difficult to conjecture upon what occasions his Excellency
found it convenient to secrete himself, unless it was in his
later days, when he went about in fear of assassination.

Hale House, Islington, pulled down in 1853, had a concealed recess
behind the wainscot over the mantel-piece, formed by the curve
of the chimney. In this, tradition says, the Lord Protector was
hidden. Nor is this the solitary instance, for a dark hole in
one of the gable ends of Cromwell House, Mortlake (taken down in
1860), locally known as "Old Noll's Hole," is said to have afforded
him temporary accommodation when his was life in danger.[1] The
residence of his son-in-law Ireton (Cromwell House) at Highgate
contained a large secret chamber at the back of a cupboard in
one of the upper rooms, and extended back twelve or fourteen
feet, but the cupboard has now been removed and the space at the
back converted into a passage.

[Footnote 1: See Faulkner's _History of Islington_.]

The ancient manor house of Armscot, in an old-world corner of
Worcestershire, contains in one of its gables a hiding-place
entered through a narrow opening in the plaster wall, not unlike
that at Ufton Court, and capable of holding many people. From the
fact that George Fox was arrested in this house on October 17th,
1673, when he was being persecuted by the county magistrates, the
story has come down to the yokels of the neighbourhood that "old
Guy Fawkes, the first Quaker," was hidden here! In his journal Fox
mentions his arrest at Armscot after a "very large and precious
meeting" in the barn close by; but we have no allusion to the
hiding-place, for he appears to have been sitting in the parlour
when Henry Parker, the Justice, arrived--indeed, George Fox was
not the sort of man to have recourse to concealments, and owe
his escape to a "priest's hole."

The suggestion of a sudden reverse in religious persecution driving
a Quaker to such an extremity calls to mind an old farmstead
where a political change from monarchy to commonwealth forced
Puritan and cavalier consecutively to seek refuge in the secret
chamber. This narrow hiding-place, beside the spacious fire-place,
is pointed out in an ancient house in the parish of Hinchford,
in Eastern Essex.

Even the notorious Judge Jeffreys had in his house facilities
for concealment and escape. His old residence in Delahay Street,
Westminster, demolished a few years ago, had its secret panel
in the wainscoting, but