for over a century as the helmet of no less a person than Guy, Earl of Warwick! It belongs, however, to a period that would make it possible for it to have been the property of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Even so, however, there is only the remotest chance of such an attribution being valid; for it is hardly likely that the head-piece of such a famous fighter would find its way into the castle ditch. This helmet is the skull-piece of a "great" bascinet of the first half of the XVth century, very closely resembling the last two we have described; though an additional plate is seen riveted to the base of the neck-piece. The hinge plate for the visor is still in position (Fig. 304, a, b). Another "great" bascinet is in the collection of Sir Edward Barry. It practically duplicates the British Museum example; though it is more deeply corroded with rust—the result of which has been somewhat to damage its lower outline. This skull-piece was found in central France (Fig. 305).
In Marston Moretaine Church, Bedfordshire, is the only other "great" bascinet helmet in England with which we are acquainted; though, as we have already said, certain of the large helms of but a few years later date are but a step in advance on these head-pieces. The skull-piece of this last-mentioned bascinet certainly dates well within the first half of the XVth century. The illustration of it shows its likeness to those "great" bascinets we have already figured. The top of the skull-piece, on which blows might be expected to fall, is very thick; but the metal is drawn out over the eyes, as here it would be reinforced by the addition of the visor, the large holes for the pivot of which are carefully drilled on either side. For the purpose of adapting to funerary use this skull-piece, a cut-down portion of a large buffe has been riveted to it at a date probably early in the XVIth century (Fig. 306).
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Fig. 307a. Skull-piece of a "great" bascinet helmet
Possibly English, first half of XVth century. Riggs' Collection, Metropolitan Museum of New York
There was discovered quite recently in the north of Spain the skull-piece of a "great" bascinet, which is quite of what we have termed the English type,
