258 NOTES TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



His hawking career commenced about 1827 or 1828, when as 

 a boy of seventeen or eighteen, accompanied by his brother 

 William, he used to go out with Colonel Wilson of Didlington, 

 who succeeded Lord Orford as chief of the Norfolk falconers. 

 The heron-hawks were then kept at High Ash in charge of old 

 Frank van der Heuvel and the Brothers Bots, all of whom came 

 from Valkenswaard, in Holland. The " meets " were, according 

 to the wind, at High Ash, Mundford, Cranwich Barn, North- 

 wold Field, and Methwold Field ; Cranwich being far the best. 

 The heronry at Didlington was surrounded by open country on 

 every side. The herons used to go out in the morning to the 

 great fen district, and to rivers and ponds at a very con- 

 siderable distance in search of food, returning to the heronry 

 towards evening. 



It was at this time, says Sir John Sebright {op. cit., p. 39 ), 

 that the falconers placed themselves down wind of the heronry, 

 so that when the herons were interrupted on their return home, 

 they were obliged to fly against the wind to gain their place of 

 retreat, and a fine ringing flight was then usually obtained. If 

 the heron flew down wind, he was seldom taken ; the hawks were 

 in danger of being lost ; and as the flight was in a straight line, 

 it afforded little sport. 



In 1 83 1 Mr. Newcome advertised for jerfalcons on his own 

 account (Newton, op. cit.., p. 235), and afterwards went himself to 

 Norway for them. In 1838, after the death of Colonel Wilson 

 (who in 1832 had become Lord Berners), Mr. Newcome, with 

 the Duke of Leeds, Mr. Stuart Wortley, and Baron d'Offemont, 

 helped to found the celebrated Hawking Club, whose head- 

 quarters were at the Loo, near Apeldoorn, the summer palace 

 of the King of Holland, under whose patronage and with whose 

 consent the members met every summer for about six weeks' 

 heron-hawking. When this was over, Mr. Newcome returned to 

 Norfolk and spent the rest of the year in hawking, shooting, 

 and fishing at Hockwold, where he resided. 



About 1853 the Loo Hawking Club ceased to exist, and from 

 that time until a few years before his own death, when he took 

 a leading part in forming a new association, which still exists, 

 and is now known as the Old Hawking Club, he confined 

 his hawking excursions to his own neighbourhood. " Here," 

 says Professor Newton {pp. cit.., p. 237), " I had frequent 



