George Agar Hansard

“ When every bunch of fleshy fibre on the breast and shoulder stands out in bold relief during exercise, as if carved in bronze against a surface of ivory, then may an archer’s drill be said to have approached the end desired. “To know how to shoot an arrow is the first and most important accomplishment,” exclaimed a Manchoo Tartar warrior; “for though success seems easy, it is of rare attainment. How many are there who sleep with the bow in their arms, and yet how few have made themselves famous. ”

“ I’ll whistle her off, and let her down the wind,
To prey on fortune.
Haggard, is a hawk wild and stubborn, which no caresses can reclaim. Jesses are the short straps fastened to a falcon’s legs, by which she is retained on the wrist. ”

“ On coming to the same place, strike the bushes with your pole, as a signal for your servant to cast the duck into the air, but without discovering himself. The hawk being sharp-set will swoop directly after her, and bring her down in an instant, selecting the mallard “young and gay, whose green and azure brighten in the sun.” ”

“ They hate a breezy day. The growth of eyasses is rapid: they will soon desert the basket entirely, perching on the branches of adjacent trees and roofs of buildings, sometimes extending their flights to a considerable distance; but, if fed constantly at the same spot, and at the same hour, they will certainly return. At this time only, leaden bells, covered with soft leather, are by some falconers attached to their legs in addition to the usual sonorous musical ones formed of silver bell-metal, and thus hampered they may be confidently left to their own pleasure and devices. ”

“ An enthusiastic determination also to excel in the practice of this perfectly national sport animates the score or so of professors in both sexes who have hitherto borne away the palm of merit and struggled for the champion-medal, the first flight, the crême de la crême, of England’s modern bowmen and bowwomen. To win and wear for more than a very brief period this prized distinction of archery merit, is a stroke of good fortune not likely to fall to any single competitor. ”

“ Feeding times are now reduced to twice a day, and the meat need be no longer carved for them. Cast down to each a fresh blackbird, rook, jackdaw, starling, &c., or slice of fresh beef and mutton, throwing yourself on the greensward in the midst of your plumed favourites, and cheering them to the onslaught with voice, whistle, and swinging-lure, till you waken the echoes from rock, hill, and valley. The lure consists of four jackdaws’ wings, placed two and two, face to face, firmly united at their butts, so as to resemble a bird’s pinions as they appear when extended in flight ”

“ There are too many of our best toxophilites who exhibit a near equality of adroitness, and who, if they choose, can so fortify themselves by judicious training as to realise any score they please, to allow of long exclusive possession of the championship. We assert, it will be again and again lost and won, until ladies, and gentlemen likewise, throw aside their present passion for attitudinising, and settle down to sensible and regular practice. No shooter, were he to devote half his life to studying the position of Apollo Belvidere, would, from that kind of drill, be able to hit a haystack. ”

“ The gyr falcon was the ancient falconer’s prime favourite—a present, as already observed, meet to be offered to the monarch on his throne. She is the boldest, the most perfect winged, and, in proportion to her weight, the strongest both for action and endurance of all the feathered tribe. ”

“ The feat of nocking, not notching, an arrow, or splitting that of an adversary with your own, which he so carefully describes, is mere fable, never performed: the nock of a shaft, being about the thickness of a goose-quill, is invisible to the eye at thirty paces, let alone the distance they were shooting, nearly the eighth part of a mile. ”

“ For the ladies of old—and in modern days likewise—were and are passionate amateurs of this fascinating out-of-door pastime. When travelling, from castle to castle in a round of fashionable visits, the beautiful little merlin, equipped with embroidered jesses and silver bells, was never off their wrist. ”

“ Dwelling in inclement Iceland, subjected to violent winds, heavy snows, and protracted rains, and often compelled to endure severe abstinence in a locality where there is no tree, hardly even a bush, for the shelter of a bird, and requiring at other times to range for several hundred miles before she can procure a meal either for herself or her young, the gyr falcon has indeed a very laborious life, which it bravely upholds. ”

