108 



THE BIRDS OF N0RTHA31PT0N SHIRE 



Althorp Houseliold Books of the 16th and 17th 

 centuries, amongst which are many references to the 

 Herons, their nests and young. It appears from 

 Lord Spencer's letters that the Herons originally 

 nested in an unenclosed oak-wood planted in 1567- 

 68, and still known as the Heronry, and that a lodge 

 (known as the Old Falconry) was built in 1603 to 

 commemorate the visit of Anne of Denmark, wife of 

 James I., to Althorp. This lodge had an open 



ComnaoiiL Herons. 



gallery round the first floor, whence ladies and 

 gentlemen used to watch the fiis^hts of the trained 

 Falcons at the Herons Between 1840 and 1850 six 

 of the oaks in the Heromy were felled, as Lord 

 Spencer informs me, at the rate of two per annum 

 for three years ; the bii'ds took offence at this, and 

 shifted their quarters to a wood on the borders of 

 the Holdenby estate, and to another wood in the 

 neighbourhood. They were intentionally driven from 



