He gave the children leave to go anywhere and everywhere, but they must not, he said, run or jump, because the floors were not strong enough.

He led them from room to room, to the dancing-gallery in the roof.
There was a very old bagatelle-table in one room, all moth-eaten, and a few old pictures still on the walls--a knight and his lady with Elizabethan ruffs, and a portrait of a greyhound.

From a top window the farmer showed them Evesham's bell-tower.
But the most exciting moment was when each of them in turn was allowed to hide in the priest's hiding-hole.

This was a very ingenious cupboard behind a row of shelves intended to have books or china on them, which swung back when you loosened a catch.

Hester crouched here and shut her eyes, and firmly believed that the Protestants were after her.
In her next letter she implored her mother to take the Hall, and live there in the summer.