176 REMIXISCEXCES OF A SPOETSMAN. 



Madena, the liberty of exporting a hundred weight of 

 cheese ; and Nicolas the Dane was to give to the king a 

 hawk every time he came to England, that he might 

 have liberty to traffic throughout the king's dominions. 

 They were also made the tenures by which some nobles 

 held their estates from the Crown. Thus Sir John 

 Stanley had a grant of the Isle of Man from Henry IV. 

 to be held of the king, his heirs, and successors by 

 homage and the service of two falcons, on the day of his 

 or their coronation ; and Philip de Hastings held his 

 Manor of Combertown, in Cambridgeshire, by the service 

 of keeping the king's falcons. Sportsmen in the train 

 of the great were so onerous on lands as to make the 

 exemption of their visit a privilege. Hence a king 

 liberates some lands from those who carry with them 

 hawks or falcons, horses or dogs. The mews at Charing 

 Cross, Westminster, were so called from the word mew, 

 which in the falconer's language is the name of a place 

 where the hawks are put in moulting time, when they 

 cast their feathers. The king's hawks were kept at this 

 place as early as the year 1377, Eichard II. ; but in 

 1537, the 27th year of Henry VIIL, it was converted 

 into stables for that monarch's horses, and the hawks 

 were removed.* In the reign of Edward II. this favourite 

 amusement was reduced to a science, and regular rules 

 established for its practice. These rules were afterwards 

 extended by the master of the game belonging to King 

 Henry IV. and drawn up for the use of his son Henry 

 Prince of Wales. Edward III. took so much delight in 



* The mews at Charing Cross showed wliat edifices were formerly 

 erected for the reception of the hawks, and officers of certain rank 

 were appointed to take care of their welfare, and train them for their 

 functions. 



