The Figure-Sculpture: Falconer 279 



Thomas a Becket (d. 1170) was sent from Henry II as ambassador 

 to France, he assumed the state of a secular potentate, and took with 

 him dogs and hawks of various sorts, such as were used by kings and 

 princes. 1 It is not surprising, then, that when Walter, the Steward, 

 in the time of Alexander II of Scotland (1214—1249), is enlarging 

 the grant of forest on the banks of the Water of Ayr to the monks 

 of Melrose, he gives them all forest-rights with the express exception 

 of hunting or taking falcons in the forest, because, as he says, that 

 is neither becoming for their order nor expedient for them.^ 



Among the appurtenances of the falconer was a stout pole. As it 

 was the custom to carry the falcon upon the left hand, the pole was 

 . usually carried in the right. ^ The use of this pole is thus described 

 by Strutt : ' In following the hawk on foot, it was usual for the 

 sportsman to have a stout pole with him, to assist him in leaping 

 over httle rivulets and ditches, which might otherwise prevent 

 him in his progress.'* The pole, as I am informed by Mr. 



^ William Fitz Stephen, quoted by Strutt, p. 9. Falconers are sometimes found 

 represented under May in the labors of the months (see p. 60, note 1, above). 

 Thus at Chartres, on the left side of the left arch of the left doorway of the 

 west front, there is a horseman holding his horse by the bridle, and having 

 a hawk on his wrist (Marriage, Sculpt, of Chartres Cath., p. 32) ; and on the 

 left side of the arch of the right bay of the north porch, there is a man mth 

 a hawk on his wrist (Marriage, p. 176). At Amiens, on the phnth of the 

 northernmost doorway of the west front, there is a gentleman standing with 

 a hawk upon his fist (Fowler, p. 160). In the floor of one of the chapels 

 of the abbey church of St. Denis there is a man on horseback, with a hawk 

 on his fist (Fowler, p. 167 ; Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire, article Dallage). 

 At Padua, in the great hall, there is a man holding by the left hand the 

 trunk of a tree, and by the right a hawk or other bird (Fowler, p. 176). Other 

 representations are on a leaden Norman font at Brookland, Kent (Fowler, 

 p. 145), and on a misericord in the choir of Worcester Cathedral (Fowler, 

 p. 164). Cf. p. 70, note 1. 



^ Veitcli, History and Poetry of the Scottish Border, p. 170, who quotes 

 National MSS. 1. liii. 



^ Thus we see it figured in the pictures of Peter Ballantine (1798-1884), 

 ' the last of the old Scotch falconers ' (opp. p. 42 of Harting's Bihliotheca 

 Accipitraria ; opp. p. 217 of Cox and Lascelles' Coursing and Falconry ; 

 in the ' English Falconers of the XVII Century ' (opp. p. 26 of Harting) ; 

 and perhaps in the ' Heron-hawking at the Loo in 1717 ' (Harting, opp. 

 p. 48). 



^ Sports and Pastimes, pp. 23-4. Cf. the following passage from Hall's 

 Chronicle, under the 16th year of Henry VIII, s. f. (ed. of 1809, p. 697) : 

 ' In this yere the kyng folowing of his hauke lept ouer a diche beside Hychyn, 



(67) 



