SIR THOMAS POWYS 



and good pasturage of the Manor of Lilford 

 were of as much importance as varied hill views 

 or purple distances. And yet the dwellers on 

 flat lands who have become their lovers can tell 

 of willowed nooks by slow-creeping rivers, of 

 tangled hedgerows away from the highroad, 

 of coverts which the spring celandine carpets, of 

 the thousand small and unexpected charms of 

 flat scenery, which are revealed to the sympa- 

 thetic and endear the * ugly Midlands ' to the 

 Midlander. 1 



The Manor of Lilford, 2 once the property of 

 Deborah, mother of Baliol, King of Scotland, 

 eventually came into the hands of John Lord 

 Willoughby, one of the English warriors in 

 command at the battle of Crecy in 1346. This 

 distinguished soldier seems to have built a 

 house at Lilford, of which no traces remain. 

 The estate, after passing into the possession of 



1 Sir Thomas died in 1719, and was buried at Thorpe-Achurch, 

 the parish church of Lilford. A lengthy epitaph written by 

 Matthew Prior contains the following sentence : ' Whether he 

 was greater as an Advocate or a Judge is the only cause he left 

 undecided.' 



2 For this account of Lilford I am indebted to the researches 

 of the Rev. Cecil Weston, Rector of Thorpe-Achurch. 



