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.

The dress of the priests previous to the Protestant Reformation is thus described by Harrison :-" They went either in divers colours like plaiers, or in garments of light hew, as yellow, red, greene, etc., with their shoes piked, their haire crisped, and their girdles armed with silver; their shoes, spurs, bridles, etc., buckled with like mettall; their apparell chiefly of silke, and richlie furred, their cappes laced and buttoned with gold; so that to meet a priest in those days, was to beholde a peacocke that spreadeth his taile when he danseth before the henne." "The manners and customs of the inhabitants of Lancashire," writes John de Brentford, "are similar to those of the neighbouring counties except that the people eat with two pronged forks1; the men are masculine, and in general well made, they ride and hunt the same as in the most southern parts, but not with that grace, owing to the whip being carried in the left hand; the women are most handsome, their eyes brown, black, hazel, blue, or grey; their noses, if not inclined to the aquiline, are mostly of the Grecian form, which gives a most beautiful archness to the countenance, such indeed as is not easy to be described, their fascinating manners have long procured them the name of Lancashire witches." Leyland in his "Itinerary" says :-"The dress of the men chiefly consists of woollen garments, while the women wear those of silk, linen, or stuff. Their usual colours are those of

1. Table forks were introduced into England from Italy at the close of the Tudor dynasty; previously the people of all ranks used their fingers for the purposes to which we now apply a fork. A kind of fork was used as far back as the Anglo-Saxon times, but only to serve articles from the dish.

green, blue, black, and sometimes brown. The military are dressed in red, which is vulgarly called scarlet." In the time of Henry VIII. the custom of placing chimneys on the tops of the houses was first introduced amongst the English; before that period the smoke usually found its way through an opening in the roof or out of the doorway. The houses of the middle classes were for the most part formed of wood, whilst those of the peasantry were built of wattles plastered over with a thick coating of clay. The few stone mansions existing in Lancashire were the residences of the nobility or of the most opulent gentry. Harrison, referring to the improvements in accommodation gradually gaining ground, remarks:-"There was was a great, although not general, amendment of lodging; for our fathers, yea, and we ourselves also, have lien full oft upon straw pallets, on rough mats, onelie covered with a sheet under coverlets made of dagswam or hopparlots, and a good round log under the head instead of a bolster or pillow, which was thought meet onelie for women in childbed; as for servants, if they had anie sheets above them, it was well, for seldome had they anie under their bodies to keep them from the prickly straws that ran oft through the canvas of the pallet, and raised their hardened hides." Holinshed, also, notices the better style of entertainment at the inns of Lancaster, Preston, etc.; at which he tells us the guests were well provided with "napierie, bedding, and tapisserie," and each was sure of resting "in cleane sheets wherein no man had been lodged since they came from the laundress." Camden, writing of our more immediate neighbourhood a little later than the period we are now discussing, says :-" The goodly and fresh complexion of the natives does sufficiently evince the goodness of the county; nay and the cattle too, if you will; for in the oxen, which have huge horns and proportionate bodies, you will find nothing of that perfection wanting that Mago, the Carthagenian, in Columella required. This soil (Amounderness) bears oats pretty well, but is not so good for barley; it makes excellent pasture especially towards the sea, where it is partly Champain; whence a great part of it is called the File, probably for the Field. But being in other places Fenny 'tis reckoned less wholesome. In many places along the coast there are heaps of sand, upon which the natives now and then pour water, till it grows saltish, and then with turf

boyl it into white salt." Several of these salt manufacturies were located near Lytham, and it is very likely that the two brass pans and an ancient measure, discovered about forty years since deeply imbedded in the peat not far from Fox Hall, were used in the production of salt somewhere in that vicinity.

S

CHAPTER III.

JAMES THE FIRST TO QUEEN VICTORIA.

N the accession of James I., in 1603, the crowns of England and Scotland became legally united, although it was not until a considerable time afterwards that they could be regarded as practically so. This monarch was the first to assume the title of King of Great Britain. A custom prevailed in former days of relieving the secular portion of the community by imposing exclusive taxes on the clergy, and hence it is seen, that in 1608 a rate was levied upon the latter by the Right Reverend George Lloyd, D.D., the eighth bishop of Chester. The following is a copy of the impost so far as the Hundred of Amounderness was concerned :

"Archid. Decanatus

A Rayte imposed by me George Bushoppe of upon the Clergie within the Countye

Cestrie in Com. Lancastrie Chestr of Chesshyre and Lancashyre within the Dyoces of Chest," By vertue of Ires from the lordes grace of Yorke grounded upon from the lordes and others of his mates most honorable privye counsell for the fyndinge of horses, armes, and other furniture, the XXVIIIth of October 1608.

Amounderness Decanatus Archid. Richm.

Here it may be mentioned that, although about 636, Honorus, archbishop of Canterbury, attempted to divide the kingdom into parishes, it was not until many years later, in the reign of Henry

1. Harl, MSS.