[15] Miss Jackson’s “Shropshire Folklore,” 101.

[16] Family Romance, 1853, pp. 1-8.

[17] Harland’s “Lancashire Legends,” 271-2.

[18] Sir Bernard Burke, “Family Romance,” 1853, I., 307-12.

CHAPTER V.

Mysterious rooms.

    A jolly place, said he, in days of old;
    But something ails it now—­the spot is curst. 
               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 from 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 corps de garde.”  And speaking of Edward’s imprisonment here, may be mentioned the pathetic story 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; whereat the miserable king, looking sternly upon him, said that whether they would or no he would have warm water to wash him, and therewithal, 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 Lovel, one informs us[19] how, on the demolition of a very old house—­formerly the patrimony of the Lovel’s—­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 barrels and