88 THE KESTREL AND 



The Hawk from the now nearly abandoned science and practice 

 ^ ^ naw king. Shakespeare, for example, refers or 240 

 alludes scores of times to the ancient sport. Without 

 some notice of it, no description of mediaeval times 

 would be complete. It was with the sole companion- 

 ship of a sparrowhawk, the gift of the Abbot of 

 Aberbrothick, that Quentin Durward, at the age of 

 twenty, set forth on his adventures in Flanders and 

 France. On it he must often have depended for his 

 dinner ; and it will be remembered how sadly he 

 deplored its death at the hands of a Burgundian 

 ' skellum '. The story of Ser Federigo and the Falcon 250 

 is also well known, as told in Longfellow's Tales of 

 a Wayside Inn. 



EDITOR. 



NOTES 



LINE 43. He sails with supreme dominion, &;c. The quotation 

 is from Gray's Pindaric Ode, The Progress of Poesy, iii. 3 : 

 Alluding to himself the poet says 



Oh ! Lyre divine, what daring spirit 

 Wakes thee now ? tho' he inherit 

 Nor the pride nor ample pinion 



That the Theban Eagle bear 

 Sailing with supreme dominion 



Through the azure deep of air, &c. 



48. independent of the laws of nature. E. gr., gravitation. 



196. lives like an Ishmaelite. Of Ishmael, son of Hagar, it 

 was foretold that his hand would be against every man and 

 every man's hand against him. See Genesis, xvi. 12. 



208. a Spartan upbringing. The reverse of being pampered. 

 The children of ancient Sparta were brought up by the State ; 

 and developed, through rigorous discipline, into a breed of 

 hardy warriors. No unnecessary indulgence was allowed them. 



