286 THE NEW FOREST 



reserved for Queen Elizabeth for her own personal 

 use we got one year a very good game falcon 

 called Vesta. She served us for nine seasons, 

 during the short period for which grouse-hawking, 

 by far the finest form of game hawking that 

 exists, can be carried on. During that time her 

 score was : 



Grouse 297 



Other game .... 41 



338 



or 37 head every season that she flew, but in 

 her later days she was rather self-willed, and her 

 scores suffered proportionately. In her earlier days 

 they were much higher. 



The object of the Old Hawking Club, revived 

 in 1872, was to maintain a first-class establishment 

 of working hawks, for all purposes, for the use 

 of its members, where they wished. Every year 

 it obtained from the Dutchmen at Valkenswaard 

 a number of freshly caught passage falcons, and 

 by that means kept an ancient but declining in- 

 dustry on its legs. These were always at first 

 trained to rooks, and used during the annual 

 visit of the club in March and April to Salis- 

 bury Plain. Here we all forgathered, though our 

 quarters shifted from time to time as certain com- 



