Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/200

 poitrel housings of the horse, and that at the back for that of the croupière housing. The office of the iron ring in front we are at a loss to explain; it is placed too low on the saddle to be used as a ring on which to hang a mace or sword. As to the present appearance of this interesting relic, it is wholly of a monotonous drab colour, due to its centuries of exposure; there is not the slightest trace of colour or decoration of any description, with the result that its past splendour can only be left to the imagination. The wood of which it is constructed appears to be oak, but it is entirely covered with canvas that is carefully glued to every part of it. The padded seat, also of canvas, is stuffed with hay; this seems never to have been disturbed.

Since the present writer made these notes on the saddle, and on the other achievements hanging above the tomb of King Henry V, Sir St. John Hope has read at the Society of Antiquaries, and published in Archaeologia, his scholarly paper on "The Funeral, Monument and Chantry Chapel of King Henry the Fifth." Alas! His investigations dispose, we fear, of the probability—we will not say possibility—of the shield, saddle, but not perhaps the helm, ever having been actually used by the King himself. According to Sir St. John Hope, the earliest account of the Chantry Chapel, and allusion to the saddle, appear in Monumenta Westmonasteriensia, etc., by H. K[eepe], in 1682. Keepe refers to "stairs to ascend into the same, where the Saddle which this heroick Prince used in the wars in ffrance, with his Shield and other warlike furniture, is to be seen." Sandford's "Genealogical History of the Kings of England," published in 1707, contains an engraving of a drawing by F. Barlow of the Chapel, which shows, upon a beam, a square shield with the King's arms, surmounted by the leopard's crest above the cap of state, but no helm or saddle. Dart reproduces F. Barlow's drawing made use of by Sandford, and describes the contents of the chapel as follows:

"There are in this Chapel the Trophies of this Warlike Prince, viz., his Helmet, plac'd on the Wall overlooking St. Edward's Shrine; his Shield, which is small, the Handfast broken away, and the Colours of it not to be distinguish'd; his Saddle of blue Velvet, pouder'd with Flowers de-liz of Gold, the Velvet dusty, but substantial, and the Colour tolerably fresh; three large Rests for Spears, a large Caparison-Cloth tolerably fresh"

Thus we see that, in the XVIIIth century, there existed in the Chapel several things not there to-day, the three large rests for spears, the blue velvet cover for the saddle, powdered with fleur-de-lis, and the caparison-cloth. This latter we now know formed no part of King Henry's achieve