[Footnote 1:  A large panel in the long gallery of Hatfield can be pushed aside, giving a view into the great hall, and at Ockwells and other ancient mansions this device may also be seen.]

Referring to Scott’s novel, a word may be said about Fair Rosamond’s famous “bower” at the old palace of Woodstock, surely the most elaborate and complicated hiding-place ever devised.  The ruins of the labyrinth leading to the “bower” existed in Drayton’s time, who described them as “vaults, arched and walled with stone and brick, almost inextricably wound within one another, by which, if at any time her [Rosamond’s] lodging were laid about by the Queen, she might easily avoid peril imminent, and, if need be, by secret issues take the air abroad many furlongs about Woodstock.”

[Illustration:  STAIRCASE, BROUGHTON HALL]

In a survey taken in 1660, it is stated that foundation signs remained about a bow-shot southwest of the gate:  “The form and circuit both of the place and ruins show it to have been a house of one pile, and probably was filled with secret places of recess and avenues to hide or convey away such persons as were not willing to be found if narrowly sought after.”

Ghostly gambols, such as those actually practised upon the Parliamentary Commissioners at the old palace of Woodstock, were for years carried on without detection by the servants at the old house of Hinton-Ampner, Hampshire; and when it was pulled down in the year 1797, it became very obvious how the mysteries, which gave the house the reputation of being haunted, were managed, for numerous secret stairs and passages, not known to exist were brought to light which had offered peculiar facilities for the deception.  About the middle of the eighteenth century the mansion passed out of the hands of its old possessors, the Stewkeleys, and shortly afterwards became notorious for the unaccountable noises which disturbed the peace of mind of the new tenants.  Not only were there violent knocks, hammerings, groanings, and sounds of footsteps in the ceilings and walls, out strange sights frightened the servants out of their wits.  A ghostly visitant dressed in drab would appear and disappear mysteriously, a female figure was often seen to rush through the apartments, and other supernatural occurrences at length became so intolerable that the inmates of the house sought refuge in flight.  Later successive tenants fared the same.  A hundred pounds reward was offered to any who should run the ghosts to earth; but nothing resulted from it, and after thirty years or more of hauntings, the house was razed to the ground.  Secret passages and chambers were then brought to light; but those who had carried on the deception for so long took the secret with them to their graves.[1]

[Footnote 1:  A full account of the supernatural occurrences at Hinton-Ampner will be found in the Life of Richard Barham.]