216 EEMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



managed to approach the partridges in the extensive 

 plains of that country. Horsemen, accompanied by- 

 hawks on the wing, and bearing poles, at the top of 

 which are fixed small round platforms, where the hawks 

 have been taught to look for their food : from time to 

 time they fix these poles in the earth, and allow the 

 hawks to light on them, which they readily do in the 

 absence of all trees, and upon the approach of the 

 shooters they proceed forwards as before. The game, 

 being terrified at the sight of the hawks, lie beautifully 

 to the dogs of the advancing sportsmen. The same 

 gentleman also mentioned that when the falcons happen 

 to be lost near a forest, they are brought up by the 

 sound of a large bell, to w^hich they have been accustomed 

 at feeding time. Didlington, the residence of the late 

 Lord Berners*, near Brandon, Norfolk, has long boasted 

 of its heronry, which,"! am happy to say, is still care- 

 fully preserved. It was near this, at High Ash, that 

 Lord Berners kept his heron hav/ks for many years. Lat- 

 terly they became subscription Lawks, and were retained 

 until 1836, when they were given up. These falcons 

 were " passage hawks " from Holland, and the stock was 

 kept up by obtaining fresh birds from that country.f 



* I knew the late Lord Berners about the year 1798. He was then 

 Colonel Wilson. He was passing tlirough Bedford, where we had a 

 squadron of the Greys : as he was very intimate M'ith the late Colonel 

 Gillon of that regiment, he politely invited all the officers of the Greys 

 to dine with him at the Bedford Hotel ; and we certainly had a most 

 jovial party, which was not an unusual affiiir at that period. I met 

 his lordship afterwards a few years ago at Bath, where he came to 

 drink the waters; he died shortly afterwards. He was devoted to 

 falconry, and was descended from the Lady Prioress Berners. 



t On one occasion, soon after the breaking out of the war with 

 France, the falconers, who were bringing a supply of falcons to Didling- 

 ton, were taken prisoners, and sent to the Hague, and subsequently to 

 Paris. — Falconry in the British Isles. 



