The Figure-Sculpture : Falconer 211 



Et mandatum mandamus . . . ut nullus superveniat hominum superbia 

 inflatus, nee rex suum pastum requirat, vel habentes homines quos nos 

 dicamus festi[n]gmen, nee eos qui accipitres portant vel falcones, vel 

 cavallos ducunt sive canes nee poenam mittere super eos quoquomodo 

 audeat.^ 



Of Alfred we are told that, during his reign (871—901), he was 

 wont to instruct his hawkers and falconers in their business. 



Interea tamen rex . . . omnem venandi artem agere, aurifices et 

 artifices sues omnes et falconarios et accipitrarios canicularios quoque 

 docere . . . non desinebat.^ 



In the 10th century, notices are more numerous. Thus King 

 iEthelstan (d. 940) procures from North Wales ' birds that know 

 how to hunt the prey of other birds through the void ' ; Byrhtric 

 and iElfswith, of Meopham in Kent (ca. 980), give to their ' natural 

 lord ' two hawks and all their hunting-dogs ; and ^Ethelwine, the 

 founder of Ramsey Abbey, in Huntingdonshire, gives the monks 

 (ca. 974) the island which he had found convenient for his favorite 

 sports of hunting and fowling (hawking not expressly mentioned, 

 but probable). 



Ipse in effectum formavit, ut ei nomine vectigalis annuatim . . . 

 armumerarent . . . volucres quse aliarum avium prsedam per inane 

 venari nossent.^ 



^rest his cynehlaforde senne beah on hundeahtotigum mancysum 

 goldes ; and an handsecs on eal swa miclum ; and feower hors, twa 

 gertedede ; and twa sword gefetelsode ; and twegen hafocas ; and ealle 

 his heahdeor-hundas.* 



Primo scilicet [he gave to the church of Ramsey] Insulam ipsam, ubi 

 Xenodochium constructum est, cum adjacentibus maris et stagnis. . . . 



1 Cod. DipL, ed. Kemble, 1. 270. 



2 Asser, Life of King Alfred 76 (ed. Stevenson, p. 59) ; cf. my translation, 

 p. 38. There are representations of hawking-scenes in certain Old EngUsh 

 manuscripts. Strutt figures one in his Sports and Pastimes (1801), opp. 

 p. 32, and a scene from a calendar of the months in Horda Angelcynnan ; 

 the manuscript from which the former is derived (Cott. Juhus A. VI) is 

 assigned by Strutt to about 900. 



^ William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum 2. 134 (ed. Stubbs, 1. 

 148). 



* Cod. Dipl, ed. Kemble, 2. 380; cf. 6. 53. 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XVII. 19 (65) 



