THE SINEWS OF FALCONRY: FROM EARLIEST TIMES UNTIL EPOCH OF THE 1950-65 PESTICIDE CRISIS. By Gordon Robinson.

2003 1st edition. 8vo (145 x 226mm). Ppxxxiv,281. Colour and b/w plates, photographs, illustrations, map, bibliography. Green boards, spine titled in gilt.

A wide-ranging look at the history of falconry from its roots in the East to the twentieth century reminiscences of the author. Gordon Robinson died on 13th February 2006, aged 89 years. Chapters include: Earliest roots; Earliest written records and literature; roman Emperor cosntantice and hawking, Saxon falconry; Falconry under the Tudors and Stuarts; Civil War and Commonwealth, the Restoration; Hawk trapping and trading from the Middle Ages; Hawking clubs post Civil War; The Royal Loo Hawking Club, a condensed history; The fourth Lord Lilford, a condensed biography;The Hon. Gerald Lascelles, secretary and manager of the Old Hawking Club, correspondence; Captain F. Sandys Dugmore, the Barnett Committee, a failed falconry club at Alexandra Palace; Captain Francis Henry Salvin; Prince (later Maharajah) Duleep Singh, founder member of the Old Hawking Club, his extravagant mews at Elveden; Lt. Col. E. Delme Radcliffe, author and prolific correspondent; Falconry in the Mediterranean and the Orient. Memories of well known personalities in falconry: E.B. Michell; George Edward Lodge; Gilbert Blaine; Lord Portal of Hungerford; charles Knight; Alastair McArthur (Hawking in Wartime); J.G. Mavrogordato; Bill Ruttledge; Ronald Stevens; Ronald Stevens II; Guy Aylmer; Luff Meredith (Correspondence). Appendices include: Falconry schools and falconry clubs; Falconry and heraldry; Desert coincidences (source witheld for security); Afterword; Glossary of hawking terms; Glossary of Chinese hawking terms; Page of St Albans patent; Bibliography.