Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/113

Rh they fell together, through a cloud of feathers, into the tree tops on the edge of the wood, where the falcon was secured."

Sometimes a whole party of ladies would go hawking or hunting alone, so keen were they on sport in those days. Accompanied by greyhounds, they hunted stag and rabbit, shooting them with bows and long-headed arrows. Not infrequently they roused the game by means of beating on a tabor. Partridges, quails and woodcocks were usually hawked. One cannot help feeling that the women must have looked very unsportsmanlike with their long gowns trailing behind them and coloured kerchiefs on their heads; but they could ride astride their horses as well as on side-saddles, they could wind a horn as well as any man, and use their spurs without compunction. They joined with men in all out-door sports, which were of a somewhat boisterous description, and lacking in that refinement and delicacy of which we think so much to-day. But those were days of light hearts and merry faces, when responsibility sat less heavy than it does in this twentieth century, and sorrow was faced with a firm, unwavering