Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/395

 KNIGHTLY EFFIGIES AT SANDWICH AND ASH. 'M)l thoroughly proof against a sabrc-ciit. The i)oi-tion that covers the hand itself (defendctl in fight by the basket-hilt of the sword of that day) is of the orcUnary flexible leather. In the Dresden collection is a curious example of scale harness, the " fc5chuppcnpanzer " of John Subicski, king of Poland, 1696. It consists of a coat with short sleeves, to which are added vambraces of plate. The helmet, which has a sliding nasal, and the gorget, are also of scale-work. The scales of the body are ensigned each with a gold cross, except a row in front, which has lions' heads in gold ; all the rest are of plain steel. This singular armour is given in colours in Reibisch's Dresden " RUstkammer,'' PI. 9, fig. 28. The modern Asiatic scale-coat in the Indian department of the Great Nations-Exhibition, resembles the above in its form (a body-dress with short sleeves), but all the scales are of plain steel. In the Tower may be seen another oriental example ; a head-piece of steel scales, strengthened with bars of the same metal, which overlie the scales, and unite at the top. And at Goodrich Court is another ; a Sikh armour, consisting of breast-guard and head-piece, the scales of wdiich are formed of semi-trans- parent buffalo hide. It would not be difficult to multiply these examples, but our object has rather been to trace rapidly the persistence of this fashion of scale-arming from the earliest to the latest times, than to accumulate notices of specimens, or distinguish varieties of arrangement. The curious effigy in the church of " Ash-by-Sandwich," to which we have already alluded, as affording one of the very few examples in monumental sculpture of the addition uf