 Chapter 4 of Strange Pages from Family Papers This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Strange Pages from Family Papers by T. F. Thysselton-Dyer Chapter 4 Strange Banquets O'Rourke's Noble Feast will ne'er be forgot by those who were there or those who were not. In the above words, the Dean of St. Patrick has immortalized an Irish festival of the eighteenth century, and some such memory will long cling to many a family or historic banquet, which, like the tragic one depicted in Macbeth, where the ghost of the murdered Banquo makes its uncanny appearance, or that remarkable feast described by Lord Lytton, where Zanoni drinks with impunity the poisoned cup, remarking to the Prince, I pledge you even in this wine, has been the scene of some unusual or extraordinary occurrence. At one time or another the wedding feast has witnessed many a strange and truly romantic occurrence, in some instances the result of unrequited love or faithless pledges, as happened at the marriage feast of the Second Viscount Cullen. At the early age of sixteen he had been betrothed to Elizabeth Trenton, a great heiress. But in the course of his travels abroad he formed a strong attachment to an Italian lady of rank, whom he afterwards deserted for his first betrothed. In due time arrangements were made for their marriage, but on the eventful day, while the wedding-party were feasting in the great hall at Rushden, a strange carriage, drawn by six horses, drew up, and forth stepped a dark lady, who, at once entering the hall and seizing a goblet, to punish his falsehood and pride, to the astonishment of all present, drank perdition to the bridegroom, and, having uttered a curse upon his bride, to the effect that she would live in wretchedness and die in want, promptly disappeared to be traced no further. No small consternation was caused by this unlooked-for contra-tomp, but the young Viscount made light of it to his fair bride, dispelling her alarm by explanations which satisfied her natural curiosity. But it is said in after-days this unpleasant episode created an unfavorable impression in her mind, and at times made her give way to feelings of a despondent character. As events turned out, the curse of her marriage-day was, in a great measure, fulfilled. It is true she became a prominent beauty of the court of Charles II, and was painted with less than his usual amount of drapery by Sir Peter Leely. It is recorded also that she twice gave an asylum to Monmouth, in the room at Rushden, still known as the Duke's room. But, living unhappily with her husband, she died, notwithstanding her enormous fortune, in comparative penury, at Kettering, at a great age, as recently as the year 1713. A curious tale of love and deception is told of Bulgarden Hall, once according to Ferrars in his History of Limerick, the most magnificent seat in the south of Ireland, erected by the right honourable George Evans, who was created Baron Carberry, County of Cork, on the 9th of May, 1715. A family tradition proclaims him to have been noted for great personal attractions, so much so that Queen Anne, struck by his appearance, took a ring from her finger at one of her levees, and presented it to him, a ring preserved as an heirloom at Laxton Hall, Northamptonshire. In 1741 he married Grace, the daughter and eventually heiress of Sir Ralph Freak, of Castle Freak, in the County of Cork, by whom he had four sons and the same number of daughters, and it was George Evans, the eldest son and heir, who became the chief personage in the following extraordinary marriage fraud. It appears that at an early age he fell in love with the beautiful daughter of his host, Colonel Stamer, who was only too ready to sanction such an alliance, but despite the brilliant prospects which this contemplated marriage opened to the young lady, she turned a deaf ear to any mention of it, for she loved another. As far as her parents could judge, she seemed inexorable, and they could only allay the suspense of the expectant lover, by assuring him that their daughter's natural timidity alone prevented an immediate answer to his suit. But what their feelings of surprise were on the following day can be imagined when Miss Stamer announced to her parents her willingness to marry George Evans. It was decided that there should be no delay, and the marriage day was at once fixed. At this period of our social life the wedding banquet was generally devoted to wine and feasting, while the marriage itself did not take place till the evening, and according to custom sobriety at these bridal feasts was, we are told, a positive violation of all good breeding, and the guests would have thought themselves highly dishonoured had the bridegroom escaped scatheless from the wedding banquet. Accordingly half unconscious of passing events George Evans was conducted to the altar, where the marriage knot was indissolubly tied. But as soon as he had recovered from the effects of the bridal feast he discovered to his intense horror and dismay that the bride he had taken was not the woman of his choice, in short he was the victim of a cheat. Indignant at this cruel imposture he ascertained that the plot emanated from the woman who till then had been the ideal of his soul, and that she had substituted her veiled sister Anne for herself at the altar. The remainder of this strange affair is briefly told. George Evans had one and only one interview with his wife, and thus addressed her in the following words. He would allow no explanation, and almost immediately left his home and country, never to meet again the woman who had so basely betrayed him. The glory of Bulgardon Hall was gone. Its young master, in order to quench his sorrow and bury his disgust, gave way to every kind of dissipation, and died its victim. From the period of its desertion by its luckless master, Bulgardon Hall gradually sank into ruin, and to mark its sight nought remains but the foundation walls, and a solitary stone bearing the family arms. A strange incident, of which it is said no satisfactory explanation has ever yet been forthcoming, happened during the wedding banquet of Alexander III at Jedbrook House. A weird and gruesome episode, which Edgar Poe expanded into his Mask of the Red Death. The story goes that, in the midst of the festivities, a mysterious figure glided in a mine. A strange incident, of which it is said no satisfactory explanation has ever yet been forthcoming, happened during the wedding banquet of Alexander III at Jedbrook Castle. A weird and gruesome episode, which Edgar Poe expanded into his Mask of the Red Death. The story goes that, in the midst of the festivities, a mysterious figure glided amongst the astonished guests, tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave, the mask which concealed the visage resembling the countenance of a stiffened corpse. Who dares, demands the royal host, to insult us with this blasphemous mockery, seize him and unmask him, that we may know whom we have to hang at sunrise from the battlements. But when the all-struck revelers took courage and grasped the figure, They gasped, in unutterable horror, on finding the grave seriments and corpse-like mask, which they handed with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form, vanishing as suddenly as it had appeared. All sorts of theories have been suggested to account for this mysterious figure, but no satisfactory solution has been forthcoming, an incident of which it may be remembered Hayward has given a graphic picture. In the mid-revels, the first ominous night of their espousals, when the room shone bright with lighted tapers, the king and queen leading the curious measures, lords and ladies treading the self-same strains. The king looks back by chance, and spies a strange intruder fill the dance, namely a mere anatomy, quite bare, his naked limbs both without flesh and hair, as he decipher's death, who stalks about, keeping true measure till the dance be out. Inexplicable, however, as the presence of this unearthly mysterious personage was felt to be by all engaged in the marriage-revels, it was regarded as the full-runner of some approaching catastrophe. Prophets and seers lost no time in turning the affair to their own interest, and amongst them Thomas the Rimer predicted that the 16th of March would be The stormiest day that ever was witnessed in Scotland. But, when the supposed ill-fated day arrived, it was the very reverse of stormy, being still and mild, and public opinion began to ridicule the prophetic utterance of Thomas the Rimer, when, to the amazement and consternation of all, there came the appalling news, the king is dead. Whereupon Thomas the Rimer ejaculated, That is the storm which I meant, and there was never tempest, which will bring to Scotland more ill luck. The disappearance of the heir to a property, which has always been a favourite subject with novelists and romance writers, has occasionally happened in real life, and a Shropshire legend relates how, long ago, the heir of the House of Corbett went away to the wars, and remained absent so many years that his family, as in the case of Enoch Arton, gave up all hope of ever seeing him again, and eventually mourned for him as dead. His younger brother succeeded to the property, and prepared to take to himself a wife, and reign in the old family hall. But on the wedding-day, in the midst of the feasting, a pilgrim came to the gate asking hospitality and arms. He was bitten to sit down and share the feast, but scarcely was the banquet ended when the pilgrim revealed himself as the long-lost elder brother. The disconcerted bridegroom acknowledged him at once, but the latter generously resigned the greater part of the estates to his brother, and, sooner than mar the prospects of the newly married couple, he lived a life of obscurity upon one small manor. There seems, however, to be a very small basis of fact for this story. The Corbettes of Shropshire, one branch of whom are owners of Morton Corbett, are among the very oldest of the many old Shropshire families. They trace their descent back to Corbett the Norman, whose sons, Robert and Roger, appear in Doomsday Book as holding large estates under Roger Earl of Shrewsbury. The grandsons of Roger Corbett were Thomas Corbett of Wattlesborough and Robert Corbett. Thomas, who was evidently the elder of the two, it seems went beyond seas, leaving his lands in the custody of his brother, Robert. Both brothers left descendants, but the elder branch of the family never attained