Essays on sport and natural history / by James Edmund Harting.

  • Harting, James Edmund, 1841-1928.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on sport and natural history / by James Edmund Harting. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    89/534 (page 73)
    Hawking was pursued by all the Norman princes with the greatest enthusiasm. In those days a person of rank seldom stirred out without a hawk upon his hand. In old paintings and tapestry this was a sign of nobility, a good illustration of which is furnished by the celebrated Bayeux tapestry, which is preserved in the cathedral of Bayeux, in Normandy, and is there known as la toilette du Due Guillaume. It is 200 feet long, and about two feet six wide, and is said to be the work of Queen Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror. It repre- sents the departure of Harold for Normandy, and the conquest of England by William the Conqueror. Harold and Guy Comte de Ponthieu are represented each carrying a Sparrowhawk on the wrist.* From the time of Henry I., that is to say, from the commencement of the 12th century, and during many subsequent reigns, offences against the crown were often punished by the infliction of a fine of so many hawks ;t prisoners were ransomed on similar terms ;J and lands were held of the king by the * Lancelot, Explication de la tapisserie de Bayeux, dans les M^moires de I'Acad^mie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Paris, vi. p. 739; and viii. p. 602. t In the reign of Stephen, Outi of Lincoln was fined 100 Nor- way hawks, and as many Jerfalcons, of which four of the former and six of the latter were to be white. Mag. Rot. 5 Steph. Rot. 12 a. Madox, History and Antiquities of the Exchequer, vol. i. p. 273. X In 1212, during one of the Welsh campaigns of King John against Llewellyn ap Jorwerth, Prince of North Wales, the king, passing the river of Conway, encamped by its side, and sent part of his army, with guides of the country, to burn Bangor. This they did, and, amongst other prisoners, took Rotpart the Bishop, who was afterwards ransomed for two hundred hawks!