Prince of Wales, was anxious to know me and had been trying to effect a meeting with me. A few weeks elapsed and this meeting took place and I saw a slim boy of about fifteen who, with a hurried, impetuous, cracked voice, launched into all sorts of questions concerning armour and arms. His ardent enthusiasm pleased me greatly, and, as long as I stayed in London, we saw much of one another and indulged in endless disquisitions on the subject of arms, and these discussions have been continued at intervals ever since. I found that you, like myself, were animated by the same love of steel that prompted the old chronicler to write the passage which I have taken as the text of this introduction, and I soon was convinced that you would pursue the study on the lines that I had laid down in the "Catalogue of Helmets and Mail" in 1881,[1] and which I considered the only true and scientific course to pursue. You have more than fulfilled that promise, and it is a great delight to me to know that the study that has been the passion of my life, will be continued by a worthy successor.
This study, when I took it up, was confined to a very few people. Many had collected arms and armour for their artistic merit, decorative effect, or their more or less romantic or historical associations, but few had inquired into the reason of this or that type or form, still less had examined the constructive features of the pieces. A brilliant exception was the French architect Viollet-le-Duc, whose work on arms[2] laid the foundation of the method pursued by Burges and myself in the above-mentioned "Catalogue of Helmets and Mail."
Always addicted to the study of natural science, it had seemed to me that armour and arms should be examined in the same manner in which the scientist proceeds. How does the naturalist, the geologist, the paleontologist pursue his studies, but by collecting the greatest possible number of specimens and then, by a careful collation of this material, he is enabled to evolve a logical and scientific theory and history of the objects which form his study. It is for this reason that I have insisted upon the value of a really extensive picture book, although a minute examination of the greatest possible number of real examples must always be the basis of a truly critical and profound knowledge of ancient armour and weapons. The number of students in Europe who follow this course is increasing, and I doubt not that the present book will do much to interest the reading public at large in the subject.
And this subject is one that deserves more attention than has generally been given to it. For many ages, until fire-arms had reached a certain perfection, defensive armour and weapons of steel, whether swords, daggers, or hafted weapons, were a matter of vital interest to every people in Europe, indeed, almost to every man, for every man was armed in some way or another, and war of some kind went on almost
