Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/233

that on the Ingham brass the cuisses amply cover the thighs. They were possibly of leather, reinforced with round-headed rivets placed at regular intervals about an inch from one another. A similar defence has been adopted for the surcoat; but the rivets are larger and are a greater distance apart, and in this case the leather groundwork must have been more pliable. The surcoat is worn over a full hauberk of chain mail. The solidity of the jambs is quite apparent from the rigid manner in which they are represented at their extreme base, where the space between their lower edge and the top of the solleret is clearly filled in with chain mail. The knee-cops are of somewhat early form; and judged from the fact that their borders are outlined with a close row of small hemispherically headed rivets, would seem to be covered with some material probably in keeping with the rest of the harness, applied much in the same manner as on that portion of a mid-XIVth century gauntlet which was presented to the British Museum by the late Richard Zschille (see Chapter XV). This fragment, as can be determined by examination, was originally covered with some textile material. Around its border, and securing the material to the iron foundation plate are such rivets as are seen on the Ingham knee-plates. There is in the National Bavarian Museum, of Munich, a breastplate with a skirt of steel much of the same appearance as this textile covered armour of the XIVth century: it is wholly overlaid with red velvet, and adorned with gilt brass nails. This particular breastplate, and the wonderful leg defences in the Riggs Collection, similarly covered with stuff (canvas, supplemented with silk?) date within the early years of the XVth century, and are unique in their rarity. Other notable instances of the studded and ribbed mid-XIVth century defence similar to that seen on the Ingham brass are the cuisses depicted on an unknown effigy in the Abbey Church, Tewkesbury (Fig. 193), those shown on the effigy of Sir Humphry Littlebury in Holbeach Church, Lincolnshire, and a curious and very late form represented on the fine effigy of Sir Guy Bryan also in the Abbey Church, Tewkesbury, where some studded material appears to be the substance of the vambraces. The initial letter of the Grant of the Duchy of Aquitaine by Edward III to the Black Prince (Fig. 194) shows both father and son clad in the ordinary plate armour of the time, with the exception of their cuisse plates which are clearly defined as being of some other material enriched or reinforced with gilt metal studs.