Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/192

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. v. MARCH 10, 1900.

and with an opening up the back and fronl from the lowest edges to the fork. The front opening is V-shaped, but that of the back is squared in its upper part so as not to get between the wearer and his saddle, and to allow the leg pieces to cover the thigh anc the leg to below the knee. There is no fasten- ing round the leg ; seemingly, the leg pieces hung loose and kept in their place by shape ano weight. From the collar there is a short slit down the front about 5 in. in length to allow the head to go through and the shirt to be put on.

The length from the neck to the fork is 26 in., from the fork to the ends of the leg pieces 21 in., that of the arms is 5^ in., the size round the chest under the arms is 48 in. The weight is 20jlb. avoirdupois. In my presence a man 5 ft. 1\ in. high put the shirt on over his clothes, and it fitted like an easy glove.

In the shirt examined the rings are mostly oval in shape. Whether they were so origin- ally or have been dragged out of the circular by wear cannot be determined. The wire, too, of which they are made is generally of oval section ; that also may be the result of wear.

The workmanship, though somewhat rougK, is not excessively so, yet it seems unlikely that there have been workmen in the Sudan capable of making these shirts. Capt. Speedy, f in a magazine article to which I regret I have lost the reference, states that they are made in India. It may be so, and a comparison with undoubted Indian mail shirts would probably show whether or not it is so. In the United Service Institution in Whitehall there are at this time, I believe, both Indian and Sudanese mail shirts.

In Bruce's 'Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile' (1768-73), 4to., Edinburgh and London, 1790, there is, on p. 437 of vol. iv., a very interesting reference to these shirts and the men who wore them. He saw them at Aira, a village three and a half miles from Sennaar. This is what he says :

" Within the gate was a number of horses with

the soldiers' barracks behind them A steel shirt

of mail hung upon each man's quarters opposite his horse, and DV it an antelope s skin made soft like chamois with which it was covered from the dew of the night. A headpiece of copper without crest or plumage was suspended by a lace above the shirt of mail, and was the most picturesque part of the trophy."

And on p. 524 of the same volume is the following :

"Shekh Adelan armed as he fought, with his coat of mail and war saddle, iron-chained bridle, brass cheek plates, front plate, breast plate, large broad

sword, and battle-axe, did not weigh less than 26 stone, horseman's weight."

I have not seen a copper headpiece such as Bruce mentions, but last summer an English officer of the Egyptian army told me that he had in Cairo some complete suits of the armour, including the Crusader - shaped swords, as described by Bruce.

THORNFIELD.

ARMS OF PEERESSES IN THEIR OWN EIGHT. Of late great improvements have been made in the woodcut blazons in our peerages such as Burke and Debrett. But in one point something is wanting. I refer to the blazon of the arms of peeresses (in their own right) who are married.

Take as an illustration the barony of Gray, which emerged on the death of the late Earl of Moray. This is now held by Mrs. Eveleen Maclaren Smith, who, with her husband, Mr. Smith, is authorized by royal licence to bear the name of Smith-Gray the children to bear the name of Gray only. In Burke the arms are given (in the woodcut) as Gray of Gray only, on a lozenge, with supporters ; in Debrett, likewise a lozenge, but containing (juarterings. Now the proper exemplification would be : the arms of Mr. Smith-Gray, Quarterly, 1 and 4, Gray (with a distinction as not of the blood) ; 2 and 3, Smith. Then, in pretence, the shield of Lady Gray, en- signed with her coronet. Then, again, side by side if you like, the arms of Lady Gray, in a lozenge, with supporters and coronet. The same remarks apply to the blazon of Baroness Kinloss a married peeress in her own right. The arms as now pictorially blazoned are misleading, as no reference is made in the woodcuts to the existence of the husband, and a married woman cannot bear arms apart from the shield of her husband. The arms of a married woman must be im-

Ealed with, or be in pretence upon, her usband's arms. This applies also to a widow's lozenge the widow's arms must be impaled with, or be in pretence upon, her late husband's oat. GEORGE ANGUS.

St. Andrews, N.B.

FORM OF INTERCESSION : WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA. The clumsy way in which autho- rized forms of prayer have been prepared for special occasions by successive Archbishops of Canterbury has long been a source of 2,'rief and humiliation to the clergy at large. The form issued for use in church on Septua- 'ortunate as may be. But it contains at least one astonishing blunder. The Litany No. iv.,
 * esima Sunday last is as uncouth and un-