to such rank and prosperity as the younger one. Hence, perhaps, the origin of the legend, but Morton Corbett did not come into the possession of the family till long after this date. Whatever truth there may be in this old tradition, there is every reason to believe that some of the worst tragedies recorded in family history have been due to jealousy, and an extraordinary instance of such unnatural feeling was that displayed by the second wife of Sir Robert Scott of Thurlstain, one of the most distinguished cadets of the Great House of Bekluch. Distracted with mortification that her husband's rich inheritance would descend to his son by his first wife, she secretly resolved to compass the destruction of her stepson, and determined to execute her hateful purpose at the festivities held in honour of the young lad's twentieth birthday. Having taken into her confidence one John Lally, the family piper, this wretched man procured three adders, from which he selected the parts replete with the most deadly poison, and after grinding them to fine powder, Lady Thurlstain mixed them in a bottle of wine. Previous to the commencement of the birthday feast, the young lad having called for wine to drink the healths of the workman, who had just completed the mason work of the new castle of Gamescloth, his future residence, the piper Lally filled a silver cup from the poisoned bottle which the ill-fated youth hastily drank off. So potent was the poison that the young lad died within an hour, and a feeling of horror seized the birthday guests as to who could have done such a foul deed. But the father seems to have had his suspicions, and causing a bugle to be blown as a signal for all the family to assemble in a castle court, he inquired, Are we all here? a voice answered, All but the piper, John Lally. These words, it is said, sounded like a knell in Sir Robert's ear, and the truth was manifest to him. But, unwilling to make a public example of his own wife, he adopted a somewhat unique method of vengeance, and publicly proclaimed that, as he could not bestow the estate on his son while alive, he would spend it upon him when dead. Accordingly, the body of his son was embalmed with the most costly drugs, and lay in state for a year and a day, during which time Sir Robert kept open house, feasting all who chose to be his guests. Lady Thelstain, meanwhile, being imprisoned in a vault of the castle, and fed upon bread and water. During the last three days of this extraordinary feast, writes Sir Bernard Burke, The crowds were immense. It was as if the Hall of the South of Scotland was assembled at Thelstain. Buts of the richest and rarest wine were carried into the fields, their ends were knocked out with hatchets, and the liquor was carried about in stoops. The burn of Thelstain literally ran with wine. Sir Robert died soon afterwards, and left his family in utter destitution, his wife dying in absolute beggary. Thus was avenged the crime of this cruel and unprincipled woman whose fatal jealousy caused the ruin of the family. Political intrigue, again, has been the origin of many an act of treachery, done under the semblance of hospitality, or given rise to strange incidents. To go back to early times, it seems that Edward the Confessor had long indulged a suspicion that Earl Godwin, who had in the first instance accused Queen Emma of having caused the death of her son, was himself implicated in that transaction. It so happened that the King, and a large concourse of prelates and nobility, were holding a large dinner at Winchester in honour of the Easter Festival, when the butler, in bringing in a dish, slipped, but recovered his balance by making a droid use of his other foot. Thus does brother assist brother. exclaimed Earl Godwin, thinking to be witty at the butler's expense. And thus might I have been now assisted by my Alfred, if Earl Godwin had not prevented it. replied the King, for the Earl's remark had recalled to his mind the suspicion he had long entertained of the Earl having been concerned in Prince Alfred's death. Resenting the King's words, the Earl, holding up the morsel which he was about to eat, uttered a great oath, and in the name of God expressed a wish that the morsel might choke him, if he had in any way been concerned in that murder. Accordingly he there and then put the morsel into his mouth and attempted to swallow it. But his efforts were in vain, it stuck fast in his throat, immovable upward or downward. His respiration failed, his eyes became fixed, his countenance convulsed, and in a minute more he fell dead under the table. Edward, convinced of the Earl's guilt, and seeing divine justice manifested, and remembering, it is said, with bitterness the days passed when he had given a willing ear to the calmness spread about his innocent mother, cried out in an indignant voice, Carry away that dog and bury him in the high-road. But the body was deposited by the Earl's cousin in the cathedral. Several accounts have been written of that terrible banquet to which the Earl of Douglas was invited by Sir Alexander Livingston and the Chancellor Crichton, who craftily dissembled their intentions, to sup at the royal table in the Castle of Edinburgh. The Earl was foolhardy enough to accept the ill-fated invitation, and shortly after he had taken his place at the festive board, the head of a black bull, the certain omen in those days in Scotland of immediate death, was placed on the table. The Earl, anticipating treachery, instantly sprang to his feet and lost no time in making every effort to escape. But no chance was given him to do so, and with his younger brother he was hurried along into the courtyard of the castle, and, after being subjected to a mock trial, he was beheaded. In the backcourt of the castle that lieth to the west. The death of the young Earl and his untimely fate were the subjects of lament in one of the ballads of the time. Edinburgh Castle, town and tower, God grant them sink for sin, and that even for the black dinner Earl Douglas got therein. This emphatic malediction is cited by Hume of Godscroft in his History of the House of Douglas, as referring to William, 6th Earl of Douglas, a youth of 18, and Hume, speaking of this transaction, says, with becoming indignation, It is sure the people did abhor it, execrating the very place where it was done in detestation of the fact of which the memory remaineth yet to our days in these words. Many similar stories are recorded in the history of the past. The worst form of treachery often times lurking beneath the festive cup, and in times of commotion, when suspicion and mistrust made men feel insecure, even when entertained in the banqueting hall of some powerful host, it is not surprising that great persons had their food tasted by those who were supposed to have made themselves acquainted with its wholesomeness. But this practice could not always afford security when the Taster was ready to sacrifice his own life, as in King John, Act 5, Scene 6. Hubert. The king I fear is poisoned by a monk. I left him almost speechless. Bastard. How did he take it? Who did taste to him? Hubert. A monk, I tell you, a resolvid villain. But in modern days, one of the most unnatural tragedies on record was the murder of Sir John Goodyear, Foote's maternal uncle, by his brother Captain Goodyear, a naval officer. In the year 1740, the two brothers dined at a friend's house near Bristol. For a long time they had been on bad terms, owing to certain money transactions. But at the dinner table, a reconciliation was, to all appearance, made between them. But it was a most terrible piece of underhand treachery, for, on leaving that dinner table, Sir John was waylaid on his return home by some men from his brother's vessel, acting by his brother's authority, carried on board and deliberately strangled. Captain Goodyear not only unconcernedly looking on, but actually furnishing the rope with which this fearful crime was committed. One of the strangest parts of this terrible tale, Foote used to relate, was the fact that on the night the murder was committed, he arrived at his father's house in Truro, and was kept awake for some time by the softest and sweetest strains of music he had ever heard. At first he fancied it might be a serenade, got up by some of the family to welcome him home. But not being able to discover any trace of the musicians, he came to the conclusion that he was deceived by his own imagination. Shortly afterwards, however, he learnt that the murder had been committed at the same hour of the same night, as he had been haunted by the mysterious sounds. In after-days he often spoke of this curious occurrence, regarding it as a supernatural warning, a conviction which he retained till his death. But, strange and varied as are the scenes that have taken place at the banquet, whether great or small, such acts of fratricide have been rare, although, according to a family tradition relating to Osboldston Hall, a similar tragedy once happened at a family banquet. There is one room in the old hall, whose walls are smeared with several red marks, which, it is said, can never be obliterated. These stains have some resemblance to blood, and are generally supposed to have been caused when, many years ago, one of the family was brutally murdered. The story commonly current is that there was once a great family gathering at Osboldston Hall, at which every member of the family was present. The feast passed off satisfactorily, and the liquor was flowing freely round, when, unfortunately, family differences began to be discussed. These soon caused angry recriminations, and at length two of the company challenged each other to mortal combat. Friends interfered, and by the judicious intervention on their part, the quarrel seemed to be made up. But soon afterwards the two accidentally met in this room, and Thomas Osboldston drew his sword, and murdered his brother-in-law without resistance. For this crime he was deemed a felon, and forfeited his lands. Ever since that ill-fated day, the room has been haunted. Tradition says that the ghost of the murdered man continues to haunt the scene of the conflict, and, during the silent hours of the night, it may be seen passing from the room with uplifted hands, and with the appearance of blood streaming from a wound in the breast. But, turning to incidents of a less tragic nature, an amusing story is told of the Earl of Hopetown, who, when he could not induce a certain Scottish lad named Dundas to sell his old