Early in the last century a large hiding-place was found at Danby Hall, Yorkshire.  It contained a large quantity of swords and pistols.  Upwards of fifty sets of harness of untanned leather of the early part of the eighteenth century were further discovered, all of them in so good a state of preservation that they were afterwards used as cart-horse gear upon the farm.

No less than nine of the followers of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” are said to have been concealed in a secret chamber at Fetternear, Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, an old seat of the Leslys of Balquhane.  It was situated in the wall behind a large bookcase with a glazed front, a fixture in the room, the back of which could be made to slide back and give admittance to the recess.

Quite by accident an opening was discovered in a corner cupboard at an old house near Darlington.  Certain alterations were in progress which necessitated the removal of the shelves, but upon this being attempted, they descended in some mysterious manner.  The back of the cavity could then be pushed aside (that is to say, when the secret of its mechanism was discovered), and a hiding-place opened out to view.  It contained some tawdry ornaments of Highland dress, which at one time, it was conjectured, belonged to an adherent of Prince Charlie.

The old mansion of Stonyhurst, Lancashire, contained eight hiding-places.  One of them, exactly like that at Fetternear, was at the back of a bookcase.  A secret spring was discovered which opened a concealed door in the wall.  In the space behind, a quantity of James II. guineas, a bed, a mattress, and a flask of rum were found.  A former student of this famous Jesuit college, who was instrumental in the discovery of a “priest’s hole,” has provided us with the following particulars:  “It would be too long to tell you how I first discovered that in the floor of my bedroom, in the recess of the huge Elizabethan bay window, was a trap-door concealed by a thin veneering of oak; suffice it say that with a companion I devoted a delightful half-holiday to stripping off the veneering and breaking the lock of the trap-door.  Between my floor and the ceiling of the long gallery below, was contrived a small room about five feet in height and the size and shape of the bay window recess.  In one corner of this hiding-hole was what seemed a walled-up doorway, and it occurred to my companion and myself that we had heard some vague old tradition that all this part of the house was riddled with secret passages leading from one concealed chamber to another, but we did not seek to explore any farther.”  In pulling down a portion of the college, a hollow beam was discovered that opened upon concealed hinges, used formerly for secreting articles of value or sacred books and vessels; and during some alterations to the central tower, over the main entrance to the mansion, a “priest’s hole” was found, containing seven horse pistols, ready loaded and some of them richly ornamented with silver.  A view could be obtained from the interior of the hiding-place, in the same manner as that which we have described in the old summer-house at Salisbury; a small hole being devised in the design of the Sherburn arms upon the marble shield over the gateway.  This was the only provision for air and light.