SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGES.

ASTRIKING instance of the formation of a temporary subterranean passage has recently occurred in con- nexion with the escape of two German officers from Donington Ball. With the aid of a broken trowel, a poker, and an old bath, the prisoners were able secretly to construct a tunnel some fifty yards in length, to shore it up where necessary with pieces of wood, to hide the excavated earth and clay in a cellar near that in which they were working, and eventually to carry the tunnel well outside the barbed-wire enclosure. That such a difficult task could have been accomplished in the circumstances, and with the means at band, inclines one to consider the probability--so often disputed—of the existence of permanent subterranean passages, of which one hears so often in connexion with many old buildings.

A previous article dealing with this subject. appeared in the Spectator of October 2Dth, 1910, and was intended, apparently, to modify the general conception of these passages, especially regarding those purely mythical tunnels, which are said to extend for miles, to pass under rivers or, as in some cases.even under the sea. In the opinion of the present writer, how- ever, this article went a little too far, as it discredited the present or previous existence of subterranean passages or out. lets in connexion, with buildings—whether military, made- sia.stieal, or domestic—in mediaeval times, but at the same time admitted that " there can be no manner of doubt" that such passages were made at a later period—namely, intim sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, The principal reasons advanced against the probability that such passages, were made in the earlier period were the difficulties of construction, disposal of excavated material, and keeping the work secret.. Those, were certainly obstacles, but the mediaeval engineer' were

quite capable of dealing with them where the occasion to do so arose. They constructed large and extensive drains and watercourses, often six feet or more in height, the formation of which would correspond with an ordinary passage for communi- cation, and which were, in fact, veritable passages, inasmuch as they were evidently intended to be traversed in order to examine or clear them out occasionally. At Eltham Palace, Kent, one of these drain-passages even passes under the moat, and has a flight of stairs in part of its length. It is evident, there- fore, that, as far as actual construction was coneerned, the mediaeval builders would have experienced no more difficulty in constructing a genuine passage for communication than in the making of one of these drains.

The disposal of the excavated material, and the necessity of keeping the work secret, were difficulties which could have been as easily overcome in the earlier period as in the later. Both these matters were dealt with by the men who burrowed the underground refuges in France, which in many cases con- sist of low, sinuous passages leading to storeaniambers and rooms out in the tufa or soft stone. These soaterraine were pro. vided with doors with rebates and bar-holes, and before the doors there were sometimes bottle-shaped trap-pits. Many examples of these subterranean retreats were probably the work of peasants, who during the English and other wars were harried almost as much by their own seigneurs as by the enemy. It follows, therefore, that if these peasants were able to dig out extensive subterranean hiding-places, keeping the work upon and the existence of them secret, it would have been comparatively easy for the owner of a castle or fortified house, with plenty of labour and power to enforce secrecy at his command, to construct a secret passage whenever neces- sary, especially in those districts where such a tunnel would merely have to be cut through soft stone without resorting to masonry in atone or brick.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however, the difficulties to be overcome in making a secret passage would have been increased. During the religious persecutions of both Mary and Elizabeth spies were numerous in many diistricira and even gained employment in the houses of suspected individuals. The populations of the rural districts had become larger, more emancipated and intelligent, yet during this time. Nicholas Owen, the servant of Father Garnet, the Jesuit (together with others before and after him), constructed secret hiding-places, and probably subterranean passages, in number■ of houses, of which several of the former have only been discovered quite recently.

Another point to be considered is that the traditions and legends of underground passages date back some considerable distance of time. An instance of this is the tradition of the secret tunnels connected with Fair Rosamond's Bower at Woodstock. In some chronicles, attributed to Abbot John Brompton, 14$6„ but which are probably the work of older writers, the tunnel leading to the Bower is spoken of as an actual fact. Drayton, also, writing in the reign of Elizabeth, mentions that the ruins of Rosamond's Labyrinth then remained, and consisted of " vaults arched and walled with stone and brick, almost inextricably wound within one another," and by which she could, "if need be, by secret issues take the air abroad, many furlongs about Woodstock in Oxfordshire." A survey, taken about 1660, also describes the ruins of the Bower as probably containing "secret places of recess, and avenues to hide or convey away such persons as were not willing to he found.' A somewhat similar legend, connected with a King's mistress and secret passages, obtains at Chinon. where, according to Al.. Totichard.Litfoese in hie iTide4 Is de la Loire, a subterranean passage connects the house of Agnais Sorel with the Tour d'Argenton.

It is quite possible that many legends of underground passages, especially those in connexion with monastic build- jags, gained currency at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries through the finding of numerous ancient monastic drains when the buildings were demolished. As mentioned before; these drains were often of large dimensions and extent, and if they led tower& and discharged into a river it would lend colour to the idea that they passed under the river itself.

It might be asked whether subterranean passages. were ever mentioned by the old chronicle:* and writers. it is certain that they were. One instance-al: hat of Brom pton.:abas al ready been quoted, which, as far as Rosamond is concerned, may os

may not be the repetition of a popular legend. Froissart, how- ever. gives fairly circumstantial details of the way in which the garrisons of several castles in the neighbourhood of Toulouse either escaped or were surprised by way of secret passages.

