CHAPTER III 



HISTORICAL NOTES 



FROM Conquest to Commonwealth, from 

 early feudal days until the long civil war 

 called men to sterner fields of action, and 

 the general use of gunpowder and the 

 fowling-piece made any return to old 

 ways impossible when the disturbances 

 were over, falconry was the most popular 

 of field sports in the land. Indeed, if we 

 may trust the early and stringent regula- 

 tions drawn up for the guidance of the 

 sport, men of all ranks must have shared 

 in its pleasures, since every class in the 

 community is provided for in the list of 

 hawks assigned to men according to their 

 degree, from the falcon gentle and falcon 

 of the rock for Prince and Duke, to 

 the goshawk for a yeoman, the tiercel 



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