The subjoined table contains the names of some of the crustaceous animals and molluscs commonly met with in the neighbourhood:—
| Arctopsis tetraodon | Four-horned Spider-crab |
| Hyas araneus | Great Spider-crab, or Sea-toad |
| Portunus puber | Velvet Fiddler-crab |
| Corystes dentata | Toothed Crab |
| Gonoplax angulata | Angular Crab |
| Pinnotheres pisum | Pea-crab |
| Porcellana platycheles | Broad-claw porcelain Crab |
| Cancer pagurus | Edible crab |
| Cancer mænas | Common Crab |
| Pagurus Bernhardus | Hermit-crab |
| Pilumnus hirtellus | Hairy-crab |
| Palæmon serratus | Common Prawn |
| Crangon vulgaris | Common Shrimp |
| Corophium longicorne | Long-horned Corophium |
| Orchestia littorea | Shore-hopper |
| Talitrus saltator | Sand-hopper |
| Sulcator arenarius | Sand-screw |
| Mytilus edulis | Edible Mussel |
| Cardium edule | Cockle |
| Buccinum undatum | Whelk |
| Litorina litorea | Periwinkle |
| Calyptra vulgaris | Common Limpet |
CHAPTER VI.
THE PEDIGREES OF ANCIENT FAMILIES.
ALLEN OF ROSSALL HALL.
The Allens who resided at Rossall Hall for a period of more than half a century, and by intermarriage became connected with the Westbys of Mowbreck, the Heskeths of Mains, and the Gillows of Bryning, sprang from the county of Stafford. At the time of the Protestant Reformation, George Allen, of Brookhouse, in the division just mentioned, held a long lease of the Grange and Hall of Rossall from a kinsman of his family, one of the abbots of Deulacres, a Staffordshire monastery, to which the estate had been granted by King John. George Allen at his death left one son, John, who resided at the Hall, and subsequently married Jane, the sister of Thomas Lister, of Arnold Biggin, in Yorkshire. The offspring of this marriage were Richard, William, Gabriel, George, who espoused Elizabeth, the daughter of William Westby, of Mowbreck; Mary, afterwards the wife of Thomas Worthington, of Blainscow; Elizabeth, subsequently the wife of William Hesketh, of Mains Hall; and Anne, who married George Gillow, of Bryning. Richard Allen, of Rossall Hall, the eldest son, left at his demise a widow with three daughters, named respectively, Helen, Catherine, and Mary, who were deprived of their possessions and rights in the Grange in the year 1583 by Edmund Fleetwood, whose father had purchased the reversion of the lease from Henry VIII., at the time when the larger monastic institutions were dissolved in England. The widow and her daughters fled to Rheims to escape further persecution, where they were hospitably received by their near relative, Cardinal William Allen, who interested the princely family of Guise in their behalf and so obtained for them the means of subsistence.
William Allen, the second son of John Allen, of Rossall Hall, was born in 1532, and at the early age of fifteen entered Oriel College, Oxford, under the tutorship of Morgan Philips, perhaps the most eminent logician of his day. Three years later he was elected to a fellowship. Upon the accession of Mary he entered the church, and in 1556 was made principal of St. Mary’s Hall, acting as Proctor for the two succeeding years. In 1558 he was created canon of York, but on the accession of Elizabeth, he refused the Protestant oaths, was deprived of his fellowship, and, in 1560, retired to Louvaine, where he wrote his first work, entitled “A Defence of the Doctrine of Catholics, concerning Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead,” in answer to an attack on those dogmas by Bishop Jewell. In 1565, the year in which this publication appeared and fermented great excitement both here and abroad, William Allen determined, in spite of the extreme dangers of such an act, to visit his native country, more especially the home of his fathers at Rossall. Religious zeal prevented his active spirit from being long at rest; after residing in England about three years and visiting different parts of Lancashire, seeking converts to his creed, he was obliged to secrete himself from the eye of the law amongst his friends, Layton Hall and Mains Hall being two of his hiding places, until a suitable opportunity occurred for escaping over to the continent. Flanders was his destination, and from there he went to Mechlin, afterwards taking up his abode at Douai, where he obtained a doctor’s degree, and established an English seminary. This college, we learn from the “Mem: Miss: Priests: Ed. 1741,” was founded in 1568 “to train up English scholars in virtue and learning, and to qualify them to labour in the vineyard of the Lord, on their return to their native country; it was the first college in the Christian world, instituted according to the model given by the council of Trent.”
Whilst engaged at the above scholastic institution, William Allen was appointed canon of Cambray; subsequently when the English council applied to the ruling powers of the Spanish Netherlands to suppress the college of Douai, the Doctor and his assistants were received under the protection of the house of Guise. Afterwards Doctor Allen, on being appointed canon of Rheims, established another seminary in that city. At that time perhaps no one was more admired and revered by the Catholic party abroad, and detested by the Protestant subjects of England, than William Allen. He was even accused by his countrymen at home of having traitorously instigated Philip II. of Spain, to attempt the invasion and conquest of England, and although he strenuously denied any agency in that matter, it is certain that after the defeat of the Armada, he wrote a defence of Sir William Stanley and Sir Rowland York, who had assisted the enemy. In 1587, he was made cardinal of St. Martin in Montibus by Pope Sectus V., and a little later was presented by the king of Spain to a rich abbey in Naples with promises of still higher preferment. In 1588 he published the “Declaration of the Sentence of Sixtus the Fifth,” which was directed against the government of the British queen, whom he declared an usurper, obstinate and impenitent, and for these reasons to be deprived. As an appendix to the work he issued shortly afterwards an “Admonition to the Nobility and People of England and Ireland,” in which he pronounced the queen an illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII. Although the effect of these publications on the English nation was not, as he hoped, to arouse the people to open rebellion, or in any way to advance the Catholic cause, the efforts of the cardinal were so far appreciated by the king of Spain that he promoted him to the archbishopric of Mechlin. He lived at Rome during the remainder of his life in great luxury and magnificence. On October 6th, 1594, this remarkable man expired at his palace, in the 63rd year of his age, and was buried with great pomp at the English church of the Holy Trinity in the ancient imperial city.