Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/182

 sight opening, across which at intervals have been roughly riveted iron hoops in the hope of lending to the helm the appearance of an heraldic barred helmet. Doubtless it was in the latter years of the XVIth century that the alterations were made—ruthless treatment to apply to so fine a specimen of English tilting helm. On pages 109 and 110 we told the story of its purchase, together with that of the other helm (Fig. 455) in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

In the fashion of the end of the XVth or commencement of the XVIth century

(a) Helm of English fashion and make (b) Helm of German fashion, but possibly of English make

All the four helms of this group are good and simple in workmanship, and we have little doubt that they are from the hands of the same armourer, whosoever he was; but they are all without an armourer's mark of any description. We are reluctantly forced to admit that their general outline is poor in comparison with the contour of the German helm of a decade earlier. Their tops are flat and evenly proportioned; but the outward curving of their back plates corresponds too closely with that of their front plates, lending to them a chimney-pot appearance. They all have the same character, and are recognizable at once as belonging to the same family; but they are not grand or suggestive of the great art of the armourer of those