family residence known as The Tower, which was on the very verge of his own beautiful pleasure grounds, tried to lead him on to a more expensive style of living than that to which he had been accustomed, thinking thereby he might run into debt and be compelled to sell his property. Accordingly, Dundas was frequently invited to Hopetown House, and on one occasion his lordship invited himself and a fashionable shooting-party to The Tower, congratulating himself on the whole which a few dinners like this would make in the old lair's rental. But, as soon as the covers were removed from the dishes, no small shagrin was caused to Lord Hopetown and his friends when their eyes rested on a goodly array of alternate herrings and potatoes spread from the top to the bottom. Dundas at the same time inviting his guests to pledge him in a bumper of excellent whisky. Drinking jocularly to his lordship's health, he humorously said, It won't do, my lord, it won't do. But whenever you or your guests will honour my poor hall of Stang Hill Tower with your presence at this hour, I promise you no worse fare than now set before you, the best and fattest salt herrings that the forth can produce and the strongest mountain dew. To this I beg that your lordship and your honoured friends may do ample justice. It is needless to say that Lord Hopetown never dined again at Stang Hill Tower, but some time after when Dundas was on his deathbed he advised his son to make the best terms he could with Lord Hopetown, remarking, He will sooner or later have our little property. An exchange was made highly advantageous to the Dundas family, the estate of A3 being made over to them. A curious and humorous narrative is told of General Diëlle, a noted persecutor of the Covenanters. In the course of his continental service he had been brought into the immediate circle of the German court and one day had the honour to be a guest at a splendid imperial banquet where, as part of his state, the German Emperor was waited on by the great feudal dignitaries of the Empire one of whom was the Duke of Modena, the head of the illustrious house of Este. After his appointment by Charles II as Commander-in-Chief in Scotland he was invited by the Duke of York, afterwards James II and then residing at Holyrood to dine with him and the Duchess Princess May of Modena. But as this was, we are told, what might be called a family dinner the Duchess demurred to the General being admitted to such an honour whereupon he naively replied that this was not his first introduction to the house of Este for that he had known her Royal Highness's father, the Duke of Modena and that he had stood behind his chair while he sat by the Emperor's side. There was another kind of banquet in which it has been remarked the defunct had the principal honours having the same ceremonious respect paid to his wax and image as though he were alive. Thus we are reminded how the famous Henrietta, Duchess of Marlborough demonstrated her appreciation for congrief in a most extraordinary manner. Report goes that she had his figure made in wax, talked to it as if it had been alive placed it at the table with her, took every care that it was supplied with different sorts of meat and in short the same formalities were throughout scrupulously observed in these weird and strange repasts just as if congrief himself had been present. Saint-Foy, it may be remembered, who wrote in the time of Louis XIV has left an interesting account of the ceremonial after the death of a king of France during the forty days before the funeral when his wax effigy lay in state. It appears that the royal officers served him at meals as though he was still alive. The maitre d'hôtel handed the napkin to the highest Lord present to be delivered to the king. Apprelate blessed the table and the basins of water were handed to the royal arm chair. Grace was said in the accustomed manner save that there was added to it the day profundes. We cannot be surprised that such strange proceedings as these gave rise to much ridicule and helped to bring the court itself into contempt. End of CHAPTER IV CHAPTER V A jolly place, said he, in days of old, but something ails it now, the spot is cursed, Wordsworth. A peculiar feature of many old country houses is the so-called strange room around which the atmosphere of mystery has long clung. In certain cases such rooms have gained an unenviable notoriety for having been the scene in days gone by of some tragic occurrence, the memory of which has survived in the local legend or tradition. The existence, too, of such rooms has supplied the novelist with the most valuable material for the construction of those plots in which the mysterious element holds a prominent place. Historical romance, again, with its tales of adventure, has invested numerous rooms with a grim aspect and caused the imagination to conjure up all manner of weird and unearthly fancies concerning them. Walpole, for instance, writing of Berkeley Castle, says, The room shown for the murder of Edward II and the shrieks of an agonising king, I verily believe to be genuine. It is a dismal chamber, almost at the top of the house, quite detached, and to be approached only by a kind of footbridge. And from that descends a large flight of steps that terminates on strong gates, exactly a situation for a cord de garde. And speaking of Edward's imprisonment here, maybe mentioned the pathetic stories told by Sir Richard Baker in his usual odd, circumstantial manner. When Edward II was taken by order of his queen and carried to Berkeley Castle, to the end that he should not be known, they shaved his head and beard, and that in a most beastly manner, for they took him from his horse and set him upon a hillock, and then, taking puddle-water out of a ditch thereby, they went to wash him, his barber telling him that the cold water must serve for this time. Where at the miserable king, looking sternly upon him, said that whether they would or know, he would have warm water to wash him, and there with all, to make good his word, he presently shed forth a shower of tears. Never was king turned out of a kingdom in such a manner. And there can be no doubt that many of the rooms which have attracted notice on account of their architectural peculiarities were purposely designed for concealment in times of political commotion. Of the numerous stories told of the mysterious death of Lord Lovell, one informs us how, on the demolition of a very old house, formerly the patrimony of the Lovells, about a century ago there was found in a small chamber, so secret that the farmer who inhabited the house knew it not, the remains of an immured being, and such remnants of bowels and jars as appeared to justify the idea of that chamber having been used as a place of refuge for the Lord of the Mansion. And that, after consuming the stores which he had provided in case of a disastrous event, he died unknown even to his servants and tenants. But the circumstances attending Lord Lovell's death have always been a matter of conjecture, and in the annals of England, another version of the story is given. Lord Lovell is believed to have escaped from the field and to have lived for a while in concealment at Minster Lovell, Oxfordshire, but at length to have been starved to death through the neglect or treachery of an attendant. At Broughton Castle there is a curiously designed room, which, at one time or another, has attracted considerable attention. According to Lord Nungant in his memorials of Hampton, this room is so contrived by being surrounded by thick stone walls and case matted that no sound from within can be heard. The chamber appears to have been built about the time of King John and is reported on very doubtful grounds of tradition to have been the room used for the sittings of the Puritans. And he adds, it seems an odd fancy, although a very prevailing one, to suppose a twice-men employed in capital matters of state must needs choose the most mysterious and superstitious retirements for consultation, instead of the safer and less remarkable expedient of a walk in the open fields. It was probably in this room that the secret meetings of Hampton and his confederates were held, which Antony Wood thus describes. Several years before the civil war began, Lord Sage, being looked upon as the godfather of that party, had meetings of them in his house at Broughton, where was a room and passage thereunto, which his servants were prohibited to come near. And when they were of a complete number, there would be a great noise and talkings heard among them to the admiration of those that lived in the house, yet never could they discern their lord's companions. Amongst other secret rooms, which have their historical associations, are those at Hendlip Hall near Worcester. This famous residence, which has scarcely a room that is not provided with some means of escape, is commonly reported to have been built by John Abbingdon in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, this personage having been a zealous partisan of Mary, Queen of Scots. It was here also, under the care of Mr. and Mrs. Abbingdon, that Father Garnet was concealed for several weeks in the winter of 1605 to 6, but who eventually paid the penalty of his guilty knowledge of the gunpowder plot. A hollow in the wall of Mrs. Abbingdon's bedroom was covered up, and there was a narrow crevice into which a reed was laid so that soup and wine could be passed by her into the recess, without the fact being noticed from any other room. But the government, suspecting that some of the gunpowder conspirators were concealed at Hendlip Hall, in the very bromley of Holt Castle, a justice of the peace, with the most minute orders, which are very funny. In the search, says the document, first observe the parlour, where they used to dine and sup. In the last part of that parlour, it is conceived there is some vault, which to discover, you must take care to draw down the wainscot, whereby the entry into the vault may be discovered. The lower parts of the house must be tried with a brooch by putting the same into the ground so that they may be perceived some timber, which, if there be, there must be some vault beneath it. For the upper rooms you must observe whether they be more in breadth than the lower rooms, and look in which places the rooms must be enlarged by pulling out some boards you may discover some vaults. Also, if it appear that there be some corners to the chimneys, and the same boarded, if the boards be