Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/142

 bill, this is really an old one after all, and if an old one why not King Henry's?"

By the courtesy of Dr. Robinson, when Dean of Westminster, we were allowed to remove this helm and the other interesting achievements from their beam and to have them carefully photographed. On looking closely at the illustration of this helm (Fig. 449, a, b), and comparing it with the Pembridge helm (vol. i, Fig. 324), it will be seen that there are many points of difference. As a piece of craftsmanship the Westminster Abbey helm is vastly superior. It is made of five pieces instead of three, and is of very much greater weight. At the lower edge of the ocularia, the metal is a full quarter of an inch in thickness; while the plate at the back is comparatively thin and light. The heads of all the rivets are flush on the outside, so as to leave no projection against which the point of a lance could catch. The skull-piece of the helm is moulded much on the lines of those of the "great bascinet," and may be roughly called egg-shaped. At the summit, a plate, nearly flat, is fastened from the inside. A band of brass, engraved and once gilded, runs round the base of the helm, an addition made probably to render it more ornamental at the funeral pageant of the sovereign; but as there is in this band a series of twin holes for the attachment of a lining, there is a possibility that this brass enrichment is part of the original head-piece. In the extreme front of the lower edge of the helm is a clumsy and poorly fashioned ring for attaching the head-piece to the breastplate; but so thin and light is it, that we imagine that this poor substitute must have replaced the original ring at some early date. At the back of the helm is a staple more substantial in make and shaped to hold the strap that secured the helm to the backplate. It is interesting to observe that the metal strip that retained the staple, though now broken, once extended some distance up the back of the helm, widening towards its top, where it finished in a "cut card" ornament. This is obvious from the fact that the part of the helm once covered by the ornamental metal strip is considerably less corroded than the rest of the surface. The rivet holes, too, and certain of the rivets themselves that originally retained this strip in position are still apparent. Immediately above the mark left by the metal strip is riveted a down-turned hook. It has been supposed that this hook was for hanging the helm at the saddle bow; but the shape of the hook, its sharp point, and its position on the helm all point to its having been added for the purpose of hanging the helm to the wall over the tomb.