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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
Predator Ecology
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
Predator Ecology
Evolutionary Ecology of the
Functional Response
John P. DeLong
School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
and Cedar Point Biological Station, USA
1
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© John P. DeLong 2021
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 2021
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
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rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021937953
ISBN 978–0–19–289550–9 (hbk.)
ISBN 978–0–19–289551–6 (pbk.)
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192895509.001.0001
Printed and bound by
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Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
Contents
Prologue vii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Functional responses and food webs 3
2. The Basics and Origin of Functional Response Models 9
2.1 Types of functional responses 9
2.2 Predator dependence of the functional response 18
2.3 Relationship to alternative formulations in aquatic literature 20
2.4 The Rogers Random Predator equation 21
3. What Causes Variation in Functional Response Parameters? 27
3.1 Variation in functional response parameters 27
3.2 Breaking down the space clearance rate 29
3.3 Factors affecting space clearance rate 32
3.4 Breaking down the handling time 40
3.5 Limits on the parameter space 42
3.6 Other predators 44
4. Population Dynamics and the Functional Response 47
4.1 The functional response as a trophic link 47
4.2 Adding some complexity 48
5. Multi-species Functional Responses 55
5.1 The need for MSFRs 55
5.2 Extending the functional response to multiple prey types 58
5.3 An example with damselfly naiads 61
6. Selection on Functional Response Parameters 65
6.1 Why functional response parameters might change through evolution 65
6.2 A dynamic tug-of-war 68
6.3 Temporal variation in the strength of selection 70
6.4 Traits linked to functional response parameters 74
6.5 Links among predator–prey model parameters 75
7. Optimal Foraging 79
7.1 Picking prey types to increase fitness 79
7.2 Deriving the standard prey model optimal foraging rule 80
7.3 OFT remains useful and needs further testing 84
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
vi Contents
Epilogue 145
References 147
Index 166
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
Prologue
The motivation for this book was three-fold. First, I personally wanted to
learn more about functional responses. I found, however, that information
about functional responses in the literature is piecemeal. In no place could
I find a synthesis about them, despite the existence of thousands of papers
describing or parameterizing functional responses for all manner of predators
and prey. Second, there was clear conflict in the literature about what models
to use to describe functional responses, the biological meaning of the model
parameters, and why functional responses vary among predator–prey pairs
and across environmental or trait-based gradients.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, the functional response became the
core concept for my field-based course called Predator Ecology. I wanted to
provide my students with an overview of the fundamentals and the biological
relevance of functional responses, so that in short order they could inter-
pret papers, conduct their own experiments, and grasp how natural selec-
tion might be shaping predator–prey interactions and therefore food webs.
I needed to start synthesizing for the course, resolve conflicts in terminology
and models, and help students connect the math to the biological reality of
nature. That was the birth of this book.
So for me and anyone else, this book covers the fundamentals and then
offers a deep dive into what functional responses really are, how to think
about them, why they are relevant to pretty much anything ecological, and
where studies on functional responses might go in the future. This book is
what I needed when I started teaching the Predator Ecology class. This book
is intended for advanced undergraduate students and graduate students, as
well as anyone interested in functional responses. The book moves between
simple introductions, derivations of the core models, reinterpretations and
clarifications of the parameters and the functions themselves, and novel
hypotheses about functional responses and their consequences. For anyone
mostly interested in the concepts and biological relevance, it may be useful to
skip over some of the derivations and focus on the biological meaning of func-
tional responses and their parameters. Then come back to the equations later.
To support hands-on learning as well as new research into functional
responses, the book is accompanied by a full set of code to reproduce all
data and analysis-based figures in the book. This code is written for Matlab
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
viii Prologue
1
Introduction
Predator Ecology: Evolutionary Ecology of the Functional Response. John P. DeLong, Oxford University Press.
© John P. DeLong 2021. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192895509.003.0001
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
2 Predator Ecology
No prey, no predation
Figure 1.1. Some generalized functional responses. Foraging rates must be zero when
prey are absent, so functional responses are anchored at the origin. The curves
increase as prey increases, but the shape of that increase, the presence of an
asymptote, the overall height, and possible bends in the curve all depend on the
specific conditions, morphologies, and behaviors of the predator and prey involved.
Introduction 3
Even with the vast amount of work already conducted about functional
responses, I would argue that we have only just begun to understand the
causes and consequences of quantitative variation in functional responses.
This limited understanding is true in general, but it is even truer when it
comes to functional responses as they occur in the field. Ecological commu-
nities contain numerous species and uncountable numbers of individuals.
