14 Horfes. 



antiquarian on fo curious a monument, illuftrative as it is at leaft of fome peculiarities of 

 coftume worthy to be remembered. The fcales with which the horfemen feem to be covered 

 are not made of horn taken from the horfes' hoofs, as ufed by the Sarmatians, but fimply 

 intended as reprefentations of the mefhes of an ordinary coat of mail. The fpurs (Plate 21) 

 with a fingle arrow-headed point are remarkable, and their ufe muft have been very painful 

 to the horfe. In Plate 22 we have the fame horfes, but with fhort legs, long bodies, and 

 of immenfe fize, if we compare them with the diminutive, bearded groom who leads them 

 by the leafh. The Spanifh horfe and warriors (Plate 23), from a MS. of the eleventh 

 century, are not better drawn, but, curioufly enough, their coftume is very much the fame 

 as that of the Norman warriors of the Bayeux tapeftry. The helmet and the arrow-headed 

 fpurs are very like, but the faddle is more Oriental, and the hanging taffels fliow the particu- 

 lar requifites of a more meridional country. The horfe, the dapple grey of whofe fkin is 

 indicated by fuch quaint hieroglyphics, belongs evidently to the Arabian jjreed. 



The vanquifhed Parthians are fhown (Plate 24), as painted on the verriere of the 

 Abbey of St. Denis, the burial-place of the French kings, and drawn by a French artift in 

 the twelfth century. On the left-hand fide of the drawing is a curious figure of a dif- 

 mounted horfeman, making, it would feem, a gefture familiar to ftreet urchins. The mane 

 of a Parthian horfe is cut brufhwife, as the Greek horfes of the Parthenon. 



In Plate 25 we have, from a ftained glafs window in the Cathedral of Chartres, executed 

 during the twelfth century, the reprefentation of a Knight Templar in full armour, holding 

 in his hand a ftandard bearing a crofs. The fpur of the horfeman is tapering in a fingle 

 point ; his helmet, of a fingle piece, conceals entirely the face, but a crofs cut in the fteel 

 allows him at once to breathe and to fee his way. The compofition is fpirited, and 

 evidently the work of a clever artift. 



The hunters in Plate 25 are taken from a MS. of the " Livre du Roi Modus," preferved 

 in the National Library in Paris. The two horfemen (No. 2) are boar-hunters, and the 

 lady and gentleman (No. j) are hawking. Imitations of both drawings, but by an inferior 

 artift, are to be found in another MS., from which Mr. Elzear Blaze reproduced " Le 

 Livre du Roy Modus, et de la Royne Racio," Paris, 1839, gr. in-8vo, as the earlieft 

 French book on hunting. Grace de la Vingne, who wrote his " Roumant des deduiz," at 

 Heldeford, in England, in 1359, ^^ pofterior to the "Roy Modus." Gafton Phcebus 

 wrote his book only in 1387 ; and, again, Hardoin de Fontaine Guerin his in 1394. 

 Therefore thefe illuftrations of hunting are among the earlieft known from the Middle 

 Ages. The horfeman (No. i of the fame plate) with the ftandard of the Crufaders, and 

 the loofe garment fprinkled with crofi"es over his coat of mail, is Thibaut VI., Earl of Blois. 



A French MS. of the Apocalypfe, written in the 13th century (Plate 26), fupplies 

 us with a very fine drawing of a horfe and horfeman, the latter receiving a crown from 



