INTRODUCTORY 237 



In this work we propose to treat of modern falconry alone. 

 That it is the most ancient of sports none can doubt. That it 

 was the popular sport in the East centuries before it travelled 

 to Europe is well known. Sir A. Layard records in his work 

 on ' Nineveh and Babylon ' that in the ruins of Khorsabad he 

 found a bas-relief representing a falconer bearing a hawk on 

 his wrist. In this case we may start our history of the sport 

 from 1200 B.C. But we have no intention of following its 

 course from that date to the present. As from the time of 

 Alfred to that of James I. falconry was the chief sport of the 

 aristocracy, so there were published more works on that subject 

 than perhaps on any other. To these we would refer those who 

 are curious in the history of tj«fe sport. First and foremost is the 

 old 'Boke of St. Albans,' printed in i486, purporting to be 

 written by Dame Juliana Berners, Abbess of Sopwell, Herts, con- 

 taining treatises on ' Hawking, Hunting, and Cote Armour.' Next 

 the ' Booke of Falconrie,' by George Turberville, Gentleman, a ^ 

 most excellent and quaint work abounding in good advice. In j 

 1615 was^printed 'The Faulcon's Lure and Cure,' by Symorr^ 

 Latham, a thoroughly good, practical work on hawking, full of 

 good sense.''' In the vajjous editions of Blome's ' Gentleman's 

 Recreations' (i67o)^e to be found many -hints on training 

 hawks, although most of the letterpress is copied from the olderR 

 works quoted above. But a very good and original work, now 

 very scarce, treating chiefly of the management of the short- 

 winged hawks, is 'A Treatise on Hawks and Hawking, b^^ 

 Edmund Bert, 16 19.' ' t In these books, with various other 

 treatises, can be found many interesting details of this sport, 

 which probably was at the height of its popularity about the time 

 of Elizabeth. Her chief falconer was Sir Ralph Sadler (who 

 was for some time the custodian of Mary Queen of Scots), and 

 the abode which he selected in order to follow his favourite sport 

 and for the better training of her Majesty's falcons was Everley 

 in Wiltshire, now the seat of Sir J. D. Astley. In the old manor 



' A reprint of this work was published in 1891 by Mr. Quaritch, limited to 

 100 copies. 



