Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/247

 MEDIEVAL MANNERS AND COSTUME. 227 With a view to this object, doubtless, were the formal instructions prescribed, which directed with minute precision the entire ceremonial of the tourney, or the battle within lists. The period when defined rules for observances on such occa- sions were first enacted, has not been ascertained, and none of those which have been preserved are more ancient than the fifteenth century. The documents now submitted to the readers of the Journal, are of that period. The curious ordinance, relating to those favourite diversions of former days, termed " Justis of pees," hasliludia j^acijica^ or joules a plaiscmee, as distinguished from the deadly con- flicts, called by Froissart, joustes mortelles et a champ, has more than once been brought before the notice of archaeolo- gists. The rare or costly publications, however, in which these and other remarkable illustrations of ancient manners, of the warlike practices, and military costume of our fore- fathers, have been given, are not accessible to all readers. A transcript, of earlier date than the MS. from which copies of these documents have been supplied, has most liberally been placed at our disposal by the courtesy of the Lord Hastings, and it is scarcely requisite to ofier any apology for again bringing forward evidences of this authentic and interesting natm'e, in order to give pubhcity to a text more ancient than that heretofore known. The valuable volume of collections, now preserved at Melton Constable, from which the following extracts have been derived, is in no slight degree curious, as presenting an assemblage of the popidar subjects which composed the hand- book of the English gentleman, in the reign of Henry VI. With ordinances of chivalry are found therein numerous entries on matters of domestic economy, tables of weights and measures, a ready reckoner and perpetual almanac, re- lations of the ceremonial observed at the coronation of Henry VI., the version of the iVi't of War by A^egetius, (written by order of Sir Thomas of Berkeley, and completed in 1408,) a poem upon Alexander the Great, the Epistle of the Goddess Othea to Hector, (both translated from the Ereuch,) and other curious treatises. Escutcheons of the bearing of Astley, quartering that of Harcourt, with a label of three files, ermines, (?) appear repeatedly on the pages of the MS., and the following coat occurs on one leaf : sable, two lions rampant confrontes, or. Upon the stamped binding, of the earlier