LORD LILFORD 



Up to 1711 Sir Thomas Powys owned a 

 house in Shropshire, where so many of his race 

 had already lived, but in the above-named year 

 he was induced by a legal friend, Mr. Ward of 

 Wadenhoe, to inspect the neighbouring property 

 of Lilford Manor. The untried attractions of 

 Northamptonshire, or the temptation of residence 

 near one of his most valued friends, outweighed 

 the known advantages of his Shropshire home, 

 and before the New Year's Day of 1712 had 

 dawned Sir Thomas was in possession of his 

 new Midland property. 



No doubt, with regard to conditions which 

 man himself can mould, the Northamptonshire 

 of 1711 was different from the county as we 

 know it to-day. But there is no ' new order ' 

 in the matter of scenery; flat country must 

 remain flat country to the end of time, and 

 the wooded hills and valleys of Shropshire, with 

 the atmospheric effects which only hill and dale 

 can give, were conspicuously absent from the 

 Judge's newly chosen county. 



But probably Judge Powys was not an ardent 

 admirer of beautiful scenery. Wordsworthians 

 had no existence as yet, and the broad lands 