The number of predator–prey interactions in even a relatively simple food
web can run into the hundreds. In a typical cartoon food web (Figure 1.2),
just a handful of species leads to numerous pairwise foraging interactions
among species. Of course there are far more species in a real food web than
shown in the cartoon, and there may be separate functional responses for
each type of insect eaten by the shrews or for each type of grass eaten by
the caterpillars. We typically draw such feeding interactions with an arrow
pointing toward the forager. Thus, herbivores also have functional responses,
as do all the interactions leading up to the top predator, in this case a barn
owl (Tyto alba). For this reason, all of what follows in this book may apply
to organisms consuming plants in part or in whole (e.g., algivores) as well
as the carnivorous mammals that often come to mind when we think of
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
4 Predator Ecology
predators. Predators may even forage on biological entities that cause disease,
such as viruses and other parasites (Anderson et al., 1978; Thieltges et al.,
2013; Welsh et al., 2020), expanding the relevance of functional response
beyond the typical food chains described in ecology textbooks. All of these
interactions can be described by functional responses, and chances are they
are mostly quantitatively different from each other (Jeschke et al., 2002). They
may even be quantitatively different among individual predators within a
population (Hartley et al., 2019; Schröder et al., 2016; Siddiqui et al.,2015).
Yet, to my knowledge, there are no cases where the functional responses of
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Introduction 5
all the connected species in a food web have been characterized completely,
although researchers have done more to estimate strengths of interaction
among species in food webs in other ways (Gilbert et al., 2014; Wootton and
Emmerson, 2005). Thus, we may have long lists of prey types for many preda-
tors in food webs—who eats whom—but we generally do not know the rate
of predation on most if any of those prey types. Without this information, we
are typically restricted to making taxonomic or body size-based assumptions
about the shape and height of functional responses in food web models (Boit
et al., 2012; Brose et al., 2006; DeLong et al., 2015; Rojo and Salazar, 2010;
Schneider et al., 2012).
Because functional responses determine the flow of energy from lower to
higher trophic levels (Figure 1.2), they strongly influence rates of birth and
death and consequently the size of predator and prey populations. Variation
in the shape of a functional response therefore can have crucial effects on the
dynamics of populations. For example, a steep and high functional response
(Figure 1.1) means a lot of foraging and a chance that the predator can over-
exploit the prey, leading to instability or population cycles (see Chapter 4).
Thus, the shape of the functional response is important. Even slight changes
to functional responses can lead to big changes in the population dynamics
of trophically interacting species (Chapter 4) (Oaten and Murdoch, 1975;
Williams and Martinez, 2004). Overall, it is thought that functional responses
should be on the shallow side in nature, meaning that no particular predator–
prey interaction dominates all of the energy flow (McCann et al., 1998). Such
“weak” interactions minimize overconsumption and encourage persistence of
predator and prey populations. We will see in Chapter 6, however, that natural
selection is not likely to favor shallow functional responses for predators
because shallow functional responses limit energy uptake. Understanding
what pulls functional responses up or pushes them down is a central problem
in the evolutionary ecology of predator–prey interactions and food webs
as whole.
Because of their effect on population dynamics, functional responses play
a role in virtually all types of community dynamics (Houck and Strauss, 1985;
Rosenbaum and Rall, 2018), including trophic cascades (DeLong et al., 2015;
Levi and Wilmers, 2012; Ripple and Beschta, 2012; Schneider et al., 2012),
predator–prey cycles (Jost and Arditi, 2001; Korpimäki et al., 2004; Krebs
et al.,2001; Oli, 2003), and keystone predation (Paine, 1966). More than those
dynamics, predation plays a role in determining the magnitude of ecosystem
functions that many prey organisms conduct (Curtsdotter et al., 2019; Koltz
et al., 2018; Wilmers et al., 2012). Predation is also dependent on temperature
(Burnside et al., 2014; Dell et al., 2014), and so the impact of climate change
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
6 Predator Ecology
on ecological systems will in part stem from how changes in temperature and
precipitation alter the steepness and height of functional responses (Binzer
et al., 2012; Boukal et al., 2019; DeLong and Lyon, 2020). Indeed, it is clear
that temperature itself is a major driver of the shape of functional responses
(Daugaard et al., 2019; DeLong and Lyon, 2020; Englund et al., 2011; Islam
et al., 2020; Uiterwaal and DeLong, 2020; Uszko et al., 2017), indicating that
functional responses will play a key role in determining the effects of climate
change on ecological communities.
