14 BIEDS OF NORFOLK. 



did bird, in full hawking gear, with hood, bells, and 

 jesses complete, is still preserved in a glass case at 

 Hoctwold Hall, in honour of his high achievements. Mr. 

 Newcome had also at one time several trained merlins, 

 which exhibited remarkable sport in hawking skylarks, 

 and two female sparrowhawks, which were flown at 

 blackbirds with great success ; of late years, however, 

 he has done but Httle in his favourite pastime^ but a 

 small club, with Eobt. Barr as falconer, has been recently 

 formed, of which Capt. Salvin, Mr. Newcome, Mr. 

 Knox, Mr. C. Duncombe, and one or two more, are mem- 

 bers, and the hawks, numbering about a dozen, are now 

 at Feltwell, preparatory to their being flown in the 

 spring on Salisbury plain. John Pel above alluded 

 to, one of the few professional falconers still existing 

 in England, is descended from a Dutch family long 

 noted for their skill in that particular science, and, 

 as stated by " Peregrine," (to whose account of " Pel's 

 hawking career," published in the " Field" of 1860, 

 I am indebted for many of the following particulars,) 

 was born at Lowestoft in 1815, his father being a 

 native of Valkenswaard, in Holland,"^ and master 

 falconer to the Didlington subscription club. About 

 1830 both father and son resided at Lowestoft, where 

 they kept hawks for the Duke of Leeds and the Earl 

 of Aberdeen, and subsequently both of them entered 

 the service of the Duke of St. Alban's at Highgate. In 

 1842 the younger Pel had the management of Mr. New- 

 come's hawks at Hockwold, and in the summer of 1845 



* Mr. Lubbock refers to a letter from Sir Antliony Pell, 1621, 

 as given by Pennant in the appendix to his bii^ds, forbidding 

 " Any one importing hawks to move them from ship-board or the 

 cnstom-house, until the said Pell, master falconer, should have 

 made his selection for the Kiug's use," and adds — " It is singular 

 that the last family practising the art of hawking in England, 

 natives of Valkenswaard, should be Pell or Pells." 



