Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/57

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Fig. 1111. From an engraving taken from a variation of the portrait (fig. 1110)

Considerable mystery surrounds the past history of this suit, and despite the most careful research, no satisfactory account can be given of it; for the tradition as to its provenance is contradictory. Until 1877 the suit was in the possession of the Dymock family, the hereditary champions of England. It made its first public reappearance in 1857, when it was exhibited at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition by Sir Henry Dymock of Scrivelsby Court, Lincolnshire. It was then noted by Mr. Planché "that the horse armour belonging to the suit is still in the possession of Her Majesty the Queen, and has been graciously sent from Windsor for exhibition, whilst a second plate from the saddle is lent by Colonel Meyrick." Twenty years after, in July 1877, on the death of Sir Henry, the suit was offered for sale at Christie's, the following being an