experiencing various fortunes, had fallen into decay, converted into a cottage. Over the chief entrance Edward had inscribed the words—“Seris factura Nepotibus,” the motto of an order of Knighthood, called the Royal Oak, which Charles II. contemplated establishing when first he regained his throne, but afterwards for certain reasons[130] altered his mind, as he also appears to have done in regard to the Hawes property, for it never passed into the possession of the Tyldesleys by royal favour, or in any other way. A fox secured by a chain was allowed to ramble for a short distance in front of the doorway, and whether the presence of that animal, together with the use of the Hall as a hunting seat, as well as a summer retreat, originated its name, or its first title was Vaux, 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 Lanʳ about ffive; pᵈ 3d. ffor a shooe at Thurnham Cocking, having lost one. Thence to Great Singleton to prayers, and ffrom thence to Litham to dinʳ, 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[131] 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.