Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/300

 the padded lining. How the bascinet was transformed in the process of time will be noticed by comparing the form of this helmet with that of one of its late open forms (page 247, Fig. 290). The first development to be noted in the bascinet helmet of the early years of the XIVth century is the introduction at the back of the skull-piece of a globose swelling, which made the helmet look very like an egg from the lower end of which one-third had been sliced off. Of such a bascinet an excellent example is to be seen in the oaken effigy attributed to Robert du Bois, one of the lords of Fersfield in Norfolk, who died in 1311 (Fig. 257). This bascinet is for its period the highest in the crown of any with which we are acquainted. It is also to be noticed that the lower edge of the helmet is straight all the way round, like that of a cabasset helmet of the XVIIth century, and by not falling lower at the back fails to protect the neck. Strangely enough, the Bois bascinet is painted so as to give the idea that the original helmet was covered with material decorated with an ermine pattern. Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, in his book published in 1739, states that "His [Robert du Bois] helmet and gauntlets were powdered with ermine, as was every other folding of his military cassock," and adds at the end of his description of the effigy: "I caused it to be painted in the same colours as near as could be." The method of attaching the helmet to the camail is not shown in this wooden effigy; but, inasmuch as there is no indication of aiglettes, of rivets, or of holes of any kind, it may almost be surmised that in this primitive form of conical bascinet the helmet was sometimes placed over the coif of mail, as in the case of the helmets of earlier times, and had not the camail attached to it. A second bascinet of this tall egg-shaped form, with the straight lower edge, is seen on the effigy of Sir Richard Pembridge in the cathedral church of Hereford (see pages 276, 277, Fig. 324); but here the attachment of the mail tippet by the staple and cord principle is distinctly defined (Fig. 258). Yet another bascinet of this egg form, but of rather smaller proportions, is seen on the effigy of Sir Roger de Kerdeston in Reepham Church, Norfolk (Fig. 259). In this case the attachment of the camail to the helmet is most clearly defined, and the cord and staple principle in almost its finite form is very carefully represented. A bascinet helmet very much of the drawn out egg-shape form, which we feel safe in assigning to the first quarter of the XIVth century, may be seen in the Musée d'Artillerie, H 26 (Fig. 260). Like all the bascinets we have referred to up to the present, it apparently was visorless; for there are neither pivot holes at the side, nor rivet holes in the front of the skull, by which any sort of face defence could have been