40 LORD LILFORD 



CHAPTEK II 



Birth of Thomas Littleton Powys, Subject of Memoir, in 1833 — 

 School Days — Letter from Colonel Barclay, a School Friend at 

 Harrow— Christ Church, Oxford, 1852 — Letters from Christ 

 Church Friends, Godfrey Webb, and the Rev. F. M. Stop- 

 ford — Extract from Professor Alfred Newton's Introduction 

 to Lord Lilford's ' Coloured Figures of British Birds ' — Letters 

 to Alfred Newton from 1852 to 1858 (Ornithological Rambles 

 in Spain and Sardinia) — Origin of Ibis Magazine. 



On March 18, 1833, my eldest brother was 

 born in Stanhope Street, May Fair. His pre- 

 decessor in the nursery had been a sister, who 

 speedily adopted pretty, motherly airs of pro- 

 tection towards the little new-comer. The 

 name of Thomas awaited him at the font. 

 Only one story of his early years — a character- 

 istic one — need be related here. When he was 

 about five years old, some childish offence made 

 it necessary, in his father's opinion, that he 

 should undergo the time-honoured and time- 

 abused punishment of birching. The corporal 

 chastisement was administered in the dusk of an 



