Of all the country sports enjoyed by the upper classes during the middle ages, hawking may be considered as the most distinctly aristocratic. It was attended with great expense and its practise was overlaid with a jargon of terms, all necessary to be learned by the gentleman who would fit himself for the company of others in the field. Thus hawking, in the course of centuries, became a semi-science, to be acquired by a considerable amount of patience and diligent study.
To be seen bearing a hawk on the hand was to be seen in the true character of a gentleman, and the grade of the hawk-bearer was known also by the bird he bore. Thus, the gerfalcon was appropriate to a king; the falcon-gentle, to a prince; the falcon of the rock, to a duke; and the goshawk, to a yeoman.
It was laid down as a rule in all old manuals of falconry that the sportsman constantly attend to the bird, feed him and train him daily. To part with the hawk was deemed highly ignominious, and a knight was strictly forbidden to give up his sword and hawk.
