oom below, the floor of which was
composed of nine inches of dry sand. This, on being examined, brought
to light a few bones which, it has been suggested, are the remains of
food supplied to some unfortunate occupant during confinement. But the
existence of this secret room must, it is said, have been familiar to
the heads of the family for several generations, evidence of this
circumstance being afforded by a packing case which was found in this
hidden retreat, and upon which was the following direction: "For the
Right Honble the Lady Petre, at Ingatestone Hall, in Essex." The wood,
also, was in a decayed state, and the writing in an antiquated style,
which is only what might be expected considering that the Petre family
left Ingatestone Hall between the years 1770 and 1780.

There are numerous rooms of this curious description which, it must be
remembered, were, in many cases, the outcome of religious intolerance
in the sixteenth century, and early in the seventeenth, when the
celebration of Mass in this country was forbidden. Hence those families
that persisted in adhering to the Roman Catholic faith oftentimes kept
a priest, who celebrated it in a room--opening whence was a secret one,
to which in case of emergency he could retreat. Evelyn in his _Diary_,
speaking of Ham House, at Weybridge, belonging to the Duke of Norfolk,
as having some of these secret rooms, writes: "My lord, leading me
about the house, made no scruple of showing me all the hiding places
for Popish priests, and where they said Masse, for he was no bigoted
papist." The old Manor House at Dinsdale-upon-Tees has a secret room,
which is very cleverly situated at the top of the staircase, to which
access is gained from above. The compartment is not very large, and is
between two bedrooms, and alongside of the fireplace of one of them.
"It would be a very snug place when the fire was lighted," writes a
correspondent of "Notes and Queries," "and very secure, as it is
necessary to enter the cockloft by a trap door at the extreme end of
the building, and then crawl along under the roof into the hiding-place
by a second trap-door." Among further instances of these curious relics
of the past may be mentioned Armscott Manor, two or three miles distant
from Shipston-on-Stour. According to a local tradition, George Fox at
one time lived here. In a passage at the top of the house is the
entrance to a secret room, which receives light from a small window in
one