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Secret Chambers and Hiding Places - Historic, Romantic, & Legendary Stories & Traditions About - Hiding-Holes, Secret Chambers, Etc. by Allan Fea
page 42 of 142 (29%)
made.

[Illustration: PRIEST'S HOLE, SAWSTON HALL]




CHAPTER VI

COMPTON WINYATES, SALFORD PRIOR, SAWSTON, OXBURGH, PARHAM, PAXHILL,
ETC.

Of all the ancient mansions in the United Kingdom, and there is
still, happily, a large selection, none perhaps is so picturesque and
quaintly original in its architecture as the secluded Warwickshire
house Compton Winyates. The general impression of its vast
complication of gable ends and twisted chimneys is that some
enchanted palace has found its way out of one of the fairy-tale
books of our early youth and concealed itself deep down in a
sequestered hollow among the woods and hills. We say concealed
itself, for indeed it is no easy matter to find it, for anything
in the shape of a road seems rather to lead _away from_,
than _to_ it; indeed, there is no direct road from anywhere,
and if we are fortunate enough to alight upon a footpath, that
also in a very short time fades away into oblivion! So solitary
also is the valley in which the mansion lies and so shut in with
thick clustering trees, that one unacquainted with the locality
might pass within fifty yards of it over and over again without
observing a trace of it. When, however, we do discover the beautiful
old structure, we are well repaid for what trouble we may have
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