HERON HAWKING 291 



a heron with a hawk as it rises from the stream where it may be 

 feeding is easy enough ; any nestling that has been well entered, 

 even the short-winged goshawk, can do this to an absolute cer- 

 tainty every time that it is brought near enough to the quarry ; 

 but this is not heron hawking. To arrive at this sport the follow- 

 ing conditions are necessary. A heronry of large size, situated 

 far from any river or feeding-ground, so that the herons pass 

 continually to and from the nearest river to the heronry, and 

 pass also over some vast open space of ground suitable to be 

 ridden over and wide enough to afford a flight of at least 

 two miles ere the heron could reach either a sheltering wood 

 or a piece of water into which he will dive like a duck. Nay, 

 we have known a heron to put in even to a sheepfold when 

 hard pressed on an open field ! 



Such conditions as these were well fulfilled at Didlington 

 in Norfolk, which was for many years the scene of the sport of 

 the High Ash Club. But here, even so long ago as 1838, the 

 draining of the fenland and breaking up and cultivation of 

 the open heaths so limited the area in which it was possible 

 to pursue the sport that blank days became more and more 

 common, and eventually the club was broken up. Better still 

 were the conditions under which the sport was pursued at the 

 Loo in Holland, where the heronry was of vast size, and the 

 country surrounding it even better than at Didlington. Here 

 heron hawking was pursued on a princely scale, the joint " 

 establishments of the King of Holland and of the English Club 

 being equal to any emergency, and some idea can be obtained 

 of the sport which they obtained when it is recorded that in 

 one year (1852) the hawks took no fewer than 292 herons, 

 while for eight years in succession they actually averaged 178 

 herons annually.' 



Of course so large a number of herons taken in the breeding 

 season would very soon ruin the finest heronry in the world, but 

 it was the practice to save and liberate every heron that was taken, 

 and it was a point of honour with the members of the Club to 



' See Schlegel'S TraiU de Pauconnerie, 1844. 



u 2 