taken away, there will appear some secret place. If the walls seem to be thick and the wainscot being tried with a gimlet, if it strike not the wall, but go through, some suspicion is to be had thereof. If there be any double loft, some two or three feet, one above another, in such places any person may be harboured privately. Also, if there be a loft towards the roof of the house, into which there appears no entrance out of any other place or lodging, it must, of necessity, be opened and looked into, some hiding. The house was searched from garret to cellar without any discovery being made, and Mrs. Abbingdon, feigning to be angry with the searchers, shut herself up in her bedroom, day and night, eating and drinking there, by which means, through the secret tube, she fed Father Garnet and another Jesuit father. But after a protracted search of ten days, these two men surrendered themselves, pressed, it is said, for the need of air, the marmalade and other sweet-meats were found in their den, and they had warm and nutritive drinks passed to them by the reed through the chimney, as already described. This historic mansion, it may be added, on account of its elevated position, was capitally adapted as a place of concealment, for it afforded the means of keeping a watchful lookout for the approach of the emissaries of the law or of other persons by whom it might have been dangerous for any skulking priest to be seen, supposing his reverence to have gone forth for an hour to take the air. Another important instance of a strange room is that existing at Ingateston Hall in Essex, which was in years gone by a summer residence belonging to the Abbey of Barking. It came with the estate into possession of the family of Petri in the reign of Henry VIII and continued to be occupied as their family seat until the latter half of the last century. In the southeast corner of a small room was probably the host's bedroom. It was discovered some years ago a mysterious hiding place 14 feet long, 2 feet broad and 10 feet high. On some floorboards being removed a hole or trap door about 2 feet square was found with a 12 foot ladder to descend into the room below. The floor of which was composed of 9 inches of dry sand. This on being examined brought to light a few bones which it has been suggested to be quite occupant during confinement but the existence of this secret room must, it is said, have been familiar to the heads of the family for several generations evidence of this circumstance being afforded by a packing case which was found in this hidden retreat and upon which was the following direction for the right honourable the Lady Petri at Ingateston Hall in Essex. The wood also was in a decayed state and the writing in an antiquated style considering that the Petri family left Ingateston Hall between the years 1770 and 1780. There are numerous rooms of this curious description which it must be remembered were in many cases the outcome of religious intolerance in the 16th century and early in the 17th when the celebration of mass in this country was forbidden. Hence those families that persisted in adhering to the Roman Catholic faith oftentimes kept a priest in an emergency he could retreat. Evelyn in his diary speaking of Ham House at Weybridge belonging to the Duke of Norfolk as having some of these secret rooms writes, My Lord, leading me about the house made no scruple of showing me all the hiding places for popish priests and where they said mass for he was no bigoted papist. The old manor house at Dinsdale-upon-Tease has a secret room which is very cleverly situated at the top of the staircase not very large and is between two bedrooms and alongside the fireplace of one of them. It would be a very snug place when the fire was lighted writes a correspondent of notes and queries and very secure as it is necessary to enter the cock loft by a trapdoor at the extreme end of the building and then crawl along under the roof into the hiding place by a second trapdoor. Among further instances of these curious relics of the past may be mentioned armscut manor two or three miles distant according to a local tradition George Fox at one time lived here in a passage at the top of the house is the entrance to a secret room which receives light from a small window in one of the gables and in this room George Fox is said to have been concealed during the period he was persecuted by the county magistrates but sometimes such rooms furthered the designs of those who are betted and connived at deeds that would not bear the light and Selfie records an anecdote probably often put at Bishop's Middleham a man died with the reputation of a water drinker and it was discovered that he had killed himself by secret drunkenness there was a Roman Catholic hiding place the entrance to which was from his bedroom he converted it into a cellar and the quantity of brandy which he had consumed was ascertained indeed it is impossible to say to what ends these secret ruins were occasionally devoted and there is little doubt that many of our local traditions have been founded political refugees too were not infrequently secreted in these hiding places and in the manor house Trent near Sherbourne there is a strangely constructed chamber entered from one of the upper rooms through a sliding panel in the oak wainscotting in which tradition tells us Charles II lay concealed for a fortnight on his escape to the coast after the Battle of Worcester street has two secret chambers and there are indications which point to the former existence of a third the hiding place in which the king was hidden is situated in the squire's bedroom it appears there was formerly a sliding panel in the wainscot near the fireplace which when opened gave access to a closet the false floor of which still admits of a person taking up his position in the secret nook the wainscotting too the room was hung a curious story is told of street place an old house a mile and a half north of Plumpton in the neighbourhood of Lewis which dates from the time of James I and was the seat of the dobells behind the great chimney piece of the hall was a deep recess used for purposes of concealment and it is said that one day a cavalier horseman hotly pursued by some troopers broke into the hall spurred his horse into the recess of the Wainscot an old moted manor house in the Malvern district has a cunningly contrived secret room which is opened by means of a spring and this hidden nook is commonly reported to have played an important part in the war of the roses when numerous persons were concealed there at this troubleous period and a curious discovery was made some years ago at Danby Hall in Wensleydale Yorkshire when on a small secret room being brought to light in the house it is generally supposed that these weapons have been hidden away in readiness for the Jacobite rising of 1715 or 1745 in certain cases it would appear that for some reason or other the hiding place has been specially kept a secret among members of the family in the north of England there is Netherall near Maryport Cumberland the seat of the old family of Senhouse in this old mansion in the house being known but to two persons the heir at law and the family solicitor it is affirmed that never has the secret of this hidden room been revealed to more than two living persons at a time this mysterious room has no window and despite every endeavour to discover it has successfully defied the ingenuity of even visitors staying in the house this Netherall tradition is very similar to the celebrated one connected with Glamis Castle the seat of Lord Strathmore the secret room possesses a window which nevertheless has not led to its identification it is known as the secret room of the castle and although every other part of the castle has been satisfactorily explored the search for this famous room has been in vain none are supposed to be acquainted with its locality save Lord Strathmore, his heir and the factor of the estate who are bound not to reveal it unless to their successors in the secret have found this remarkable room one legend connected with which has been thus described the castle now again behold then mark yon lofty turret bold which frowns above the western wing its grim walls darkly shadowing there is a room within that tower no mortal dare approach the power of an avenging god is there dread, awfully displayed, beware and enter not that dreadful room else yours may be a fearful doom according to one legendary romance founded on an incident which is said to have occurred during one of the carousels of the Earl of Crawford otherwise styled Earl Beardy or the Tiger Earl there was many years ago a grand meet at Glamis as the result of which many a noble deer lay dead upon the hill and many a grizzly boar died with his heart's blood the rivers of the plain returned amidst the sound of martial music and the low whispered round the laze of the ladies victorious to the castle in the old baronial dining hall was spread a sumptuous and savoury feast at which venison and reeking game rich smoked ham and savoury row flanked by the wild boar's head and vians and pasties without name blend profusely on the hospitable board while dueled and capacious goblets filled with ruby wine were lavishly handed round at the completion of the banquet the minstrel strung his ancient harp and soon the company tripped lightly on the oaken floor till the rafters rang with the merry sounds of their midnight revelry for three days and nights the hunt of the feast continued and as at last the revelries drew to a close still four dark chieftains remained in the inner chamber of the castle and sang and drank and shouted right merrily the day broke yet louder rang the rawer the goblets were over and over again replenished and the terrible oaths and rippled songs continued and the dice rattled and the revelry became louder still till the many walls of the old castle shook and reverberated with the awful sounds of debauchery blasphemy and crime at length their wild ungovernable frenzy reached its climax they had shrunk until their eyes had grown dim and their hands could scarcely hold the hellish dice when driven by expiring fury with fiendish glee their teeth and cursed the god of heaven then with returning strength and exhausting its last and fitful energies in still louder implications and more fearful yells they deliberately and with unanimous voice consigned their guilty souls to the nethern most hell fatal words in a bright broad sheet of