d faith.

All round the coast-line of Kent once famous smuggling buildings
are still pointed out. Movable hollow beams have been found
supporting cottage ceilings, containing all kinds of contraband
goods. In one case, so goes the story, a customs house officer
in walking through a room knocked his head, and the tell-tale
hollow sound (from the beam, not from his head, we will presume)
brought a discovery. At Folkestone, tradition says, a long row
of houses used for the purpose had the cellars connected one
with the other right the way along, so that the revenue officers
could be easily evaded in the case of pursuit.

The modern utility of a convenient secret panel or trap-door
occasionally is apparent from the police-court reports. The tenements
in noted thieves' quarters are often found to have
intercommunication; a masked door will lead from one house to
the other, and trap-doors will enable a thief to vanish from
the most keen-sighted detective, and nimbly thread his way over
the roofs of the neighbouring houses. There was a case in the
papers not long since; a man, being closely chased, was on the
point of being seized, when, to the astonishment of his pursuers,
he suddenly disappeared at a spot where apparently he had been
closely hemmed in.

Many old houses in Clerkenwell were, sixty or seventy years ago,
notorious thieves' dens, and were noted for their hiding-places,
trap-doors, etc., for evading the vigilance of the law. The name
of Jack Sheppard, as may be supposed, had connection with the
majority. One of these old buildings had been used in former
years as a secret Jesuits' college, and the walls were threaded
with masked passages and places of concealment; and when the old
"Red Lion Inn" in West Street was pulled down in 1836, some artful
traps and false floors were discovered which tarried well with
its reputation as a place of rendezvous and safety for outlaws.
The "Rising Sun" in Holywell Street is a curious example, there
being many false doors and traps in various parts of the house;
also in the before-mentioned Newton Street a panel could be raised
by a pulley, through which a fugitive or outlaw could effect his
escape on to the roof, and thence into the adjoining house.

One of the simplest and most secure hiding-places perhaps ever
devised by a law-breaker was that within a water-butt! A cone-shaped
repository, entered from the bottom, would allow a man to sit
within it; nevertheless, to all