CHAPTER II 



CHILDHOOD (1834-1842) 



(Age (?) 8) 



There is a note in Lord Avebury's hand, stating : 

 " The first two things I can remember are 

 sitting at a window in front of some red cloth 

 drapery, to see the Queen's Coronation from 

 the Royal Exchange rooms in Pall Mall — and 

 a large insect under a glass." 



In view of some later developments we may 

 perhaps admire the loyalty which places the 

 Royal Lady, in this brief catalogue, before his 

 interest in the insect. 



He was the eldest of a large family of eleven, 

 and how exceptionally fortunate they all were 

 in their parents will be understood by those who 

 realise the much greater distance and reserve 

 that used to be maintained at that time between 

 father and mother and children, in comparison 

 with the friendliness which commonly exists 

 between those thus related now. No doubt 

 we should pronounce the father austere towards 

 his children, if he were judged by the standards 

 of the present day, but in a brief manuscript 

 account of Sir John William Lubbock, by an 



6 



