GEORGE LANE FOX. 



That a Fox should hunt a fox seems something of an 

 anomaly, but whether the ancient family of Fox derived 

 their name originally from any supposed affinity with 

 the crafty animal which so many of them have gained 

 renown from hunting, is a question I am not prepared 

 to answer. Possibly the surname Fox in this case is a 

 corruption of some other name, and had originally no 

 connection whatever with Reynard. The earliest mention 

 of the house, which has since become so well-known in 

 Yorkshire, occurs, I believe, in the records of the reign 

 of Edward IV, when a certain William Fox, by marriage 

 with the daughter of John de Grete, became possessed of 

 the lands of Grete in Worcestershire. From that time 

 Foxes crop up from time to time as squires, parsons, 

 barristers and soldiers — a race of gentry they were, who 

 scorned to soil their hands with trade, a fact of which, 

 as will appear subsequently, they were immensely proud. 

 In the year 1691 Henry Fox married, as his second 

 wife, the Hon. Frances Lane, daughter of Sir George 

 Lane of Tulske in the county Roscommon, who, for his 

 services as Principal Secretary of State in Ireland, was 

 created' Viscount Lanesborough. The Hon. Frances 

 was co-heir with her brother James of the Lanes- 



2 B 



