poses; filling it with a variety of hiding-places, so ingeniously managed as to require more than common sagacity and perseverance to discover them. Into two of these inscrutable recesses four of the

powder-plot conspirators, after the failure of the plot, were thrust by pairs; Owen and Chambers into one, and Garnett and Hill into another: and so well were they concealed, that no less than eight days and nights were consumed in searching for them before they were taken. The following co temporary account will give you a compleat idea of the curious plan on which the house was constructed, or rather altered, by Thomas Abingdon, and now exhibits:

"Sir Henrie Bromlie, on Monday January 20th last, by break of day, did engirt and round be"set the house of Mayster Thomas Abbingdon, "at Hendlip, near Worcester. Mr. Abbingdon 66 not being then at home, but ridden abroad about some occasions best known to himself, the house being goodlie and of great receipt, it required "the more diligent labour and pains in the search

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ing. It appeared there was no want, and Mr. Abbingdon coming home that night, the com"mission and proclamation being shewn to him, " he denied any such men to be in his house; and "voluntarily to die at his own gate, if any such

were to be found in his house, or in that shire; "but this liberal, or rather rash, speech, could "not cause the search so slightly to be given over, "the cause enforced more respect than that or "words of any such like nature; and proceeding "on according to the trust reposed in him, in the gallery over the gate there were found two cunદુઃ ning and very artificial conveyances in the main "brick wall, so ingeniously framed and with such "art as it cost much labour ere they could be "found. Three other secret places, contrived by 66 no less skill and industry, were found in and "about the chimnies, in one whereof two of the "traitors were close concealed. These chimney • conveyances being so strangely formed, having "the entrances into them so curiously covered over "with brick, mortared and made fast to planks of "wood, and coloured black like the other parts "of the chimney, that very diligent inquisition "might well have passed by without throwing "the least suspicion on such unsuspicious places. "And whereas divers funnels are usually made to "chimnies according as they are combined toge"ther, and serve for necessary use in several rooms, so here were some that exceeded common expectation, seemingly outwardly fit for carrying forth smoke; but being further examined

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"and seen into, their service was to no such pur

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pose, but only to lend air and light downward "into the concealments, where such as were in"closed in them at any time should be hidden. "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, which appeared to have been "found on former searches, and therefore had "now the less credit given to them. But Mayster "Abbingdon would take no knowledge of any of "these places, nor that the books or massing stuff 66 were any of his, until at length the deeds of his "lands were found in one of them, whose cus66 tody doubtless he would not commit to any દ place of neglect, or where he should have no 66 intelligence of them, whereto he could then de"vise no sufficient excuse. Three days had been "fully spent, and no man found there all this while; "but upon the fourth day in the morning, from "behind the wainscoat in the galleries, came forth "two men of their own voluntary accord, as be

ing no longer able there to conceal themselves, "for they confessed, that they had but one apple "between them, which was all the sustenance they "had received during the time they were thus "hidden. One of them was named Owen, who

"afterwards murdered himself in the Tower, and "the other Chambers; but they would take no "other knowledge of any other men's being in the ❝ house. On the eighth day the before-men"tioned place in the chimney was found; forth "of this secret and most cunning conveyance came "Henry Garnet, the Jesuit, sought for, and an"other with him named Hall; marmalade and "other sweetmeats were found there lying by "them, but their better maintenance had been by "a quill or reed through a little hole in a chimney “that backed another chimney into a gentlewo"man's chamber; and by that passage, cawdle, "broths, and warm drinks had been conveyed in ❝ unto them.”

Of these conspirators, all except Garnett were executed in the country. He was superior of the order of Jesuits in England, and had been actively employed in forwarding the plot; administering the oath of secrecy, and encouraging the confederates, with holding out emancipation from purgatory and eternal felicity, as the rewards of their praiseworthy undertaking; an activity which he expiated on the gallows in London. In this singular mansion are the curious family portraits of

John Abingdon, cofferer to Queen Elizabeth, and builder of Hendlip-house.

Percy, one of the gunpowder-plot conspirators, a relation of the Abingdons'; and supposed by Guthrie, though without foundation, to have written the letter which occasioned the suspicions of James, and the discovery of the plot.

Thomas Abingdon, above spoken of, whom punishment rendered happy, by turning his attention from the distraction of politics to the tranquillity of literary pursuits.

Mary his wife, daughter of Lord Morley, and sister to Lord Monteagle; to whom she wrote the letter we have so often mentioned, which is now preserved in the Paper-office, Whitehall.

The dirty town of Droitwich would not have detained us a moment, had it not offered to our notice those natural curiosities, the salt springs or brine-pits, which have been known and made an article of manufacture for above one thousand

years last past. Till the year 1689, this process had been monopolized by a few grantees under the crown, who raised a large annual income from their pits in Upwich and Netherwich: but at that time a Mr. Steynor, a bold speculator, and deeply skilled in the law of property, determined to break through a system which had neither equity nor reason for its foundation, and sunk some pits upon his own ground. The Corpora