No. 36.

The accompanying little figure from Harleian MS., No. 603, fol. 13vo., appears to wear a defence of scale-work, but of what material it is difficult to say. The original is a pen-drawing only: the manuscript, of the close of the eleventh century. The figure is further curious for the mantle fastened at the right shoulder by a fibula.

From the monuments of this time, it does not appear that leg-defences were general. In the Bayeux tapestry they are accorded only to the most distinguished personages: in these cases, they are generally marked with rounds, as the hauberks are, probably indicating chain-mail. In this tapestry, three other modes of clothing the leg are seen: in some figures the crossing lines forming lozenges are found, which we have assumed to be pourpointerie; in others appear the fasciæ, or winding bands, which we have already observed among the Anglo-Saxons: and in many, the chausses are merely represented of a single colour, as red, blue, or yellow; which does not seem to imply armour of any kind. Wace makes mention of iron chausses:—

"Chevaliers ont haubers è branz,
Chauces de fer, helmes luizanz."—Line 12,813.

They are seen in the great seals of Richard the First, (cut [1],) and in other monuments of the twelfth century. In this curious group of David and Goliath, from a German manuscript in the British Museum, dated 1148[202], we have a singular example of studded chausses: the chain-work of the hauberk being marked in rows of half-circles, and coloured grey in the original, the chausses marked in rounds, and silvered, it becomes clear that the latter garment is of a different construction from the coat. From its being elastic, as shewn at the foot, it probably was a defence of pourpointerie, the bossed rivets being for the purpose of keeping the quilting in its place.