HAWKING. 127 



Hawk, as soon as it had taken the live lure, always returned 

 to its master, knowing that it was sure to be well fed as a 

 reward. 



Having completed its education, when at home it was 

 placed on a perch without a hood. Straps of leather or 

 silk, called jesses, were put ahout its legs, for the purpose 

 of holding it, and bells were also attached, so small as not 

 to impede its flight ; besides this part of the Hawk's furni- 

 ture, the person who carried it was provided with thick 

 gloves, to prevent its talons from hurting the hand, and these 

 were often very costly and highly embroidered. 



Attached as were our ancestors to this sport, it was by 

 no means confined to England. In Denmark, we have seen, 

 from the attention paid to their importation, how highly 

 good Hawks were prized. In France, too, it was as eagerly 

 and expensively pursued, and even the Turks followed the 

 example of Christendom. 



A certain Sultan, called Bajazet Ilderim, maintained a 

 corps of 7000 falconers, about the time it was so fashionable 

 in Europe ; and to this day, in the plains of Turkey, tra- 

 vellers may meet with parties of falconers, with Hawks upon 

 their wrists, in pursuit of hares, and a particularly large 

 kind of Lark, at which their Falcons are trained to fly. 



Wild and shy as Hawks are, it will scarcely be credited, 

 that at one time, the common Gledes or Kites were nume- 

 rous in London Streets. This happened in the time of 

 Henry YIIL, when it seems that they were attracted by the 

 offal of butchers' and poulterers' stalls ; and as, on account 

 of their use in removing so offensive a nuisance, they were 

 not allowed to be killed, they became so fearless as actually 

 to mingle with the passengers, and take their prey in the 

 very midst of the greatest crowds. Few people are, indeed, 

 aware of the numbers of Hawks existing at this day in 

 London. On and about the dome of St. Paul's, they may 

 be often seen, and within a very few years, a pair, for 

 several seasons, built their nest and reared their brood in 

 perfect safety between the golden dragon's wings which 

 formed the weather-cock of Bow Church, in Cheapside. 



