“Cormorant devouring time.”

Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act i. Sc. 1.

THE KING’S CORMORANTS.

Ravenous as the cormorant is, it is easily tamed, and becomes very attached and familiar. The use of trained cormorants for fishing is very ancient, and is believed to have originated with the Chinese.[149] The practice has been known in England, however, for many centuries. Ogleby, who went on an embassy to China in the time of James I., and who published an account of his travels on his return, describes the way in which the Chinese take

fish with cormorants. James himself, who was a great sportsman, kept trained cormorants for many years, and was accustomed to travel about the country with them, fishing as he went.

We have seen a curious MS. diary[150] in the British Museum, written in old French, by Hans Jacob Wurmser v. Vendenheym, who accompanied Lewis Frederick, Duke of Wurtemberg, in his diplomatic mission to England in 1610, from which it appears that the Duke, proceeding by Ware, Royston, Cambridge, and Newmarket, arrived at Thetford on the 7th of May,[151] where King James the First was then amusing himself with hunting, hawking, and fishing with cormorants.

The entry with reference to the cormorants is as follows:—

Lundy 7.
Thetford.

“S. E. soupa derechef avecq sa Mate. Lesquel en sortans de table, entrerent en carrosse pour aller à la rivière, ou ils virent des Cormorants, oyseau qui par signe que maistre qui les addresses leur donne, se plongent sous l’eaux et prennent des Anguilles et autre poisson; lequel aussy par signe l’on le faict rendir et vomir tous vifs, chose bien meruielleuse a voir. Sur toute chose estoit les sages discours de sa Mate tres admirable.”

The King had a regular establishment for his cormorants on the river at Westminster, and created a new office, “Master of the Royal Cormorants,” which office was first held by John Wood, as appears from various documents in the Record Office. Amongst other entries, for a knowledge of which I am indebted to Mr. F. H. Salvin, the distinguished falconer, are the following:—

“No. 1, James I., 1611, April 11.—To John Wood, the sum of £30, in respect he hath been at extraordinary charge in bringing up and training of certain fowls called cormorants, and making of them fit for the use of fishing, to be taken to him of His Majesty’s free gift and reward. By writ, dated the 5th day of April, 1611.