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Obituary Notice of the late William Brodrick. Extract 

 from "The Field," January 1889. 



To *' give honour where honour is due," has always been our 

 aim, and, when death has robbed us of a master of his craft, to 

 testify with gratitude to the worth of his example. A succession 

 of keen votaries of the kindred sports of hunting, fishing, and 

 shooting has at all times precluded the risk of their extinction ; 

 but it has been otherwise with the equally ancient though less 

 practised sport of hawking, which but for the efforts of a few, in 

 the face of many obstacles, has often stood in danger of being 

 abandoned. As one who, by his published works and private 

 enterprise, has done perhaps more than any of his generation to 

 popularise and encourage the art of Falconry in England, the 

 name of William Brodrick deserves to be remembered ; and his 

 recent death, at the ripe age of seventy-four, will be regretted 

 almost as much by those who knew him onlj' by reputation as 

 by the many personal friends whom he has left behind him. 



Mr Brodrick died on Dec. 2l8t last (1888) at Littlehill, Chud- 

 leigh. North Devon, where he had lived for more than twenty 

 years, esteemed by all who knew him. Having formerly held 

 the command of the Chudleigh volunteers, a number of his old 

 corps, commanded by Colonel Lord Clifford, attended his funeral, 

 eight of the non-commissioned officers officiating as bearers. 

 Born in London May 31st 1814, where his fatlier was a barrister 

 of some eminence, William Brodrick was educated at Harrow 

 and University College, Oxford ; and, although he was wont to 

 say a propos of his lifelong love for natural history, that " all he 

 learned at Harrow was how to catch birds," yet, as he took his 

 degree at Oxtord, it is clear that he must have learned sometJuDg 

 more. He studied medicine at Edinburgh, but never chose to 

 practise, and after his marriage he settled at Belford, in 

 Northumberland, where he enjoyed the great advantage, to a 

 young and enthusiastic beginner in falconry, of hawking over 

 the moor of his uncle, Mr Selby, of Twizel, whose name with 

 ornithologists is " a household word." In those early days he 

 procured, trained, and used very successfully many fine Eyess 

 Falcons and Tiercels ; Peregrines from the northern coasts, 

 notably one from St. Abb's Head, Berwickshire; and when, 

 later on, he moved to the south of England, and resided at Bath 



