Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/81

 "the fielde armour compleate guilte and chaced" given by Sir Francis Vere to Prince Henry, in the Tower inventory of 1629, were similar.

[The author has not referred to or illustrated any example of the armour worn by the armed retainers of great families. Recently, in the auction rooms of Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, there was offered for sale some of the armour of men-at-arms who served in the retinue of the second and third Earls of Pembroke. All the pieces were roughly but well made and exceedingly heavy, and they appeared to be of British workmanship of the last years of the XVIth or early years of the XVIIth centuries. Over the knee-cops of the lobster cuisses of a mounted man's suit appears the letter "P" in steel studs (Fig. 1465), and on the tassets of a pikeman's harness the letters "P. P" are similarly delineated. It is believed that examples of retainers' armour, which can be identified with any particular family or corporation, are very rare. Mr. C. ffoulkes refers to certain pieces of armour marked with a punch "New Coll," which were formerly in the possession of New College, Oxford, and formed part of the college armoury for the contingent