, except myself." Brandeston Hall,
Suffolk, is also said to have a hiding place known only to two
or three persons.

CHAPTER XIII

CONCEALED DOORS, SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGES, ETC.

Numerous old houses possess secret doors, passages, and
staircases--Franks, in Kent; Eshe Hall, Durham; Binns House,
Scotland; Dannoty Hall, and Whatton Abbey, Yorkshire; are examples.
The last of these has a narrow flight of steps leading down to
the moat, as at Baddesley Clinton. The old house Marks, near
Romford, pulled down in 1808 after many years of neglect and
decay--as well as the ancient seat of the Tichbournes in Hampshire,
pulled down in 1803--and the west side of Holme Hall, Lancashire,
demolished in the last century, proved to have been riddled with
hollow walls. Secret doors and panels are still pointed out at
Bramshill, Hants (in the long gallery and billiard-room); the
oak room, Bochym House, Cornwall; the King's bedchamber, Ford
Castle, Northumberland; the plotting-parlour of the White Hart
Hotel, Hull; Low Hall, Yeadon, Yorkshire; Sawston; the Queen's
chamber at Kimbolton Castle, Huntingdonshire, etc., etc.

A concealed door exists on the left-hand side of the fireplace
of the gilt room of Holland House, Kensington, associated by
tradition with the ghost of the first Lord Holland. Upon the
authority of the Princess Lichtenstein, it appears there is,
close by, a blood-stain which nothing can efface! It is to be
hoped no enterprising person may be induced to try his skill here
with the success that attended a similar attempt at Holyrood,
as recorded by Scott![1]

[Footnote 1: _Vide_ Introduction to _The Fair Maid of
Perth_]

In the King's writing-closet at Hampton Court may be seen the
"secret door" by which William III. left the palace when he wished
to go out unobserved; but this is more of a _private_ exit
than a _secret_ one.

[Illustration: WOODSTOCK PALACE, OXFORDSHIRE (FROM AN OLD PRINT)]

[Illustration: MARKYATE CELL, HERTFORDSHIRE]

The old Chateau du Puits, Guernsey, has a hiding-hole placed
between two walls which form an acute angle; the one constituting
part of the masonry of an inner courtyard, the other a wall on
the eastern side of the main structure. The space between could
be reached through the floor of an upper room.

Cussans, in his _History of Hertfordshire_, gives a curious
account of the discovery of an iron door up the kitchen chimney
of the old house Markyate Cell, near Dunstable. A