“ Doubtless, the attractions are, and ever have been, reciprocal; at least, we are not left in ignorance that four centuries ago your bowman was the truest, most loyal, and most chivalrous of lovers. “Thomas Boyd, Earl of Arran,” says John Paston, in a letter to his brother, dated about 1470, “is one of the lighterest, deliverest, [2] best spoken, fairest archer; devoutest, most perfect, and truest to his lady of all knights that ever I was acquainted with. So, would God, my lady liked me as well as I do his person and most knightly condition.” ”

“ During the heat and dusty whirlwind of oft-repeated charges, the man-at-arms, with barred helmet tightly secured, and sweltering beneath eighty or a hundred pounds of iron, concentrating the rays of a mid-day summer’s sun, occasionally sought to refresh himself with a mouthful of the pure element, and opened his visor. But a hundred and more of remorseless spirits, with eyes sharp as those of the lynx, are watching the chance, and have seen it. A hundred shafts with lightning speed have left the string, to be buried in the brains of as many incautious foemen. ”

“ Lure is a device imitating the body of a fowl, with the real wings of partridge, grouse, or drake, fastened to its sides, whereon the hawk, whilst training, should be constantly fed, the meat being tied to it, whirled round the falconer’s head, or thrown to a distance. The docile bird, anticipating food, swoops down from her loftiest pride of place, and is again easily placed upon her master’s fist. “Tassel gentle” means a sagacious, loving, well-conditioned male hawk, being a corruption of tiercel, he being a tierce, or one-third less than his mate. ”

“ It may be observed that no art or craft has more copiously lent itself to the figurative and proverbial language of our forefathers, than the sport now enlarged upon. Poets, from Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare, down to those of modern date, have borrowed metaphors and illustrations from falconry. ”

“ Her wants being the chief principle of dependence, it is endeavoured to increase her appetite by giving little balls of flannel and feathers, which are greedily swallowed. Having thus excited the appetite, care is taken to satisfy it, and thus gratitude attaches the bird to her tormentor. ”

“ Anon the bow is elevated, and one figure, graceful as Dian, lets fly her shafts [3] and instantly retires, to give place to the others. Then follows a whole storm of missiles, ‘iron sleet of arrowy shower,’ and the echoing thud! thud! thud! upon the target face—a sound so pleasant to the shooter’s ear—intimates that the two grand conditions, viz., shooting straight and keeping a length, have not been essayed in vain. ”

“ When the first lessons have thus succeeded, and the falcon shows signs of docility, she is carried out upon some green, the head uncovered, and by tempting her with food at intervals, she is taught to jump upon the fist and continue there. It is now necessary to study the character of the bird; to speak frequently to her if she be inattentive to the voice, to stint the food of such as do not come kindly or readily to the lure, and to keep her watching, if not sufficiently familiar. ”

“ It is a head-piece formed of leather and crimson velvet, surmounted by a stem, bearing aloft a plume of particoloured feathers. The hood is very becoming and ornamental to the brave bird, and an essential aid to the falconer in training: being put off and on at pleasure, its properties as a restraint are very great. Wearing this, the hawk, whether at home or abroad, can be kept perfectly quiet; without it, our control over her wild and timorous disposition is very limited. Varvels are silver rings, sometimes attached to the ends of the jesses, bearing the owner’s name, crest, and address. ”

“ Hawks do not drink, the blood and juices of their flesh diet being all that nature requires, but they intensely enjoy a bath in hot weather. Place them gently on the brink of a shallow sandy spot in some small crystal brook, and they will rush in, splashing vigorously until wet as a fish, and then sunning and pluming themselves upon the grassy bank. ”

“ A very clever modern bowman thus cheerily paints these festive gatherings, at which he is constantly a visitor:—”Everybody looks pleased and satisfied with a well-spent day, especially with the achievements of the lady archers, for with them lie the real beauty and charm of our weekly assemblies. ”

