Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/78

66 which we are indebted to the Hon. Richard Neville, is here offered to our readers. The circumstance stated by Mr. Brougham, that the left heel only was found armed with a spur, is deserving of attention, the fact having been carefully verified, and a notion has been entertained that this was in conformity with some peculiar established usage. It is obvious that if any weight be carried on the right arm, or any violent movement made therewith, as for instance, in wielding a lance or other weapon, it would be easier to spur with the left than the right heel. The natural tendency to counterbalance the change of equilibrium produced by the act of raising and moving rapidly the right arm, would bring the left heel towards the horse's flank. It seems, however, improbable, that for such a cause of trivial convenience alone, a person of knightly condition, in the thirteenth century, would have worn a single spur, or have been thus equipped, when laid in his grave, at a period when the spurs formed one of the most important parts of knightly attire. A curious fact, however, of an analogous practice, is recorded by Monsieur Troyon, in the Memoirs of the Society of Antiquaries of Zurich. At Bel-air, near Lausanne, an extensive cemetery was discovered in the year 1838, comprising interments of two periods. The bodies had been deposited in cists formed with stones, or hewn in the natural rock, and the feet lay towards the south-east. A few Roman coins were found, and a great variety of ornaments, weapons, fictile vessels, and objects which appeared to belong to a much later period. In a cist rudely formed with slabs of stone a skeleton appeared, with an iron spur attached to the left heel alone. It was satisfactorily ascertained that the right foot was not armed in like manner. Under the right arm had been deposited an iron plough-share, and the other objects found in the grave were a fragment of fictile manufacture, resembling the handle of an amphora, a fine single-edged weapon, in excellent preservation, with the remains of its scabbard, a dagger, buckle, and a comb formed of bone. The spur had a very short point, straight shanks, to the extremities of which were attached adjustments for two straps, one probably passing under the foot, and the second over the instep. No other similar instance of the use of a single spur appears to have been noticed; it must be admitted, however, that the remarkable interment found at Lausanne belongs to a period remote from the age of the Crusader disinterred at Brougham, and can only be regarded as a singular coincidence.

It does not appear that any well-authenticated instance had hitherto been recorded, of the discovery of actual interment with the legs crossed, in accordance with the peculiarity of monumental portraiture, chiefly prevalent during the period of the crusades, of which so many examples occur in England amongst sepulchral effigies. Maitland has stated that, on the site of the chapel of the Knights Templars, at Mount Holy, in Edinburgh, several bodies had been found, cross-legged, with swords by their sides: Gough, however, seems to have questioned the assertion, supposing that effigies were intended.