Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/326

 3o6 Hiftory of Domejiic Manners miftrefs, the hawk was held to the hand by a ftrap of leather or lilk, called a jV/Zt-, which was fitted to the legs of the bird, and palled between the fingers of the hand. Small bells were alio attached to their legs, one on each. The accompanying cut (No. 202), from a manufcript in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris (No. 6956), reprefents the falconer or keeper of the hawks holding in one hand what appears to be the jeffe ; he has a bird in his right hand, while another is perched on a Ihort poft, which is often alluded to in the directions for breeding hawks. The falconer wears hawks' gloves, which were made exprefily to proteft the hands againft the bird's talons. Hawking was a favourite recreation with the ladies, and in the illuminated raanufcripts they often figure in fcenes of this kind. Sometimes they are on foot, as in the group reprefented in our cut No. 203, taken from a manufcript in the Britilh Muieum (MS. No. 202. Haivh and their Keeper. 203. Ladies Huivking. Reg. 2 B. vii.). One lady has let go her hawk, which is in the a6t of llriking a heron 3 the other retains her hawk on her hand. The latter, as