Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/19

 allusion to the pictorial representation of the first counter guard to the hilt: early evidence of this—Some extant examples of the early XVth century cruciform hilted sword of English provenance—Continental specimens of the last seventy-five years of the XVth century—The Estoc mentioned as early as 1268—Complete extant late XVth century Estocs to be noted in foreign collections—Representative examples of the more ordinary knight's sword of the XVth century—The sword of the XVth century with curved blade: two notable specimens—The advent of the Renaissance, first influencing the decoration but not the form of the hilt—Some famous examples of hilts and blades so influenced—Certain curved swords, the hilts of which come within the same category—The art of the near East affecting the decoration of the mid-XVth century sword—A weapon which is perhaps the finest late XVth century sword extant to be classed under this heading—Late XVth century swords of pure Hispano-Moorish origin—The most famous existing specimens—The first counter guards found on hilts—Curious contemporary forged inscriptions upon blades—Some examples—Further developments of the counter guards—The introduction of the knuckle guard; late XVth century swords under German influence—The Landsknecht type—A very distinctive group, but of many nationalities—Some extant specimens—The insular type of the sword known as the Scottish Claidhmhichean mhora—The false use of the word "claymore" as applied to a basket-hilted weapon—Nearly all existing Claidheamh-mor made in the early years of the XVIth century—Their primitive form—Some famous examples: the parent forms of the Scottish Claidheamh-mor—The latest type evolved from the same class of weapon—The four-quilloned Claidheamh-mor     251

CHAPTER XVIII

SWORDS OF CEREMONY IN ENGLAND

The present writer's obligation to the researches of Sir St. John Hope on Swords of Ceremony in England—A brief chronological review of such swords of a date from the end of the XIVth century to the middle of the XVIth century—The "Battle Abbey" sword; the "Mourning," the "Pearl," and "Lent" swords of Bristol; the Coventry swords; the Chester swords; the "Edward III" sword in Westminster—Some foreign swords of ceremony known to the present writer: their sword-hilt decoration—A few examples of historical importance     311