[XXV]
SURVIVALS IN MILITARY UNIFORMS
ARMOUR—PRICKERS FOR FLINT-LOCKS—FORAGE CORDS—REMINISCENCES OF GALLANTRY—REGIMENTAL BADGES—COURTSHIP COLOURS
The cuirass of the Household troops which they wear on important occasions, as well as the metal helmets of various regiments, are survivals from the time when armour was of use, and if we examine the shoulders of certain soldiers, we shall find that there are vestiges of chain mail, though now this only takes the place of epaulettes. (See Figure [145].) To see chain mail in its perfection we must go back to the time of Edward I, and if we look, for instance, at the brass of Sir John D’Aubernoun (who died in the year 1277) or of Sir Richard de Trumpington, A.D. 1289 (see Figure [146]), which are the earliest remaining in this country, we shall find that the chain mail now represented by a little patch on the shoulder then covered the head and neck, arms and hands, body, feet and legs.
Fig. 145.—Relic of chain mail on the shoulder of an Imperial Yeoman.
As time went on, plate armour was mixed with the mail, until at last, in the time of Henry IV, we get the complete plate period in which there was a breastplate and a corresponding back plate, which had already appeared in the period of transition of chain mail to plate armour. From thence onward the development of armour progressed until it gradually disappeared. In Stuart times, jack boots and spur leathers took the place of the armour on the legs, and a buff coat that on the body, with the exception of a gorget. This came to be in the early part of the nineteenth century, merely a small badge of the officer on duty, and in a still more diminished form is to be seen in some foreign armies.
