Secret Chambers and Hiding Places

preservation to the "priests' holes" and secret chambers of the o

that we must record something of his sojourn at these four old houses, as from an historical point of view they are of exceptional interest, if one but considers how the order of things would have been changed had either of these hidi

See The Fligh

EATH "THE CHAPEL

LACE IN "THE GARRET"

"THE SQUIRE'S BE

TRENT HOUSE,

BEL,

LACE, TR

HIDING-PLACE

HOUSE

OUSE, W

f Boscobel, and after remaining there concealed for two days, proceeded to Gatacre Park, now rebuilt, but then and

escaping into Wales occured to Charles, so, when night set in, he quitted Boscobel Wood, where he had been hidden all the day, and started on foot with his rustic guide in a westerly direction with the object of getting over the river Severn, but various hardships and obstacles induced Penderel to suggest a halt at a house at Madeley, near the river, where they might rest during the day and continue the journey under cover of darkness on the following night; the house further had the attraction of "priests' holes." "We continued our way on to the village upon the Severn," resumes the King, "where the fellow told me there was an honest gentleman, one Mr. Woolfe, that lived in that town, where I might be with gre

COURT, S

YARD, MAD

LEY

ST'S HOLE," THE U

"the Upper House," but the entrance is now very palpable. Those who are curious enough to climb up into

ywhere, Charles and his companions retraced

een the one selected. The latter lies beneath the floor of this garret, or "Popish chapel," as it was once termed. At the top of a flight of steps leading to it is a small trap-door, and when this is removed a step-ladder may be seen leading down into the recess.[1]

rret measures about 5 feet 2 inches in

o know whether my Lord Wilmot was there or no, and had word brought me by him at night that my lord was there, t

presentlie came running to the staires head, and cried, 'Soldiers, soldiers are coming,' which his majestie hearing presentlie started out of his bedd and run to his privacie, where I secured him the best I could, and then leaving him, went forth into the street to meet the soldiers who were comeing to search, who as soon as they saw and knew who I was were readie to pull mee to pieces, and take me away with them, saying I w

e ffould and asked a smith, as hee was shooing horses there, if he could tell where the King was,

," MOSELEY HAL

nxious expression, as he sat upon the rude seat of brick which occupies one end of it, awaiting the result of the sudden alarm. The cupboard orginally was screened with wainscoting, a panel of which could be opened and closed by a spring. Family tradi

one of the most picturesque half-timber houses, not only in Staffordshire, but in England.

to undergo and many strange experiences. We must, however, confine our remarks to t

doubtful. Altogether he was safely housed here for over a fortnight, and during that time doubtless occasional alarms drove him, as at Moseley, into his sanctuary; but a secluded room was set apart for his use, where he had ample space to move about, and from which he could reach his hiding-place at a moment's

through which Charles II. received his food. The King by day, also according to local tradition, is said to have kept up communication with his friends in the house by means of a string suspended in the kitche

now entered. The small secret apartment is approached through a triangular hole in the wall, something after the fashion of that at Ufton Court; but when one has squeezed through this aperture he will find plenty of room to stretch his limbs. The hole, which was close up against the rafters of the roo

England; but a complication of misadventures induced him to hasten back with all speed to the pretty

the King's

isbury, to see what he could do for the getting me a ship; which he undertook very willingly, and had got one at Southa

I went directly away to a widow gentlewoman's house, one Mrs. Hyde, some four or five miles from Salisbury, where I came into the house just as it was almost dark, with Robin Philips only, not intending at first to make myself known. But just as I alighted at the door, Mrs. Hyde knew me, though she had

sister-in-law, a widow, Robin Philips, myself, and Dr. Henshaw [Henc

y, after supper Mrs. Hyde came to me, and I discovered myself to her, who told me she had a very safe place to hide me in, till we knew whether our ship was ready or no. But she said it was not safe for her to trust anybody but herself and her sister, and t

returned back again to Hale [Heale] (the place where Mrs. Hyde lived) about the hour she appointed; where I went up into the hiding-h

tiges of architecture anterior to the middle of the seventeenth century; the hiding-place, however, is not among these, and looks

ts environment of winding river and ancient cedar-trees, its venerable stables and imposing entrance gate, or the fact t