III

HAWKING

Falconry preceded the invention of the fire-arm-Introduced into England in eighth century-The legend of St. Edmund the Martyr-A favourite sport under the Plantagenets-Followed by nobles, the clergy, and the privileged citizens of LondonThe ancient love of hawk and hound-Till the time of James I. -The decline of Falconry-A hawking party-The equipment of the bird-Hawking custom-The Anglo-Norman laws-The high value of trained birds-The various species of hawks reserved to the different social grades-More pedantic hunting jargon-The Hereditary Grand Falconer of England.

HAWKING can only be considered a modern invention when put in comparison with hunting.

By Hawking is meant the art of training and flying hawks for the purpose of catching other birds. It is frequently called Falconry; the person charged with the care of the hawks was not called a hawker, but always designated a falconer.

Falconry was a favourite sport in the far-away times before the invention of the firearm had enabled man to attack elusive game on the wing; for feathered game, that was inaccessible to the arrow, was never out of the range of a swift-winged falcon. In olden times, therefore, this sport occupied the place now filled by modern shooting.

Hawking was introduced into this country during the Saxon era, probably about the eighth century; and a romantic legend pretends to connect the martyrdom of St. Edmund, King of East Anglia, with this pastime.

A Danish chieftain of high rank, named Lothbroc, hawking near the western coasts of Denmark, was dismayed to find his bird, in the keen pursuit of her game, fall into the sea. Anxious for the safety of the hawk, he quickly launched a small boat with the intention of recovering her. But a storm suddenly arose which blew him out to sea, and after suffering much hardship he was eventually stranded on the coast of Norfolk, at a place called Rodham. Here he was seized by the inhabitants and sent prisoner to the Court of King Edmund,

The King received him favourably, and soon became particularly attached to him on account of his skill in training and flying hawks. Edmund's partiality, however, roused the jealousy of Beoric, the King's falconer, who took the opportunity to murder the Dane as he was exercising his birds in the midst of a wood. The secreted body being discovered by the vigilance of a favourite spaniel, the crime was brought home to Beoric, who was condemned to be put in an open boat-the same in which the murdered man had been carried to England-without rudder, oar, mast, or sail, and abandoned to the mercy of the waves. Watchful fate wafted the culprit to the very point of land from which Lothbroc had started; when he landed he was apprehended by the Danes and taken before two of their chieftains, Hinguar and Hubba-no other than the sons of the ill-fated Lothbroc.

The crafty Anglian, discovering this relationship, sought to gain their favour by recounting the murder of their father, who (he falsely affirmed) was executed at the command of King Edmund; for opposing which, and for endeavouring to save the life of the Danish nobleman, he said he had been committed to the dangers of the deep; but providentially he had escaped

them, spared to wreak a just vengeance on the perfidious Anglians. Incited by this villain, the Danes undertook that invasion of East Anglia which resulted, not only in the pillage and devastation of the country, but in the particularly dastardly martyrdom of King Edmund, who was tied to a tree and shot to death with arrows. Such is one variant of the legend of Bury St. Edmunds.

That studious King, Edward the Confessor, was addicted to Hawking as an agreeable outdoor exercise; and Alfred the Great is reported to have written a treatise on the subject.

Among the hardier barons of the early AngloNorman period the sport is said to have been despised as effeminate, and relegated chiefly to the amusement of ladies. And it long remained one of the most popular outdoor amusements enjoyed by the fair sex. The training of a hawk for the field was reckoned an essential part of the education of a young Saxon nobleman; but it was not till a considerable interval after the Conquest that Hawking became again a favourite pastime, and then always reserved exclusively to the upper classes. King John was partial to fine horses, staunch hounds, and good hawks. These creatures were sometimes received in large payments, instead of money, or accepted as presents fit for a noble.

In the time of Edward I. the amusement was reduced to a perfect science, regular rules being formulated for its practice; and the Master of the Game under Henry IV. revised and expanded these rules for the use of Henry, Prince of Wales, the popular "Madcap Harry."

According to Froissart, when King Edward III. invaded France, he was accompanied by no less than thirty falconers on horseback; his fondness for the sport could not induce him to forego it, even during an arduous campaign in a foreign country.

Hawking was much followed by the clergy, notwithstanding that it was forbidden to them by the canons of the Church; and as they persisted in the pursuit of this fashionable amusement they were frequently lashed most severely by the moralists and censorious rhymsters of the period.

The citizens of London were exceptionally favoured by certain concessions made to them under royal charter, in respect of this aristocratic sport.

Persons of high rank rarely appeared in public without their dogs and their hawks; the latter they even carried with them on their longest journeys. Hawks have been carried into battle; and men taken prisoners with them have been known to decline to purchase freedom by parting with a favourite bird. Such a sacrifice was deemed ignominious. These birds were considered as ensigns of nobility, and it was accounted dishonourable for a man of rank to give up his hawk. Hounds and hawks were even taken to church occasionally, to the unseemly interruption of divine service. Thus Sebastian Brant's work, "Stultifera Navis" ("The Ship of Fools"), translated from the German by Alexander Barclay (1508) hath it

"Into the Church then comes another sotte
Withouten devotion, jetting up and down,
Or to be seene, and showe his garded cote.
Another on his fiste a sparhawke or fawcome—”

&c., &c.

There is an amazing story (Gentleman's Magazine, 1793) to the effect that a favourite hawk of James I., lost in 1610, was found at the Cape of Good Hope, alive and sound, in 1792. A gold collar on its neck was engraved "This goodlie hawk doth belong to his most excellent majestie, James, King of England, A.D. 1610.”