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CHAPTER VI 



CELEBRATED FALCONERS — SCOTCH, DUTCH, AND ENGLISH 

 CLUBS — THE falconers' CLUB — COLONEL THORNTON — 

 THE LOO CLUB — THE OLD HAWKING CLUB — AMATEUR 

 FALCONERS — FAMOUS HAWKS — RECORDS OF SPORT. 



The histories of those individuals by whose skill and know- 

 ledge any sport, science, or art has been maintained will always 

 be interesting to those who at a distance of time may follow in 

 their footsteps. A few pages describing the men who in recent 

 times have kept the art of Falconry not only alive, but have 

 now and again fanned its glowing embers into a blaze, will no 

 doubt prove of interest to the student of the sport. 



For a history of the falconers of the last century we would 

 refer our readers to the introduction to ' Falconry in the British 

 Isles.' We will ' take up the running ' from the point where 

 that work has abandoned the task. Among the chief friends 

 of John Anderson the great Scotch falconer, who was born in 

 1 745 and died in 1833, was one Ballantyne, who was the steward 

 at Lord Bute's residence, Dumfries House, in Ayrshire, and who 

 had at one time acted as falconer to the Earl of Eglinton. 

 Ballantyne, like his friend, loved a hawk, and his boy Peter was 

 trained to carry one as soon as he could stand erect. Peter 

 Ballantyne was born in 1798, and at the age of twenty was 

 apprenticed to his father's old friend, John Anderson, who was 

 at that time falconer to the Renfrewshire Subscription Hawks. 

 Mr. Fleming was the manager of this club till his death, and 

 the head-quarters of the hawks was at his seat, Barochan Castle. 

 For some years after Mr. Fleming's death, Anderson and the 



