7o 



probably familiar to all. To most people there is nothing in a 

 church or cathedral which seems so hopelessly devoid of interest as 

 one of these stone effigies, oftentimes battered and covered with dust 

 or pushed back into some odd corner or dark recess out of the way 

 of the church-goer or casual visitor. And yet it is these very figures 

 which can be made to awaken the imagination, and cause to come back 

 and to a certain extent show the originals as they were in life and 

 unfold a wondrous tale of past ages. It is not the string of virtues 

 recorded on epitaphs that can teach us facts half so well as the 

 figures themselves, which are generally shown in the exact 

 reproduction of the costume worn in life and often a fairly good 

 portrait in addition. There is scarcely a piece of mediae val armour 

 remaining in England — only a score of helmets, a few isolated pieces 

 of body armour, some protections for the knees, a cuff of a gauntlet 

 or a few fragments of chain mail are all that have survived to our 

 day. Therefore the history of early armour must be gathered from 

 such sources as these stone relics, which illustrate the costume of 

 the time with a fulness unknown elsewhere in Europe. To these 

 authorities can be added the engravings on the Great Seals of the 

 early kings, some small drawings or illuminated MSS, and that 

 priceless work the Bayeux tapestry, which shows with great 

 accuracy the armour worn at the end of the nth century and serves 

 as the starting point for all the protective metal work of succeeding 

 ages. Later there are the monumental brasses which continue the 

 history of costume to the end of the Tudor dynasty, from which 

 period many original suits of armour are to be found in public and 

 private collections. The numerous pictures by such artists as 

 Holbein and Velasquez carry on the illustrations and give us all 

 the details of their time, so that the other sources on which we had 

 previously to rely are from now onwards of secondary importance 

 for our purpose. 



It will be well to consider the matter of costume in centuries 

 and then we find : — 



(ist) That the 14th century, when the Crusades were just at an 

 end, gives us chain mail. 



(2nd) That the 15th century, when the Wars of the Roses were 

 fought, tells of plate armour. 



(3rd) That the 16th century gives Elizabethan armour. 



(4th) That the 17th century, when armour was almost useless 

 for protection in fighting, affords opportunity for noticing civilian 

 costume. 



The earliest effigy at Wimborne is about 13 13, a date when the 

 figures are shown in the armour that had been in use without much 

 change for the previous 100 years, and it is interesting to enquire 

 into the reason for retaining this style. History tells us that in 

 1096 all Europe was called to arms by the Pope to recover Jerusalem 

 from the Infidels and for just 200 years afterwards all the chivalry 

 of England had its attention taken up to that end, and trained and 

 armed itseJf for fighting in that distant land. It follows that the 

 armour was such as best served that purpose and stayed on in that 

 condition with only small variations which we can hardly deal with 



