282 



PEACOCKS. 



important and magnificent occasions ; and he who carved 

 them was considered as honoured in the highest degree. The 

 feathers from the tail of the Peacock were formed by the ladies 

 of quality into a crown, for the purpose of decorating their 

 favourite troubadours or minstrels. The eyes were considered 

 to represent the attention of the whole world as fixed upon 

 them. And in those days of chivalry, so constantly was the 

 Peacock the object of the solemn vows of the knights, that its 

 image was hung up in the place where they exercised them- 

 selves in the management of their horses and weapons ; and 

 before it, when roasted and dressed in its plumage, and placed, 



The Peacock. 



with great pomp and ceremony, as the top dish, at the most 

 splendid feasts, all the guests, male and female, took a solemn 

 vow : the knights vowing bravery, the ladies engaging to be 

 loving and faithful. It was, no doubt, in consequence of this 

 veneration that Queen Elizabeth chose to have her picture 

 taken in a gorgeous robe, covered with Peacocks' eyes. 



If we are indebted to India for the Peacock, and to the 

 Eastern countries for our Pheasants, we have to thank the 

 New World for that more homely, but more useful bird, the 

 Turkey, which, there is reason to believe, was never known 

 in Europe till about three hundred years ago, when it was 

 imported from America ; but which has now been so widely 



