FIFTEENTH CENTURY 85 
of a distinguished family during the reigns of Henry VI., 
Edward IV. and Richard III., have formed the text of an 
article by Professor Newton in the second edition of Lubbock’s 
“Fauna of Norfolk’’* where the references to Hawking are 
discussed, and extracts given. 
That the high estate of Falconry had lost none of its 
prestige is very possible, for in the fifteenth century it was 
still a usual out-of-door exercise with the English nobility, 
and so it remained until firearms were invented. Important 
personages still showed a preference for being painted in 
hawking costume, or holding a Hawk, the taste for this species 
of dress implied love of the chase, which was universal and 
ardently followed. All this may be inferred from the literature 
of the time, as well as from the pages of the “ Bibliotheca 
Accipitraria,” in which Mr. Harting gives a portrait—here 
reproduced by permission—of one of the Kings of Scotland 
as a young man, holding a Sparrow-Hawk on his wrist. 
As the use of guns superseded the chasing of birds by trained 
Hawks, so did it at a later date supersede the employment of 
the Decoy for catching Ducks. That Norfolk, with its large 
extent of flat country, some of it comparatively treeless, 
was well suited for falconry is easily understood, and the 
pursuit of it was probably general among the rich. Early 
as is the Paston correspondence, it does not contain the first 
reference to Hawking in Norfolk, for, as pointed out by the 
Rev. T. 8. Cogswell, there are three incidental allusions to 
it in the Domesday Book. 
Feasting and Food.—There was not a little gluttony 
displayed in the heavy carousals of the Middle Ages, but they 
have the merit of having bequeathed to us some particulars 
about a good many birds which perhaps we should not other- 
wise have had. On great occasions a Boar’s head “‘ enarmede,” 
that is larded, was brought in, or a Peacock “ endored,”’ 1.e., 
with its head gilt, enveloped in its own skin after roasting, 
formed the principal course, and being lifted high by the 
bearers, was ceremoniously placed on the board. Thus 
garnished it was a ‘“‘ Pecok enhakyll,”’ that is to say, a Peacock 
dressed. Fosbroke says the Pheasant sometimes divided the 
honours with the Peacock, and was decorated not only with 
* Southwell’s edn., 1879, p. 224. 