lurid and sulphurous flame the prince of darkness appeared in their midst and struck not the shaft of death but the vitality of eternal life and there to this day transfixed in all their hideous expressions of ghastly terror and dismay doomed to drink the wine cup and throw the dice to the dawning of the great judgment day another explanation of the mystery is that during one of the feuds between the linses and the oglevees a number of the latter clan flying from their enemies came to Glamis castle and begged hospitality of the owner he admitted them and on the plea of hiding them they all in this room and then left them to starve their bones it is adverred lie there to this day the sight of which it has been stated so appalled the late lord Strathmore and entering the room that he had it walled up some assert that owing to some hereditary curse like those described in a previous chapter at certain intervals a kind of vampire is born into the family of the Strathmore lions and that as no one would like to destroy this monstrosity they must run but whatever the mystery may be such rooms like the locked chamber of blue beard are not open to vulgar gaze a circumstance which has naturally perpetuated the curiosity attached to them the reputation too which Glamis castle has long had for possessing so strange a room has led to a host of the most gruesome stories being circulated in connection with it many of which from time to time have appeared in print according to one account an artistic and social celebrity went to stay at Glamis castle for the first time she was allotted very handsome apartments just on the point of junction between the new buildings perhaps a hundred or two hundred years old and the very ancient part of the castle the rooms were handsomely furnished no grim tapestry swung to and fro all were smooth, easy and modern and the guest retired to bed without a thought of the mysteries of Glamis in the morning she appeared at the breakfast table cheerful and the inquiry how she had slept replied well thanks, very well up to four o'clock in the morning but your Scottish carpenters seem to come to work very early I suppose they are putting up their scaffolding quickly though for they are quiet now her remarks were followed by dead silence and to her surprise she noticed that the faces of the family party were very pale but she was asked as she valued the friendship of all there never to speak on that subject again there had been no carpenters at Glamis for months past the lady it seems had not the remotest idea that the hammering she had heard was connected with any story and had no notion of there being some mystery connected with the noise until enlightened on the matter at the breakfast table at Russian castle Isle of Man there is said to be a room which has never been opened in the memory of man various explanations have been assigned to account for the circumstance one being that the old place of the castle's inhabitants who were dislodged by Merlin and as such were not driven away remaining spell bound beneath the castle Waldron in his description of the Isle of Man has given a curious tradition respecting this strange room in which the supernatural element holds a prominent place and which is a good sample of other stories of the same kind they say there are a great many fine apartments underground exceeding in magnificence any of the upper rooms several men who had the courage have in former times ventured down to explore the secrets of this subterranean dwelling place but as none of them ever returned to give an account of what they saw the passages to it were kept continually shut that no more might suffer by their temerity but about 50 years since a person of uncommon courage obtained permission to explore the dark abode he went down and returned by the help of a clue of pac thread and made this report after having passed through a great number of vaults he came into a long narrow place along which having travelled as far as he could guess for the space of a mile he saw a little gleam of light reaching at last the end of this lane of darkness he perceived a very large and magnificent house illuminated with a great many candles whence preceded the light just mentioned after knocking at the door three times it was opened by a servant who asked him what he wanted I would go as far as I can he replied be so kind as to direct me for I see no passage but the dark caverns through which I came hither the servant directed him to go through the house and led him through a long entrance passage and out at the back door after walking a considerable distance he saw another house more magnificent than the former where he saw through the open windows lamps burning in every room he was about to knock on the low parlor he saw in the middle of the room a large table of black marble on which lay extended a monster of at least fourteen feet long and ten round the body with a sword beside him he therefore deemed it prudent to make his way back to the first house where the servant reconducted him and informed him that if he had knocked at the second door he never would have returned he then took his leave and once more ascended to the light of the sun but leaving rooms of this supernatural kind we may allude to those which have acquired a strange notoriety from certain peculiarities of a somewhat gruesome nature and with tales of horror attached to their guilty walls it is not surprising that many rooms in our old country houses have long been said to be troubled with mysterious noises and to have an uncanny aspect why Colla Hall near Colm had a room which the timid long avoided once a year it is said a specter horseman visits this house and makes his way up the broad oaken staircase into a certain room from which dreadful screams as from a woman are heard which soon subside into groans the story goes that one of the conlifts murdered his wife in that room and that the specter horseman is the ghost of the murderer who is doomed to pay an annual visit to the house of his victim and it is said to have predicted the extinction of the family which has literally been fulfilled this strange visitor is always tired in the costume of the early Stuart period and the trappings of his horse are of a most uncouth description the evening of his arrival being generally wild and impestuous at Kreslo Manor House Buckinghamshire there is another mysterious room which although furnished as a bedroom is very rarely used without trepidation and awe according to common report this room which is situated in the most ancient portion of the building is haunted by the restless spirit of a lady long since deceased what the antecedent history of this uncomfortable room really is no one seems to know although it is generally agreed that in a distant past it must have been the silent witness of some tragic occurrence but little coat house Lord Macaulay not more on account of its venerable architecture and furniture than on account of a horrible and mysterious crime which was perpetrated there in the days of the Tudors one of the bed chambers which is said to have been the scene of a terrible murder contains a bedstead with blue furniture which time has made dingy and threadbare in the bottom of one of the bed curtains is shown a strange place where a small piece has been cut out a remarkable story in connection with which however there are several discrepancies according to one account when little coat was in possession of its founders the Daryls a midwife of high repute dwelt in the neighborhood who on returning home from a professional visit at a late hour of the night had gone to rest only to be disturbed by one who desired to have her immediate help little anticipating the terrible night's adventure in store for her a hand was thrust in which struck down the candle and at the same time pulled her into the road the person who had used these abrupt means desired her to tie a handkerchief over her head and not wait for a hat and leading her to a style where there was a horse saddled with a pillion on its back he desired her to seat herself and then mounting they set off at a brisk trot after travelling for an hour and a half they entered a paved court or yard and her conductor lifting her off her horse led her into the house and thus addressed her you must now suffer me to put this cap and bandage over your eyes which will allow you to breathe and speak but not to see keep up your presence of mind it will be wanted no harm will happen to you then taking her into a chamber he added now you're in a room with a lady and labour to remove the bandage from your eyes take the reward of your rashness shortly afterwards a male child was born and as soon as this crisis was over the woman received a glass of wine and was told to prepare to return home but in the interval she contrived to cut off a small piece of the bed curtain an act which was supposed sufficient evidence to fix the mysterious transaction as having happened at Little Code according to Sir Walter Scott it was over the woman's eyes on her leaving her own house that she might be unable to tell which way she travelled and was only removed when she was led into the mysterious bed chamber where beside the lady in labour there was a man of a haughty and ferocious aspect as soon as the child was born he demanded the midwife to give it to him and hurrying across the room threw it on the back of a fire that was blazing in the chimney in spite of the piteous entreaties and he was tried for murder at Salisbury but by corrupting his judge Sir John Popham he escaped the sentence of the law only to die a violent death by a fall from his horse this tale of horror it may be added has been carefully examined and there is little doubt but that in its main and most prominent features it is true the bedstead with a piece of the curtain cut out identifying the spot as the scene of the tragic act with this strange story Sir Walter Scott compares a similar one which was current at Edinburgh during his childhood about the beginning of the 18th century when the large castles of the Scottish nobles and even the secluded hotels like those of the French noblesse which they possessed in Edinburgh were sometimes the scenes of mysterious transactions a divine of singular sanctity was called up at midnight to pray with a person at the point of death he was put into a sedan chair and after being transported to a remote part of the town he was blindfolded an act which was enforced by a cocked pistol