Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/273

Rh is appended to the arms are plainly shewn. The arçons of the saddle are so high as to render the seat singularly secure; the body of his charger is wholly covered by mail, the head alone being protected by a testiére of plate, a piece of horse-armour of which the collection at Warwick castle supplies an unique example. The horse bears over the mail a curious caparison formed in detached portions, or lambels; these are deeply indented along their lower edge. This kind of skeleton-housings is of very uncommon occurrence, and scarcely less singular is the absence of the surcoat, at the period when mixed defences of mail and plate became commonly adopted. It is not improbable that the heavy charger, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was frequently protected by a covering of mail, which is concealed in representations by the flowing armorial caparisons. It is occasionally visible, as on the seals of Philippe le Hardi, and Jean Sans Peur, dukes of Burgundy, which, although of later date than the little figure under consideration, exhibit a precisely similar fashion as regards the equipment of the horse. The "couverture de fer," indeed, for the horse is mentioned in documents of the period, such as the will of the Earl Warren, A.D. 1347, and the ordonnance of Philippe le Bel, for musters against the war with Flanders, A.D. 1303. Wace, in the Roman du Ron, describes a warrior mounted on a steed "tot covert de fer," and trappings of mail are mentioned repeatedly in Syr Gawayne, and other early English romances. They appear also amongst the remarkable subjects copied by Stothard from the walls of the painted chamber, at Westminster, and so ably illustrated by the late Mr. Rokewode, who attributed those curious works of art to the reign of Henry III.