3i6 FALCONRY 



I well remember having heard from several old men in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the excellent flights which this species afforded, and 

 especially of one flight, which, beginning on Eriswell or on the 

 adjoining part of Elveden, ended in Lord Bristol's park at Ickworth, 

 near Bury St. Edmunds, a distance in a straight line of some ten 

 or twelve miles. 



The famous Colonel Thornton, who succeeded Lord 

 Orford as the manager of the Falconers' Club (or, as the Colonel 

 describes it in his ' Northern Tour,' ' The Confederate Hawks of 

 England '), seems to have been very successful at this flight 

 with the gerfalcon, as also at hares. Whence he got his hawks 

 we are not able to trace, but as it is certain that the falconers 

 of that day were in frequent communication with those of the 

 Continent, we are inclined to suspecf that the ancient huts 

 for hawk-catching which JMr. Newcome discovered on the 

 Dovrefjeld had some connection with the gerfalcons trained 

 by Lord Orford and Colonel Thornton, and with the princely 

 establishments of hawks which they maintained. 



In Colonel Thornton's 'Northern Tour' is described an 

 episode which bears so strongly upon the subject of this 

 chapter that we venture to reproduce it verbatim. He 

 says : — 



A Mr. A , attended by a little humpbacked servant with a 



large portmanteau, joined our party ranging for kite near Elden 

 Gap. At length one was seen in the air, and I ordered the 

 owl to be flown. He came as we wished, at a proper distance. 

 The day was fine, and the hawks, particularly ' Javelin ' and 

 ' Icelanderkin,' in the highest order, and with them ' Crocus^ a 

 famous slight falcon. Never was there a finer day, a keener com- 

 pany, or for six miles a finer flight. When he was taken, in an 

 ' ecstasy I asked Mr. A how he liked kite hawking. He re- 

 plied with a sort of hesitation that expressed but small pleasure, 

 ' Why, pretty well ! ' We then tried for hare with a famous hawk 

 called ' Sans Quartier.' After ranging a little we found one, and 



in about two miles killed it. Mr. A , coming up again slowly, 



unwilling or unable to leave his portmanteau, I repeated my former 

 question, and though the flight of a hare is fine, yet being in no 

 way equal to that of a kite, was surprised to see his countenance 



