incongruities upon the stage of a theatre, or the arena of a pageant, with the most profound indifference. He will perceive Richard III. in a camail and Ivanhoe in a salade with the utmost complacency. The pity of it is that those who are responsible for the historical inaccuracies should be so ignorant, for no effort ought to be spared in endeavouring to educate the nation, and especially the youth of it, in the fundamental principles of rigid historical truthfulness. In our theatres recently we have witnessed Bolingbroke in a fifteenth century tabard, a waist-belt, and round-toed sabbatons, with the Duke of Norfolk in an almost equally grotesque parody of the Camail and Jupon Period; Pistol with a basket-hilted rapier; Henry V. in a camail, late fifteenth century gauntlets, twentieth century boots, and vambraces covering parts of his coudières. Upon the arena knights of Richard II.’s period have appeared in full plate armour of 1470; at Queen Eleanor’s funeral without ailettes; while bear’s-paw sabbatons have figured conspicuously in many scenes previous to 1480. These are elementary details which even a cursory knowledge of military equipment could avoid, but in the illustrations of historical scenes in books and magazines equal ignorance prevails, and a knight in pure mail and a surcoat, making love to a maiden in a reticulated head-dress seated under a two-centred Tudor archway, is only an example of the incongruities which almost every day insult the intelligence and offend the eyesight of the educated reader. Unfortunately many illustrators go to the works of Sir Walter Scott for details of mediæval military equipment, and are thereby led hopelessly astray.

It will be noticed in the following pages that continual reference is made, respecting early armour and weapons, to the MSS. which are preserved in our inimitable national collection at the British Museum, and I cannot too earnestly advise the student to utilise to the utmost extent possible the treasure-house of military detail preserved therein. The feeling which prompted early illuminators to represent Biblical and other personages in contemporary equipment, whereby Goliath was shown habited in Norman hauberk and helm, Moses appeared on horseback with couched lance in the mixed mail and plate of the thirteenth century, and Julius Cæsar crossed the Rubicon in a salade and complete Yorkist plate, is simply invaluable to the student, inasmuch as every detail, though at times almost microscopic, is faithfully delineated, and every new fashion recorded at once upon its adoption. I have drawn upon many manuscripts for illustrations, but there are scores still untouched which only need the student’s attention to deliver up many valuable examples of details probably quite unknown at the present time.

There are collateral subjects connected with the study of Armour and Arms which the exigencies of space have compelled me to wholly or partially omit, such as heraldry, mantling and the changes it underwent, caparisoning and barding, the later development of weapons of precision, history and varieties of the sword, &c., some of which would require special monographs to deal with, and do full justice to, the subject.

One of the main ideas has been the simplification of those points upon which the majority of the books extant are either silent or deal with in a casual and unsatisfying manner. One period especially, which gave me infinite trouble as a student, is that between 1320 and 1360, while another feature, generally omitted or hurriedly glossed over, is the equipment of the common soldier. In conclusion I must express my deep sense of obligation to the authorities connected with the Tower of London, the Wallace Collection, the British Museum Manuscript Department, the South Kensington Museum, the Rotunda at Woolwich, the Edinburgh Castle