ther to the king.

[Illustration: Fig. 152.--Falconers.--Fac-simile from a Miniature in
Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century, which treats of the "Cour de Jaime,
Roi de Maiorque."]

A man thoroughly acquainted with the mode of training hawks was in high
esteem everywhere. If he was a freeman, the nobles outbid each other as to
who should secure his services; if he was a serf, his master kept him as a
rare treasure, only parted with him as a most magnificent present, or sold
him for a considerable sum. Like the clever huntsman, a good falconer
(Fig. 156) was bound to be a man of varied information on natural history,
the veterinary art, and the chase; but the profession generally ran in
families, and the son added his own experience to the lessons of his
father. There were also special schools of venery and falconry, the most
renowned being of course in the royal household.

The office of Grand Falconer of France, the origin of which dates from
1250, was one of the highest in the kingdom. The Marechal de Fleuranges
says, in his curious "Memoirs"--"The Grand Falconer, whose salary is four
thousand florins" (the golden florin was worth then twelve or fifteen
francs, and this amount must represent upwards of eighty thousand francs
of present currency), "has fifty gentlemen under him, the salary of each
being from five to six thousand livres. He has also fifty assistant
falconers at two hundred livres each, all chosen by himself. His
establishment consists of three hundred birds; he has the right to hunt
wherever he pleases in the kingdom; he levies a tax on all bird-dealers,
who are forbidden, under penalty of the confiscation of their stock, from
selling a single bird in any town or at court without his sanction." The
Grand Falconer was chief at all the hunts or hawking meetings; in public
ceremonies he always appeared with the bird on his wrist, as an emblem of
his rank; and the King, whilst hawking, could not let loose his bird until
after the Grand Falconer had slipped his.

[Illustration: Fig. 153.--"How to bathe a New Falcon."--Fac-simile of a
Miniature in the Manuscript of "Livre du Roy Modus" (Fourteenth Century).]

Falconry, like venery, had a distinctive and professional vocabulary,
which it was necessary for every one who joined in hawking to understand,
unless he wished to be looked upon as an ignorant yeoman. "Flying the hawk
is a royal pastime," says the Jesuit Claude Binet, "and it is to talk
royally to t