Strange Pages from Family PapersThiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
History
Strange Pages from Family Papers
Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
Legends; Superstition
given:[20] "Lord Lovel is believed to have escaped from the field, and
to have lived for a while in concealment at Minster Lovel,
Oxfordshire, but at length to have been starved to death through the
neglect or treachery of an attendant."
At Broughton Castle there is a curiously designed room, which, at one
time or another, has attracted considerable attention. According to
Lord Nugent, in his "Memorials of Hampden," this room is "so
contrived, by being surrounded by thick stone walls, and casemated,
that no sound from within can be heard. The chamber appears to have
been built about the time of King John, and is reported, on very
doubtful grounds of tradition, to have been the room used for the
sittings of the Puritans." And, he adds: "It seems an odd fancy,
although a very prevailing one, to suppose that wise men, employed in
capital matters of state, must needs choose the most mysterious and
suspicious retirements for consultation, instead of the safer and less
remarkable expedient of a walk in the open fields." It was probably in
this room that the secret meetings of Hampden and his confederates
were held, which Anthony a Wood thus describes: "Several years before
the Civil War began, Lord Sage, being looked upon as the godfather of
that party, had meetings of them in his house at Broughton, where was
a room and passage thereunto, which his servants were prohibited to
come near. And when they were of a complete number, there would be a
great noise and talkings heard among them, to the admiration of those
that lived in the house, yet never could they discern their lord's
companions."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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