Being, in those days, a quadrangular house,[222] it could easily be defended in case of need. It is impossible that Sir Everard can have given Lady Digby the real reason for which he proposed to remove her there: the secret which he was keeping from her can scarcely have failed to cause some restraint between them, and it would be but natural that she should feel considerable uneasiness. Why, she would ask herself, should her husband, who had hitherto shared everything with her, now have something in hand which he was evidently concealing? [222] Gorton's Topography, Vol. i. p. 518. The house at present belongs to Sir N. W. Throckmorton, Bart. Another inmate at Gothurst was in a state of great anxiety, namely Father Garnet. The exertions to which his lay companion, "Little John," was put, at his host's request, to increase the secret passages and make a hidden room, may have aroused his suspicions still further; but, after all, Gothurst would be no more ramified with such places of concealment than certain other houses; for instance, at Hendlip Hall, about four miles from Worcester, a house to which Father Garnet was to go within two months, to spend several weeks, a house, moreover, of much the same date as Gothurst, there was[223] "scarcely an apartment that" had "not secret ways of going in or going out"; some had "back stair cases concealed in the walls; others" "places of retreat in their chimneys; some" "trap-doors, and all" presented "a picture of gloom, insecurity, and suspicion." And well might the inmates of a Catholic family live in "gloom, insecurity, and suspicion," in those days of pursuivants, fines, hangings, and quarterings. [223] _Beauties of England_, Vol. xv., Part I., p. 184. Jardine, p. 182. Nash, in his _Worcestershire_, quotes from Ashmole MSS., Vol. 804, fol. 93, the following:--"Eleven secret corners and conveyances were found in the said house, all of them having books, massing stuff, and popish trumpery in them, only two excepted." Father Gerard, who was a frequent visitor at Gothurst, observed with surprise that Sir Everard had a far larger number of horses than he had been accustomed to keep;[224] but, when it occurred to him that this might be because he was, for some reason or other, better off than before, he found that, on the contrary, he had been selling his farm-stock, and even some land, which puzzled him much, particularly in so prudent and careful a man, and the more so since he was aware that Sir Everard was going to pay the fine required of recusants by the statute, and was therefore in no danger of having his stock taken from him compulsorily. [224] _Life of Father J. Gerard_, p. ccxxxvi.