INTRODUCTION. xxiii 



account of their excellence, a few of the older treatises which 

 deserve to be consulted. 



English. — Turbervile (14, 15), Latham (18, 19, 20), and 

 Bert (22) may be regarded as the old English masters of 

 Falconry. They wrote chiefly from experience, although 

 Turbervile borrowed much from French and Italian authors of 

 repute. Before his day the books in use were either garbled 

 versions of the " Book of St. Albans," and of little practical 

 value, or compositions by writers who had but slight acquaint- 

 ance with the subject. Markham's " Gentleman's Academic," 

 1595 (3), and "Hunger's Prevention," 1621 (8), are perhaps 

 the most desirable of this author's works from the falconer's 

 point of view. 



Sir Antony Weldon's curious little volume (27) is worth 

 securing, if opportunity occurs, since it contains the true story 

 of Sir Thomas Monson's hawks, so strangely perverted by 

 subsequent writers (see pp. xvi, 23). The alleged extrava- 

 gance of this " Master Falconer" by the charge of ;^iooo in 

 gos-falcons for one flight (that of the kite) is first noticed by 

 Oldys in the Biographia Britannica, afterwards by Warton in his 

 Observations on Spenser (1762, ii. 173), and then by Pennant 

 (1768, i. 133), who in his "British Zoology" inserted all 

 Warton's notices of hawking without acknowledgment — 

 whence they were copied by Yarrell and others. In the first 

 edition Sir A. W. calls the birds " gos-faulcons "; in the second 

 edition they are styled more correctly " ger-faulcons." 



Ray's "Summary of Falconry" (35), though not original, 

 being abridged from Turbervile and Latham, is to be com- 

 mended ; but, being in folio, its size is cumbersome. 



Nicholas Cox's " Gentleman's Recreation " passed through 

 so many editions that there is no difficulty in procuring a 

 copy. It is of little merit, however, being chiefly compiled 

 from the works of previous writers (see the note on p.. 28). 



A folio work with the same title, by Richard Blome(4i), is 

 better worth having, and has numerous fine engravings. 



Campbell's " Treatise of Modern Faulconry," 1773 (49), is 

 a practical one, but is disfigured by a long and ridiculous 

 preface, for which he was not responsible (see note on p. 34). 



