WAR-HORSES 83 



hung over each man's quarters opposite his horse, and 

 by it an antelope's skin, made as soft as chamois, with 

 which it was covered from the dew of night. A head- 

 piece of copper, without crest or plume, was suspended 

 by a lace above this shirt of mail, and was the most 

 picturesque part of the trophy. To these was added 

 an enormous broadsword, in a red leather scabbard, and 

 upon the pommel hung two thick gloves, like hedger's 

 gloves, their fingers in one poke/ To carry this 

 panoply the Sheik's horses were modified from the 

 natural Arab type. 



The size of the English war-horse reached its maxi- 

 mum in the reign of Henry VIII., when the relations 

 of body-armour to ' hand-guns ' were analogous to those 

 of the early ship-armour and cannon before the ' high 

 velocities * were obtained at Elswick. There was good 

 reason to believe that by adding a little to the thickness 

 of the coat of steel the soft low- velocity bullet of the 

 day could be kept out. So it was for a time. But the 

 additional weight required a still larger horse to carry 

 it. The charger had to be armoured as well as his 

 rider, and the collection in the Tower of London shows 

 the actual weight which it carried. The panoply of 

 Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, the brother-in-law 

 of Henry VIII., still exists. That of the horse covers 

 the whole of the hind-quarters, the back of the neck, 

 forehead, muzzle, ears, shoulders, and chest. It is 



62 



