We used to live in one wing of a much altered Elizabethan mansion and at some point the top floor of our bit had been completely pannelled in a very grand style, quite lovely.
Downside was being an old building many other species had gained access and every now and then a starling used to fall down from the attic into the gap between the pannelling and the threefoot thick brick wall.
A day or two of scrabbling, a few days of nothing, then a foul all-pervasive smell.
First time I remember this I must have been about five or so and I wos very very scared by the monster in the wall and strangely reassured by the smell as it told me Dad had explained it correctly.
