Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/192

 bussy transplanting colleflow^r and cabage plants;" whilst at other times we find him in communication with various tenants relative to some portion or other of the Myerscough property. Unless confined to bed by gout or rheumatism, and the self-imposed, but fearful, "Phissickings" he underwent, swallowing doses whose magnitude alone would appal most men of modern days, he was ever actively engaged in either business or pleasure. Every item of disbursement and every circumstance that occurred, even to the most trivial, has found a place in his diary, and from it we learn that while evidently anxious to avoid unnecessary expenditure, he was neither parsimonious nor illiberal, always recompensing those who had been put to any trouble on his account, and paying his share of each friendly gathering with a scrupulous exactness. There is, however, a satisfaction expressed in the words, "but spent noe thing," after the brief notice of the horse-race he had attended on the Hawes, which, when we call to mind his natural generosity, showed that his income required care in its expenditure, and was barely sufficient to support the position he held by birth. Many other entries in his diary prove that he was frequently short of money, and as his mode of living appears to have been far from extravagant, it seems difficult at first sight to account for the circumstance. But when we discover that he had for years been connected, as one of the leading members and promoters, with a Catholic and Jacobite Society at Walton-le-dale, having for its object the restoration of the Stuarts, then in exile, and remember that a scheme of such magnitude and importance could not possibly be matured or kept in activity without the purses of its more earnest supporters suffering to a great extent, we obtain in some measure an explanation of the matter.

The character of Thomas Tyldesley, as gleaned from his diary, may be summarised as follows:—He was in every sense a country gentleman, fond of field sports, happy on his farm, thoughtful of the condition and comfort of his cattle, although sometimes given to hard, or at least far, riding; for the rest, he was active and intelligent, liberal to his dependants, careful in his household, and strictly honourable in all his dealings, but above all he had an earnest and deep reverence for his creed and principles that spared no sacrifice.