He died in Paris in the spring of 1823, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, leaving an only daughter, who in 1838 married Captain (afterwards Admiral) the Hon. E. T. Wodehouse. His will, dated October 2nd, 1818, wherein he is described as of Falconers' Hall, Boythorpe, in the East Riding of York, and of Pont-le-Roi, France, was proved in London by his executor, Mr. B. Curling, to whom probate was granted 26th April 1823 IX. SILVER GILT URN, presented to Colonel Thornton, of Thornville Royal, by the Members of the Falconers' Club, at Barton Mills, 23rd June 1781. Now in the possession of the Earl of Orford. The members of this club, whose names are given below, used to meet at Alconbury Hill, which was a favourite rendezvous on account of the number of Kites which at that time were to be found there. (For a description of Kite-hawking see an article in The Field of 10th January 1891, with an illustration by J. Wolf.) They used then to go on to Barton Mills, as appears by a memorandum in the handwriting of Colonel Thornton, which in 1823, the year in which he died, was in the possession of Mr. T. Gosden. The handsome trophy, of which a representation is now for the first time given, is of unique design in silver gilt. It is appropriately surmounted by figures of a Goshawk holding a Hare, and bears the following inscription : "Colonel Thornton, proposer and manager of the Confederate Hawks, is requested to receive this piece of plate from George, Earl of Orford, together with the united thanks of the members of the Falconers' Club, as a testimony of their esteem and just sense of his assiduity, and of the unparalleled excellence to which, in the course of nine years' management, he has brought them, when, unable to attend them any longer, he made them a present to the Earl of Orford. Barton Mills, 23rd June 1781." Then follow the names of the members on a scroll surrounding the armorial bearings of the Earl of Orford. With a magnifying glass these names may be easily read on the plate. MEMBERS OF THE CLUB. Earl of Orford Mr. Sturt Mr. Snow Mr. Smith Mr. Stephens Hon. Thos. Shirley Sir Cornwallis Maude Mr. Baker Mr. William Baker Mr. Pierce Mr. Coke Duke of Rutland Mr. Belford Mr. Lascelles Lascelles Mr. Parker Mr. Tyssen Mr. Molloy Mr. Affleck Mr. St. George Earl of Eglinton Mr. Parsons Mr. Vaughan Mr. R. Wilson Mr. Musters Mr. Barrington Price Mr. Francis Barnard Mr. Porter Colonel St. Leger Mr. Serle Mr. Parkhurst Mr. Molyneux Earl of Surrey Sir William Milner Sir Richard Symonds Earl of Lincoln Marquis of Granby Chaplain-Mr. Edward Parsons. This urn, with other sporting trophies, after the Colonel's death, became the property of his grandson, Colonel Thornton Wodehouse, R.A., the son of his daughter, who in 1838 married Captain (afterwards Admiral) the Hon. E. T. Wodehouse. On the 11th of June 1884, the whole of these trophies were sold at auction by Messrs. Christie, Manson & Wood, when the urn now figured, weighing 136 oz., was purchased for £112 by the present Earl of Orford. Thus, after the lapse of a century, SILVER GILT URN. Presented to Colonel Thornton of Thornville Royal By the Members of the Falconers Club, Barton Mills, 23 June 1781. Now in the possession of the Earl of Orford. the trophy returned to the Orford family, by whose representatative in 1781 it had been, as above shown, presented. An account of the other trophies sold at the same time, some of them of great interest, will be found in The Zoologist for 1884, p. 275. There is a scarce engraving, from a picture by Sawrey Gilpin, of Heron-hawking, in which Colonel Thornton is represented as just dismounted, and taking up a hawk from a heron in front of a thatched cottage, from the door of which an old woman is looking out in wonderment. This picture is inscribed: "To the Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Falconers' Club, this plate is humbly inscribed by their most obedient and devoted servant, T. Morris, 1780"-the year before the silver-gilt urn was presented. X. EDWARD CLOUGH NEWCOME, of Hockwold, in the county of Norfolk, born 1810, died 1871. Norfolk has long been the seat of Falconry in England. Indeed, it may be said that the falconers of Norfolk and Suffolk have done more than those of any other county, except perhaps Yorkshire under the régime of Colonel Thornton, to encourage and maintain the practice of this ancient sport. From the time of John Paston, of Norwich, who, in September 1472, wrote to his brother in London to send him "a mewyd gosshawke," to the present day, when Mr. Francis D'A. Newcome enthusiastically follows in his father's footsteps, Hawking has never ceased to be practised, and the names of such masters of the craft as Lord Orford, Colonel Wilson of Didlington (afterwards Lord Berners), Sir John Sebright, John Dawson Downes of Gunton, John Hall of Weston, and Edward Clough Newcome of Hockwold are "household words" in the mouths of their modern disciples. To be convinced of this we have only to turn to the account of the sport given by the Rev. Richard Lubbock in his "Fauna of Norfolk," and the valuable Appendix to his remarks contributed by Professor Newton to the second edition of that work, printed in 1879. (See No. 65.) From this source of information, supplied by friends who knew him, as well as from Sir John Sebright's " Observations" (No. 61), the following brief notice of Edward Clough Newcome will serve to explain the reason for presenting the reader with his portrait. R |