280 THE NEW FOREST 



of some twenty or more hawks, mostly peregrines, 

 and two or three goshawks. The Maharajah had 

 a very good saker, and there were one or two 

 hawks of the rarer and most valuable kinds such 

 as our falconer of later years, John Frost, always 

 described as "menagerie hawks." 



But altogether this great joint establishment 

 of hawks, so numerous, containing so many of 

 the noblest possible specimens of the Falconidse, 

 was certainly the most magnificent hawking 

 establishment that I, or possibly any other living 

 person, ever saw. 



As to sport. Many of the French hawks 

 were very good ones, but were chiefly game 

 hawks, that had been flying very well in Scotland 

 at grouse the previous autumn. They had one 

 or two good heron hawks too. 



The gerfalcons were all flying to the lure in 

 the most magnificent form conceivable. Two or 

 three had been entered to hares, and I saw a 

 few flights at that quarry, but was not very 

 greatly impressed by it as a form of sport suit- 

 able for the swift-flying long- winged falcons. 



After seeing so much of these splendid hawks, 

 I could not be happy without a hawk about me 

 of my own. I should think I was the only 

 undergraduate of the nineteenth century who 

 regularly kept a trained hawk in his rooms in 



