Armoury. Effigies of Sir William Pickering, 1574, Great St. Helen's Church, London; of Sir William Thynne, 1584, and of Lord Norris and his six sons, 1601, all in Westminster Abbey (not engraved). Brasses to Sir Robert Clere, 1529, Ormesby, Norfolk; to Sir William Molineux, 1548, at

Fig. 44.-BREAST AND BACK-PLATES, ABOUT 1580.

Sefton, in Lancashire (Waller); to Sir John and Sir Edward Greville, 1546 and 1559, at Weston, in Warwickshire; to Humphrey Brewster, Esquire, 1593, at Wrentham, Suffolk ("Brasses and Slabs "); and to John Clippesby, Esquire, 1594, at Clippesby, in Norfolk (Cotman).

The great seals, and the seals of nobles and other impor

tant personages, continued to exemplify armour and swords during the 15th and 16th centuries.

The salade, a light open helm, which in its simplest form was little more than a close-fitting cap, extended so as to cover the sides of the face and the back of the neck, was very generally worn in the 16th century. It had been introduced as early as about A.D. 1400, and it was constantly enriched with varied ornamentation. The morion was a variety of the salade.

In Figs. 43 and 44 are shown characteristic specimens of the helms that were in general use in the last quarter of the 16th century, and of the breast and back-plates that were characteristic of the same period.

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Fig. 46.-HEAD-PIECE, ABOUT 1645.

IV. HALF ARMOUR.-From the end of the 16th century till the commencement of the 18th, armour was worn almost as much for display as for real service. At any rate, it was laid aside piece by piece, except on occasions of ceremonial; the more important pieces, the helmet and the breast and back-plates were considered sufficient; and equipments of buff leather were held to be preferable to such as were made of iron, until at length armour, properly so called, ceased altogether to be regarded as a necessary or even as an appropriate defence for a soldier.

In this sketch I do not propose to follow the course of the

decline of armour, or to trace out the progressive stages which eventually led to its being abandoned. Neither is it my purpose here to add to what may be found in the Notes on the subject of Fire-arms. I bring this chapter to a close with an example (Fig. 46) of such a simple head-piece as was com

monly worn by pikemen about the year 1625; and I add a group of such bills, partisans, and halberds (Fig. 45) as were in use in England, drawn from originals in the armoury in the Rotunda at Woolwich; and also (Fig. 47) a portrait of such a cuirassier, armed with a wheel-lock carbine, as might have mounted guard at Whitehall in the year that Charles II. was born.