These passages were permanent means of communication, and not mining galleries, to which reference is also made in the Chronicles. The castle of Chantelle was ordered to be dis- mantled by Francis L; but one Nicolai has left a description of it, which, as regards the present subject, refers to a long subterranean vaulted place used for water storage, a well- cemented cistern for rain-water, besides "several other sub- terranean passages by which they [the garrison] could, when besieged, make a secret sortie." The distinction made between the souterrains for water supply and those used as secret passages may reasonably be considered as sufficient evidence of the existence of the latter. An old plan of Carcassonne, dated 1774, mentions in its text a large eubter- raneen passage discovered under the boulevard of the Barbican. This passage, according to M. Vielletele-Duc, was probably a secret communication between the town and the King's Mill on the banks of the Aude. It may also have been the secret passage referred to in Foxe's Book of Martyrs and by others, through which the garrison escaped when besieged by the Legate of Alexander III. There are, however, other subterranean passages at Carcassonne, one of which is still well preserved.

Every one who has visited Nottingham Castle will have either seen or heard of Mortimer's Hole. This is a large subterranean rock-hewn passage, which formerly led from the inner ward to the meadow level, and it was by means of this passage that Edward III. is said to have surprised and captured Roger Mortimer. To use the words of an old chronicler, Sir William Eland, the Constable of the Castle, says to Montacute :—

" Sir' woll ye understands that the states [gates] of the castell both lokon with lokys, and Queen Isabell sent hidder by night for the kayos thereof, and they be layde under the chemeell of her beddis-hede unto the morrow, but yet I know another weye by an ahoy that stretchith out of the ward under the earths into the castell, which May Queen Isabell no none of her meayne, no the Mortimer, ne none of his companye knoweth it not, and I shall lode you through the slay, and so ye shall come into the castell without spyee of any man that bith your enemies."

The large rock-hewn gallery called Mortimer's Hole could hardly at any time have been a secret passage ; but many years ago a Mr. Stratton, the then architect to the castle, acting on certain information, discovered a smaller passage, which led from the main gallery, and ascended to a spot which was proved by some old plans to have been the site of the old keep. There are also traces of other passages at the castle.

That genuine subterranean passages—secret or otherwise— were constructed from very early times, up to probably the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is beyond dispute. Eerodotue deshibtie the subterranean passage under the Euphrates, built by Semiramis at Babylon, which connected the old palace with the new palace. There is the secret passage between the summit of Ophol and the Virgin's Well at Jerusalem. Roman buildings also sometimes had passages of

this kind. During the Middle Ages many of the castles in this country and on the Continent were provided with under- ground galleries. These were generally of moderate extent, although those spoken of by Froissart, to which reference has been made, must have been fairly long. Such galleries were used as sally-ports and secret posterns, but, as far as the i resent writer's knowledge goes, they rarely extended beyond the outer defences of the castles in which they occur. They run from an inner ward to an outer ward; from an inner or outer ward to the outer ditch, and sometimes, as at Dover, pass through the counterscarp and glaeis of this ditch ; others, also, run behind the scarp of the ditch, and connect different towers. At Ashby-de-la-Zouch, a subterranean brick-built passage connects the Kitchen Tower with the Great Tower of the castle. At Arques, Normandy, the galleries formed in the scarp, or inner bank, of the ditch were not, apparently, simply permanent countermines, as is stated in Clark's Mediaeval Military Architecture, but, according to Viollet-le-Duo, could also be used for sorties into the ditch. Independently of these countermine galleries at A rques, there is another subterranean way, which leads from what was formerly a building near the keep to the bottom of the ditch.

The above examples are only instances of many. Besides

those already mentioned, traces of subterranean galleries--• soine well preserved—exist both in this country and on the Continent. The following is a list of a few places at which they occur in England, France, and Germany : Dover, Windsor, Old Sarum, Winchester, and Lincoln Castles, in England; Chitteau do Boulogne-sur-Mer. Château de la Ferte en Bray, Château des Rohl de Majorque at Perpignan, Chateau de Mentmuran, Château de Loches, Chateau de la Roche Guyon, and Château Gaillard, in France; and from the Baths/as to the Imperial Palace, Nuremberg, in Germany. Many instances in Spain and Italy could also be quoted, of which the long subterranean stairway to the river from the Casa Del Rey Moro, at Ronda, and the underground galleries at the Castle of Sant Elmo, at Naples, are fair examples.

A very detailed description of the subterranean postern passages at Windsor occurs in Sir W. H. St. John Hope's great work on the castle, from which it is seen that these passages required repairing from time to time and were

referred to in the account rolls of Henry III. as " bovoe" or e bowels?, One last instance may be mentioned, as it is rather significant. In one of the Patent Rolls of Edward II. per. mission was given to the Carmelite Friars at Oxford to construct a subterranean passage between two of their buildings. This was probably no precedent, and may be taken as evidence that such passages did sometimes occur in connexion with even ecclesiastical buildings.

Regarding those passages connected with purely domestic buildings, the writer knows of several authentic examples, but as the houses in which they occur are occupied he is unable at present to state their whereabouts.

In conclusion, it may be said that underground passages, are more likely to be found in the districts where the geological formation consists of soft stone or chalk, through which a tunnel could be easily cut, than in places when such a gallery would have to be excavated in the earth and con- structed with brick or masonry. In all cases, however, stories of underground passages—like those of ghosts—should be received with the greatest suspicion, as in the majority of alleged examples the passages are either non-existent or tune out to be merely drains or sewers,