It is well worthy notice, that this sort of phraseology was not confined to birds and beasts, and other parts of the brute creation, but it was extended to the various ranks and professions of men, as the specimen, which I cannot help adding, will sufficiently demonstrate; the application of some of them, will, I trust, be thought apt enough:—
A state of princes; a skulk of friars; a skulk of thieves; an observance of hermits; a lying of pardoners; a subtiltie of serjeants; an untruth of sompners; a multiplying of husbands; an incredibility of cuckolds; a safeguard of porters; a stalk of foresters; a blast of hunters; a draught of butlers; a temperance of cooks; a melody of harpers; a poverty of pipers; a drunkenship of coblers; a disguising of taylors; a wandering of tinkers; a malepertness of pedlars; a fighting of beggars; a rayful, (that is, a netful,) of knaves; a blush of boys; a bevy of ladies; a nonpatience of wives; a gagle of women; a gagle of geese; a superfluity of nuns; and a herd of harlots. Similar terms were applied to inanimate things, as a caste of bread, a cluster of grapes, a cluster of nuts, &c.
I shall now conclude this long, and, I fear, tedious chapter with "the seasons for alle sortes of venery;" and the ancient books upon hunting, seem to be agreed upon this point.
The "time of grace" begins at Midsummer, and lasteth to Holyrood-day. The fox may be hunted from the Nativity to the Annunciation of our Lady; [186] the roebuck from Easter to Michaelmas; the roe from Michaelmas to Candlemas; the hare from Michaelmas to Midsummer; the wolf as the fox; and the boar from the Nativity to the Purification of our Lady.
CHAPTER II.
I. Hawking practised by the Nobility.—II. Its Origin not well known;—A favourite Amusement with the Saxons.—III. Romantic Story relative to Hawking.—IV. Grand Falconer of France, his State and Privileges.—V. Edward III. partial to Hawking;—Sir Thomas Jermin.—VI. Ladies fond of Hawking.—VII. Its Decline.—VIII. How it was performed.—IX. Embellishments of the Hawk.—X. Treatises concerning Hawking;—Superstitious Cure of Hawks.—XI. Laws respecting Hawks.—XII. Their great Value.—XIII. The different Species of Hawks, and their Appropriation.—XIV. Terms used in Hawking.—XV. Fowling and Fishing;—The Stalking Horse;—Lowbelling.
I.—HAWKING BY THE NOBILITY.
Hawking, or the art of training and flying of hawks, for the purpose of catching other birds, is very frequently called falconry or fauconry; and the person who had the care of the hawks is denominated the falconer, but never I believe the hawker. The sport is generally placed at the head of those amusements that can only be practised in the country, and probably it obtained this precedency from its being a pastime so generally followed by the nobility, not in this country only, but also upon the continent. Persons of high rank rarely appeared without their dogs and their hawks; the latter they carried with them when they journeyed from one country to another, [187] and sometimes even when they went to battle, and would not part with them to procure their own liberty when taken prisoners. Sometimes they formed part of the train of an ecclesiastic. [188] These birds were considered as ensigns of nobility: and no action could be reckoned more dishonourable to a man of rank than to give up his hawk. [189] The ancient English illuminators have uniformly distinguished the portrait of king Stephen by giving him a hawk upon his hand, to signify, I presume, by that symbol, that he was nobly, though not royally born. [190]