The functional response also plays a key role in species conservation and
management. For example, introduced predators are generally thought to
have steep and high functional responses in their invaded range (Alexander
et al., 2014). This high functional response may arise because of a mismatch
between the offenses of the novel predator and the defenses of the potentially
naïve prey, giving predators the edge in foraging interactions and a chance
to survive in their new communities. Without that boost in foraging, out-of-
place predators might not be able to persist and invade, since the functional
response controls the energy flow to the predator and thus its population
size. This hypothesized tendency may be one reason invasive predators,
when they do establish, can be particularly destructive to a wide range of
prey (Doherty et al., 2016). Similarly, biocontrol predators are released to
control the populations of problematic insects, including agricultural pests
and infectious disease vectors (Saha et al., 2012; Tenhumberg, 1995). An ideal
biocontrol predator is one with a high functional response on the target pest,
as a shallow functional response implies little mortality of the pest (Lam
et al., 2021; Monagan et al., 2017). Indeed, we can even use estimates of
the functional response to show that other pest control strategies such as
insecticides can alter the effectiveness of the predator (Butt et al., 2019).
Similarly, the functional response influences how well microbial predators
and zooplankton can control toxic red tides in marine systems (Jeong et al.,
2003; Kim and Jeong, 2004). Finally, humans compete with non-human
predators for prey such as game birds. Understanding the functional response
can be a crucial part of devising management strategies for native predators
that maintain the availability of harvested prey species (Smout et al., 2010). In
fisheries, the functional response is needed for understanding and managing
both harvested and unharvested fish populations, as the functional response
influences the ability of fish populations to grow (Hunsicker et al., 2011).
The generally positive slope of functional responses also suggests that any
behaviors a predator can use that can increase prey density can increase for-
aging rates and thus individual fitness and population growth. For example,
northern shrikes (Lanius borealis) have been observed singing in winter, with
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
Introduction 7
the effect of drawing in potential passerine prey, raising prey density and
thus foraging rates (Atkinson, 1997). Small forest falcons also may use calls
for luring prey with the same effect (Smith, 1969). In addition, searching
behaviors or nomadism would allow predators to increase foraging rates by
actively locating areas (local patches) that contain many prey (Korpimäki
and Norrdahl, 1991). Thus, movement behavior can allow predators to alle-
viate the constraint of the functional response, sometimes referred to as a
“numerical” response, but this will not be a focus of this book.
In short, the functional response describes an essential process in ecology,
with ramifications for nearly every aspect of natural systems and our ability
to manage them for ecosystem services, pest control, or conservation. The
remainder of this book therefore takes a deep dive into functional responses.
Chapter 2 covers the mathematical basis of functional responses, shows the
derivation and meaning of the standard models, and standardizes terminol-
ogy. Chapter 3 describes known variation in functional responses within
and across species. Chapter 4 shows how variation in functional responses
influences population dynamics. Chapter 5 expands the discussion to multi-
species functional responses, which are the functional responses of a predator
feeding on more than one prey type. Chapter 6 shows why and how natural
selection should act on traits that influence functional response parameters.
Chapter 7 describes optimal foraging theory in light of functional responses
and how we still do not understand foraging strategies (optimal or otherwise)
with respect to fitness. Chapter 8 introduces the idea of prey switching and
shows why functional responses are necessary for understanding or even
identifying prey preferences. Chapter 9 discusses the many possible origins of
sigmoidal functional responses. Chapter 10 discusses the nature of functional
response data and reviews statistical concerns in curve fitting. Chapter 11
suggests critical areas of research needed to understand more fully functional
responses and their consequences for ecological communities.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
2
The Basics and Origin of Functional
Response Models
This chapter is the essential beginner’s guide to the functional response, its
derivation, the various forms, its connection to other models in the literature,
and what the parameters mean. It is the ground floor for the rest of the book.
Surprisingly, our understanding of the functional response as presented in
the literature is quite muddled, with confusion ranging from the terminology
used, to the various mathematical forms the functional response takes, to the
biological interpretation of functional response model parameters. I provide
a summary and forward-looking perspective on these issues.
1 In this book, predator and prey numbers will be presented as either abundances (just a number in a
space) or as density (a number per space). Although sometimes they are presented in units of biomass, it
is important to remember that predator and prey are individual organisms, and the impact of predation
on population dynamics and evolution occurs through the gain or loss of individuals.
Predator Ecology: Evolutionary Ecology of the Functional Response. John P. DeLong, Oxford University Press.
