BATTLE, WAGER OF. 



I'.Vi PLBMl '- 



11 



frequently -' '">l nn uu 



ill uur uuutb are dedtn 



*. has engravnl a 



fragment of a battle-axe found limiilic.il i mains at 



AapaUu in ( 'uniU-rLuid, in June 17sl (' Arch.cvl.' vol. x. p. 113); and 

 in tli. -.in.' volume (pi. xl.) aro two repryaouUtioiiii of tlu> 

 wegiau bill ur battle-axe, each two feet six inches long, found in a mow 

 TurrwvW Hcmaiiu of otben are it. a found 



the narrows on the downs of Wiltshire, and in the north of 

 The Saxons used an axe with a lung handle, which they 

 called a bill ; this oontinuud long in use, and became the pole-axe anil 

 n times: they had also tlic doul : \vy -bill. 



.lie.* .mil Norwegians, however, probably made mre use uf this 

 instrument than any other nationa of tlu'ir time. That the battle-axe 

 wi u.- i ml in the Saxon timet, we li :.. tin- authority of 



differ* the 9th century, and the English aro represented 



a> using it, in' tho Bayoux, tapestry. Axe-heads of flint and of 

 bar* bean found in many f tlie tuiiiuli op, ne.l in various parts of thin 

 country : : ""' "'hern of a similar kind in those of Denmark (see the 

 ' Archicologia,' and the Journals of the Archaeological Association, and 

 Institute, i-attim, Akerinon's ' Archaeological Index,' and Worsase's 

 ral Antiquities of Denmark,' translated by Thoma). 



At the battle of Stamford Bridge, between Harold of England and 

 i Harfager of Norway, when the Norwegians gave way anil the 

 English pursued them, a total stop is stated to have been put to the 

 pursuit fr some hours by the desperate boldness of a single Nor- 

 wegian, who defended tho pass of the bridge with his battle-axe. 1 1 it 

 killed more than forty of the English, and was himself at lout Main 

 only by stratagem. (Hen. Huntingt. 1. vii. 211.) Ware, who wrote in 

 the time of Henry 11., mentions the guorme (a word spelt in a variety 

 of ways by different writers), which seems to hare been a species of 

 double-axe, with a cutting weapon projecting beyond the trausvene 

 points of the axe. 



\Vhi-n King Stephen was taken prisoner by the Earl of Gloucester, 

 we are told by Uervaa of Canterbury that he bad broken his battle-axe 

 in pieces before he took to his sword, and was even then brought dowu 

 by a stone. (Script, x. Twyad. col. 1354.} 



During the middle period of English history we read but little of 

 this weapon, though it appears to have been constantly used. The 

 Welsh infantry at the battle of Agiucourt, in 1415, found it parti- 

 cularly serviceable in despatching those whom the archer.- bail wounded 

 with their arrows. In Strutt's ' Manners and Customs of the Knglish,' 

 vol. ii. pi. xliv.. Henry V. is represented as setting Richard, Earl of 

 Warwick, to keep Port Quartervylo, at the siege of Houun, by the 

 delivery of a battle-axe. 



Toward the close of the 16th century, the battle-axe, as a wen; 

 war, seem* to have fallen into gradual disuse; although the oo 

 placing of a pistol in iU handle, in some specimens which . 

 Man to bespeak a wish on the part of the warriors of that peri 

 it should be retained with on improved use. 



Grose, in his 'Military Antiquities,' vol. ii. pi. xxviii. fig. 4, and 

 pi. xxxiv. fig. 3, bos engraved a LochaW axe and an ancient bait 

 Sir Samuel Meyrick, in his engraved illustrations of ancient armour 

 now at Uoodrich Court in Herefordshire, pi. Ixxxiii., has engraved 

 numerous specimens of battle-axes and pole-axes, from the time of 

 Henry VI. to one of the year 1685, which is of Dutch origin, bearing 

 the date, and the handle being ornamented with ivory. 



The battle-axe was used at a very early jieriod in naval fight*, 

 chit-fly to cut the ropes and rigging of vessels. (See SchelTur, ' Mil. 

 .i. 7.) 



BATTLE, WAGER OF. [APPEAL.] 



BATTI.KMENT. a jarapet wall, usually indented, originally intended 

 for the protection of soldiers in military works ; bat in Gothic architec- 

 ture, and especially English Gothic, commonly employed in ecclesiastical 

 as well as castellated edifices. [GOTHIC AHCHITKCTUHE.] The battle- 

 menu are of very remote antiquity, as remains of them still exist in 

 Greece and Italy (see Maiois' ' Unities de I>oui|>eii,' and Stuart's 

 ' Athens ') ; and they are represented iu Egyptian paintings and Assyrian 

 sculpture. The modern battlement, li Known as be- 



longing to building! from the llth to the end of the 10th century ; but 

 it was not in general use iu ecclesiastical edifices until the middle of 

 the 18th century. 



