242 LORD LILFORD 



the wild-duck to the valley of the Nene and 

 found sanctuary. No keeper shot or trapped 

 them, and Lord Lilford himself used to say : 



' " I would rather see a fine stoop and kill by 

 a wild falcon than shoot fifty brace of partridges 

 to my own gun." 



' Two beautiful Greenland Falcons were at 

 Lilford in the eighties. Great calm birds full of 

 dignity. 



1 Lanners, too, were generally to be seen on the 

 terrace — near relations of the Peregrine — but 

 with the light and dark markings less clearly 

 defined. One missed the dark head and the 

 broad black moustache and narrow black bars 

 of the old Peregrine. In England they are not 

 now considered good hunting hawks. But Lord 

 Lilford was always interested in then. In the 

 good old days of falconry the Lanner had a great 

 reputation among falconers ; but when the 

 world for its sins was cursed with guns and gun- 

 powder, falconry died, and now the Lanner's 

 name is almost forgotten. 



' All Lanners come from the south ; Lord 

 Lilford' s were brought from Spain and Morocco. 

 He believed that there are two unrecognised 



