Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/248

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rather than Italian, which may account for a certain clumsiness in general outline, especially noticeable in the leg defences. A curious addition of four developed tuille tassets can be seen attached to the last plate of the taces; for in addition to the customary pair in front, there is one on either side and two behind, the last, to all appearance, most incommodiously placed for riding. The arm defences are very similar to those shown on the Warwick effigy, each differing in formation, the right being constructed for freer movement of the sword arm. The elbow cops are most usefully fashioned, and are as largely developed as any we have come across in sculptural form; however, they fail to approach that exaggerated form as they appear on the brass of Richard Quartremayns, Esqre., in Thame Church, Oxfordshire, where an ungainly butterfly-like effect has been obtained (Fig. 208). This brass has been considered as being about 1460, while as Robert Lord Hungerford died in 1455 his effigy would be of about the same date. In the case of this effigy can be noted a very late instance of the use of the ceinture noble jewelled and enamelled, to which is attached the remains of a rondel dagger; the sword is missing. The effigy of Lord Hungerford is life size, good in design, and highly finished in its details.

A strangely-equipped effigy from Whitchurch, Shropshire, furnishes us with our next picture, a picture of the redoubtable fighter, John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who died in 1453, but whose armament follows the fashion of almost the closing years of the XVth century (Fig. 209). Stothard very wisely remarks on the curiously late habiliments of this famous warrior:

"It is so common a practice to refer every unappropriated monument to the great man of the locality, that too much faith must not be given to every tale of this kind that calls itself 'tradition.' At the same time there is no reason why an effigy in the costume of Henry VII's time may not have been devoted to the hero who fell in the days of Henry VI. We may be allowed here to remind the reader of that very curious instance afforded by the will of Thomas Earl of Derby, in 1504. This instrument directs the construction of 'personages' to represent four generations: 'personages of myself and both my wives, for a perpetual remembrance to be prayed for'; 'personages which I have caused to be made for my father and mother, my grandfather and my great-grandfather' ('Test. Vet.,' p. 458[internal reference F1])."

It may be urged that we should have relegated the note on the armament of this Earl of Shrewsbury to a later chapter in this work; but we place it next after our account of the Hungerford effigy as showing that a suit of