44 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



example, the king went to Newmarket against the advice of his 

 physicians to see some hawks flown. 



A French falconer had arrived in London with a present of 

 hawks, horses, and setting-dogs from Louis XIII. Chamberlain, 

 writing to Sir D. Carleton on January 17th, from London says : — " He 

 made a splendid entry with his train by torchlight, and will stay till 

 he has instructed some of our people in this kind of falconry, though 

 he costs his Majesty ^^25 to ;£:^o a day." Accordingly we find 

 entries of the following payments :— 



" Expensis of the diet of Mens. Bonavons, a falconer 'at Royston and New- 

 market, in the months of Jan. and Feb. viz., at Waltham Cross, ^34 17s. 8d. ; 

 Royston, £4^1 7s. 7d. ; Newmarket [where a prolonged stay was made] ^^213 

 IIS. 6d. Then on the return journey, Royston, ^43 los. 2d. Waltham Cross 

 ;^49 8s. gd. ; and London ;^354 lis. gd., thirty-five days in the said months 

 amounting altogether to the sum of ;^739 7s. 4d." (Exchequer L.T.R. Wardrobe 

 Accounts, Cofferer. Ser. iii, box E. Rot. 45, P.R.O.) 



It is to be regretted that no record has been found of the nature 

 of the instruction imparted by the French falconer in return for all 

 this outlay. 



It is not surprising that Essex was a favourite hunting-ground 

 with many of our kings and queens, seeing the great extent of woods 

 which once covered the greater portion of the county, and long har- 

 boured plenty of deer* and the open heaths and marshes which 

 afforded excellent and varied sport for the falconer. 



One such place was the common at Stock, which even in Morant's 

 day (1768) was "pretty large, and almost joined with Gallows 

 Common on the north, and Ramsden on the south-west." It was 

 here, in 1665, that the Lord Petre of that day, who kept hawks at 

 Thorndon, lost a valuable falcon, for the recovery of which a reward 

 was offered in The Neives of November 9th, 1665. The advertise- 

 ment ran as follows : — 



" Lost on the 28th October last, betwixt Stock and Billerica, in Essex, a white 

 Goshawkjf having upon its varvels J the name of the Right Hon. William Lord 

 Petre. Whoever shall deliver the said hawk safe into the house of the said Lord 

 Petre, at Thorndon, in Essex, or to Mr. Andrews, at the " White Horse " in Drury 

 Lane, shall beside his charges defraied, have 40s. for a rewarde." 



It is not unlikely that this hawk had been flown at a Kite, for at 

 that date Kites were not uncommon on the open heaths, wastes, and 



* See Fisher, The Forest of Essex, chapter iv ; and J. E. Harting on the " Deer of Epping 

 Forest," Essex Naturalist, vol. i. pp. ifi—di. 



t By this term was meant a Jerfalcon. See Sir A. Weldon's Court and Char-acter of King 

 James, p. 104. 



X The small flat rings, generally of silver, attached to the havk'k's jesses, and having the 

 owner' name engraved thereon. 



