Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/63

 the pyle," (Rossall Hall was the birth-place of Allen,) "and the inhabytentes ther aboutes all ynfected with the Romish poyson, it is not unlike that his directione will be used for some landinge there. * * * One Thomas Prestone (a papyshe atheiste) is deputye steward, and commandes the menrede, and lands ther, wch were sometyme appertayning to the Abbeye of Fornes."

Whilst preparations for resisting the Spaniards were being pushed forward with as much expedition as possible, the "Invincibles" appeared in the English Channel, and arranged themselves for battle in the form of a crescent. The British fleet, numbering only thirty-four ships of war, and sundry private vessels equipped for the occasion, under the command of Lord Howard, sailed out to engage them. A series of actions took place, and although nothing decisive had been effected, the advantage seemed to be leaning towards the English fleet, when eight fire-ships drifted in amongst the Armada and threw them into utter confusion. This coup de maître took place on the 29th of July, 1588. The panic-stricken Spaniards, fearing that the whole of their ships would be destroyed in a general conflagration, severed their cables, and fled. A westerly gale, however, sprang up, and wrecked many of the vessels on the coast between Ostend and Calais; the shores of Scotland and Ireland were also covered with fragments of their ships and bodies of their mariners, while tradition asserts that one of the galleons was stranded on the Point of Rossall, where it was attacked by the country people, either for the sake of pillage or in the hope of capturing it. Whether one or both of these desires actuated the rustics they were doomed to disappointment, for the Spaniards successfully resisted their first attempt, and escaped on the returning tide, before further efforts could be made by the little band on shore. Two cannon balls were formerly to be seen at Rossall Hall, and it was stated that they were the identical ones fired by this vessel, as a parting salute, when she sailed away. They were found on removing some of the walls belonging to the old mansion.

The annexed is a list of free-tenants residing in the Fylde district about the year 1585, the 27th of the reign of Queen Elizabeth:—

Molyneux, Sir Richard, of Larbrick, knight. Clifton, Thomas, of Westby, esq.