Falconry - Celebrated Falconers, Scotch, Dutch and English Clubs, the Falconers Club, Colonel Thornton, the Loo Club, the Old Hawking Club, Amateur Fa

Gerald Lascelles

Description

This antiquarian book constitutes one volume of a detailed and useful guide to falconry, and includes information on celebrated falconers and falconers' clubs. This fascinating and extensively illustrated text will be of considerable utility to modern hawking enthusiasts, and would make for a wonderful addition to collections of related literature. The chapters of this book include: 'Celebrated Falconers'; 'Scotch, Dutch and English Clubs'; 'The Falconer's Club'; 'Colonel Thornton'; 'The Old Hawking Club', etcetera. Many antiquarian books such as this are becoming increasingly hard to come by and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this book. It now comes as an affordable, modern edition - complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on falconry.

Sujets

• Sport
• Autour du sport
• Histoire du sport
• Hunting
• Recreation
• Sports

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 29 mars 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781446548752
• Langue: English

Extrait

FALCONRY
CELEBRATED FALCONERS, SCOTCH, DUTCH AND ENGLISH CLUBS, THE FALCONERS CLUB, COLONEL THORNTON, THE LOO CLUB, THE OLD HAWKING CLUB, AMATEUR FALCONERS, FAMOUS HAWKS AND RECORDS OF SPORT
BY
GERALD LASCELLES
CONTENTS
FALCONRY
CELEBRATED FALCONERS-SCOTCH, DUTCH, AND ENGLISH CLUBS-THE FALCONERS CLUB-COLONEL THORNTON- THE LOO CLUB-THE OLD HAWKING CLUB-AMATEUR FALCONERS-FAMOUS HAWKS-RECORDS OF SPORT.
The histories of those individuals by whose skill and knowledge any sport, science, or art has been maintained will always be interesting to those who at a distance of time may follow in their footsteps. A few pages describing the men who in recent times have kept the art of Falconry not only alive, but have now and again fanned its glowing embers into a blaze, will no doubt prove of interest to the student of the sport.
For a history of the falconers of the last century we would refer our readers to the introduction to Falconry in the British Isles. We will take up the running from the point where that work has abandoned the task. Among the chief friends of John Anderson the great Scotch falconer, who was born in 1745 and died in 1833, was one Ballantyne, who was the steward at Lord Bute s residence, Dumfries House, in Ayrshire, and who had at one time acted as falconer to the Earl of Eglinton. Ballantyne, like his friend, loved a hawk, and his boy Peter was trained to carry one as soon as he could stand erect. Peter Ballantyne was born in 1798, and at the age of twenty was apprenticed to his father s old friend, John Anderson, who was at that time falconer to the Renfrewshire Subscription Hawks. Mr. Fleming was the manager of this club till his death, and the head-quarters of the hawks was at his seat, Barochan Castle. For some years after Mr. Fleming s death, Anderson and the hawks, with Ballantyne to assist him, continued at Barochan ; but for the last two years of his professional life he was in the service of the Earl of Morton at Dalmahoy. It was during the time of Peter Ballantyne s apprenticeship to him that he visited London in a fancy dress of the period of James I., on the occasion of the coronation of George IV., in order to present to the king a cast of falcons on behalf of the Duke of Athol, who held the Isle of Man on that ancient feudal tenure. Very quaint indeed was Ballantyne s description of his master s appearance in this get up, and the old picture at Barochan, which has been engraved (though impressions are scarce), fully justifies the language applied to it by Anderson himself.
After Anderson s retirement in 1832, Ballantyne entered the service of Lord Carmarthen under John Pells, senior, at Huntly Lodge, Aberdeenshire. Both passage hawks and eyesses were kept, and great sport was obtained both at herons and at game. The finest flight was that at the woodcock, which could then be obtained in perfection among the young plantations on Deeside. From Pells Ballantyne learned the Dutch method of training hawks, of making hoods, and of using the swivel and jesses in lieu of the old heavy varvels, and by combining both systems was able to become the successful falconer that, so far as game hawking is concerned, he undoubtedly was.
After leaving Lord Carmarthen s service Ballantyne entered that of Sir James Boswell, where he had charge of greyhounds as well as hawks. At Sir James s death he was employed by Mr. Ewen of Ewenfield, Ayr, and it was in that gentleman s service that he was most successful, and showed the great sport that is recorded in a previous chapter on game hawking. On Mr. Ewen s death he became falconer to Mr. Oswald of Auchincruive, in whose service he died in 1884, a falconer to the last, at the age of eighty-six.
Though he failed a little for the last year or two of his life, so lately as 1880 he was able to show good sport, and probably never flew a better hawk than the falcon Pearl, which was then in fine form ; but even at the time of his death he had one hawk in training, which died on the same day as himself.
A notable family of Scotch falconers have been the Barrs. William Barr, the father of the family, was by profession a gamekeeper, but having been bred in the good days when a falcon or two was a necessary part of the appanage of a north-country gentleman, he had learned the rudiments of management, and acquired skill enough to train eyesses for game very successfully. His sons all learned the business with aptitude. William, the eldest, was a clever falconer with eyesses, and for some years made a living by exhibiting his trained hawks at racecourses and similar places, and flying them at pigeons-a description of hawking which cannot however be sufficiently condemned as being degrading to those who practise it, and a prostitution of what is essentially a genuine wild sport. William Barr emigrated to Australia in 1853, and is we believe still alive. Robert Barr, the third son, was trained under his elder brothers William and John, was for a time in the service of Captain Salvin and of the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, and eventually became falconer to the Old Hawking Club. He remained in their service for about seven years, and then entered that of the Marquis of Bute, dying soon afterwards, in the year 1871.
John Barr, the second son, was, however, the falconer who will be best remembered of the whole family, probably also as the cleverest professional falconer of this century.