e in this country
which, if thoroughly ransacked, would be found to contain treasures of
the most valuable and costly kind. Some years ago, for example, a
collection of pictures was discovered at Merton College, Oxford,
hidden away between the ceiling and the roof; and missing deeds have
from time to time been discovered located in all sorts of mysterious
nooks. In a set of rooms in Magdalen College, too, which had been
originally occupied by one of the Fellows, and had subsequently been
abandoned and devoted to lumber, was unearthed a strong wooden box,
containing, together with some valuable articles of silver plate, a
beautiful loving-cup, with a cover of pure gold. When, also, the
Vicarage house of Ormesby, in Yorkshire, required reparation, some
stonework had to be removed in order to carry out the necessary
alterations, in the course of which a small box was found, measuring
about a foot square, which had been embedded in the wall. The box,
when opened, was full of angels, angelets, and nobles. Some of the
money was of the reign of Edward IV., some of Henry VI., and some,
too, of the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. It has been suggested
that when Henry VIII. dissolved the lesser monasteries, the monks of
Guisboro' Priory, which was only about six miles off, fearing the
worst, fled with their treasures, and, with the craft and cunning
peculiar to their order, buried a portion of them in the walls of the
parsonage house of Ormesby.[52]

To quote another case, Dunsford, in his "Memories of Tiverton" (1790),
p. 285, speaking of the village of Chettiscombe, says that in the
middle of the 16th century, in the north part of this village was "a
chapel entire, dedicated to St. Mary. The walls and roof are still
whole, and served some years past for a dwelling-house, but is now
uninhabited." It appears that not only was there some superstition
attaching to this building, which accounted for its untenanted
condition, but certain money was supposed to be hidden away, to
discover which every attempt had hitherto been in vain. "It was
therefore proposed," says the author, "that some person should lodge
in the chapel for a night to obtain preternatural information
respecting it. Two persons at length complied with the request to do
so, and, aided by strong beer, approached about nine o'clock the
hallowed walls. They trembled exceedingly at the sudden appearance of
a white owl that flew from a broken window with the message