Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/325

 and by an easy and simple process of change became altered to Fox, the reader must decide for himself; but after he has perused the following extract from the Tyldesley Diary, in which the priest already mentioned is alluded to as "W : W., he will, we venture to think, have little difficulty in concluding that the cognomen Vaux is merely a modern adaptation when applied to this Hall:—

"May 14, 1712.—Left Lan^r about ffive; p^d 3d. ffor a shooe at Thurnham Cocking, having lost one. Thence to Great Singleton to prayers, and ffrom thence to Litham to din^r, ffound Mr. Blackborne, of Orford; stayed there 11 at night. Soe to ffox hall. Gave W : W: 1s."

Edward Tyldesley surrounded the Hall with a high and massive wall of cobble stones, strongly cemented together, as a protection very needful in those times of turmoil and persecution. A large portion of the wall still exists in an almost perfect state of preservation, notwithstanding the fierce gales and boisterous tides that have, at intervals, battered against it for more than two centuries. This, with the additional safeguards that nature had provided by means of the broad sea to the front, a small stream running over swampy, almost impassable, ground to the south, and a pool under its east side, rendered the house a secure asylum for those who were constrained to practise

"The better part of valour,"

and remove themselves for a season from the eyes of the world and their enemies. Over the high gateway at the south end of the enclosure he placed a stone carved with the crest of the Tyldesley family—a pelican feeding its young—encircled by the loyal and patriotic motto—"Tantum valet amor regis et patriæ": for long the roughly finished piece of carving was visible in the wall of an outbuilding, from which, however, it has recently been removed. Fox Hall was not without its plot of garden ground, a considerable space, being devoted to the useful products, was known as the kitchen garden, whilst another space was devoted to an apiary, and flowers must be supposed to have been an accompanyment of bees. It also boasted a bowling green and an ancient fig tree.

Thomas, the son of Edward Tyldesley, born in 1657, succeeded to the family estates on the death of his father, and later married, as his second wife, Mary, sister and co-heiress, with Elizabeth