HAWKING. 
127 
Hawk, as soon as it had taken the live lure, always returned 
to its master, knowing that it was sure to he well fed as a 
reward. 
Having completed its education, when at home it was 
placed on a perch without a hood. Straps of leather or 
s ilk , called jesses, were put about its legs, for the purpose 
of holding it, and hells were also attached, so small as not 
to impede its flight ; besides this part of the Hawk’s 
furniture, the person who carried it was provided with thick 
gloves, to prevent its talons from hurting the hand, and these 
were often very costly and highly embroidered. 
Attached as were our ancestors to this sport, it was by 
no means confined to England. In Denmark, we have seen, 
from the attention paid to their importation, how highly 
good Hawks were prized. In France, too, it was as eagerly 
and expensively pursued, and even the Turks followed the 
example of Christendom. 
A certain Sultan, called Bajazet Ilderim, maintained a 
corps of 7000 falconers, about the time it was so fashionable 
in Europe ; and to this day, in the plains of Turkey, tra- 
vellers may meet with parties of falconers, with Hawks upon 
their wrists, in pursuit of hares, and a particularly large 
kind of Lark, at which their Falcons are trained to fly. 
Wild and shy as Hawks are, it will scarcely he credited, 
that at one time, the common Gledes or Kites were nume- 
rous in London streets. This happened in the time of 
Henry VIII., when it seems that 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 he killed, they became so fearless as actually 
to mingle with the passengers, and take their prey in the 
very midst of the greatest crowds. Few people are, indeed, 
aware of the numbers of Hawks existing at this day in 
London. 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 weather-cock of Bow Church, in Cheapside. 
