The secret chamber is unrivalled even by the haunted house for the mystery and romance surrounding it. Volumes have been written about the haunted house, while the secret chamber has found but few exponents. The ancestral ghost has had his day, and to all intents and purposes is dead, notwithstanding the existence of the Psychical Society and the investigations of Mr. Stead and the late Lord Bute. "Alas poor ghost " he is treated with scorn and derision by the multitude in these advanced days of modern enlightenment. The search-light of science has penetrated even into his sacred haunts,...

Allan Fea (1860-1956) went to Grove Hall School, Highgate, became a researcher in the India Office Library and then Private Secretary to Field Marshal Lord Strathnairn before a career in the Bank of England, 1880-1900. His history of hiding places features many illustrations. The work focuses on English history and bolt holes of Catholic priests during the mid to late 1500s, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Her priority as ruler was establishing England as a Protestant country, which sent many Catholic clergy into hiding. Fea's work discusses long and short term hiding places, tunnels...