HAWKS AND HAWKING. Q77 
three times, lest he should neglect his birds from intoxication ; 
and when more than usually successful, the prince was obliged by 
law and custom to rise up and receive him as he entered the hall, 
and sometimes to hold his stirrup as he alighted from his horse. 
Spelman relates that a British chief named Gaufredus, a. pv. 1008, 
was struck on the head with a stone and killed by an angry 
woman, because his hawk had seized one of her fowls: “ quod 
accipiter ejus mulieris gallinam invaserat.” 
Hawking was pursued by all the Norman princes with the 
greatest enthusiasm. In those days a person of rank seldom 
stirred out without a hawk upon his hand. In old paintings and 
tapestry this was a sign of nobility, a good illustration of which 
is furnished by the celebrated Bayeux tapestry, which is preserved 
in the cathedral of Bayeux, in Normandy, and is there known as 
“Ja toilette du Duc Guillaume.” Itis 200 feet long, and about 
two feet six wide, and is said to be the work of Queen Matilda, 
the wife of the Conqueror. It represents the departure of Harold 
for Normandy, and the conquest of England by William the 
Conqueror. Harold and Guy Comte de Ponthieu are represented 
each carrying a Sparrowhawk on the wrist.* 
From the time of Henry I., that is to say, from the commence- 
ment of the 12th century, and during many subsequent reigns, 
offences against the crown were often punished by the infliction 
of a fine of so many hawks ;+ prisoners were ransomed on similar 
terms ;{ and lands were held of the king by the tenure of finding 
annually one or more falcons, or of providing for their keep.§ 
Stringent laws were passed, making it felony to steal a trained 
hawk, and subjecting offenders in this respect to fine and im- 
prisonment. It was even made illegal to take the eggs of any 
falcon or hawk, and in the reign of Henry VII. things came 
* Lancelot, ‘ Explication de Ja tapisserie de Bayeux; dans les Mémoires de l’Acad. 
. des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres,’ Paris, vi. p. 739; and viii. p. 602. 
+ In the reign of Stephen, Outi of Lincoln was fined 100 Norway hawks, and 
as many Jerfalcons, of which four of the former and six of the latter were to be white. 
Mag. Rot. 5 Steph. Rot. 12a. Madox, Hist. and Antiq. of the Exchequer, vol. i. 
p. 273. 
{ In 1212, during one of the Welsh campaigns of King John against Llewellyn 
ap Jorwerth, Prince of North Wales, the king, passing the river of Conway, encamped 
by its side, and sent part of his army, with guides of the country, to burn Bangor, 
This they did, and, amongst other prisoners, took Rotpart the Bishop, who was 
afterwards ransomed for two hundred hawks! 
§ Blount, ‘ Ancient Tenures,’ passim. 
