mansion
passed out of the hands of its old possessors, the Stewkeleys,
and shortly afterwards became notorious for the unaccountable
noises which disturbed the peace of mind of the new tenants.
Not only were there violent knocks, hammerings, groanings, and
sounds of footsteps in the ceilings and walls, out strange sights
frightened the servants out of their wits. A ghostly visitant
dressed in drab would appear and disappear mysteriously, a female
figure was often seen to rush through the apartments, and other
supernatural occurrences at length became so intolerable that the
inmates of the house sought refuge in flight. Later successive
tenants fared the same. A hundred pounds reward was offered to
any who should run the ghosts to earth; but nothing resulted
from it, and after thirty years or more of hauntings, the house
was razed to the ground. Secret passages and chambers were then
brought to light; but those who had carried on the deception
for so long took the secret with them to their graves.[1]

[Footnote 1: A full account of the supernatural occurrences at
Hinton-Ampner will be found in the Life of Richard Barham.]

It is well known that the huge, carved oak bedsteads of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries were often provided with secret
accommodation for valuables. One particular instance we can call
to mind of a hidden cupboard at the base of the bedpost which
contained a short rapier. But of these small hiding-places we
shall speak presently. It is with the head of the bed we have
now to do, as it was sometimes used as an opening into the wall
at the back. Occasionally, in old houses, unmeaning gaps and
spaces are met with in the upper rooms midway between floor and
ceiling, which possibly at one time were used as bed-head
hiding-places. Shipton Court, Oxon, and Hill Hall, Essex, may
be given as examples. Dunster Castle, Somersetshire, also, has
at the back of a bedstead in one of the rooms a long, narrow
place of concealment, extending the width of the apartment, and
provided with a stone seat.

Sir Ralph Verney, while in exile in France in 1645, wrote to his
brother at Claydon House, Buckinghamshire, concerning "the odd
things in the room my mother kept herself--_the iron chest in
the little room between her bed's-head and the back stairs._"
This old seat of the Verneys had another secret chamber in the
middle storey, entered through a trap-door in "the muniment-room"
at the top of the house. Here