Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/134

 *mentation (Fig. 74). On the other hand, the devices which appear on the bannerets or gonfanons consist in fairly regular arrangements of crosses and dots.

It is noticeable in the Bayeux needlework that no knight bears the same device on his shield as on his banneret, which would rather go to show that neither had any particular significance; but if either had, then we are inclined to select that on the banneret as possessing a more purposeful design.

Suggested by Viollet-le-Duc

It is not unlikely that as time advanced the ornamental devices borne by a knight became distinguishing features of his equipment, and that it was then that he adopted some recognizable emblem appropriate to his birth, or to his fame. Owing to their perishable nature, no shields of this time have been handed down to us. They had a foundation of wood—often scarified lime wood—overlaid with dressed hide, parchment and linen, and were fancifully tinted, with only the smallest metal reinforcements for the purpose of binding them together.

On the inner side they had the leather arm straps, known as enarmes,