Hewitt, mine host of the "King's Arms," was not idle at the time
transactions were in progress to transfer Charles II. from Trent
to Heale, and received within his house Lord Wilmot, Colonel
Phelips, and other of the King's friends who were actively engaged
in making preparations for the memorable journey. This old inn,
with its oak-panelled rooms and rambling corridors, makes a very
suitable neighbour to the more dignified old brick mansion opposite,
with which it is so closely associated.

[Illustration: SECRET CHAMBER, CHASTLETON, OXFORDSHIRE]

[Illustration: OLD SUMMER HOUSE, SALISBURY (SHEWING CARVING IN
WHICH IS A PEEP-HOLE FOR HIDING-PLACE BEHIND)]

Many are the exciting stories related of the defeated Royalists,
especially after the Worcester fight. One of them, Lord Talbot,
hastened to his paternal home of Longford, near Newport (Salop),
and had just time to conceal himself ere his pursuers arrived,
who, finding his horse saddled, concluded that the rider could
not be far off. They therefore searched the house minutely for
four or five days, and the fugitive would have perished for want
of food, had not one of the servants contrived, at great personal
risk, to pay him nocturnal visits and supply him with nourishment.

The grey old Jacobean mansion Chastleton preserves in its
oak-panelled hall the sword and portrait of the gallant cavalier
Captain Arthur Jones, who, narrowly escaping from the battlefield,
speeded homewards with some of Cromwell's soldiers at his heels;
and his wife, a lady of great courage, had scarcely concealed