Falconry
It was late in the 1870s that Harting, already an accomplished falconer, found his opportunity for starting a New Hawking Club with the objective of giving Londoners the opportunity to closely observe the practice of falconry. Salisbury Plain was of sufficient distance as to make it difficult for busy Londoner to afford the time to travel the distance necessary to observe the spring hawking of rooks and magpies. He had been a member of the well conducted but rather exclusive Old Hawking Club and felt that his New Hawking Club would attract new devotees and sponsors.
He was able to purchase several fine peregrine falcons and gyrfalcons from John Barr who had been in the service of Captain Sandys Dugmore as a professional falconer while attempting to establish a hawking club at Alexandra Park from 1874-1877. He secured Barr’s services as a professional falconer and also obtained permission from Lord Rosebery to use Epsom Downs for their hawking grounds. He built his mews near the Grandstand of the racecourse and had a fine season in the fall of 1878—but the winter proved difficult and all the birds succumbed to the croaks, ending this venture.
Harting had over a half-century experience with numerous hawks and his acquaintance with falconers was unique. He was a close friend of Reverend Gage Earl Freeman who wrote for the field as "Peregrine" and Major C. Hawkins Fisher and was always a welcome guest at either residence. The compilation of the Bibliotheca Accipitraria involved a Herculean effort over many years and this alone would secure a place at the forefront of falconers even if it had not been supplemented by the vast quantity of useful information supplied beginners and experts through the columns of The Field. He was one of the few men who, like E.B. Michell, was seen in London with a hawk on his fist.
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