Clafs II. FALCONRY. 



o. 



the pride of the rich, and the privilege of the poor, 

 no rank of men feems to have been excluded the a- 

 mufement : we learn from the book of St. Albans'^, 

 that every degree had its pecuHar hawk, from the 

 emperor down to the holy water clerk. Vaft was the 

 expence that fometimes attended this fport; in the 

 reign oi James I. Sir l^homas Monfon -f is faid to have 

 given a thoufand pounds for a caft of hawks : we are 

 not then to wonder at the rigor of the laws that tended 

 to preferve a pleafure that was carried to fuch an ex- 

 travagant pitch. In the Q^A-^h oi Edward III. it was 

 made felony to fteal a hawk : to take its eggs, even in 

 a perfon's own ground, was punilhable v/ith imprifon- 

 ment for a year and a day j befides a fine at the king's 

 pleafure : in queen Elizabeths reign the imprifon- 

 ment was reduced to three months \ but the offender 

 was to find fecurity for his good behaviour for it-vzvi 

 years, or lie in prifon till he did. Such was the en- 

 viable ftate of the times in old England: during the 

 v;hole day our gentry were given to the fowls of the 

 air, and the beads of the field : in the evening they 

 celebrated their exploits with the moil abandoned 

 -and brutifh fottifhnefs : at the fame time the inferior 

 rank of people, by the molt unjuft and arbitrary 

 laws, were liable to capital punifhments, to fines, and 

 lofs of liberty, for deftroying the mofi; noxious of the 

 feathered tribe. 



Our anceftors made ufe of feveral kinds of native 

 hawks ; though that penetrating and faithful natura- 



* A treatife on hunting, hawking and heraldry, printed at 

 St. Jlbans by Caxtaji, and aUribuced to Dime Julian 2ar?::s. 

 t Sir Ant. IVsldon^ coyrc of K. Janis}, 105. 



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