FALCONRY IN BERWICKSHIRE. 11 



The Ladye by the altar stood, 



Of sable velvet her array, 



And on her head a crimson hood. 



With pearls embroidered and entwined, 



Guarded with gold, with ermine lined ; 



A Merlin sat upon her wrist, 



Held ))y a leash of silken twist. ^ 



One of the earliest historical references to falconry in 

 Scotland occurs in the Liber S. Marie de Melros, where we 

 find it recorded that, in the reign of William the Lion, 

 when Eobert of Avenel gave to the Church of St. Mary of 

 Melrose the territory of Eskdale, he reserved, along with 

 the game, the eyries of Hawks — " accipitrum et sperveriorum 

 nidos."" From the Exchequer Bolls of Scotland it appears 

 that in 1263 Alexander ill. had a falconer at Forres.^ 

 The old Earls of Dunbar, the powerful descendants of 

 Cospatrick, at one time had a residence at Earlston. " At 

 the east end of the village there was once a stronghold 

 designated the Earls' Tower, and on what is now termed 

 the Hawk Kaim, tlie hawking house of the earls is believed 

 to have stood." * During the War of Independence, Patrick, 

 the 4th Earl of March and Dunbar, strenuously supported 

 Edward i., and he and that great English king were on the 

 most friendly terms. On one point they were thoroughly 

 in unison — their mutual fondness for the noble pastime of 

 hawking. This transpires among the Documents relative to 

 the History of Scotland, published under the direction of the 



1 Tlie Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto vi. 5. Sir Walter Scott in his notes 

 says: "A Merlin or Sparrow-Hawk was actually carried by ladies of rank, as a 

 Falcon was, in timo of peace, the constant attendant of a kuiglit or baron. 

 Godscroft relates that when Mary of Lorraine was Regent, she pressed the Earl 

 of Angus to admit a royal garrison into his castle of Tantallon. To this lie 

 returned no direct answer ; but, as if apostrophising a Gosliawk, whicli sat on 

 his wrist, and which he was feeding ibiriug the queen's speecli, he exclaimed, 

 ' The devil's in this greedy glede ; she will never be full.' " — Hmne's History of the 

 House of Douglas, 1743, vol. ii. p. 131. 



2 Liber S. Marie de Melros, vol. i. p. 39 : Bannatyjie Clv.b. 



3 Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 1264-1359, pp. 7-15. 



■• "Earlstoun," by James Tait, Falconliall, Kelso. — Hist. Bcr. Xat. Club, vol. v. 

 p. 263. 



