Ambrose Rookwood’s seat, Coldham Hall, near Bury St. Edmunds, exists and retains its secret chapel and hiding-places.  There are three of the latter; one of them, now a small withdrawing-room, is entered from the oak wainscoted hall.  When the house was in the market a few years ago, the “priests’ holes” duly figured in the advertisements with the rest of the apartments and offices.  It read a little odd, this juxtaposition of modern conveniences with what is essentially romantic, and we simply mention the fact to show that the auctioneer is well aware of the monetary value of such things.

At the time of the Gunpowder Conspiracy Rookwood rented Clopton Hall, near Stratford-on-Avon.  This house also has its little chapel in the roof with adjacent “priests’ holes,” but many alterations have taken place from time to time.  Who does not remember William Howitt’s delightful description—­or, to be correct, the description of a lady correspondent—­of the old mansion before these restorations.  “There was the old Catholic chapel,” she wrote, “with a chaplain’s room which had been walled up and forgotten till within the last few years.  I went in on my hands and knees, for the entrance was very low.  I recollect little in the chapel; but in the chaplain’s room were old and I should think rare editions of many books, mostly folios.  A large yellow paper copy of Dryden’s All for Love, or the World Well Lost, date 1686, caught my eye, and is the only one I particularly remember."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Howitt’s Visits to Remarkable Places.]

Huddington Court, the picturesque old home of the Winters (of whom Robert and Thomas lost their lives for their share in the Plot), stands a few miles from Droitwich.  A considerable quantity of arms and ammunition were stored in the hiding-places here in 1605 in readiness for general rising.

[Illustration:  HUDDINGTON COURT, WORCESTERSHIRE]

[Illustration:  ENTRANCE PORCH, HUDDINGTON COURT]

Two other houses may be mentioned in connection with the memorable Plot—­houses that were rented by the conspirators as convenient places of rendezvous an account of their hiding-places and masked exits for escape.  One of them stood in the vicinity of the Strand, in the fields behind St. Clement’s Inn.  Father Gerard had taken it some time previous to the discovery of the Plot, and with Owen’s aid some very secure hiding-places were arranged.  This he had done with two or three other London residences, so that he and his brother priests might use them upon hazardous occasions; and to one of these he owed his life when the hue and cry after him was at its highest pitch.  By removing from one to the other they avoided detection, though they had many narrow escapes.  One priest was celebrating Mass when the Lord Mayor and constables suddenly burst in.  But the surprise party was disappointed:  nothing could be detected beyond the smoke of the extinguished candles; and in addition to the hole where the fugitive crouched there were two other secret chambers, neither of which was discovered.  On another occasion a priest was left shut up in a wall; his friends were taken prisoners, and he was in danger of starvation, until at length he was rescued from his perilous position, carried to one of the other houses, and again immured in the vault or chimney.