86 
the list of your majestys chaplains, the filling up of uhicli with the 
name of my honest friend, would make the poor man liappy for life.’ 
‘The list of chaplains, my Lord Treasurer!’ exclaimed the king ; 
surely— I would not stand upon niceties— but a chaplain and a 
Mcouer— ‘Forgive me, my dear liege,’ interrupted Cottington, 
with imperturbable gravity, ‘ but knowing your liberality in such 
matters, and hearing from persons of good credit that your majesty 
vras about to confer the secretaryship of state on worthy Mr. 
Wyndham, I^thought I would make a bold face and lose no time in 
endeavouring at some preferment for the no less deserving Mr. 
Mood. lie w'ill soon learn to I'ead, if in truth he does not possess 
that accomjdishment already, for I think I have seen him jjerusing 
an almanac ; and in the progress of a few days, I doubt not he will 
be cpiite as able to further your majesty’s interests in the w-ay I 
speak of, as Mr. Wyndham in his more exalted station.’ The king, 
at this discourse, is said to have looked more disconcerted than he 
had shown himself on more trying occasions. He blushed, then 
laughed, then blushed again ; & finally settled the pretensions of 
both Mr. Wyndham and Mr. Wood by observing, ‘ Odsfisli ! my lord, 
you have dealt me a hard knock ; but I suppose it was out of love, 
seeing that I was going to do a foolish thing ; and so I’ll not be so 
foolish as to persist in it.” 
irom this anecdote w'e may form some notion of the professional 
falconer of the period, who showed the King and court such good 
sport -with his hawks in Korfolk. 
Although the birds which lie employed were generally eyesses 
Avhich he trained himself, yet we know that on occasions he 
flew others which had been presented to the King, or which, as 
in the case of Jer-falcons for Hying at the kite, had been imported 
for His Majesty’s amusement by the Grand Falconer for the time 
being. 
The so-called “presents ” often cost the King a great deal more 
than if Iris falconer liad taken the hawks himself, for he enter- 
tained the ambassadors who brought them at his own expense, 
and defrayed the cost of tlicir excursions with him to see the 
hawks flown. Thus we find a record of an order by the Lord 
Treasurer for the payment of £200 “to provide divers French 
gentlemen, lately sent unto his majesty wdth a present of hawks 
from tlie French King, of all necessaries in a journey along with 
his Majesty to Theobalds, Roysfcon, and Kewunarket, they having 
to reside there for a season to exercise the game of hawking 
