278 General Discussion of the Crosses 



Quia enim locus et nemoribus consitus et mariscorum paludibus erat 

 vicinus, frequenter ibi in venatu et aucupatione [vel aucupio] spatium 

 morabatur.^ 



About the same date a priest was forbidden by the Canons of Edgar 

 to be a hunter or a hawker [hunta nc hafecere). 



In the Colloquy of ^Ifric (ca. 1000), there is a conversation between 

 the teacher and a falconer, in which the latter says that he knows 

 how to tame a hawk, that he will give one in exchange for a swift 

 dog, that they feed themselves and him in the winter, that he lets 

 them escape in the spring and catches nestlings in the autumn, and 

 that he will not follow the example of those who feed their hawks 

 the summer through, since he finds it easier to catch them as he 

 needs them.^ 



Of Edward the Confessor (d. 1066) we are told that he delighted 

 in the coursing of swift dogs, whose barkings he would cheer on, and 

 also in the flight of birds whose nature it is to make prey of their 

 kindred birds. In the Bayeux Tapestry, Harold is depicted as riding 

 to meet WiUiam the Conqueror with hawk on wrist. 



Unum erat quo in seculo animum oblectaret suum, cursus canum 

 velocium quorum circa saltus latratibus solebat Isetus applaudere ; 

 volatus volucrum quorum natura est de cognitis avibus praedas agere.^ 



With the coming of the Normans, hawking, like all forms of hunt- 

 ing, grew to be a passion with kings and the highest nobility, and so 

 continued for several centuries. So fully was it reserved for them 

 that hawks ' were considered as ensigns of nobility ; and no action 

 could be reckoned more dishonourable to a man of rank than to give 

 up his hawk.' ' Persons of high rank rarely appeared without their 

 dogs and their hawks ; the latter they carried with them when they 

 journeyed from one country to another, and sometimes when they 

 went to battle, and would not part with them to procure their own 

 liberty when taken prisoners.' ^ 



Ecclesiastics were not averse to either the sport or the distinction. 

 As we have seen above, they had to be enjoined at intervals to have 

 nothing to do with falconry. Nevertheless, we are told that when 



1 Chron. Abb. Rames., ed. Macray (Rolls Series), p. 52. 



2 Wright's Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies, ed. Wulker, 1. 

 95-96 ; tv. in Select Tracts, from Old Engl. Frose, ed.Cook and Tinker, pp. 181-2. 

 The word for ' hawk ' occurs here and there in the Old Enghsh glossaries. 



3 William of Malmesbury, Gest. Reg. Angl. 2. 220 (ed. Stubbs, 1. 271). 

 * Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 18; cf. Piers Plowman B 6. 33. 



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