2 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



Roman authors refer to the use of trained hawks as an un- 

 familiar practice, in vogue only amongst some of the barbarian 

 tribes. 



Until at least some centuries after the Christian era, China 

 and other countries in the Far East seem to have been the 

 chief if not the only homes of falconry. But the Lombards, 

 when they settled in North Italy, in the latter half of the sixth 

 century, were acquainted with the art ; and before the end of 

 the ninth century it was familiar to the Saxons in England 

 and throughout the West of Europe. Henry the Fowler, who 

 became Emperor in 919, seems to have been so nicknamed on 

 account of his devotion to this form of sport, which was already 

 a favourite with princes and magnates. The Saxon King 

 Ethelbert wrote to the Archbishop of Mayence for hawks able 

 to take cranes. King Harold habitually carried a trained 

 hawk on his fist ; and from the time of the Norman Conquest 

 hawking was a sport as highly honoured in the civilised world 

 as hunting. The greatest impulse that was ever given to the 

 sport in Western Europe was derived from the returning 

 Crusaders, many of whom, in the course of their travels to the 

 East, had become acquainted with the Oriental falconers and 

 the Asiatic modes of training and flying hawks. Conspicuous 

 amongst such Crusaders was the Emperor Frederick II., who 

 brought back with him some Asiatic hawks and their trainers, 

 and who not only was himself an enthusiastic and accomplished 

 falconer, but even declared that falconry was the noblest of all 

 arts. From that time — early in the thirteenth century — for 

 more than four hundred years falconry flourished in Europe, as 

 well as in the East, as a fashionable sport amongst almost all 

 classes. As in the case of hunting and fishing, its attractions 

 as a sport were supplemented by the very material merits it 

 possessed as a means of procuring food. While the prince and 

 the baron valued their falcon-gentle for its high pitch and lordly 

 stoop, the yeoman and the burgher set almost equal store on the 

 less aristocratic goshawk and the plebeian sparrow-hawk as 

 purveyors of wholesome delicacies for the table. Even the serf 

 or villein was not forgotten in the field, and was expected, or at 

 least allowed, to train and carry on his fist the humble but 

 well-bred and graceful kestrel. 



During this long period the example of Henry the Fowler 

 was followed freely by many of the most celebrated and powerful 

 rulers in European countries. Hardly a prominent personage 

 amongst the great conquerors and lawgivers in mediaeval times 

 was unacquainted with the art. Most of them were as enthusi- 