after many turns and windings the chair was carried upstairs into a lodging where his eyes were uncovered and he was introduced into a bedroom where he found a lady newly delivered of an infant he was commanded by his attendants to say such prayers by a bedside as was suitable for a dying person on remonstrating and observing the tassay delivery warranted better hopes he was sternly commanded to do as he had been ordered and with difficulty he collected his thoughts sufficiently to perform the task imposed on him he was then again hurried into the chair but as they conducted him downstairs he heard the report of a pistol he was safely conducted home a purse of gold was found upon him but he was warned that the least allusion to this transaction would cost him his life he had been ordered to rest and after a deep sleep he was awakened by a servant with the dismal news that a fire from common fury had broken out in the house near the head of the canning-gate and that it was totally consumed with the shocking addition that the daughter of the proprietor a young lady eminent for beauty and accomplishments had perished in the flames the clergyman had his suspicions he was timid the family was of the first distinction above all, the deed was done and could not be amended time wore away but he became unhappy at being the solitary depository of this fearful mystery and, mentioning it to some of his brethren the anecdote acquired a sort of publicity the divine, however, had been long dead and the story in some degree forgotten when a fire broke out again in the house he had been told in some degree forgotten when a fire broke out again on the very same spot where the house had formally stood and which was now occupied by buildings of an inferior description when the flames were at their height the termalt was suddenly suspended by an unexpected apparition a beautiful female in a night dress extremely rich but at least half a century old appeared in the very midst of the fire and uttered these words in her vernacular idiom twice burned the third time I'll scare you all the belief in this apparition was formally so strong that on a fire breaking out and seeming to approach the fatal spot there was a good deal of anxiety manifested lest the apparition should make good her denunciation but family romance contains many such tales of horror and one told of Sir Richard Baker Sir named Bloody Baker is a match even for Bluebeards locked chamber after spending some years abroad in consequence of a duel he returned to his old home at Cranbrook in Kent he only brought with him a foreign servant and these two lived alone very soon strange stories began to be whispered of unearthly shrieks having been frequently heard at nightfall to issue from his house and of persons who were missed and never heard of again but it never occurred to anyone to connect incidents of this kind Sir Richard Baker until one day he formed an apparent attachment to a young lady in a neighbourhood who always wore a great number of jewels he had often pressed her to call and see his house and happening to be near it she determined to surprise him with a visit her companion tried to dissuade her from doing so but she would not be turned from her purpose they knocked at the door but receiving no answer determined to enter they thought people pretty lady be not too bold or your red blood will soon run cold and the blood of the adventurous women did run cold when on opening one of the room doors they found it nearly full of the bodies of murdered persons chiefly women and when too on looking out of the window they saw Bloody Baker and his servant bringing in the body of a lady in fear they concealed themselves in a recess under the staircase and as the murderers with their ghastly burden passed by the hand of the murdered lady hung in the baluster of the stairs which on Baker chopping it off with an oath fell into the lap of one of the concealed ladies they quickly made their escape with the dead hand on one of the fingers of which was a ring reaching home they told the story and in proof of it displayed the ring families in the neighbourhood who had lost friends or relatives mysteriously were told of this blood chamber of horrors and it was arranged to ask Baker to a party apparently in a friendly manner but to have constables concealed ready to take him into custody he accepted the invitation and then the lady pretending it was a dream told him all she had seen their lady said he dreams are nothing they are but fables she replied but is this a fable and she produced the hand and ring upon which the constables appeared on the scene and took Baker into custody the tradition adds that he was found guilty and was burnt notwithstanding that Queen Mary tried to save him on account of his holding the Roman Catholic religion this tradition of course must not be taken too seriously the red hand in the armorial bearings having led it has been suggested to the supposition of some sanguinary business in the records of the family among the monuments in Cranbrook Church, Kent there is one erected to Sir Richard Baker the gauntlet, red gloves, helmet and spurs having been suspended over the tomb on one occasion a visitor being attracted by the colour of the gloves was accosted by an old woman who remarked I miss those are bloody Baker's gloves their red colour comes from the blood he shed but the red hand is only the Ulster Badge of Baronetsey and there is scarcely a family bearing it of which some tale of murder and punishment has not been told end of chapter five chapter six of strange pages from family papers this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information and to find out how you can volunteer please visit LibriVox.org strange pages from family papers by T.F. Thistleton-Dyer chapter six, indelible blood stains will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand no, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas in Carnedine making the green one red like Beth it was a popular suggestion that when a person had died a violent death the blood stains could not be washed away to which Macbeth eludes as above after murdering Duncan this belief was in a great measure founded on the early tradition that the wounds of a murdered man were supposed to bleed afresh at the approach or touch of the murderer to such an extent was this notion carried that by the side of the beer if the slightest change were observable in the eyes the mouth, feet or hands of the corpse the murderer was conjectured to be present and many an innocent spectator must have suffered death this practice forms a rich pasture in the imagination of our old writers and their histories and ballads are laboured into pathos by dwelling on this phenomenon at Blackwell near Darlington the murder of one Christopher Simpson is described in a pretty local ballad known as the Baydale Banks tragedy a suspected person was committed because when he touched the body at the inquest he was moving the body did bleed at the mouth, nose and ears and he turned out to be the murderer similarly Macbeth act three, scene four speaking of the ghost says it will have blood they say blood will have blood stones have been known to move and trees to speak auguries and understood relations have by magopies and chuffs and rooks brought forth the secret man of blood Shakespeare here in some story in which the stones covering the corpse of a murdered man were said to have moved of themselves and so revealed the secret in the same way it was said that where blood had been shed the marks could not be obliterated but would continually reappear until justice for the crime had been obtained on one occasion Nathaniel Hawthorne enjoyed the hospitality of Smithle's Hall Lancashire and was so impressed with the well-known instances founded fictions upon it in his romance of Septimus he gives this graphic account of what he saw on the threshold of one of the doors of Smithle's Hall there is a bloody footstep impressed into the doorstep and ruddy as if the bloody foot are just trodden there and it is a veer that on a certain night of the year and at a certain hour of the night if you go and look at the doorstep you will see the mark wet with fresh blood I wanted to say that this is but dew but can dew-redden a cambrick handkerchief and this is what the bloody footstep will surely do when the appointed night an hour come round a local tradition says that the stone bearing the imprint of the mysterious footprint was once removed and cast into a neighbouring wood but in a short time it had to be restored to its original position owing to the alarming noises which troubled the neighbourhood this strange footprint is traditionally said to have been caused by the martyr stamping his foot to confirm his testimony and has ever since been shown as the miraculous memorial of the Holy Man the story is that being provoked by the taunts and persecutions of his examiner he stamped with his foot upon a stone and looking up to heaven appealed to God for the justice of his cause and prayed that there might remain in that place a constant memorial of the wickedness and injustice of his enemies it is also stated that in 1732 a guest sleeping alone in the green chamber at Smythle's Hall saw an apparition in the dress of a minister with bands and a book in his hand the ghost of Marsh for so it was pronounced to be disappeared through the doorway and on the owner of Smythle's hearing the story he directed that divine service long discontinued should be resumed at the Hall Chapel every Sunday there were blood stains on the floor at the outer door of the Queen's apartment in Holyrood Palace where Rizio was murdered Sir Walter Scott has made these blood marks the subject of a jocular passage in his introduction to the Chronicles of the Canon Gate where a Cockney Traveller is represented as trying to efface them with the patent scouring drops which it was his mission to introduce into use in Scotland in another of his novels the Abbot Sir Walter Scott eludes to the Rizio that the floor at the head of the stair still bears visible marks of the blood of the unhappy victim in support of these blood stains it has been urged that the floor is very ancient manifestly much more so than the late floor of the neighbouring gallery which stated from the reign of Charles II it is in all likelihood the very floor upon which Mary and her courtiers trod the stain has been shown there since a time long antecedent to that extreme modern curiosity