SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 1899, put on a red fly of the same shape as a mayfly and was as successful with it as he had previously been with the ordinary mayfly. The river Gade is probably the best trout- ing river in the county owing to its gravelly bed, which makes excellent ground for spawning. On June I, 1897, the Hon. A. Holland Hibbert of Munden, fishing on the Gade, caught between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. no fewer than eighty-five trout, weighing I2O lb., the flies he used being the mayfly, the alder and the sedge. Many improvements can be made in our rivers by good management ; this is probably nowhere more apparent than in the portion of the river Colne that passes through Munden. The river was first dragged with the net in 1872 and only one trout was caught and a large number of pike and coarse fish were taken out. Between the years 1872 and 1899 no less than 1,151 pike and 7,700 coarse fish have been taken out of this portion of the river, and for some years either 1,000 yearling trout or 250 two year olds have been turned into it. The result has been that in late years the ordinary catch of trout has been from 250 to 330 per annum, averaging over I lb. in weight, and the largest fish weighed 6 lb. 6 oz., caught in 1896, while several others of 5 lb. and 4 lb. have also been caught. This improvement has taken place with but little assistance from the proprietors of the river either above or below the Munden water, which is about three miles in length. There are many other owners of water in Hertfordshire who have improved the fishing in their rivers, especially in the Club water on the river Lea near Hatfield and in the Mimram at Marden. HAWKING The art of hawking was practised through- out Hertfordshire at an early date, the right of hawking being claimed by most of the great lords in the county in the reign of Edward I. It was a sport much indulged in by ecclesiastics over the numerous manors in Hertfordshire owned by them and where they exercised their sporting rights. We have evidence of preserves for partridges and other birds by the abbot of St. Albans at various places, by the abbot of Westminster at Wheathampstead, by the king at Kings Langley, and by many others of less degree at other places. The wooded condition of the county however, particularly on its western side, probably interfered with the sport and caused the loss of many a hawk. Before the introduction of the musket hawking was a necessary means of obtaining flying game, although it was essentially an aristocratic sport on account of the expense entailed in the pur- chase, training and maintenance of the birds. It was, as is well known, a favourite diver- sion with ladies, and Hertfordshire can boast of having produced the earliest English treatise on the subject, and that by one of the gentler sex, Dame Juliana Berners, who in her Bake of St. Albans, enters minutely into the subject and instructs us in ' the manner to speak of Hawks from the egg.' We must not say young hawks are hatched, but ' disclosed ' ; they do not breed but 'eyer' ; they 'timber' their nests, not build them ; when they first leave the nest they are ' bowesses,' and when they can fly they are dubbed ' branches.' She mentions that hawks are liable to a variety of diseases, of which gout was by no means an uncommon one. Dame Juliana ends her list of hawks with a characteristic qualification An Eagle for an Emperor. A Gerfalcon for a King. A Peregrine for an Earl. A Merlyon for a Lady. A Goshawk for a yeoman. A Sparrow hawk for a priest. A Muskyte for ' an holiwater clerke.' In Queen Elizabeth's time hawking was very fashionable in Hertfordshire. The queen herself indulged in the sport during her numerous visits to Sir Robert Cecil at Theo- balds, and on September 16, 1595, Lady Wolley writes to Sir W. More : ' Yesterday evening Her Majesty went abroad hawkynge. Sir R. Cecil's hawke killed three partridges which he presented the Queen with, and myself being in place, her Majesty gave them me with the express charge that I should send them to you this day again dyner, desiring you to eat them for her sake. Since Sir Robert Cecil begged them of me I could not deny him of.' Charges for hawks appeared regularly in the Cecil estate accounts at Theobalds, and later in those of Hatfield. The following is a specimen bill at Theobalds (Edwardes bill) : Paid for 2 dozen pidgeons for hawks, 45. 6d. ; meate for pidgeons, 4*. 6d. ; yeard 3 6 3
