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 A RECORD OF THROUGH SEVEN CENTURIES CHAPTER X

OLLOWING the period in which the bascinet was the principal head-piece came that in which the salade, or sallet, held a similar position and was not only the favourite helmet for use in battle for nearly a century, but was also often employed in the joust. The salade period was, naturally, overlapped by that of the later forms of bascinets. There were also other types of helmets, such as the armet and the chapel-de-fer, which enjoyed their season of popularity at various times during the same period; but, save the armet, the salade is the only helmet of the time to which can be attached any very great importance, and accordingly we shall devote a chapter to considering it, in order that we may follow its development and examine its varieties without confusing our story by introducing into it the study of other types.

One of the first mentions of the salade in England appears in a poem known as "Chaucer's Dreme," although Chaucer is not generally accepted as its author, critics holding that it was written in the early part of the XVth century.

But even accepting this poem as belonging to the early years of the XVth century, the allusion is, for an English record, a very early mention of this form of head-piece, though to what type of helmet the "salad" in the poem refers we are rather at a loss to divine. That it was an open helmet its name tells us, the derivation being from celata (Italian) or schale (German = shell). We fully appreciate the fact that Italy was very greatly in advance of England in the matter of her body armour; so it may possibly be the case that one of the first forms of this helmet may be seen in those beautiful head-pieces of North Italian origin which were so closely copied 11