regarding historical matters for it is alluded to by the son of Evelyn as being exhibited in the year 1722 at Condover Hall, Shropshire there is supposed to be a blood stain which has been there since the time of Henry VIII and cannot be effaced according to a local tradition which has long been current in the neighbourhood it is the blood of Lord Nevert the owner of the hall and estate at this period who was treacherously slain by his son but unfortunately this piece of romance which is utterly at variance with facts bearing on the history of Condover and its owners in years gone by must be classed among the legendary tales of the locality one room in Clayton Old Hall, Lancashire has for years past been nicknamed The Bloody Chamber from some supposed stains of human gore on the oaken floor planks numerous stories have at different times been started to account for these blood tokens which have gained all the more importance from the mansion having the time immemorial being the favourite haunt of a mischievous bogart until laid by the parson and now whilst ivy climbs and holly is green Clayton Hall Bogart shall no more be seen In Lincoln Cathedral there are two fine rose windows one made by a master workman and the other by his apprentice out of the pieces of stained glass the former had thrown aside the apprentice's window when the master in a fit of chagrin threw himself from the gallery beneath his boasted chef dervre and was killed upon the spot but his blood stains on the floor are declared to be indelible at Cotail a mansion on the banks of the Tamar the marks are still visible of the blood spilt by the lord of the manor when for supposed treachery he slew the warder of the drawbridge but these are only to be seen on a wet day but there is no mystery about the so-called bloody chamber for the marks are only in reality natural red tinges of the wood denoting the presence of iron in addition to the appearance of such indelible marks of crime often times the ghost of the spiller of blood or of the murdered person haunts the scene thus Northam Tower Yorkshire an embattled structure of the time of Henry VII a true border mansion long been famous for the visits of some mysterious specter in the form of a lady who was cruelly murdered in the wood her blood being pointed out on the stairs of the old tower another tragic story is told of the manor house which Bishop Pudsey built at Darlington it was for very many years a residence of the bishops of Durham and a resting place of Margaret bride of James IV of Scotland and daughter of Henry VII in her splendid progress through the country in the years 1668 and gained a widespread notoriety on account of the ghost story of Lady Jarrett who was murdered there but as a testimony of the violent death she had received she left on the wall ghastly impressions of a thumb and fingers in blood forever and always made her appearance with one arm the other having been cut off for the sake of a valuable ring on one of the fingers one room of Holland House is supposed to be haunted by Lord Holland the builder of this splendid old mansion according to Princess Mary Lichtenstein in her history of Holland House the guilt room is said to be talented by the solitary ghost of its first lord who, runs the tradition, issues forth at midnight from behind a secret door and walks slowly through the scenes of former triumphs with his head in his hand and to add to this mystery there is a tale of three spots of blood on one side of the recess whence he issues three spots which can never be afaced stains of blood, stains that cannot be washed away are to be seen on the floor of a certain room at Calvary Hall, Yorkshire and there is one particular flag in the cellar which is never without a mysterious damp place upon it all the other flags being dry of course these are the witnesses of a terrible tragedy which was committed years ago within the walls of Calvary Hall it appears that water Calvary who had married Philippa Brooke daughter of Lord Cobham was a wild reckless man estimable and virtuous lady and that one day he went into a fit of insane jealousy or pretended to do so over the then Manilender's two were pressing him hard and he had become desperate rushing madly into the house he plunged a dagger into one and then into another of his children and afterwards tried to take the life of their mother a steel corset which she wore luckily saving her life leaving her for dead he mounted his horse with the intention of killing the only other child he had and who was then at Norton but being pursued by some villagers his horse stumbled and threw him off and the assassin was caught being pressed to death at York Castle for his crimes not only had the stains of this bloody tragedy ever since been indelible but the spirit of water Calvary could not rest having often been seen galloping about the district at night on a headless horse the spirit of ghosts which appear in this eccentric fashion we may note that Eastbury House near Blandford now pulled down had in a certain marble flawed room in a faceable stains of blood attributable it is said to the suicide of William Doggett the steward of Lord Malcolm whose headless spirit long haunted the neighborhood as a punishment for her unnatural cruelty and causing her child's death it is commonly reported that the spirit of Lady Russell is doomed to haunt Bishop Abbey Barkshire the house where this act of violence was committed Lady Russell had by her first husband a son who unlike herself had a natural antipathy to every kind of learning and so great was his obstinate repugnance to learning to write that he would willfully blot over his copy books in the most careless and slovenly manner this conduct so irritated his mother that to curum of the propensity she beat him again and again severely till at last she beat him to death to atone for her cruelty she is now doomed to haunt the room where the fatal deed was perpetrated and as her apparition glides along she is always seen in the act of washing the blood stains of her son from her hands although ever trying to free herself of these marks of her unnatural crime it is in vain as there are indelible stains which no water will remove by a strange coincidence some years ago altering a window shutter a quantity of antique copy books were discovered pushed into the rubble between the joints of the floor and one of these books was so covered with blots as to fully answer the description in the narrative above it is noteworthy also that Lady Russell had no comfort in her sons by her first husband her younger son a posthumous child caused her special trouble in so much that she wrote to her brother-in-law Lord Burley for advice how to treat him a fortunate boy who was flogged to death though he seems to have lived to near man's estate Lady Russell was buried at Bisham by the remains of her first husband Sir Thomas Hobie and her portrait may still be seen representing her in widow's weeds and with a very pale face a mysterious crime is traditionally reported to have some years ago taken place at the old Parsonage at Market or East Lavington near Devises now pulled down the ghost of the lady supposed to have been murdered haunted the locality and it has been said a child came to an untimely end in the house previous to the year 1818 writes a correspondent of Notes and Queries a witness states his father occupied the house and writes that in that year on feast day being left alone in the house I went to my room it was the one with marks of blood on the floor I distinctly saw a white figure glide into the room it went round by the wash stand near the bed and disappeared he added that part of the road leading from Market Lavington to Easterton which skirts the grounds of Fidington House used to be looked upon as haunted by a lady who was locally known as the Easterton ghost but in the year 1869 a wall was built round the roadside of the pond and curiously close to the spot where the lady had been in the habit of appearing two skeletons were disturbed one of a woman the other of a child the bones were buried in the churchyard and the ghost it is said has since been seen it would seem also that blood stains wherever they may fall are equally indelible and even to this day the new forest peasant believes that the mile he digs is still red with the blood of his ancient foes the Danes a form of superstition which we find existing in various places for very many years the road from Ryegate to Dawking leading through a lonely lane into the village of Buckland was haunted by a local spectre known as the Buckland Shag generally supposed to have been connected with a love tragedy in the most lonely part of this lane a stream of clear water ran by the side of which laid for years a large stone concerning which the following story is told once on a time a lovely blue eyed girl whose father was a substantial yeoman in the neighborhood was wooed and won by the subtle arts of the manor house of Buckland in the silence of the evening this lane was there a customed walk the scene of her devoted love and of his deceitful vows here he swore eternal fidelity and the unsuspecting girl trusted him with the confiding affection of her innocent heart it was at such a moment that the wily seducer communicated to her the real nature of his designs the moon above being the only witness of his perfidy and her distress she heard the avowal in tremulous silence but her deadly paleness and her expressive look of mingled reproach and terror created alarm even in the mind of her would-be seducer and he hastily endeavored to recall the fatal decoration but it was too late she sprang from his agitated grasp and with a sigh of agony fell dead at his feet when he beheld the work from his bosom he plunged it into his own false heart and lay stretched by the side of her he had so basely wronged on the morrow as a peasant passed over the little stream he saw a dark stone with drops of blood trickling from its heart into the pure, limpid water from that day the stream retained its untainted purity and the stone continued its sacrifice of blood soon afterwards a terrific object was seen hovering at midnight taking its position at first upon the bleeding stone but it was ousted by the Lord of the Manor who removed the blood-tainted stone to his own premises to satisfy the timid minds of his neighbours but the stone still continued to bleed nor did its removal in any way intimidate the spectre connected with this alarming midnight visitor