rept in, having even to step
over the bodies of the inanimate Roundheads, released her husband,
and a fresh horse being in readiness, by the time the effects
of the wine had worn off the Royalist captain was far beyond
their reach.

The secret room is located in the front of the building, and has
now been converted into a very, comfortable little dressing-room,
preserving its original oak panelling, and otherwise but little
altered, with the exception of the entry to it, which is now
an ordinary door.

Chastleton is the beau ideal of an ancestral hall. The grand
old gabled house, with its lofty square towers, its Jacobean
entrance gateway and dovecote, and the fantastically clipped
box-trees and sun-dial of its quaint old-fashioned garden, possesses
a charm which few other ancient mansions can boast, and this
charm lies in its perfectly unaltered state throughout, even
to the minutest detail. Interior and exterior alike, everything
presents an appearance exactly as it did when it was erected
and furnished by Walter Jones, Esquire, between the years 1603
and 1630. The estate originally was held by Robert Catesby, who
sold the house to provide funds for carrying on the notorious
conspiracy.

Among its most valued relics is a Bible given by Charles I. when
on the scaffold to Bishop Juxon, who lived at Little Compton manor
house, near Chastleton. This Bible was always used by the bishop
at the Divine services, which at one time were held in the great
hall of the latter house. Other relics of the martyr-king used
to be at Little Compton--_viz._ some beams of the Whitehall
scaffold, whose exact position has occasioned so much controversy.
The velvet armchair and footstool used by the King during his
memorable trial were also preserved here, but of late years have
found a home at Moreton-in-the-Marsh, some six miles away. Visitors
to that interesting collection shown in London some years ago--the
Stuart Exhibition--may remember this venerable armchair of such
sad association.

[Illustration: CHASTLETON]

[Illustration: ENTRANCE DOOR, CHASTLETON]

It may be here stated that after Charles I.'s execution, Juxon
lived for a time in Sussex at an old mansion still extant, Albourne
Place, not far from Hurstpierpoint. We mention this from the
fact that a priest's hole was discovered there some few years
ago. It was found in opening a communication between two rooms,
and originally it could only be reached by steps projectin