When men rode forth to hunt or hawk, they were generally accompanied by ladies, for whom a gentler species of falcons, called sparrow-hawks, were trained. The birds were gallantly bedight with silver bells, and it was the duty of every gallant knight to attend on his lady, to let the falcon loose at the proper moment, to animate it by his cries, to take from its talons the prey it seized, and then replace it respectfully on her hand. John of Salisbury, who wrote in the thirteenth century, says that women even excelled men in the knowledge and practice of falconry. Julian Berners, prioress of a nunnery in Sopewell, published, in 1481, a curious book full of directions concerning heraldry and hawking; for which reason she was called by cotemporaries “a Minerva in her studies, and a Diana in her diversions.” Some old English engravings represent ladies followed by dogs, running on foot, with hawks on their fists; and upon old monuments it is common to see the image of a woman, with a hawk perched near her, and a greyhound at her feet. Queen Elizabeth was fond both of hunting and falconry, and had no objection to the unfeminine amusement of bear-baiting. Even when she was sixty years old, Sir Walter Raleigh, in allusion to her sylvan sports, compares her and her maids of honor, in their stiff ruffs and fardingales, to the goddess Diana and her graceful nymphs. Tournaments and masks continued to be favorite amusements during the reign of the maiden queen, though the last rays of chivalry’s declining sun were then sinking to rise no more. Elizabeth, who had all the _petitesse_ of a vain woman united with the cold caution of an artful man, always delivered the prizes herself; for she could not endure that one younger and fairer should personate the Queen of Love and Beauty. The gallantry of knighthood still characterized her courtiers. When she dropped her glove at a tournament, the earl of Cumberland picked it up, and was graciously requested to retain it. With the true spirit of chivalry, he caused it to be set in diamonds, and on festival occasions always wore it in his high-crowned hat, which had at that period superseded the helmet.