in what way the cruel Lord Chancellor
made use of it does not transpire; possibly it may have been
utilised at the time of James II.'s flight from Whitehall.

A remarkable discovery was made early in the last century at the
Elizabethan manor house of Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire,
only a portion of which remains incorporated in a modern structure.
Upon removing some of the wallpaper of a passage on the second
floor, the entrance to a room hitherto unknown was laid bare. It
was a small apartment about eight feet square, and presented the
appearance as if some occupant had just quitted it. A chair and
a table within, each bore evidence of the last inmate. Over the
back of the former hung a priest's black cassock, carelessly flung
there a century or more ago, while on the table stood an antique
tea-pot, cup, and silver spoon, the very tea leaves crumbled to
dust with age. On the same storey were two rooms known as "the
chapel" and the "priest's room," the names of which signify the
former use of the concealed apartment.

Sir Walter Scott records a curious "find," similar in many respects
to that at Bourton. In the course of some structural alterations to
an ancient house near Edinburgh three unknown rooms were brought to
light, bearing testimony of their last inmate. One of them had been
occupied as a bedroom. The clothing of the bed was disarranged,
as if it had been slept in only a few hours previously, and close
by was an antique dressing-gown. How interesting it would be to
know some particulars of the sudden surprise which evidently
drove the owner of the garment from his snug quarters--whether
he effected his escape, or whether he was captured! The walls
of this buried chamber, if they could speak, had some curious
story to relate.

Not many years ago the late squire of East Hendred House, Berkshire,
discovered the existence of a secret chamber in casually glancing
over some ancient papers belonging to the house. "The little
room," as it was called, from its proximity to the chapel, had
no doubt been turned to good account during the penal laws of
Elizabeth's reign, as the chamber itself and other parts of the
house date from a much earlier period.

Long after the palatial Sussex mansion of Cowdray was burnt down,
the habitable remains (the keeper's lodge, in the centre of the
park) contained an ingenious hiding-place behind a fireplace in
a bedroom, which was reached by a movable panel in a cupboard,