HAWKING. 
there has been no inducement to younger men to follow the 
employment of their forefathers.” 
About the time Sir John Sebright wrote the above (1825) 
there took place a hawking bout, which was duly chronicled in 
the Naturalists’ Magazine. The scene of the spot was the flat 
fen country of Norfolk, and near a heronry. Says the chroni- 
cler: “ The party assembled in the afternoon, the wind blowing 
towards the heronry. There were four couples of hawks, all 
females, of the breed known by the name of the Perigrine falcon, 
one of the most esteemed of the British hawks in the days of 
falconry. They were carried by a man to the ground upon an 
oblong kind of frame, padded with leather, on which the birds 
perched, and to which they were fastened by a thong of leather. 
Each bird had a small bell on one leg and a leather hood, with 
an oblong piece of scarlet cloth stitched into it over each eye ; 
on the top of this hood was a small plume of various coloured 
feathers. The man walked in the centre of the frame, with a 
strap from each side over each shoulder; and when he arrived at 
the spot fixed upon for the sport he set down the frame upon 
its legs, and took off all the falcons and tethered them to the 
ground in a convenient shady place. 
“ There were four foreigners, probably from Ealconsward, a 
village in North Brabant, much famed for its falcons, under 
whose particular care the birds were placed, each having a bag 
somewhat like a woman’s pocket tied to his waist, containing a 
live pigeon called a lure, to which was fastened a string. 
“ After waiting awhile some herons passed, but at too great 
a distance ; at length one appeared to be coming within reach, 
and preparations were made to attack him. Each of the men 
being now ready, with a falcon on his fist, and the bag with 
the lure tied to the waist, and mounted on horseback, pro- 
ceeded slowly in the direction whence the heron was flying ; 
and as soon as the heron was nearly opposite, though at a 
very considerable height in the air, they slipped the hoods from 
off the heads of the falcons, holding them to the fist by the bit 
of leather till they caught sight of the heron, when the sport 
commenced in earnest. 
“ At the moment they were let loose, off they went, straight 
as arrows, towards the heron, which by this time had gone 
a considerable distance ahead. As they were dashing away 
towards it an unfortunate crow happened to cross their course, 
when one of them instantly darted at him, but he contrived to 
escape by striking into a plantation, where the falcon followed, 
274 
