 In 1909 he visited Venice with his friend James Cockerton, meeting the writer Frederick Rolfe and becoming the reluctant recipient of Rolfe's famous "Venice Letters", in which the gay subculture of Venice is vividly described.In 1912–13 Fox was blackmailed by a woman who accused him of seducing her 16-year-old son.Eventually Fox reported the matter to the police and the woman was sent to prison for five years and her son for one year, with hard labour.