172 



FALCONRY. Class 11. 



horn and to carry their hawk fair^ and leave Jiudy 

 and learning to the children oj mean people *. The 

 former were the accomplifliments of the times \ 

 Spenfer makes his gallant Sir Triftrafn boaft, 



Ne is there hauke which mantleth her on pearch. 

 Whether high towring, or accoafting low. 



But I the meafure of her flight doe fearch. 

 And all her pray, and ail her diet know |. 



In (hort, this diverfion wa% among the old Englijb, 

 the pride of the rich, and the privilege of the poor, 

 no rank of men feems to have been excluded the 

 amnfement: we learn from the I?ook of St. Albans"^^ 

 that every degree had its peculiar hawk, from the 

 emperor down to the holy water clerk, Vaft was 

 the expencc that fometimes attended this fport^ in 

 the reign of James I. Sir I'homas Monfon [| is faid 

 to have given a thoufand pounds for a call of 

 hawks : we are not then to wonder at the rigor of 

 the laws that tended to preferve a pleafure that was 

 carried to fuch an extravagant pitch. In the 34th 

 of Edward III. it was made felony to Ileal a hawk: 

 to take its eggs, even in a perfon's own ground, 

 was punifhable with imprifonment for a year and 

 a day ; befides a fine at the king's pleafure : in 

 queen Elizabeth's reign the imprifonment was re- 

 duced to three months ; but the offender was to 



* Biog, Brit, article Caxton. 

 t Book VI. Canto 2. 

 X A treatife on hunting, hawking and heraldry, printed at 

 5/. Albans by Caxton^ and attributed to Da77ie Julian Barnes, 

 11 Sir Ant. WeUon's court of K. James. 105. 



find 



