214 REMIXISCEXCES OF A SPORTSilAX. 



&c., writing treatises on these subjects, as well as upon 

 heraldry, which were so popular that they were puhlished 

 in the very infancy of printing. Her treatise on hunting 

 is written in rhyme, and affords strong evidence of the 

 barbarity of that age. The treatise on hawking in this 

 extraordinary work, we should think, from concurrent 

 circumstances, was the veritable production of this 

 learned lady, and was not, as supposed by ]Mr. Hazel- 

 wood, the compilation of a monk, from the hawking 

 manuscript being deposited in the Abbey ; for we 

 need not state that in these times it was common 

 to make these places the sanctuary of learning as well 

 as religion. A veiy interesting account is given by Mr. 

 Knox, in his work, " Game Birds, their Friends and their 

 Foes," which shows the great length of flight taken 

 sometimes by the peregrine hawk, and the unfortunate 

 fate that befel a peregrine that was particularly dex- 

 terous in taking woodcocks, which belonged to Mr. John 

 Sinclair. 



This gentleman went to pay a visit to the Hon. 

 E. Westenra, at Eossmore Park, county Monaghan, in 

 Ireland, and whilst there Mr. Sinclair had a most extra- 

 ordinary flight with this hawk. When Mr. Sinclair and 

 his falconer, JNIr. McCulloch (afterwards falconer to 

 Colonel Bonham), were hawking woodcocks in Eossmore 

 Park, a woodcock was flushed, which took the air, closely 

 pursued by the falcon, which had Mr. Sinclair's address 

 on the varvels. In a short time both hawk and quarry 

 had attained such an elevation that is was only by lying 

 down on their backs, and placing their hands above their 

 eyes, so as to screen them from the rays of the sun, and 

 at the same time contract the range of vision, that the 

 spectators could keep the birds in view. At last, just as 



