- venance is probably northern Europe. It will be noted that the cutting edge
takes a parallel line with the slight curve of the handle. Of the variations of the axe, the bardische or bardêche of Austria is perhaps the most important. It is a pole weapon with a large curved blade attached to one side of it, presenting a semicircular cutting edge, the lower end of which was usually fastened to the haft. We give an illustration of an axe of this kind which is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. This bardische, which is of the North European type, is particularly interesting; for the blade is of shorter and wider proportions than is usual, and its ornamentation, a scale ornament engraved and plated with silver, appears to be of Venetian origin. The period of its manufacture might well be the first half of the XVth century (Fig. 920). The Lochaber axe, which in some respects resembles the head of the hafted weapon we class as the voulge, was a pole-arm constructed on the same principle as the last-named weapon; but such axes were always poor in make, and suggest the work of the local blacksmith rather than that of a skilled armourer. At least this is what we are bound to say of those specimens that we ourselves have had the opportunity of examining. They must, however, have existed in large quantities even early in the XVIIIth century; for in the trial of the Porteous rioters in 1736 we read that evidence was given by the serjeant of the city guard of Edinburgh to the effect that "the mob took possession of the guardroom and of all the arms therein, both firearms, axes, and Lochaber-axes and halberts." We illustrate an example from the Noël Paton Collection (Fig. 921), a very primitive weapon in make, though no doubt of comparatively late date. Its resemblance to the voulge is remarkable; but as it was found by Sir Noël Paton in a crofter's cottage near Aberdeen, it may fairly be accepted as a locally made axe of the so-called Lochaber type. Another which we represent, selected from the Musée d'Artillerie of Paris (K 74), and described in the official catalogue as Scottish, though of doubtful nationality (Fig. 922), is more like the bardische; but it is furnished with the characteristic hook on the reverse side of the blade which is found on the more complete Lochaber axes. From the Tower of London Collection we illustrate an example of crude and late workmanship, but very characteristic of the axe in question (Fig. 923). The Jedburgh axe, so termed from Jedburgh the capital of Roxburghshire, the principal of the border towns, has little distinctiveness in form; indeed, a "Jeddart staff" was the common name for any type of hafted axe in the north during the XVIth century. We give an illustration of a weapon from the Musée
