a few bones of a bird were found,
possibly the remains of food supplied to some unfortunate priest.
Those who climb down into this hole will find much that is
interesting to repay them their trouble. From the wall projects
a candle-holder, rudely modelled out of clay. An examination of
the brick-work in the interior of the "priest's hole" proves
it to be of later construction than the rest of the house (which
dates from the early part of the sixteenth century), so in all
likelihood "Little John" was the manufacturer.</p>
<p class="footnote">
[Footnote 1: At Moorcroft House, near Hillingdon, Middlesex,
now modernised and occupied as a private lunatic asylum, ten
priests were once concealed for four days in a hiding-place,
the floor of which was covered some inches in water. This was
one of the many comforts of a "priest's hole"!]</p>
<p>Standing in the same position as when first opened, and supported
by two blocks of oak, is an old chest or packing-case made of
yew, covered with leather, and bound with bands of iron, wherein
formerly the vestments, utensils, etc., for the Mass were kept.
Upon it, in faded and antiquated writing, was the following
direction: "For the Right Hon. the Lady Petre at Ingatestone
Hall, in Essex." The Petres had quitted the old mansion as a
residence for considerably over a century when the discovery was
made.</p>
<div class="image"><ANTIMG src="images/fig017.jpg" width-obs="575" height-obs="358" alt="Fig. 17"><br/>PRIEST'S HOLE, SAWSTON HALL</div>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />