Francis Orpen Morris grew up on the western shores of Ireland where he developed an enduring love of the natural world.

As a student Morris maintained his interest in natural history, and helped organise the insect collection in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum.

In November 1844, he became vicar of Nafferton near Driffield in East Yorkshire, where he remained for nine years, and acted as chaplain to the Duke of Cleveland.

[3] During his stay at Nafferton, Morris acquired a reputation for writing popular essays on natural history and in particular on birds.

Morris wrote the text for books which were financed and printed by Fawcett, and were illustrated by Alexander Francis Lydon (1836–1917).

Initially only a thousand copies were printed, but surprising demand quickly forced Fawcett to move to larger premises at East Lodge in Driffield.

The final work which Fawcett, Morris and Lydon would do together was The County Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland.

[6] From all accounts Morris was irascible by nature, impatient with conservatism and imbued with the spirit of reform – this did not endear him to many people.

He was an anti-feminist, loathed fox hunting and any other destruction of wildlife, did not accept the theory of evolution, and had a fervent dislike of Thomas Huxley, whom he saw as an enthusiastic vivisectionist.

He was the author of anti-Darwinian pamphlets and rejected common descent and natural selection, which he believed were absurd concepts unsupported by evidence.

[11] He founded the Plumage League along with Mrs. R. Cavendish-Boyle and Lady Mount Temple in December 1885 with its headquarters at Broadlands, Hampshire.