280 General Discussion of the Crosses 



J. E. Harting, the authority on falconry, would also be used ' for 

 beating the flags and sedges round pools where wild fowl are ex- 

 pected to be lurking. In that case, the pole would be somewhat 

 shorter and lighter than would otherwise be required.' Such a pole 

 is figured on the Bewcastle Cross, and is contributory proof that the 

 bird is intended for a falcon. 



A T-shaped perch — ^known as a crutch-perch — ^though not now 

 commonly used, is occasionally found. ^ Michell says (p. 48) : ' Prob- 

 ably for an eagle it is the best resting-place that could be provided ' 

 (cf. p. 37). If this is true, it may be inferred that the bird of the 

 Bewcastle Cross is one of the larger kind, probably a gerfalcon. 



The peregrine falcon is even now to be found in Cumberland. 

 Says H. A. Macpherson [Victoria Hist. Cumb. 1. 195) : ' The bird 

 itself is not excessively rare. On the contrary, it is often to be seen 

 by any one who can identify a highflying hawk in the distance. . . . 

 The female feeds partly on grouse.' ^ 



As to falconry in Cumberland, we are told that ' scattered references 

 to the sport are met with in the old registers and rolls.' Thus, 



Avith a pole and the pole brake, so that if one Edmond Mody, a foteman, had 

 not lept into the water, and lift up his hed, whiche was fast in the clay, he had 

 been drouned.' To a similar effect is Drayton's Polyolhion 20. 239-242 : 



But when the Falconers take their hawking-poles in hand, 

 And crossing of the brook, do put it over land, 

 The hawk gives it a souse, that makes it to rebound, 

 Well-near the height of man, sometime above the ground. 



Holland, in his translation of Phny 16. 36 (66), misunderstands the Latin, 

 but his use of the term ' hawking-pole ' seems to bear out Strutt's view : 

 ' Now during the ninth year . . . these canes prove so bigge and strong with 

 all that they serve for hawking-poles, and fowlers pearches.' 



^ See Michell, Art and Practice of Hawking, No. 22, opp. p. 46. From 

 about 1260 dates the De Arte Venandi cum Avibus of the Emperor Frede- 

 rick II, and among its miniatures are three representations of T-shaped 

 perches braced at the ends (seven perches in all). These are figured by 

 Venturi, Storia delVArte Ital. 3. 762-4. 



^ Black grouse is ' a resident species, very local in the north and west 

 of the county, but fairly plentiful in the east and north-east between Alston 

 and Brampton ' {ibid., p. 204). Red grouse is ' a resident in small numbers 

 on mosses near the coast, becoming more abundant when the fells are reached. 

 . . . An aid hen shot near Bewcastle on October 5th, 1895, has the usual 

 markings ' {ibid.). ' The fells of the Pennine range . . . present even greater 

 attractions to red grouse {Lagopus Scoticus) and black grouse {Tetrao tetrix) ' 

 {ibid., p. 179). 

 (G8) 



