HAWKS AND HAWKING. 283 
All. the Stuarts were fond of hawking, and many anecdotes 
might be narrated illustrative of their participation in this sport. 
I will confine myself to three, which refer respectively to the 
reigns of James I., Charles I., and Charles IT. 
Sir Antony Weldon relates that the French king having sent 
over his falconer to show some flights at the Kite, ‘‘ his master 
falconer lay long here, but could not kill one, ours being more 
magnanimous than the French kite.” Sir Thomas Monson, the 
Earl of Pembroke, and other noblemen, being not unnaturally 
anxious to eclipse the Frenchmen, begged the king (James I.) to 
go out to Royston to see a flight. The king went, and a Kite was 
found and flown at; but, in the words of Sir Antony Weldon, 
“the Kite went to such a mountee, as all the field lost sight of 
Kite and Hawk and all, and neither Kite nor Hawk were either 
seen or heard of to this present, which made all the Court 
conjecture it a very ill omen.” 
There is a curious supplement to this story, which I can 
hardly forbear to mention. A writer in the ‘Gentleman’s 
Magazine’ for 1793 states that in the beginning of September, 
1792, a paragraph appeared in several newspapers mentioning 
that a hawk had been found at the Cape of Good Hope, and 
brought from thence by one of the India ships, having on its 
neck a gold collar on which were engraven the following 
words :— 
“This goodlie Hawk doth belong to his Most Excellent Majestie, 
James, Kinge of England. a.p. 1610.” 
The writer in question infers the authenticity of the inscription 
from Sir Antony Weldon’s anecdote, and believes it must have 
been “ the lost hawk” !* 
Aubrey, in his ‘ Miscellanies’ (p. 56, ed. 1784), says :—‘‘ When 
I was a freshman at Oxford, 1642, I was wont to go to Christ 
Church, to see King Charles I. at supper; where I once heard him 
say ‘that as he was hawking in Scotland, he rode into the quarry, 
and found the covey of partridges falling upon the hawk;’ and 
I do remember this expression further, viz., ‘and I will swear 
upon the book ’tis true.” Aubrey adds, “ When I came to my 
* I need not here repeat the criticism which I have ventured to make on this 
passage, and which will be found in the Trans, Norf. and Norw. Nat. Soc., vol. ii1., 
pp. 87, 88, 
