Publications of the Clan Lindsay Society - Electric Scotland

142 THE IIOYAL FALCONERS OF .SCOTLAND.
upon even to secure the interests of tlie Crown. In
1504, we have a curious instance of the ineffcctivenebs
of the State in this respect. Dunde or Aiulrew, Doule,
groom to James IV., jjossessed a hawk wliicli had
excited the cupidity of some people, and apparently
the only way in which his royal master could afford
him protection was hy [giving him money to convey
the bird to a distant part of the country, there to
conceal it.
The guarding of the nests was a matter that could
easily be arranged even before the nests themselves
were built, for falcons arc accustomed to return
year after year to the same nesting sites. The island
of Inchkeith was a favourite haunt, and so two men
were regularly stationed there from early sjMing until
midsummer. The men's wages, the cost of coal
supplied to them for firing, and the hire of the boats
for conveying them and the visiting falconer to and
fro, would necessarily be included in the market value
of the birds procured. Even if only a few were got,
however, the total outlay would be fairly covered by
their selling price; for a man's wage at that time was
only eightpence a day, while a single hawk might
fetch anything from fourteen shillings to as many
pounds. Ten pounds in the money of the period may
be taken as the average value of a trained hawk in the
sixteenth century, the same as that of a tirst-class
riding horse. The gerfalcon, the largest of the ialcons
in use, is likely to have been worth nmch more, for it
was scarce and difficult to procure, even in the north,
where alone it was f