“ Well adapted, like archery, for extending the scanty range of open-air exercises in which women can appropriately indulge, both these graceful pastimes have been enthusiastically adopted by the sex, by which their permanence and popularity are secured. ”

“ When lamenting the ill-success that attended his addresses to Morryth, he compares himself to a man standing on the beach, “with a yew bow in his hand,” shooting at sea-gulls; who neither recovers his shafts, nor gains possession of the objects at which he aims. ”

“ In this case, the enthusiastic youngster will do best if he leave the birds with the old ones as long as possible; if procured from a distance, on the contrary, they should be taken from the nest when quite callow, and before the feathers are enough grown to be in danger of being broken on the journey, the rapidity and perfection of a falcon’s flight, be she trained or wild, depending on the preservation of her pinions. ”

“ The falconer must be on horseback, provided with a steady pointer and one or two spaniels under good command. When a bird is marked down, or pointed by the dog, the hawk is to be unhooded and cast off (thrown from the fist) . She will wheel in airy circles around her master, and if of a good race, mount to a considerable height, the higher the better. If she ranges at too great a distance, make her to incline inwards by the voice and lure. ”

“ The student of any art retrogrades only when he ceases to practise. He is brought to a standstill when his practice is insufficient; and no modern archer that we have known practises one-fourth part of what the object he aims at demands. Two hours daily promenading in an archery ground, will never put the promenader in possession of the championship, he may rest assured. ”

“ It is obvious enough that the bowman, when opposed to combatants so completely armed as the mediaeval chivalry, had a far more difficult game before him than has the modern rifleman; for, unless his shaft would punch a hole clean through their shields and breastplates, it was wholly ineffective, being splintered or glancing off. “Thrice did Locksley bend his shaft against De Bracy,” writes Sir Walter in his story of “Ivanhoe,” “and thrice did the arrow bound back from his armour of proof. ”

“ The glove, worn on the left hand, on which hand a falcon should always be perched, and never on the right, reaches nearly to the elbow, and is necessary to protect the sportsman’s flesh from the formidable talons of his bird, and to feed her upon. ”

“ But the boy falconer may find a very effective and cheap substitute in the larger kind of brass ferrets’ bells, which in form exactly resemble the real thing, and are, indeed, the cheap hawks’ furniture of our forefathers. Excellent and genuine falcon bells, and all the gear of falconry, viz., hoods, jesses, bewits, leash, and lure, are now to be bought. The country boy who is clever enough to help himself will find tanned hound’s skin, which does not shrink, the best of all leather. Besides this, he must beg of some ”

“ To train your hawk for this sport, procure three or four tame ducks of the same colour as the wild one, and throw her up one of these daily for as many days. When she brings them down, suffer her to plume them at her leisure, giving her the heads and necks for her reward ”

“ Indeed, how many of our ancient worthies, in their portraits adorning the ancestral halls of Britain, are represented holding a hooded falcon on the wrist. She enumerates the various species of hawk specially assigned to different sportsmen according to their degrees of rank. ”

“ Instead of caging them within-doors, as some do foolishly, place them on fresh clean barley-straw in a large hamper, firmly fixed on its side about breast-high, amongst the branches of some convenient tree, in a retired, sheltered situation. The hamper lid may be so supported, on a level with the straw, as to form a dining-room for your eyasses to come out upon when they are fed. ”

“ How many hearts then and there were transfixed by another description of little shafts, of very, very deadly aim, although they don’t count anything on the target card,
They best can paint it who have felt it most.
Notwithstanding the marks are fabricated of hard twisted straw bass, full two inches thick, and covered with tough painted canvas, a combination making as good body armour as any Royalist cavalier’s buff coat, the ladies’ arrows not only penetrated, but showed their steel points some three or four inches at the reverse side. ”

“ London in the 16th and 17th centuries had many famous bowmen amongst her citizens, as might be presumed in so large a population and with so many pleasant, suburban green pastures, easily accessible, and expressly set apart for its practice. ”