© John P. DeLong 2021. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192895509.003.0002
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
10 Predator Ecology
Type I Type II
200 50
0 0
0 5,000 10,000 0 50 100 150 200 250
Anchovies m–3 Rotifers 40 mL–1
Type III Type IV
15 150
(C) (D)
Aphids consumed d–1
5 50
0 0
0 5 10 15 0 1 2 3
Aphids cm–2 Ants m–2 × 104
Figure 2.1 (A) A type I functional response for the comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi)
consuming anchovies (Anchoa mitchilli), fit to equation (2.1). Data from Monteleone
and Duguay (1988). It is possible that this functional response is type I, but it also may
be just incompletely determined. (B) A type II functional response for the copepod
Mesocyclops pehpeiensis foraging on the rotifer Brachionus rubens, data from Sarma
et al. (2013) and fit to equation (2.5). (C) A type III functional response for the ladybird
beetle Eriopis connexa feeding on the aphid Macrosiphum euphorbiae, data from
Sarmento et al. (2007) and fit to equation (2.7). (D) A type IV functional response of the
spider (Zodarion rubidum) foraging on ants (Tetramorium caespitum) and fit to
equation (2.9). Data from Líznarová and Pekár (2013).
wide use and covers much of the ground necessary to understand functional
responses and what they represent (Real, 1977). Beyond the three main
forms, some suggest that there is also a type IV functional response (Figure
2.1D), with the foraging rate dropping again at very high prey density, but
this form has not been documented many times (Baek, 2010; Jeschke et al.,
2004). Although functional responses also exist for herbivores (Andersen and
Saether, 1992), this book will focus on the functional responses of predators,
that is, consumers that kill their prey, even if they only eat part of the prey.
The main reason for making this choice is that by not killing the plant, an
herbivore has a fundamentally different effect on the population dynamics
of its plant resources. Functional responses also exist for parasitoids that
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 25/6/2021, SPi
stun prey and lay eggs in their prey, but these will similarly be less of a
focus here.
Typically, we estimate the shape of a functional response experimentally.
The usual approach is to measure foraging rates with a series of foraging
trials in which an individual predator forages on some arbitrarily assigned
number of prey for some prespecified amount of time. The researcher then
counts the number of prey remaining and assigns the difference between the
prey offered and the prey remaining to predation, trying to account for the
possibility that some prey may have died during the experiment for reasons
other than predation. Then, the type of functional response can be determined
by fitting a model to the data with a variety of methods (see Chapter 10). Here,
a model is just an equation describing a process or pattern that we believe to
be relevant to our data—we will look at many of these shortly. For example, in
Figure 2.1 I fit models describing type I–IV functional responses to each data
set, and we can see that, with the right parameters, the equations describe the
shape of the data reasonably well. We will see later that there are other ways
to estimate a functional response model, but the vast majority of functional
responses have been estimated using a curve-fitting approach (Uiterwaal
et al., 2018). Given the importance of fitting functional response models
to the experimental data, and the importance of parameterized functional
responses for predicting population dynamics (see Chapter 4), it is important
to understand what the models are, where they come from, and how they
represent a simplification of the foraging process. The starting point here is
the type I functional response.
The type I functional response arises owing to (1) a foraging or defen-
sive behavior that does not change with prey density, (2) a predator–prey
encounter rate based on random contacts, and (3) the lack of a time cost for
the predators to deal with the prey they kill. The type I functional response is
analogous to chemical reactions, where the rate of a reaction is proportional
to the product of the concentration of the reactants (i.e., mass action). Not
all of the reactions that could occur among reactants will occur within a
given period, however, because they are distributed in space and it takes
time for molecules to come into contact. So this potential amount of reaction
is scaled by a reaction rate constant k. The rate of a chemical reaction,
A, between reactant R1 and reactant R2 is therefore A = k [R1 ] [R2 ], where
the brackets indicate concentration. For predator and prey, the mass action
term is the product of the predator density [C, consumer; think coyote] and
the prey density [R, resource; think roadrunner], or [C][R]. Mass action of
predator and prey represents literally all the possible encounters between each
predator in a population and each potential prey individual. As with reactants,
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been my experience—my wife and I were rich in their friendship from very
early days.
I have often thought there is a strong link between our callings. The
feelings of the distinguished counsel when he goes into court, with all the
anxious weight upon his mind, with all his grave responsibility, cannot be
unlike the feelings of the great actor on a "first night," when his fame may
be in peril.
Cockburn, L. Lord Chief Justice Cockburn was the first great man we
C. J. knew; our meeting was at dinner, when we were young, at
the house of Henry Fothergill Chorley, a worshipper of
Dickens and a prominent musical critic of those days; two of the guests
were "Mamie" Dickens, the elder daughter of the great novelist, and Arthur
Sullivan, then quite young and a protégé of our host.
I have never forgotten the feeling of awe which came over me when the
butler announced, "The Lord Chief Justice of England." I always thought he
looked less like a lawyer than an admiral, or the skipper of his own beloved
yacht, the Sybil. My wife had the good fortune to be placed next to the Lord
Chief. She had the gift of manners, and was at home in any surroundings.
He took a great fancy to her, and we enjoyed the charm of his friendship for
about ten years, until the end of his career. In those days I thought his was
the most attractive male voice I ever listened to, whether on the Bench or in
a room—even during the lengthy summing-up of the Tichborne trial it
never grew monotonous—although I admit that, nowadays, the voices of
Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Henry Ainley could run it very close.
Let me add that the two most attractive female voices I have listened to
were owned by women widely apart in rank and station: one belonged to
Queen Victoria, the other to my wife, and both voices were preserved unto
old age. It is pleasant to have this opinion confirmed by no less a person
than Ellen Terry, who wrote of my wife "such a very pretty voice—one of
the most silvery voices I have ever heard from any woman except the late
Queen Victoria, whose voice was like a silver stream flowing over golden
stones."
The Lord Chief was a perfect host, well described as having the vivacity
of youth tempered by the wisdom of age.
He also adored music: it was almost certain you would meet its
professors at his house, and I recall memories of Madame Schumann,
Joachim and Piatti. During a short time when my wife was not acting, her
delight was great at being taken by him to the Monday Pops. Among his
other accomplishments was an intimate acquaintance with languages: his
French was as near perfection as a foreigner could get to.
At a banquet given to Irving on his return from one of his tours in the
United States, I was seated next to Lord Russell, who, half-way through the
dinner, suddenly said to me: "I have to propose Irving's health. What shall I
say?" I replied that no one could answer the question so well as himself.
However, the Chief persisted, with that well-remembered, imperious
manner of his, "Come, come, my friend, you must have done it often: tell
me what I am to say." I recalled an occasion when I had proposed Irving's
health, and said that I spoke of him as possessing "the strength of a man, the
sweetness of a woman, and the simplicity of a child." Lord Russell turned
to me with the question, "How about the wisdom of a serpent? I could not
have left that out."
I have always understood that he was a great worker: one of the gang,
like Francis Jeune and Rufus Isaacs, who could light a fire and brew tea at
any ghastly hour a.m.
He was no mean athlete, and fond of all sports; also a capital singer—a
conspicuous figure for many years in the choir of the church in the
Kensington High Street.
I have had the privilege to know, but not to act as their host, all the
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since the Cockburn days: Coleridge, Reading, Trevethin and Hewart.
The late Lord Esher, Master of the Rolls, my wife and I had the pleasure
to know well and to delight in his friendship and hospitality. My
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was foreman of a jury before "Mr. Justice Brett," in an interesting case, but
troublesome to me, as it kept me from important rehearsals.
Of all the judges I have known I think the imposing presence of Lord
Hannen on the Bench was second to none. His dignity appealed to me
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Huddleston's friends to-day, tell us about his cremation; what is it really
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could see any more. Accompanied by Lord Falkland, we entered the inner
compartment, so I described what we there saw, it being remembered that
cremation was then in its infancy, adding that I revolted against the idea of
consigning the remains of a loved one to such a fate. As I spoke my eyes
fell upon Sir Charles Dilke, and I was conscious that his late wife had been
so treated. It did not need the leer on Labouchere's face to tell me so.
St. Helier and Lord St. Helier, who became President of the Divorce
Holker Court, was also a kind friend of long standing. My wife and
I first met him as Francis Jeune, when he was just
foreshadowing his successful career, at the house of Lady St. Helier, Mrs.
John Stanley then, and soon afterwards we passed them in a carriage on the
St. Gothard Pass—before the days of its wonderful railway—when they
were on their honeymoon. He was a great authority on ritualistic and
ecclesiastical law generally and always a tremendous worker. He had
charming manners and was never ruffled—not even when he committed a
duchess to gaol. We enjoyed their hospitality in London and at Arlington
Manor. I have only one little objection to offer—I cannot help a feeling of
resentment against a judge, or, in fact, any barrister, having a moustache
and beard. It is not fair to the wig.
A dear friend of far-away days was Lord Justice Holker ("Sleepy Jack").
I knew him first in my old Liverpool apprenticeship when he was leader of
the Northern Circuit and its legal giants. I saw him once at the Assizes there
stop a case for some minutes after whispering to his clerk, who hurriedly
left the court, and returned with Holker's snuff-box, which had been left in
the robing-room.
Another legal friend and welcome guest was Lord Justice Mathew, who
told us a pretty story of his witty fellow-countryman, Father Healy.
From the time Montagu was called by the Inner Temple there were few
important criminal cases in which he did not take a part—and very quickly
a prominent one. His great knowledge of every side of life and quick grasp
of things resulted in a large practice, and he defended more scoundrels than
any man of his day. Later on, he was grievously afflicted by throat mischief,
which ended in the saving of his life at the cost of his voice, through a
serious operation; he could afterwards only speak in a whisper. He was,
however, appointed a London police magistrate, in which work he again
distinguished himself, and soon became known as "the poor man's beak."
It was during the theatrical episode in his varied career that he came
across, and married, Louise, a daughter of two prominent and respected
early Victorian players, Mr. and Mrs. Keeley, whom I remember seeing act
so long ago as 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, when Robert Keeley
was the partner of Charles Kean at the old Princess's Theatre.
Louise Williams was gifted with a sweet voice and sang with charm. I
still seem to hear her exquisite rendering of Edgar Allan Poe's words, which
I can trust my memory to recall:
"And neither the angels in Heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee."
He had great social gifts, nowhere better proved than by my friend Pett
Ridge, who tells a story of his popularity with the fair sex, that twelve
ladies agreed to give a dinner at a fashionable restaurant, the novelty on the
occasion being that each of them was to be responsible for one male guest.
The whole dozen invited Douglas!
Charles Gill was another old friend. We saw more of him at his beloved
Birchington than in London. He was known in his Kentish home as "The
Mayor"—so christened, I think, by his neighbour, that modern Colossus
who seems to be always striding between New York and Leicester Square,
the successful and erratic Frederick Lonsdale.
Gill was closely associated in early days with Straight and Mathews;
later in his brilliant career there was scarcely a sensational criminal trial in
which he did not play a leading part.
A very wise member of his profession only lately said that were any
friend of his in a difficulty that called for unerring judgment and delicacy of
handling his best advice would be: "Consult Charles Gill."
His beautiful art was best illustrated in his early days, I always thought,
by The Slinger and the sculptured figure of an athlete struggling with a
python. I also remember well his life-like portrait of the famous explorer,
Sir Richard Burton.
I don't know when he first came into fame and astounded the world by
the wonderful children of his brush and brain. Beautiful things teem
through the memory. I see the little creature, on a church bench, listening to
The First Sermon; a work of infinite pathos called The Blind Girl; Walter
Raleigh on the shingly shore, clutching his knees and absorbing the yarns of
an old sea-dog; the two nuns digging a grave for a comrade in The Vale of
Rest; those well-known masterpieces, The Princes in the Tower, The Black
Brunswicker and The Order of Release. And then the gallery of portraits—
Tennyson, Newman, Gladstone, Bright and the unfinished Disraeli. Others
also crowd upon remembrance: those of my comrades, Henry Irving and
John Hare—not, in my judgment, among his best examples,—of Arthur
Sullivan—one of the very best,—and the great surgeon, Henry Thompson,
which, like the striking portrait of Mr. Wertheimer by Sargent, as you look
at it, seems that it might speak. I see also the beautiful portraits of Mrs.
Langtry and Mrs. Jopling Rowe, but, alas! not one of my wife. I offered
Millais a large sum to paint one of her for me, but he declined, for two
reasons; he said that he could not bring himself to accept money from a
brother artist, and that he should fail, as the face would change while his
eyes turned even for a moment to the palette. One word to recall his
masterly landscapes, Chill October, and, if I remember their attractive titles,
The Fringe of the Moor and The Sound of Many Waters. Never in any man's
work was refinement more closely merged with art. I see a fine photograph
of him daily, if in London, with an autograph in the corner, briefly
accepting an invitation to dinner in these words: "I'm your man." I looked
down upon his handsome features, as he was fading away from life, and
kissed him.
"I was not unmindful that the proposal of this toast at that great banquet
was a mark of respect to the stage which could only make the stage the
more respect itself. I could not speak in that room—surrounded as I was by
the rulers in that fairyland—without some attempt, however faint, to say
that my admiration of the beautiful art, so splendidly illustrated year by year
upon those walls, was as true as my love for the living pictures we players
tried to paint. Our pictures, alas! died early, for the greatest actor's work
must be a passing triumph; it was not cut in marble, nor did it live on
canvas, but could only owe its fame to written records and traditions. Vast
wealth might keep for us, and for the ages yet to come, the undying
splendour of a Reynolds or a Millais, but no sum could buy one single echo
of the voice of Sarah Siddons. The drama was the most winning,
fascinating, alluring thing that ever was conceived for the recreation of
mankind. As England could claim to be the parent of the drama in Europe,
so could she claim to be the mother of the greatest dramatist the world had
owned, whose mighty genius left all art in debt that never could be paid,
and whose works alone would make the stage eternal."
