Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/250

230 ILLUSTRATIONS OF fill what were the " gyders," of which thirty were required for the jouster's equipment. Mr. Douce offers no explanation, and Sir Samuel Meyrick supposes them to have been iden- tical with " vuiders, straps to draw together the open parts." Vuiders, however, appear to have been either gussets of mail, or overlapping plates, serving to fill up the spaces, or viiides, either at the elbow, or the knee-joints. They are thus men- tioned in the curious romance of Clariodes, where the knights are described as putting on, " after their desire, sabatyns, greves, cusses with voyders :" and again, in the following lines, " And on his arms, rynged not to wyde, There were voyders fretted in the mayle, With cordes rounde, and of fresh entayle^" Johan Hill, armourer to Henry IV., in his treatise, included in the valuable illustrations of ancient state and chivalry, for which we are indebted to the editorial care of Mr. Black, says, " first behoveth sabatouns, greevis and cloose qwysseux, with voydours of plate or of mayle," &c. ; " a paire of vaunt- brace cloos, with voydours of mayle y fretted™." In the in- ventory of articles delivered out of the Tower, dated 33 Hen. IV. (1454-5), are enumerated habergeons of Meleyn, probably Milanese, of which three had been " broken to make slewysof Woyders and ye's"." The jouster wore under his plates a " hauscement," or doublet with sleeves, serving, like stays, to support the body.. To the plates were affixed a button and clasp, termed by Johan Hill, a forlocke, to which the helm was fastened, so that a blow would not easily dislodge it from his head. The shield was perhaps considered a sufficient defence for the left arm, and accordingly complete armour appears to have been pro- vided for the right arm alone. There is, indeed, much obscu- rity in the item, " a Rerebrace, with a rolle of ledyr well stuffid," which, as Sir Samuel Meyrick remarks, the reading of the Lansd. MS. being rerebrake, " seems to refer to a part of the horse-furniture, and probably to a guard fixed on the crupper, to break the fall of the rider when thrust out of his saddle"." If, however, the " rerebrace," first mentioned in ' See extract quoted by Sir Walter by Benjamin Barnard, Esq. 1840, p. 5. Scott, notes to Sir Tristrem, fytte 1. " Arch.-Kol , vol. xvi. p. 125. "• Illustrations of ancient State, &c. from •> Critical Enquiry, vol. ii. p. 155, edit. MSS. preserved in the Ashmolean Mu- 1834. Sir Sanmol has conjectured (ibid., seam J presented to the Roxburghe Club p. 137) that the round ball, first seen on