[65] Macbeth, II. iv. 12.
[66] Richard II. I. iii. 61.
[67] Lucrece, 506.
[68] II. v. 102.
[69] Merry Wives of Windsor, III. iii. 18. Musket or Musquet-hawk was an old name for the cock Sparrow-hawk, and ‘eyas’ meant a fledgling.
Before passing from the subject of hawks and hawking, I should state that the sport is not yet wholly extinct in this country, and that we have at least two extant memorials of the time when it was a favourite pastime here. There is still among our King’s Court officials a Hereditary Grand Falconer, the office being held in the family of the Duke of St. Albans. In old times, and for many generations, the royal stud of hawks was kept at Charing Cross in buildings that were known as The Mews. In the reign of Henry VIII. these mews were turned into stables for horses, but the time-honoured name still clung to them. It became customary to call by this name lanes flanked with stables, and this practice has continued down to our own day. When we speak of “mews,” however, it is always horses and never hawks that come into our minds.
[70] Taming of the Shrew, II. i. 206.
[71] Dictionary of Birds, p. 67.
[72] 2 Henry VI. III. ii. 191. Chaucer refers to “the coward Kyte.”
[73] III. i. 248.