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Clandestine closets and hidden passageways are the stuff of legend in English castles and country homes. But the two "priest holes" at Ingatestone Hall, the Petre family's 470-year-old manor house outside London, are special. They vividly recall the days when Roman Catholics were forced undercover during the English Reformation. One hideout, just 25 inches wide and built into a stairway, was big enough to conceal a priest. The other, much smaller and built into a bookcase, was probably a surreptitious tabernacle in which miniaturized chalices and other priestly instruments could be hidden. On Sundays and feast days, scores of Recusant (meaning hidden) Catholics would ...