THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 305
childhood. The other two plates found at Thorlby are armorial escutcheons. Over each is placed an Earl's coronet; one of them exhibits the coat of Clifford, with seven quarterings; the other that of Russell, with the like number, being the bearings of Margaret, daughter of the second Earl of Bedford, and wife of George, third Earl of Cumberland.
By Mr. J. Bernhard Smith.—A spanner of steel for turning a wheellock, combined with a touch-box to contain the fine priming powder, and a turn-screw. In the Goodrich Court Armory there is a similar object, but of rather different fashion, elegantly engraved and gilt, of the time of Elizabeth.[1]
Mr. Way contributed a few notes in reference to the curious skeleton cap of fence, exhibited by Mr. J. Bernhard Smith at the previous meeting (see p. 1 97). This ingenious head-piece, as is shown by the accompanying representation, consists of four ribs of steel, hinged together on the crown of the head, with smaller intervening bars, every part being so nicely adjusted by means of pivots and hinges, as to be readily folded up in small compass, and, when required, speedily expanded and placed within the cap, forming a most effectual protection to the skull. A single simple fastening, of the kind termed by the French à baïonnette, keeps the entire frame firmly in place. This invention appears to be of French construction. There was one in the possession of M. E. Bérat, of Rouen, which he had obtained from the château of Roncherolles, with a small sleeveless shirt of chain-mail. Another such skeleton head-piece, slightly differing in the fastenings, was in the collection of the late M. Langlois, of Rouen. We are not aware that any specimen exists in armories in England. The curious "spider helmet" in the Tower Armory, attributed to the time of Henry IV. of France, seems in some degree of the same class of defences: and on the disuse of plate-armour, various concealed defences were, for a time, continued, such as the skull or small cap of plate in the Meyrick Collection, intended to be sewn into the crown of the carabineer's broad-brimmed hat.[2] The example, which was exhibited by Mr. Bernhard Smith, seems suited rather as a precaution against a sudden fray or assault in travelling, or nightly adventure, than a defence properly of a warlike nature: such protection was termed by the French, secrette or segrette; it was occasionally of mail, as appears by Palsgrave's "Eclaircissement de la langue Francoyse," 1530, where it is found—"Cappe of fence, segrette de maille." Cotgrave renders secrete, "a thin steel cap, a close iron scull worn under a hat, a cap of fence;" and Florio gives a similar explanation of the Italian term secreta. The privy coat of fence, with mail or plate quilted into it, was also termed a "secret." Jamieson cites some curious passages in Scottish writers, illustrative of the use of these concealed kinds of armour, which probably originated in Italy.
By Mr. R. Caton.—Part of a set of circular fruit-trenchers, eight in number, with the original wooden box in which they were kept, upon which, although the ornaments on the lid are effaced, the initials C. R. may still be discerned, proving the use of these quaint objects as late as the reign of Charles I. They are similar in design, and in the colouring of the ornaments, foliage, flowers, to those noticed in a former volume of the Journal (see vol. iii., p. 336). The inscriptions are wholly texts of Scripture, eachVOL. VII. S S
