THE BRITISH ISLES 377 



yourself over the centre point, there you stuck Hke a bear up a pole, 

 till you gradually glided one way or the other into the muddy drain, 

 to be hauled out by your laughing attendant. 



I never got many snipe, for they were always very wild, and the 

 only chance was snapping them as soon as they rose ; but I always 

 got wet. 



But the eun has another thing to answer for. For some time 

 past the sport of hawking, or falconry, has been slowly drifting down- 

 wards. It was a sport that, in the Middle Ages and 



1 11 1 Hawking, or 



perhaps as far back as mortal eyes can look, was the p^^^^ 



"sport of kings" without a doubt. 



Records of hawking and falconry are supplied in the writings 

 of Pliny and Aristotle. In Japan, in India, Arabia, Persia, and Syria, 

 we can find it has been practised, and in our own Middle Ages 

 stringent laws were passed referring to it. Hawks and falcons were 

 allotted to men according to their rank and station. An earl had a 

 peregrine, a yeoman a goshawk, a priest a sparrow-hawk, and so on. 



The king of birds in falconry in our Middle Ages was, and even 

 now is, the peregrine, and the noble game at which to fly this bold 

 and splendid bird was the heron ; but I do not think this form of 

 sport is followed any longer in our island. 



On Salisbury Plain, falconry is still carried on, and perhaps in 

 other places for all I know, by a few zealous admirers of the sport, 

 and to hear an enthusiast on the subject of falconry is enough to make 

 one's blood tingle with excitement. Still, as I said before, the gun 

 knocked the first nail into the coffin of this sport, and year by year it 

 gets less and less support. 



