he smoke which
indicates in the horizon the presence of the great manufacturing towns."

There was constant intercourse between the Park and the Rectory, and the
two families with a large circle of friends led most interesting and
busy lives. The Rector took delight in helping his seven nieces with
their Italian and Spanish studies, in fostering their love of poetry and
natural history, and in developing the minds of his own young children.
He wrote plays for them to act and birthday odes for them to recite.

[Illustration: THE FLIGHT OF INTELLECT

Skit on the recent discovery of the motive power of steam.--E. Stanley.

_To face p. 17._]

Legends of the countryside, domestic tragedies and comedies were turned
into verse, whether it were the Cheshire legend of the Iron Gates or the
fall of Sir John Stanley and his spectacles into the Alderley mere, the
discovery of a butterfly or the loss of "a superfine piece of Bala
flannel."

His caricatures illustrated his droll ideas, as in his sketches of the
six "Ologies from Entomology to Apology." His witty and graceful
"Bustle's Banquet" or the "Dinner of the Dogs" made a trio with the
popular poems then recently published of the "Butterfly's Ball" and "The
Peacock at Home."

"And since Insects give Balls and Birds are so gay,
'Tis high time to prove that we Dogs have our day."

He wrote a "Familiar History of Birds," illustrated by many personal
observations, for throughout his life he never lost a chance of watching
wild bird life. In his early days he had had special opportunities of
doing so among the rocks and caverns of Holyhead Island. He tells of the
myriads of sea-birds who used to haunt the South Stack Rock there, in
the days when it was almost inaccessible; and of their dispersal by the
building of the first lighthouse there in 1808, when for a time they
deserted it and never returned in such numbers.

His own family at Alderley Rectory consisted of three sons and two
daughters.

The eldest son, Owen, had his father's passion for the sea, and was
allowed to follow his bent. His scientific tastes led him to adopt the
surveying branch of his profession, and in 1836, when appointed to the
_Terror_ on her expedition to the North Seas, he had charge of the
astronomical and magnetic operations.

When in command of the _Britomart_, in 1840, he secured the North Island
of New Zealand to the English by landing and hoisting the British flag,
having heard