2 MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR 



and manuscripts. Alfred, the youngest of a trio 

 of exceptional ability, had afiinities with each. 

 He started his career as a banker, and became 

 subsequently a clergyman ; he possessed an 

 instinctive love of literature, especially of 

 clear, balanced, and euphonious prose-writing ; 

 and he gradually developed in his own work 

 a literary style which won him, to quote 

 the words of a critic of his first book, " a 

 place which was all his own in the great succes- 

 sion of writers who have made Nature their 

 theme." 



Alfred Rees received a sound education at a 

 good private school at Pembroke Dock ; but his 

 interest as a boy lay mainly in natural history. 

 He " would come home, hauling out of his 

 pockets snakes and toads and all kinds of living 

 things — ^to his mother's great horror." His 

 brothers collected books ; he, like many another 

 boy, collected birds' eggs, butterflies and moths, 

 and he arranged his collections with a care, 

 thoroughness, and artistic finish worthy of a 

 museum. He showed thus early that passion 

 for perfection which distinguished him in 

 the various pursuits — and these, as will be 

 seen, were many — in which he afterwards 

 engaged. 



At the age of about sixteen, he entered the 

 service of the ill-fated National Bank of Wales, 



