THE FALCONERS* CLUB 353 



A larger and more ambitious establishment was maintained 

 at about the same date under the management of Colonel 

 Thornton, and is described by him in his * Northern Tour ' by 

 the name of the * Confederate Hawks of Great Britain ; ' but it 

 was more generally known by the name of the Falconers' Club. 

 Lord Orford was the president of the club, and apparently its 

 manager both before and after the reign of Colonel Thornton. 

 The date of the formation of this club is not certain, but it 

 would seem to have been started in 1770 or thereabouts, and to 

 have been maintained on a high scale, chiefly for kite and heron 

 hawking. The falconers were almost entirely Dutchmen, and 

 the hawks used passage hawks. From the chapter on Hawking 

 in Norfolk, in Stevenson's 'Birds of Norfolk,' we take the 

 following ancient advertisement, which gives a good idea of 

 the transactions of the club : 



Swaffham : February 5, 1783. 



HAWKING. 

 EARL OF ORFORD, MANAGER OF THIS YEAR. 



The gentlemen of the Falconers' Society are hereby acquainted 

 that the hawks will be in England the first week in March, and 

 will begin kite and crow hawking immediately on their arrival. 

 The quarters are fixed at Bourn Bridge, Cambridgeshire, forty- 

 eight miles from London, until the first April meeting, when they 

 will go to- Barton Mills and Brandon until the 3 1st May, when the 

 season will finish. 



The hawks to be out every Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday 

 in each week at ten o'clock, provided the weather is favourable. 



Subscribers are desired to pay in their subscriptions for this 

 season on or before the 2oth March, to Messrs. Coutts & Co., 

 Bankers, in the Strand, London. 



N.B. The cage consists of 32 Slight falcons, 13 German 

 hawks, and 7 Iceland falcons. 



The ' German hawks ' were probably goshawks, but the 

 number of these birds seems very large. ' Slight ' falcon was 

 a term often used for the peregrine at that date. Colonel 

 Thornton appears to have taken the management of this club 

 in 1772, and to have resigned it in 1781, when Lord Orford 



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