8 LORD LILFORD 



Mrs. Atherton's quondam legal adviser. It con- 

 sisted of an offer of marriage to the eldest 

 of the sisters, by whom it was in due course 

 accepted. The second Lord Lilford was an 

 1 elegant ' Latin scholar, after the fashion of the 

 cultivated men of his day, and much of his 

 English verse does not lack melody. 



Lady Lilford died in 1820, leaving, as did the 

 first Lady Lilford, twelve children, six bo}'s and 

 six girls. Taken altogether, they were a merry, 

 harum-scarum set, full of the lively spirits 

 which make — at the time and in the retrospect 

 — the charm of early life. 



The gift of song, filtering down perhaps from 

 their Welsh ancestry, or imported by their 

 mother and grandmother from musical Lan- 

 cashire, was bestowed in large measure upon the 

 Powys children of this generation, and the house 

 and grounds rang with songs and choruses. It 

 has been said that when all the members of the 

 family were at home together (an event which 

 sometimes happened), the singers would seat 

 themselves one by one on the Lilford stairs, 

 those on the higher steps taking up some part 

 song, to which their companions farther down 



