s some very curious arrangements
for the sake of secretion and defence. There is a room in one of
the barbican towers occupying its entire circumference, but so
effectually hidden that its existence would never be suspected.
In two of the towers are curious concealed stairs, and approaching
"the Bishop's Tower" from the outer court or ballium, part of
a flight of steps can be raised like a drawbridge to prevent
sudden intrusion.[1]

[Footnote 1: See Burke's _Visitation of Seats_, vol. i.]

A contributor to that excellent little journal _The Rambler_,
unfortunately now extinct, mentions another very strange and
weird device for security. "In the state-room of my castle,"
says the owner of this death-trap, "is the family shield, which
on a part being touched, revolves, and a flight of steps becomes
visible. The first, third, fifth, and all odd steps are to be
trusted, but to tread any of the others is to set in motion some
concealed machinery which causes the staircase to collapse,
disclosing a vault some seventy feet in depth, down which the
unwary are precipitated."

At Tyttenhanger House, Hertfordshire, and in the old manor house
of Newport, Isle of Wight (where the captive King Charles I.
spent some of his last melancholy days), there are rooms with
passages in the walls running completely round them. Similar
passages were found some years ago while making alterations to
Highclere Castle Hampshire.

The once magnificent Madeley Court, Salop[1] (now, alas! in the
last stage of desolation and decay, surrounded by coal-fields and
undermined by pits), is honeycombed with places for concealment
and escape. A ruinous apartment at the top of the house, known
as "the chapel" (only a few years ago wainscoted to the ceiling
and divided by fine old oak screen), contained a secret chamber
behind one of the panels. This could be fastened on the inside by
a strong bolt. The walls of the mansion are of immense thickness,
and the recesses and nooks noticeable everywhere were evidently at
one time places of concealment; one long triangular recess extends
between two ruinous chambers (mere skeletons of past grandeur),
and was no doubt for the purpose of reaching the basement from
the first floor other than by the staircases. In the upper part
of the house a dismal pit or well extends to the ground level,
where it slants off in an oblique direction below the building,
and terminates in a large pool or lake, after the fashion of