Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/345

Rh from the sacred fanes where affectionate devotion had fondly placed them, to be cast in the public highways, or stuck up as incongruous embellishments, to eke out the paltry enjoyments of a suburban parterre.

The influence of the Archæological Association can never be more legitimately, or more wisely exerted than in preventing the recurrence of wilful havoc in the monuments of the country; and by such a preservative course of action, should their exertions effect nothing more, they will protect the national character from the unnatural imputation, that Englishmen have no respect for the sacred monuments of their fatherland.

Reverting, however, to the two facts which I have stated as being established from the examination of the Black Prince's jupon, I will remark that as concerns the first, namely, the mode of decoration, that the vest is of one pile velvet, at present of a palish yellow brown colour, faded probably from crimson. Its foundation is of fine buckram or calico, stuffed or padded with cotton, stitched and quilted in longitudinal folds, gamboised (gamboisé), as the proper term for such work is, and the velvet covering is ornamented with the arms of the Black Prince, quarterly France and England, embroidered in gold. As the mode of effecting this is precisely the same as that pursued in ecclesiastical habits, which will be presently fully described, it will be unnecessary to enter upon it here.

The second inference drawn is fully borne out, by comparing the jupon with its antitype in the latten effigy. So close indeed is the imitation, that not only in length and in general appearance do they exactly correspond to each other, but even to the half one of the fleur-de-lis semee, is the resemblance carried out. Had the artist merely intended to personify the Prince in the dress of the period, such scrupulous attention would scarcely have been considered deserving his notice, but he intended to produce, what there can be no reason for disputing was the universal custom, a faithful portrait of the garment itself. And if this exact attention were bestowed on the dress, can it be imagined that less regard would be paid to representing the countenance of the deceased? In that age, nothing was deemed too minute or elaborate to engage the talents of the sculptor, the limner or the embroideress, and portraits could not, amid all their love of truthful detail, be overlooked.