Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/93

 colour, with arrangements of broad vertical bands, containing curious etched and gilt ornaments, which comprise an interlaced thorn scroll, through which runs a zigzag line. The border ornaments are composed of a compressed serpentine band through which runs a narrower band parallel with the edges of the plates. We describe the detail of this ornament because of the confusing and contradictory evidence furnished by a portrait of Sir James Scudamore, dated 1619, until recently in the possession of the Earl of Chesterfield, in which the figure is portrayed armed in exactly the suit which in the MS. is ascribed to the ownership of Lord Compton (Fig. 1144). For the time we must be content to accept the attribution given in the MS. about this armour, or at least what remains of it; for the Scudamore harness appears on the next plate in the MS. Of this Compton suit there are in existence to-day the following pieces: the burgonet and buffe (Fig. 1145), the complete arms and pauldrons (as an instance of its clever restoration we illustrate the left brassard before and after restoration, Figs. 1145, ), and the laminated cuisses and knee-cops. Excellent reproductions of the missing parts, consisting of the breastplate, backplate, taceplate, tassets, and gauntlets, have been made by Monsieur Daniel Tachaux, the armourer of the Metropolitan Museum of New York, in order to complete the suit as shown (Fig. 1146).

The original parts of the Compton suit, together with the breast- and backplate, gorget, tace, tassets, jambs, and sollerets of the Scudamore harness, came to light in 1909, when the contents of the manor house of Holme Lacy in Herefordshire were offered for sale by public auction. Holme Lacy was the seat of the family of Scudamore-Stanhope, a family now represented by the Earl of Chesterfield.

From the "Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of New York," we by permission extract the following:

"So rare is it in these days to discover armour which belonged to definite personages, that it is not here out of place to review as best we may the history of the present pieces. Probably they never strayed far from the home of their owner. They may originally have been mounted on racks or manikins after the prevailing fashion, and were probably dismounted when Holme Lacy was remodelled towards the end of the XVIIth century, at which time some of the most decorative pieces were hung about the house. In fact we know that they were displayed separately; for when the armour was examined, old wires were found in place by means of which pieces had been attached to pegs or brackets. Later on, the pieces were taken down, some were lost, the rest stored and forgotten. It was only in 1909, when the contents of the