245 
Netting Wild Hawks. 
when the wind was southerly, the birds flew from the sun, 
and one could easily “ know a hawk from a hernshaw.” 
An expression in the First Part of Henry VI. (i. 3,36) 
has led to some discussion. Gloucester, indignant at the 
opposition of the turbulent prelate, Bishop of Winchester, 
exclaims:— 
“ I’ll canvass thee in thy "broad cardinal’s hat, 
If thou proceed in this thy insolence.” 
According to a writer in the Edinburgh Bevietv, 
October, 1872— 
“ canvass was a technical name for the peculiarly constructed net 
with which wild hawks were snared by the falconer, in order to be 
manned for the fist, the flight, and the lure. At least, it was a term 
technically applied to catching wild hawks in this way, and to be can¬ 
vassed in this sense was to be taken, trapped, or netted. 
‘ That restlesse I, much like the hunted hare, 
Or as the canvist kite doth fear the snare.’ 
(.Mirror for Magistrates').” 
Wild hawks were trapped by means of a net attached 
to a bow of iron or wood. Strings fastened to the sides 
of the net were held by the falconer:— 
“ Now,” writes the reviewer, “ the circular sweep of the cardinal’s 
hat, with its knotted strings, has a not unapt resemblance to the 
hawk-net machinery; and Gloucester, in saying, ‘ I’ll canvass thee in 
thy broad cardinal’s hat,’ expressed his determination to trap and seize 
the arrogant Churchman, if he persisted in his violent course. ” 
For much information concerning hawking and hunt¬ 
ing in medieval times, as well as for every subject 
-connected with Shakspeare, the reader is referred to Dr. 
Drake’s learned work, Shakspeare and his Times , published 
1817, 4to. 
Harrison enumerates the various kinds of varieties of 
hawks known in his time:— Hawks. 
“ We have also the lanner and the lanneret: the tersell and the 
