Whether we have all succeeded in our object, viz., to give clear, practical directions to women in the several out-door recreations of which we have written, it is for our readers to determine, and on their verdict will depend the extension of our plan to other branches of sports and pastimes. To the great body of sportsmen, who so far have held almost undisputed sway in the realm of sporting literature, I would plead: "Softly, my Masters! Do me this right--hear me with patience." The Editor. Beeding, March 31st, 1898. [Illustration: _Lombardi and Co. 13, Pall Mall, East._ MISS FRANCES SLAUGHTER.] ENGLISHWOMEN AND SPORT. In all ages of the world's history, women have taken part in the out-door recreations in which men have ever delighted, the extent to which they have joined in these health-giving exercises being regulated, by the amount of freedom and independence allowed to the sex, by the unwritten laws of the spirit of the age. In a consideration of the subject that is rather suggestive than attempting to deal with the matter in any final sense, we can perhaps trace in the easiest way the position held by women in the world of sport, at different epochs of our history, by seeing how the subject was regarded by the authors of the period. [Illustration] In the romances of the middle ages--to go no further back in our researches--sport for all divisions of the upper classes of society was regarded with a favourable eye. The nobles, the superior clergy, and the dames of high degree had their deeds of prowess in the field extolled by the literary lights of the time. For a noble not to care for hunting was considered nothing less than a disgrace, while the clergy were expected to require the relaxation of the chase, and to them was given the right to hunt in their own parks and enclosures. Of this privilege they seem to have availed themselves to some purpose, as at the time of the Reformation the see of Norwich is said to have possessed no less than thirteen deer parks. The wives of the nobles and those who ruled over the religious houses for women, seem to have had an almost equal amount of liberty in sharing in these recreations, and in organising hunts for themselves. The doings of these gay dames--for the religious habit seems to have made but little difference--are extolled by the poets, and if the feats recorded of them are true, they must not only have been accomplished horsewomen but very keen and determined huntresses. On many occasions, we are told, they organised hunting parties, "winding the horn, rousing the game and pursuing it by themselves." Nor, in spite of what it is the fashion of the present time to say of that period of our history, do the stay-at-home embroidery-loving dames come in for the same share of praise at the hands of the old writers.