are secret panels, at one
time used for the secretion of sacred books or vessels, valuables
or compromising deeds, but pointed out to visitors as a kind of
buttery hatch through which Charles II. received his food. The
King by day, also according to local tradition, is said to have
kept up communication with his friends in the house by means
of a string suspended in the kitchen chimney. That apartment is
immediately beneath, and has a fireplace of huge dimensions.
An old Tudor doorway leading into this part of the house is said
to have been screened from observation by a load of hay.

Now for the hiding-place. Between this and "my Lady Wyndham's
chamber" (the aforesaid panelled room that was kept exclusively
for Charles's use) was a small ante-room, long since demolished,
its position being now occupied by a rudely constructed staircase,
from the landing of which the hiding-place is now entered. The
small secret apartment is approached through a triangular hole
in the wall, something after the fashion of that at Ufton Court;
but when one has squeezed through this aperture he will find
plenty of room to stretch his limbs. The hole, which was close
up against the rafters of the roof of the staircase landing,
when viewed from the inside of the apartment, is situated at the
base of a blocked-up stone Tudor doorway. Beneath the boards of
the floor--as at Boscobel and Moseley--is an inner hiding-place,
from which it was formerly possible to find an exit through the
brew-house chimney.

It was from Trent House that Charles visited the Dorsetshire
coast in the hopes of getting clear of England; but a complication
of misadventures induced him to hasten back with all speed to
the pretty little village of Trent, to seek once, more shelter
beneath the roof of the Royalist Colonel Wyndham.

To resume the King's account:--

"As soon as we came to Frank Windham's I sent away presently to
Colonel Robert Philips [Phelips], who lived then at Salisbury, to
see what he could do for the getting me a ship; which he undertook
very willingly, and had got one at Southampton, but by misfortune
she was amongst others prest to transport their soldiers to Jersey,
by which she failed us also.

"Upon this, I sent further into Sussex, where Robin Philips knew
one Colonel Gunter, to see whether he could hire a ship anywhere
upon that coast. And not thinking it convenient for me to stay
much longer at Frank Windham's (where I had been in all abo