ANCIENT CHESS-MEN. 245

is appended to the arms are plainly shewn s. The arsons of the saddle arc so high as to render the seat singularly secure ; the body of his charger is wholly covered by mail, the head alone being protected by a testiere of plate, a piece of horse- armour of which the collection at Warmck castle supplies an imique exam})le. The horse bears over the mail a curious capa- rison formed in detached portions, or lambels ; these are deeply indented along their lower edge. This kind of skeleton- housings is of very unconmion occurrence, and scarcely less singular is the absence of the surcoat, at the period when mixed defences of mail and plate became commonly adopted. It is not improbable that the heavy charger, during the thirteenth and fom'teenth centuries, was frequently protected by a covering of mail, which is concealed in representations by the flowing armorial caparisons. It is occasionally visible, as on the seals of Philippe le Hardi, and Jean Sans Peur, dukes of Burgundy, which, although of later date than the little figure under consideration, exhibit a precisely similar fashion as regards the equipment of the horse'. The " cou- verture de fer," indeed, for the horse is mentioned in docu- ments of the period, such as the will of the Earl Warren, A.D. 1347, and the ordonnance of Philippe le Bel, for musters against the war with Planders, A.D. 1303. Wace, in the Roman du Ron, describes a warrior mounted on a steed "tot covert de fer," and trappings of mail are mentioned repeatedly in Syr Gawayne, and other early English romances. They appear also amongst the remarkable subjects copied by Stothard from the walls of the painted chamber, at AVest- minster, and so ably illustrated by the late Mr. Rokewode, who attributed those curious works of art to the reign of Henry III. a. way. s A very curious contemporary example Guy. See Grose's Ancient Armour, p. xvii. of this kind of shield was supplied by the pi. 4 2. effigy of one of the Hilary's, formerly in ' Tresorde Glyptique, Sceauxdes grands Walsall church, Staffordshire, now in the Feudataires, pi. xiv. gardens of Mr. Foster, in that town. •« Vetusta Monumcnta, vol. vi. pi. 26 — ■» It is said to have belonged to Earl 39.