is found a stone slab containing a circular aperture, something
after the manner of our modern urban receptacles for coal. From
this hole a tunnel slants downwards at an angle into the adjacent
wall, where there is an apartment some twelve feet in depth,
and wide enough to contain half a dozen people--that is to say,
not bulky ones, for the circular entrance is far from large.
Blocks of oak fixed upon the inside of the movable floor-board
fit with great nicety into their firm oak sockets in the beams,
which run at right angles and support the landing, so that the
opening is so massive and firm that, unless pointed out, the
particular floor-board could never be detected, and when secured
from the inside would defy a battering-ram.

[Illustration: OXBURGH HALL, NORFOLK]

The Huddlestons, or rather their connections the Thornboroughs,
have an old house at Leyburn, in Yorkshire, named "The Grove,"
which also contained its hiding-place, but unfortunately this is
one of those instances where alterations and modern conveniences
have destroyed what can never be replaced. The priest, Father
John Huddleston (who aided King Charles II. to escape, and who,
it will be remembered, was introduced to that monarch's death-bed
by way of a _secret staircase_ in the palace of Whitehall),
lived in this house some time during the seventeenth century.

One of the most ingenious hiding-places extant is to be seen
at Oxburgh Hall, near Stoke Ferry, the grand old moated mansion
of the ancient Bedingfield family. In solidity and compactness
it is unique. Up in one of the turrets of the entrance gateway
is a tiny closet, the floor of which is composed of brickwork