Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/316

Fig. 287. Hemispherical visor of a bascinet helmet

Probably Swiss, about 1400. In the Landes Museum, Zurich

Fig. 288. Bascinet helmet with hemispherical visor

Possibly French, about 1410-20. H 22, Musée d'Artillerie, Paris

been hammered down, and then perforated for the insertion of the tubular plume-holder which we now see, an addition made, we believe, early in the XVIth century. Next, if we trace the line of small holes used for securing the lining of the helmet, we shall note that the holes run over the forehead and down the edge of the cheek-piece only, but have been cut away around the lower edge of the helmet. From the fact, too, that this row of holes has been cut into at the top of the cheek-piece, it is evident that the original outline of the helmet has here also been altered (Fig. 281, b). By following in imagination this series of holes along an edge about one and a half inch lower, the helmet can be reconstructed, and can easily be seen as a bascinet of similar design to that of the Burgess example except at the back base of the skull-piece, where it must have always flanged outwards, as seen on the so-called barbute (Fig. 423, page 350). Again, above this series of small holes, are larger holes at a greater distance apart, into which fitted the staples which secured the camail. A series of twin holes, too, runs round the skull-piece, which Sir Samuel Meyrick suggested were for the attachment of the chaplet or orle. They appear, however, to be too low down for that purpose, and it is more likely that at a later date, when the helmet was transformed into a salade and most of the original lining holes were cut away, they were made for securing the lining. Above the centre of the face-