The battlement is generally indented, with a coping sloping Uith 

 ways fmiu about the centre ; the IOWIT part, lietwiten (I 

 the cornice of the building, is often pierced and decorated. Although 

 by the word battlement is generally undantood the whole indented 

 parapet wall, the term may perhaps with more pi. j.n.-ty U- ;i|.pli, ! |.. 

 iiipceai rather the higher part of tho wall, in contradistinction to the 

 indent, interval, or embrasure. It is posaible that the term battle 

 meat may hare derived its noinu from thu facility afforded i" 

 sokUcni of doing battle under the protection afforded by the higher 

 part of the indented wall Battlement* offer iu tin -ir pi. j 

 and in the details of their mouldings and ornaments, a great variety 



' 



Few Norman UttlemenU remain. Usually, during the Norman 

 period, the battlement assms to hare been a plain parapet without 

 interval* ; and, if decorated, the decoration probably consisted of the 

 eemli liniln arch, the peculiar feature of the Norman itylt>. The 



iip| r | ..nt or rim of a decorated with semicircular- 



headed pauels, in :..-.n.i to bu 



an imitation of such a p. 



Dames, at Caen in Normandy, has a ]wrapct decorated it h i 



arched-beaded panels, which at the introductinii . 



-tylc most probably supplanted the old semicircular-arched 



similar to that at Hayling Church. 



During nearly th> .rly English 



the parapet was (eldom indent, d; ami in many buildings it was 



plain, in others decorated. At Salisbury, it is execir . series 



of arches and panels, and in Lincoln Cathedral with quatn-t- 



sunk panels. A battlement of equal intervals occurs in small oma- 



Qmr 



Battlement. 



Trefollml arches 



nml corbels 



under htitlle. 



menu 



[Salisbury Cathedral.] 



mented works erected about the close of this pcri...l, win n il. 

 Pointed or Early KngUsh style gave way to the Second Pointed, or as it 

 in ordinarily denominated, the Decorated English style. 



During this Second Pointed period, the parapet wall without 

 tationa continued frequently to be used ; but it is often pierced through 

 in various forms, generally consisting of quatrefoils, an.l -, 

 circles. Another form, however, which is not so common, may l>u 

 considered more beautiful. This is a waved line, the spaces of which 

 are trefoiled. In St. Mary Magdalen Church, at Oxford, there is a 



[Mary Magdalen College, Oxford.] 



good example of this kind of battlement. Of the plain ImttlemenU, 

 that which was most in use in this period has tho embrasures or 

 intervals narrow, and is surmounted with a capping niouliling placed 

 iu a horizontal position as at Waltham Cross; but there an 



[\VaUuam Crow, u restored from the ancient fragments, by \V. Ii. Clarke.] 



battlements of the same date with the capping running both vertically 



and horizontally, of which there is a fine apodim-n in the tout r ! 



Merton Chapel, Oxford. In sonic small winks f thi* >i\ ! 



occasionally used as a finish above the capping. uumMing. or < 



but it is by no means common. Tip 



a fine example of tint pierced battlement w luting ilu 



piiioil; it consists of arches or aivlinl 



I'liili-d, anil the interval U a i|imtrefoil in : 



with a mouliliiiK ninning Imth hori/...!t.i]lv jml veil. 



In the battlemenU belonging to the Third i'uinUil or I'erpeiulii -ul.ir 

 i-tyle. ]ra|K'U will ;itimiud to lie Un 



.illy ; the seriH>ntine line with tin in l"il was alao still in use, but tli. 

 Inn- Shilling the tret'nil u.i- . made straight, and thu 



ilivi-imis were consequently formol ii>l triangular ]wnels. But in 

 tile early and best works, the trefoils are ie I : . i.li-il by straight lines. 

 line of tint finest examples of panelled parapets is at the Beaucliatnp 



at Warwick, consisting of qnatrefoils in *<|iiarctt, with 

 and HOWITH. Them are many variotieoof ] menu U-l 



to this |n'iioil. Those erected in the early |it of it have commonly 

 i|iiatrefoils, either in the lower OOmpajtOIMtl or aUive the ]nels of 

 the l,.wer ciim|>.irtiiiciitH, forming |rt of tho higher panels. Two 

 heights of panels are also frequently employed in battlements of this 

 period. At Loughborough there is an exami 



consisting of rich pierced qnatrcfoils in two height*. Sueh battlemenU 

 have generally a moulded com ice running round the Latt 

 and the embrasure. A few edifices of a later period have pierced 

 battlemenU ornamented with pointed compartments, as in the tower 



