OF CHESHIRE AND NORTH WALES 231 
scarlet, to shoot not only at marks, but birds, if not 
Pheasants or Herons, and within two miles of the Royal 
Palaces (Archzologia, Vol. vii., p. 67.) 
The Act passed in the eighth year of the reign of Elizabeth, 
1566, for the “ preservation of grayne, and destruction of birds 
and vermin, was not in any wyse to extend... . to the 
dysturbance, lett, or the destructyon of the buyldinge or bredinge 
of anye kinde of Hawks, Herons, Egrypts, &c.” (East Anglian, 
Vol. iii., pp. 275-9.) 
In the first year of the reign of James I., 1602, it was 
penal ‘‘ to shoot with any gun within 600 paces of any herony.” 
(1st James I., c. 27, s. 7.) This latter remained in force until 
the year 1831 ; and the other sections remained in force until 
they were repealed by the Game Act in the first and second year 
of the reign of William IV., 1830-31 (1st & 2nd Will. IV.,c. 32.) 
The object for which the Heron was thus protected is two- 
fold. First, for the use of the sportsman or falconer ; and 
secondly, to supply the demand of the market for its use as food 
for the tables of the wealthy. 
Space will not allow me to enter into the former interesting 
subject (Falconry), but of the latter I append a few notes which 
may be of interest. 
As Foon. 
During the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries the 
Heron formed part of the royal bill-of-fare, and we find it 
also mentioned as a dish for the various feasts held during 
these periods, thus:—In the twenty-first year of the reign 
of Richard II. purvéyance is made for the King being with 
the Duke of Lancaster at the Bishop of Durham’s Palace, 
at London, on the 22nd of September, 1379, for— V. Herons 
and Bitours (Bitterns), XII. Cranes. And the second course 
consisted of: A Pottage, Pigges roftid, Cranes roftid, Fesaunts 
roftid, Herons roftid, &c. (Archeologia, Vol., ii. p. 173.) 
And at the Stallyng (installation) of John Stafford, Archbishop 
of Canterbury (21st Hen. VI.), in the year 1443, ‘‘there was at 
the first course Heronfewe, and at the second Crane roftid.” 
(Archeologia, l.c.) At the great enthronisation feast of 
George Nevil, Archbishop of York (1466), “there were 204 
Cranes, 204 Bitters, and 400 Heronshaws.” (Archzologia, I.c.) 
In the order of a Feast Royal made by Cardinal Wolsey, 
‘‘there was to be at the first course Heronfewe or Bitter, and 
at the second Crane roftid, &c.” 
From these records one may rightly suppose that the Heron 
was considered ‘‘the dainty dish to set before the King;” 
but by the middle of the eighteenth century the Heron was 
very much grown into disuse. And we find in the Duke of 
Northumberland’s MS. that ‘“‘ Herons and Bitterns are not so 
totally lost to us as the Crane, but are as much grown into 
disuse at our tables.” (Archzologia, l.c.), dated February, 1769. 
