Stonyhurst College, of the escape of Father
Richard Blount, Vice-Prefect, and afterwards First Provincial of
the Jesuits in England, from. Scotney Castle, where for eight
years he secretly resided, and perhaps a summary of these
documents, which throw some light on the state of the castle in
those days, may be worth recording. It appears by these extracts
that there were then many buildings of which no traces now remain,
and there is indeed a vague tradition that the father or
grandfather of a very old tenant on the estate, who died several
years ago, remembered the time when the men-servants slept in a
chamber over the gateway, and that the drawbridge was raised every
night. The late house is said, but we know not on what authority,
to have been built from a design by Inigo Jones. The plan was that
of a large mansion, extending from the south to the north bank of
the moat, but only the centre and one wing were erected; and it is
said that the stones "of those parts of the old castle which
were taken down were employed in building the Court Lodge at
Lamberhurst, now the property of Mr Morland. The only parts of the
old castle left were one machicolated tower, the doorway of
another, the lower part of the entrance gateway, and some
fragments of the old walls. These extracts also bear remarkable
testimony to the state of the roads in this district, an evil
which, from the difficulty of procuring hard material to mend them
with, still existed in some places in the memory of old men yet
living. Mr. Collins of Lamberhurst, mentioned in Mr. Darell's
paper, may perhaps have been ancestor of Samuel Collins, a Roman
Catholic stone-mason, who died there in 1830, aged 78, and was
reputed to have been the last person baptised in the private
chapel of Scotney Castle.
This property remained for many years in the
possession of the Darells; but it appears that this branch of the
family, like many others, fell somewhat into decadence. A rather
singular story is related respecting the funeral: of one of its
members, possibly that of Arthur, last* son of William and
Elizabeth Darell, whose burial is recorded on December 12, 1720.
It is said that when the mourners were assembled around the grave,
a tall figure, muffled in a black cloak, whom no one recognised,
was observed among them; and as the coffin was .being lowered into
the grave, he tapped his neighbour on the shoulder, and said,
"That is me they think they are burying." He soon
afterwards disappeared,
* The word "last" is
evidently an addition to the original entry of burial.
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