writes a correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine I remember a circumstance related to me by those who were actually acquainted with the facts and with the person to whom they refer an inhabitant of Buckland who had attended Rygate Market and became exceedingly intoxicated was joked by a companion upon the subject of the Buckland Shag whereupon he laid a wager that if Shag appeared in his path that night he would fight him with his trusty Hawthorne accordingly he set forth and arrived at the haunted spot the spectre stood in his path and raising his stick he struck it with all his strength but it made no impression so the man described it and he instantly became sober while a cold tremor ran through every nerve of his athletic frame he hurried on and the spectre followed at length he arrived at his own door then and not till then did the spectre vanish leaving the affrighted man in a state of complete exhaustion upon the threshold of his cottage he was carried to his bed and from that bed he never rose again he died in a week similarly there is a romantic old legend connected with Kilburn Priory to the effect that there was formerly not far distant a stone of dark red colour which was said to be the stain of the blood of Saint Gervais de Mertun the story goes that Stephen de Mertun being enamoured of his brother's wife made immoral overtures to her which he threatened to make known to Sir Gervais to prevent which disclosure Stephen resolved to wailay his brother and slay him in a strange coincidence the identical stone on which his murdered body had expired formed a part of his tomb and the eye of the murderer resting upon it adds the legend blood was seen to issue from it struck with horror at this site Stephen de Mertun hastened to the Bishop of London and making confession of his guilt demised his property to the Priory of Kilburn in the same way the Cornishman knows from the red filmy growth on the Brook Pebbles that blood has been shed a popular belief still firmly credited some years ago a Cornish gentleman was cruelly murdered and his body thrown into a Brook but ever since that day the stones in his Brook are said to be spotted with gore a phenomenon which had never occurred previously and according to another strange Cornish belief told of Saint Dennis's blood it is related that at the very time when his decapitation took place in Paris blood fell on the churchyard of Saint Dennis it is further said these blood stains are specially visible when a calamity of any kind is near at hand and before the breaking out of the plague it is said the stains of the blood of Saint Dennis were seen and during our wars with the Dutch the defeat of the English fleet was foretold by the reign of gore in this remote and sequestered place it is also a common notion that not only are the stains of human blood wrongfully shed in a faceable but a curse lights upon the ground causing it to remain barren forever there is for instance a dark looking piece of ground devoid of verdure in the parish of Curdford Sussex local tradition says that this was formerly green but the grass withered gradually away soon after the blood of a poacher who was shot there trickled down on the place but perhaps the most romantic tale of this kind was that known as the field of 40 footsteps a legendary story of the period of the Duke of Monmouth Rebellion which took place between two brothers in long fields afterwards called Southampton Fields in the rear of Montague House, Bloomsbury on account of a lady who sat by the combatants fought so furiously as to kill each other after which their footsteps imprinted on the ground in the vengeful struggle were reported to remain with the indentations produced by their advancing and receding nor would any grass or vegetation grow afterwards over these 40 footsteps a commonly received version of the story is that two brothers were in love with the same lady who had not declared a preference for either but crudely sat upon a bank to witness the termination of a duel which proved fatal to both Savvy records this strange story in his commonplace book and after quoting a letter from a friend recommending him to take a view of those wonderful marks of the Lord's hatred to dueling called the brother's steps he thus describes his own visit to the spot for near half an hour in vain we could find no steps at all within a quarter of a mile no nor half a mile of Montague House we were almost out of hope when an honest man who was at work directed us to the next ground adjoining to a pond there we found what we sought about three quarters of a mile north of Montague House and 500 yards east of Tottenham Court Road the steps are of the size of a large human foot about three inches deep south-west we counted only 26 but we were not exact in counting the place where one or both the brothers are supposed to have fallen is still bare of grass the labourer also showed us the bank where the tradition is the wretched woman sat to see the combat Miss Porter and her sister founded upon this tragic romance their story coming out or the field of 40 footsteps and at Tottenham Street Theatre there we found upon the same incident entitled The Field of Footsteps another romantic tale of a similar nature is connected with Montgomery Church Walls and is locally designated the legend of the robber's grave of which there are several versions the most popular one being this once upon a time a man was said to have been wrongfully hanged at Montgomery and when the rope was round his neck he declared in proof of his innocence that grass would never grow on his grave and in May there is yet to be seen a strip of sterility in the form of a cross amidst a mass of verdure likewise the peasantry still talked mysteriously of Lord Derwyntwater's execution and tell how his blood could not be washed away deep and lasting were the horror and grief which were felt when the news of his death reached his home in the north the inhabitants of the neighbourhood it is said saw the coming vengeance of heaven in the Aurora Borealis which appeared in unwanted brilliancy which is still known as Lord Derwyntwater's light in the northern counties the rushing devil's water too they said ran down with blood on that terrible night and the very corn which was ground on that day came tinged from the mill with crimson Lord Derwyntwater's death too was all the more deplored on account of his having long been undecided as to whether he should embrace the enterprise against the house of Hanover but there had long been a tradition in his family that a mysterious and unearthly appear to the head of the house in critical emergencies either to warn of danger or to announce impending calamity one evening a few days before he resolved to cast his lot with the stewards whilst he was wandering amid the solitudes of the hills a figure stood before him in robe and hood of grey this personage is said to have sadly reproached the Earl for not having already joined the rising and to have presented him with a crucifix which was to render him secure vanished leaving the Earl in a state of bewilderment the mysterious apparition is reported to have spoken with the voice of a woman and it is known that in the more critical conjunctures of the history of the stewards every device was practised by secret agents to gain the support of a wavering follower it is not difficult to guess at a probable explanation of the ghost of the Dillstone groves it may be added that at Dillstone Lady Derwyntwater was long said to revisit the pale glimpses of the moon and revive Lord Derwyntwater to the scaffold but how diverse have been the causes of many of these romantic bloodstains may be gathered from another legendary tale connected with Plage Hall near Cardington Shropshire the report goes that a party of clergymen met together one night at Plage Hall to play cards in order that the real object of their gathering might not be known to any but themselves the doors were locked before very long however they didn't open without any apparent cause again they were locked but presently they burst open a second time and even a third astonished at what seemed to baffle explanation and whilst mutually wondering what it could mean a panic was suddenly created when in their midst there appeared a mysterious figure resembling the evil one in a moment the invited guests all rose and fled leaving the unfortunate host by himself face to face with the enemy what happened after their departure was never divulged for no one ever saw that wretched man again either alive or dead that he had died some violent death was generally surmised for a great stain of blood shaped like a human form was found on the floor of the room and despite all efforts the mark could never be washed out ever since this inexplicable occurrence the house has been haunted and at midnight a ghostly troop of horses are occasionally heard creating so much noise as to awaken even heavy sleepers and Aubrey in his miscellaneous tells how when the bust of Charles I carved by Bernini was brought in a boat upon the Thames a strange bird the likeware of the bargeman had never seen dropped a drop of blood or blood like upon it wiped off the strange story of this ill-fated bust is more minutely told by Dr. Zachary Gray in a pamphlet on the character of Charles I Van Dyke having drawn the king in three different faces a profile three quarters and a full face the picture was sent to Rome for Bernini to make a bust from it Bernini was uncountably dillatory in the work and upon this being complained of he said that he had said about it he was shocked every time that he examined it and forced to leave off the work and if there was any stress to be laid on physiognomy he was sure the person whom the picture represented was destined to a violent end the bust was at last finished and sent to England as soon as the ship that brought it arrived in the river the king who was very impatient to see the bust ordered it to be carried immediately to Chelsea it was conveyed thither and placed upon a table in the garden whither the king went with a train of nobility to inspect the bust as they were viewing it a hawk flew over their heads with a partridge in its claws which he had wounded to death some of the partridge's blood fell upon the neck of the bust where it remained without being wiped off this bust was placed over the door of the king's closet at Whitehall and continued there till the palace was destroyed by fire End of Chapter 6