FOURTEENTH CENTURY 65 
nounced excommunication on the thieves who had taken it. 
“Persons of high rank,” says Strutt, who so well describes 
the manners of this period, “rarely appeared without their 
dogs and their hawks ; the latter they carried with them when 
they journeyed from one country to another, and sometimes 
even when they went to battle, and would not part with them 
to procure their own liberty, when taken prisoners. These 
birds were considered as ensigns of nobility, and no action 
could be reckoned more dishonourable to a man of rank than 
to give up his hawk.”’* But other birds besides hawks appear 
to have been frequently kept, not for the sake of sport, nor 
for beauty of plumage, but as watch-guards, or in some cases 
for eating. We are told that two favourite birds in English 
baronial mansions were the imported Parrot, and the Magpie, 
the former for its drolery, while the Magpie had a place in the 
poultry yard, because from its watchfulness against depredators 
and the noise it made on the approach of fowl-stealers, it 
was considered a useful safeguard. It was a time when the 
middle classes were making some considerable advance both 
in independence and wealth, and when consequently we may 
suppose they had more leisure for the animals which lived 
around them; but, if they had, they have left us few records, 
except as to falconry and trifling details of their housekeeping. 
This may be in part due to a certain degree of stagnation 
which overspread the.land, following upon the depopulation 
of counties which took place in 1348-9. 
Animals Destroyed by Plague.—These were the years 
of the Great Plague, which ravaged not England only but a 
great part of Europe. So virulent was the epidemic that 
even animals, such as dogs and cats, perished in the infected 
houses, and cocks and hens also died.t In one pasture 
there lay five thousand sheep, and they were so putrid that 
neither beast nor bird would touch them.{ 
Professor Rogers speaks of the great change which is 
known to have taken place in the relations of labour and 
capital from this cause. Meanwhile, minor matters had to be 
content with a place in the background, and agriculture, for 
* « Sports and Pastimes,” p. 18. 
+ Baluze, “ Vite Paparum.” 
+ Roger Twysden, “ Hist. Angl. Script.” 
