PREFACE. 



ix 



was told him as true but afterwards proved to be ficti- 

 tious. Indeed he, for many years, stoutly defended, 

 against my declared incredulity, the statement of a friend 

 who professed, with some circumstance, to have taken a 

 Shore-Lark on its nest near Exmouth *, and it was not 

 until toward the close of his life that he mournfully 

 owned that he had been deceived by his informant. I 

 record this incident not only because it was the be- 

 ginning of our intercourse, but because it was an early 

 instance of his characteristic fidelity to his friends. 

 During 1853 I had nearly a score of letters from him, 

 but though each shews his devotion to the field-study of 

 Bird and Beast, I am bound to say that not one contains 

 matter of general interest, for he usually wrote in haste, 

 and did not stay to describe his doings in Scilly, Wales, 

 or Ireland, all of which he visited for the purpose of 

 making personal acquaintance with their animals. In 

 the same year too he first met the late Edward Clough 

 Newcome, the best falconer of his day, whose example 

 was not lost upon Mr. Powys, for he subsequently 

 became a staunch member of the Old Hawking Club, 

 beside keeping a falconer and many Hawks of his own. 

 In 1854 he again passed some time in Ireland, but 

 soon after, on the outbreak of war with Russia, the 

 Militia was embodied, and he joined that of his county. 

 However a barrack-life, whether in Dublin or at 



* So certain was he about it, that in 1853 my late brother 

 Edward went specially to the spot, where, it is needless to say, he 

 did not find any Shore-Larks ; but there were Hock-Pipits. 



