BIRDS 1 89 



head of Banner-dale, and Mr. Jackson, junior, pointed out the 

 former eyrie of a pair of Eagles, situated in the breast of the 

 precipice known as Buck Crag. A few minutes later we ascended 

 to the ridge of the ' Nab/ and when Fairfield and Helvellyn, 

 Striding Edge and Matterdale Common stood forth in fine suc- 

 cession against the sky-line, St. John's Vale lying to the north, 

 I thought involuntarily of the lordly birds that a hundred years 

 earlier swept magnificently over the crests of the mountains, 

 filling the shepherds with apprehension for the safety of newly 

 dropped lambs. Subsequently I called on Mr. Jackson, senior, 

 who for many years acted as deer-stalker to the Hasell family. 

 Mr. Jackson is in his 86th year, and though in full possession 

 of all his faculties, has some little difficulty in recognising the 

 questions of a stranger. I therefore spoke to him through his 

 son, and reproduce the dialogue which followed, ipsissima verba : 

 * Q. Do you mind of any Eagles 1 — A. There was Eagles onceover. 

 They had a nest at Buck Crag. Q. I suppose somebody shot one % 

 — A. Old Edward Sisson shot it. Q. Did you see him shoot 1 

 — A. No. It was afore my time. It was when my grandfather 

 lived at Dale Head — maybe a hundred years sin'. Q. Did they 

 take the young birds 1 — A. They hadn't brought out. I believe 

 it was eggs.' He added in explanation that after Edward Sisson 

 had shot one of the old birds, another man went over the rocks 

 with a rope to take the young, but the young had not hatched 

 out. He further volunteered, ' I have heard them say they went 

 across into Gowbarrow and used to worry fawns,' a probable 

 enough performance on the part of the Golden Eagle, though 

 scarcely consistent with what we know of the habits of the Sea 

 Eagle. He once saw an eagle himself : ' I yonce saw one that 

 old Glossop shot at. It passed me at Lyulph's Tower. Tommy 

 Yarker Lowther, keeper, followed it a good bit, but what became 

 of it nabody knew.' I called the following day on another aged 

 yet vigorous Dalesman, Mr. Greener, who is in his 85th year. 

 He told me that he was well acquainted with Edward Sisson, 

 who lived on his own property at Swarthbeck [nearer Pooley 

 Bridge], and was ' a great shooter.' Mr. Greener himself was 

 born in 1807. It is fair to assume, therefore, that his intimacy 

 as a young man with Edward Sisson carries us down to 1830. 



