32 EARLY ANNALS OF ORNITHOLOGY 
privileges of nobility. No one of inferior rank was permitted 
to appear in public with his Goshawk, even if he possessed 
one, so distinctive was it considered to be. It will be observed 
that two of the figures in the cut are ladies, but there was 
nothing unusual in this: women sometimes accompanied men 
in the diversion of hawking, and sometimes went out alone. 
If, says Strutt, we may believe John of Salisbury, who died 
in 1180 (Lib. I., cap, 4), some even excelled the men in know- 
ledge and exercise of the art. That hawking should be 
forbidden to clerics was to be expected, but as the case of 
Bishop Boniface proves, the prohibition was not always 
enough to restrain the more ardent ecclesiastics, in spite of 
the law which said: “si clericus venationes exercuerit, I 
annum pcenitent.” 
In the celebrated Bayeux tapestry, Harold, King of 
England is represented approaching William, Duke of 
Normandy, mounted, and bearing upon his hand a Hawk. 
It is commonly supposed to have been a Sparrow-Hawk, but 
in the tapestry it is almost large enough to be an Eagle. 
The Duke also has his Hawk, and hounds are not wanting. 
This King and also William II, and their Courts, were 
greatly addicted to hunting and hawking, which led to much 
overbearance. So lightly was life valued that it was less 
criminal to slay a man than to purloin a Tiercel. It was the 
same with game. Terrible penalties, such as the loss of both 
eyes, were meted out to peasants or villeins who killed 
game reserved for William and his nobles. As he forbade 
the slaying of Harts, so also did he of Wild Boars, but 
not of Hares. 
In order to keep the New Forest solely for hunting, 
William I. is accused of laying waste a large tract, expelling 
the inhabitants of Hampshire. The chronicler Malmesbury 
draws a melancholy picture of the forest, as a spot appro- 
priated for the nurture and refuge of wild beasts, where 
before had existed human intercourse, and the worship of God, 
a place where Deer, Goats, and other animals, which were not 
for the general service of mankind, now ranged unrestrained.* 
Such was this monarch’s passion for the chase that nothing 
could stay his impetuosity. 
* «De Gestis Regum,” 1125. Lib. ITI. 
