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.