I was never really intimate with Alma Tadema, although I knew him for
many years, beginning with the time when he lived in Regent's Park. Owing
to an explosion of gunpowder on the canal there, if my memory is accurate,
his house was wrecked and he went to live in the Grove End Road, in a
house formerly occupied by Tissot, a French artist, who had quite a vogue
for a time. Tadema translated the house into "a thing of beauty and a joy for
ever," where he entertained a great artistic company, worthy to be
surrounded by the Roses of Heliogabalus.
Sargent The patient went first to London and enjoyed her stay
there. During it, she conceived a strong wish to be painted
by her eminent fellow-countryman, Sargent, the magician who reveals
unknowingly what have been hidden mysteries. The portrait when finished
was highly thought of and presently despatched to the parents of the sitter,
while she went her way to Switzerland and Italy. The great artist's work
delighted the father and mother. An "at home" was arranged that their many
friends might share their admiration. All of this took place; among the
invited guests being the friendly doctor who had been so puzzled by the
condition of his patient. I will come briefly to the sad sequel. The doctor
gazed at the portrait long and earnestly: he left the house perturbed and
saddened. On the following day he sought an interview with the father, told
him that Sargent had revealed to him, beyond doubt, what he had failed to
discover himself. Put briefly, the poor girl afterwards died in a madhouse.
When Tadema had finished his story, Abbey, who was also present, quietly
remarked: "All too true. I could tell you the names of those concerned."
The painter who ran dear Millais close in my appreciation, and who has
given me, if I bare my heart and tell the naked truth, greater pleasure than
any other painter, was Orchardson; the fact that his work is so dramatic
being, I suppose, the reason. His two phases of the Mariage de Convenance
were gems. I don't know whether Act I surpassed Act II, or if the verdict
was the other way. The glorious Queen of the Swords, The Challenge, Hard
Hit, The Young Duke, Napoleon in the Bellerophon, The First Cloud, with
their exquisite colourings, the secret of which never seems to have been
divulged; and still one other, so delicate in conception, so perfect in its
pathos, Her Mother's Voice. What a story! How simply told!
Edwin Abbey was also a painter who appealed strongly to me; again,
because he was dramatic. His Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and the Lady
Anne, I always looked upon with admiration. The splendour of its colouring
is lost to me, for I see it now only en gravure. Nor can his Hamlet and King
Lear be forgotten, while his decorative work was magnificent and will
preserve his fame. He had great charm as host and guest.
I travel back to the far-off days when W. P. Frith, an old friend, was the
popular Academician of his time; his pictures of the Derby Day and
Ramsgate Sands having to be "railed in" at the Annual Exhibition, which
was then held in the National Gallery, to protect them from the crowd.
Frith, I remember, was struck with the beauty of our production of the
School for Scandal, which he highly praised. In its acting and historical
accuracy he said it was like the last edition of a grand book, the handsomest
and the best. He fell in love with the minuet, and said it took him back to
the days of his great-grandmother. The minuet, which was introduced at
Lady Sneerwell's "rout," was the brilliant idea of my wife: it was danced by
two couples in a crowded room of guests. I have since seen it danced by a
crowd to an otherwise empty stage.
I look back with interest to pleasant times spent in the company of
Hubert Herkomer, that "jack-of-all-trades and master of many." His
versatility was bewildering. Tools of every kind and shape seemed to be
playthings in his hands; he grasped them with firmness and used them with
skill; painting, engraving, etching, and all sorts of metal work alike came
easily to him; he played the piano and the zither, composed and wrote, and
was, in a way, a pioneer of film work. His shoals of portraits were amazing,
and his fame might rest enduringly upon his painting of The Last Muster.
Briton Rivière was for many years our friend. We met first in the
Engadine. He was, in my opinion, a great artist, and has crowded my
memory with his works. I think often of those speaking dogs in The Vacant
Chair, Sympathy and Charity, as I do of Circe with the amorous pigs, and
the majestic Daniel facing the lions in their den.
Val and Another R.A. and old friend was Val Prinsep, whose
Marcus burly form looms from distant days, which his name recalls.
