CHAPTER III 

 Ponds, Paddocks, and Aviaries 



As is well known, Lilford was celebrated during the late 

 peer's lifetime for one of the most remarkable in some 

 directions the most remarkable collections of living birds 

 in any private hands. Carefully as birds may be attended 

 to (and the management of the Lilford aviaries was 

 little short of perfection), it is inevitable that in a large 

 collection losses and additions must make constant changes 

 in the list. But Lord Lilford's presidential address to 

 the members of the Northamptonshire Field Naturalists' 

 Club, which follows here at length, so admirably describes 

 the chief features of the collection at that date, that it 

 needs but a few words of introduction. 



Lilford Hall is a dignified and comfortable-looking 

 Jacobean house, built of grey Ketton stone, and a little 

 raised above the river Nene. 



The hall door faces a gravel, balustraded sweep, which 

 formed a favourite parade-ground of the ravens, Sankey 

 and Grip. The south the drawing-room side looks on 

 to a terraced lawn, where the falcons sat on their blocks, 



