:

[35] _His honour was somewhat preposterous, for he bare_, &c. first edit.

[36] _Clown_, first edit.

[37] The art of hawking has been so frequently and so fully explained,
that it would be superfluous, if not arrogant, to trace its progress, or
delineate its history, in this place. In the earliest periods it appears
to have been exclusively practised by the nobility; and, indeed, the great
expense at which the amusement was supported, seems to have been a
sufficient reason for deterring persons of more moderate income, and of
inferior rank, from indulging in the pursuit. In the _Sports and Pastimes_
of Mr. Strutt, a variety of instances are given of the importance attached
to the office of falconer, and of the immense value of, and high
estimation the birds themselves were held in from the commencement of the
Norman government, down to the reign of James I. in which sir Thomas
Monson gave _1000l._ for a cast of hawks, which consisted of only _two_.

The great increase of wealth, and the consequent equalization of property
in this country, about the reign of Elizabeth, induced many of inferior
birth to practise the amusements of their superiors, which they did
without regard to expense, or indeed propriety. Sir Thomas Elyot, in his
_Governour_ (1580), complains that the falkons of his day consumed so much
poultry, that, in a few years, he feared there would be a great scarcity
of it. "I speake not this," says he, "in disprayse of the faukons, but of
them which keepeth them lyke cockneyes." A reproof, there can be no doubt,
applicable to the character in the text.

[38] A term in hawking, signifying the short straps of leather which are
fastened to the hawk's legs, by which she is held on the fist, or joined
to the leash. They were sometimes made of silk, as appears from [P] _The
Boke of hawkynge, huntynge, and fysshynge, with all the propertyes and
medecynes that are necessarye to be kepte_: "Hawkes haue aboute theyr
legges gesses made of lether most comonly, some of sylke, which shuld be
no lenger but that the knottes of them shulde appere in the myddes of the
lefte hande," &c. _Juliana Barnes._ edit. 4to. "_Imprynted at London in
Pouls chyrchyarde by me Hery Tab._" sig. C. ii.

[39] _This authority of his is that club which keeps them under as his
dogs hereafter._ First edit.

XIX.

AN IDLE GALLANT

Is one that was born and shaped for his cloaths; and, if Adam had not
fallen, had lived to no purpo