[Footnote 1: See Morris's _Troubles of our Catholic
Forefathers._]




CHAPTER V

HARVINGTON, UFTON, AND INGATESTONE

We will now go in search of some of the most curious hiding-places
in existence. There are numerous known examples all over the
country, and perhaps as many again exist, which will preserve
their secret for ever. For more than three hundred years they
have remained buried, and unless some accident reveals their
locked-up mysteries, they will crumble away with the walls which
contain them; unless, indeed, fire, the doom of so many of our
ancestral halls, reduces them to ashes and swallows up the weird
stories they might have told. In many cases not until an ancient
building is pulled down are such strange discoveries made; but,
alas! there are as many instances where structural alterations
have wantonly destroyed these interesting historical landmarks.

[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO "PRIEST'S HOLE," HARVINGTON HALL]

[Illustration: HARVINGTON HALL, WORCESTERSHIRE]

Unaccounted-for spaces, when detected, are readily utilised.
Passages are bodily run through the heart of many a secret device,
with little veneration for the mechanical ingenuity that has