It is easy to believe that he was the original "Taffy" in
George du Maurier's Trilby. I have a remembrance of him in the sketch he
made for his painting The Minuet, which was inspired by our introduction
of the dance into The School for Scandal, again in its turn reproduced in our
act-drop at the Haymarket Theatre. On his return to England after painting
the Great Durbar, when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India,
he gave my wife a handsome native bracelet, which, as a souvenir of her, I
passed on a little while ago to Marie Löhr, who married Val's son, Anthony.
"Val" left many dear friends behind him, with happy recollections of his
worth.
Recently another friend of long standing, Marcus Stone, left us. He once
told me an interesting incident of his childhood, a link with the past, when
he was kissed by a very old and well-known man named Pickersgill, the
engraver, who begged him, impressively, always to remember that he had
been kissed by a man who once was kissed by Dr. Johnson. It is odd to
remember, in these days of petrol, that Johnson said there were few keener
pleasures in life than being whirled along in a post-chaise, in the company
of a pretty lady, at the average speed of ten miles an hour.
Stone owed much to his early, almost boyish, friendship with Dickens,
who engaged him to illustrate the book he was then writing, thereby made
him known to eminent men, and altogether helped his career greatly. He
was a good talker, and he read more books in a week than I do in a year: he
also had what are called good looks and a distinguished bearing. Was it not
written of him:
Sculpture In the hope that I have not been tiresome, I will close my
remembrances of Academicians with the names of two
sculptors: one, whom we knew with some intimacy, was Edgar Boehm. He
chanced to be our guest on the evening when his baronetcy was "in his
pocket," to be announced to his large circle of friends on the following
morning.
There was a beautiful work of his on the staircase landing of the house
Millais built for himself in Kensington. His fame rests chiefly, I suppose, on
the statue of Carlyle, near to his Chelsea home; on the tomb of Dean
Stanley; and the statue of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner, which replaced
the old one, now at Aldershot, that I was taken as a child to see when it was
erected—an earlier remembrance than that I retain of the Iron Duke's
funeral.
Onslow Ford, another friend of ours, was as well known for his personal
charm as for the refinement of his work. He was beloved by his brother
Academicians, the features of several of whom he has immortalised in
marble, and by a large circle of friends. One of his best achievements is the
seated figure of Henry Irving, now in the Guildhall Picture Gallery; while
the Christopher Marlowe memorial at Canterbury, the Shelley memorial in
University College, Oxford, and the great statue of Gordon, mounted on a
camel, at Chatham, will make his fame secure.
After welcoming him as our amusing and interesting guest, my wife and
I were bidden to one of his historic luncheons at the White House, which
then stood quite alone in Chelsea by the river. We had excellent company
and ate buckwheat cakes, cooked by himself.
His despotic value of himself was exalted and could not be excelled:
nothing shook it. The rapier and the bludgeon were alike his weapons of
either attack or defence.
"Punch" Sir John Tenniel was an old friend and guest. His
remarkable connection with Punch extended over fifty
years. During this marvellous record he contributed between two and three
thousand cartoons to its pages. The most famous of this vast collection was,
perhaps, Dropping the Pilot, which showed Bismarck leaving the Ship of
State, while his new chief, who was to wreck Europe, looked superciliously
down on him.
I was present at a banquet given in his honour upon his retirement. The
company gathered was exceptional and was presided over by Mr. Balfour,
as he then was. When Tenniel rose to return his thanks, the demonstration
was too much for the old man; he was unable to speak, and resumed his seat
in tears. As the chairman said at once, no expression of thanks could have
been more eloquent.
We knew George du Maurier for many years: I wish it had been more
intimately. After his early days in Paris and his familiarity with the Quartier
Latin, his connection with Punch began, ten years later than Tenniel's. Soon
afterwards he succeeded to Leach's prominent position and earned his
world-wide fame, which was not lessened by his novels, Peter Ibbetson and
Trilby.
I should have loved to hear him say at one of the weekly Punch dinners,
as the man who told me did: "Fellows will write to me as de Maurier; I wish
they'd give the devil his du."
He loved the stage. Would he had lived to see the position of its leader
in England, to-day, achieved by his son Gerald!
He was an amusing little creature, always very horsey in get up. I have
his gift of the first drawing from his pencil which appeared in Punch, so
long ago as 1867, when he was but twenty-two; it is a droll little sketch of
George Honey as Eccles, John Hare as Sam Gerridge, and myself as
Captain Hawtree in Caste. He told me that it was drawn from memory, after
visits to the pit when Robertson's comedy was at the height of its first
success.
She played the same trick, with still greater effect, on the stage of the
Scala Theatre at Milan which we went over with a party of friends, when
Arthur Cecil asked her to address an imaginary audience.