Jacobe, that is phonetically as the German Jacobi is pronounced in English. His handwriting is English in character. On the other hand, the expression "This feld armor was made beyond see" on the drawing of Sir Henry Lee's first suit indicates a German writer, for "feld" and "see" are spellings one would attribute to a German. We cannot say that the phrase "beyond see" is more English than German.
A few other observations may be made of a general character on the MS. Viscount Dillon shrewdly draws attention to a little brayette which appears on most of the drawings, and suggests that it indicates a foreign origin for them; for in the time of Queen Elizabeth that defence was not in fashion in England, although its use abroad continued through the greater part of her reign. It may be observed, however, that this brayette does not form part of the armour, but of the civil dress of the figure wearing it. Again, the author would suggest that the various personages whose names occur in the MS. stored their suits in the Greenwich Armoury, where there naturally was a staff of skilled armourers to furbish them and keep them in order, much as people nowadays keep their motor cars at a garage; that a written inventory probably existed, now unfortunately destroyed or undiscovered, in which the suits were entered in the order in which they had been made or deposited there. The drawings in the MS. may have formed, in fact, a sort of pictorial register, by which each suit and all its extra pieces could at once be identified by the design and decoration when needed by its owner, serving very much the same purpose as an Italian late XVIth century drawing of four breastplates in the collection of Monsieur H. Carré of Paris (Fig. 1099). Some of the Greenwich suits must have been returned to their owners and have remained in their possession; while others, such as the Earl of Leicester's, the Earl of Worcester's, Sir John Smithe's, and possibly Sir Christopher Hatton's first suit were removed from Greenwich, when that armoury ceased to exist, and found their way to the Tower. In the Domestic State Papers for the year 1625 can be found a list of suits made for the king and certain noblemen, which were the productions of the Greenwich armourers. It runs as follows:
A true note of all such Armors as have been made by his Ma^{ties} armorors at Greenewich
lately, viz.:
Imprimis for ye Kings Ma^{ties} Tilte Armors 2.
For ye Duke of Buckingham Tilte Armors 2.
For ye late Marquis Hamelton Tilte Armor 1.
For ye late Earle of Dorset Title Armors 2.
