Archaeologia cantiana . , or ofplates of steel held in a similar manner, as has beensuggested, is to declare that the knight gave up anexcellent mode of manufacture, for an inferior one, atthe very time when the armourer was devising allsorts of additional expedients for his protection, aswe see in our example. This reasoning of course fails,and it is unnecessary to pursue, or to confute, thatwhich is condemned in self evidence. The history of interlaced chain-mail, which SirSamuel Meyrick thought no older than the thirteenthcentury at most, we can carry back by actual exampleto the age of Sen
Archaeologia cantiana . , or ofplates of steel held in a similar manner, as has beensuggested, is to declare that the knight gave up anexcellent mode of manufacture, for an inferior one, atthe very time when the armourer was devising allsorts of additional expedients for his protection, aswe see in our example. This reasoning of course fails,and it is unnecessary to pursue, or to confute, thatwhich is condemned in self evidence. The history of interlaced chain-mail, which SirSamuel Meyrick thought no older than the thirteenthcentury at most, we can carry back by actual exampleto the age of Sennacherib, 700 For the annexedwood-cut (Fig. 1), from an Assyrian helmet, with aportion of mail attached to it, now in the BritishMuseum, is of this era. We must refer this ingeniousconstruction to the Orientals, amongst whom we havethus the earliest record of it, and with whom, to thishour, it is found to be in use. But besides this, thepadded garments, used so much in the fourteenth IN MINSTER CHURCH, SHEPPEY. 155. Fio-. 1. century, were of Oriental origin, and are representedon the Assyrian marbles. Seeing that we get theseadditions from such a soiuce, might we not reasonablylook for a suggestion respecting banded mail, to thesame unchanging East? We may be assured thatthe banded-mail was a simple affair enough to givean additional advantage to the ordinary chain-mail,and involved no grave difficulties. A year or two ago I purchased a hawberk of chain-mail, of Asiatic workmanship, and probably fromNorthern India, which appears to me to decide thisvery interesting question. The simplicity of the ad-ditional constructions at once commends itself, asanswering all the conditions required, besides gi\dngthe general eflPect as seen in our ancient collar is rendered rather more rigid by the intro-duction of leathern thongs, passed through each inter-mediate line of rings, thus giving an effective andadditional protection, insuring at the same time therequisite fle
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