Certain effigies, after suffering from the vandalism of the Commonwealth, have been subjected to restoration; we must therefore exercise some care in our search for evidence of detail lest we confuse the work of the mid XIXth century restorer with that of the original sculptor.
Taking these facts into consideration, we think it advisable occasionally to compare with the effigies and brasses other forms of sculpture and contemporary illuminations.
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Fig. 134. William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury, from his effigy in the cathedral church of Salisbury, about 1230
(a) Profile view; (b) three-quarter view; (c) the top of the coif showing the concentric arrangement in the chain mail. From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"
Towards the middle of the XIIIth century the cylindrical head-piece became gradually lower until it developed into a flat steel cap, which was worn under the mail coif or hood. Good examples of this are shown in the effigies of William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury, set up in the cathedral church of Salisbury about 1230 (Fig. 134), and in the effigy of the same date to which we have just alluded in the cathedral church of Gloucester, wrongly attributed to Robert, Duke of Normandy (Fig. 135). The steel cap worn under the mail as depicted in these two effigies was, in all probability, thickly padded in the interior, and having the lining sewn on by means of the series of small holes, as in the later examples.
The knight wearing this steel cap drew over it the mail hood, which was held in position round the sides of the steel cap by a thong of leather laced through the mail as often represented in contemporaneous sculpture. The part of the mail itself that covered the chin was then raised and secured, in nearly every case, on the right temple, in the manner so admirably
