Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/113

 they teach as to the extreme looseness of conventional mail-illustration is most instructive.

When, however, we see entirely different methods used in illustrating defensive coats or hauberks, all of which are chosen from the same Bayeux needlework (Fig. 45), we must stop to consider whether they are intended to distinguish real divergences from the conventionality of rendering.

Four conventional ways of what the author believes to be the ordinary hauberks of linked chain mail

However, when shirts are rendered as in our next illustration (Fig. 46), they were of the other types that were in use, which can safely be said to differ entirely in their construction from the true chain mail shirt, and must therefore be placed in a different category. Doubtless they were those quilted coats of linen which in later years would be known as the pourpoint or later still jacks. They might also be made of leather, or be composed of scales of copper, iron, or horn sewn between layers of pliable material.

A certain similarity in the fashion of the armour prevails throughout, though in many cases the degree of protection afforded by the armaments varies considerably. One knight will be seen with his legs encircled in thongs; one with creaseless legs as if bare, though they were doubtless covered with cloth or leather: some appear in sleeveless hauberks and some