HAWKING-BIRDS. 
to be liis death; for, being in pursuit of his game afoot, at 
Hitchen, in Hertfordshire, and attempting to leap a ditch by 
the aid of a pole, the treacherous stick snapped as Henry was 
at the height of his vault, and down he plumped, so that his 
head was buried in the mud. A friendly footman happened 
to be at hand, or there would have been an end to the king’s 
hawking. 
It furnishes a tolerable notion of the sort of place London 
was at the time of the reign of the last-mentioned king, — that 
the wild and shy kite and hawk were common in the streets ; 
“ they were attracted by the offal of butchers’ and poulterers’ 
stalls ; and as, on account of their use in removing so offensive 
a nuisance, they were not allowed to be killed, they became so 
fearless as actually to mingle with the passengers, and take 
their prey in the very midst of the crowds.” It is no less an 
authority than Bishop Stanley who furnishes this information, 
and he further says : — “ Few people are aware of the number 
of hawks existing in London at this day. On and about the 
dome of St. Paul’s they may be often seen, and within a very 
few years a pair for several seasons built their nest and reared 
their brood, in perfect safety, between the golden dragon’s 
wings which formed the weathercock of Bow Church, in 
Cheapside. They might be easily distinguished by the thou- 
sands who walked below, flying in and out, or circling round 
the summit of the spire, notwithstanding the constant motion 
and creaking noise of the weathercock as it turned round at 
every change of the wind ” 
When Wales was a kingdom, there were only three officers 
of the king’s household who ranked above the chief falconer. 
This latter personage occupied the fourth place at his royal 
master’s table, but — thorn among the roses his office vouch- 
safed — was allowed “ to drink but three times, lest he should 
exceed propriety, and rather sleep than tend his precious 
charges.” The king of Wales would at times even so far 
do homage to the favoured sport as to rise from his royal seat 
to greet his falconer, and on some special occasions would hold 
his stirrup while he mounted his horse. 
In ancient days, France was faithful to her hawks and to her 
grand falconer. Fifty gentlemen and fifty serving-men made 
him a train, and his salary was four thousand florins a year. 
He was allowed to keep three hundred hawks, and every one in 
the kingdom who set up as a hawk-dealer had first to buy a 
licence of the grand falconer; and in addition he received a fee 
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