The 13th Earl of Derby sat as President of the Linnaean Society 1828-33 and of the Zoological Society from 1831 until his death in 1851. Lord Derby extended the private menagerie formed by his father at Knowsley, Lancashire. A great friend and patron of Edward Lear it was said of him that 'so great was his attachment to zoology that he had formed at Knowsley such collections of living animals and birds as far surpass any menagerie or aviary previously attempted by any private person in this country' (Annual Register, 1851). Lear was employed by Derby to illustrate Gleanings from the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley Hall, 1846. Many of the limericks in Lear's Book of Nonsense (1846) were composed at Knowsley between 1831 and 1837. A contemporary described Derby as having 'an excessively large head surmounting his small spare figure, and wore his hair tied in a long thin pigtail'. It is easy to see, notwithstanding their common interest in zoology and natural history, Lear's affection for Derby.

Dik Dik are a breed of African Antelope, rather than deer, which were probably amongst the many 'birds and beasts' in the Menagerie at Knowsley.