this occasion, why was it not returned as were the suits worn on previous coronations? The question, of course, is whether this suit was ever actually in the Tower Collection. Viscount Dillon thinks not, and we cannot even admit that it was at Windsor, certainly not after the XVIIIth century; though parts of the horse armour belonging to it, consisting of the chanfron and the saddle steels, were there in 1901.
A few words must be added as regards the bringing together of the two pieces of the cantle steel of the saddle; for previous to 1870 only one half of the cantle steel was at Windsor. The other half was early in the XIXth century at the Tower of London; but owing to the stupidity and neglect displayed by the Tower authorities at that period, it might have been lost sight of had it not been for the vigilant eye of our first English armour collector, Sir Samuel Meyrick. This half cantle plate was, to use Sir Samuel's own words, "sold as old iron with other pieces from the Tower of London." Sir Samuel purchased it, placing it in his fine collection, where it received the admiration it deserved, being illustrated in Skelton's "Engraved Illustrations" (Vol. ii, Plate CXXX). Many years after, the Meyrick Collection was sold in sections to Mr. S. Pratt of Bond Street. On 17 July 1877, the very day on which the Hatton suit was offered for sale by Messrs. Christie, Mr. Pratt submitted this half cantle steel for auction along with other armour and weapons from his collection. It sold for £25 4s., and was, with great judgement, bought for the Royal Collection, to be once more placed in the Guard Chamber beside its companion plate and chanfron, after a separation of seventy-five years.
It need hardly be remarked that until the re-discovery of the "Jacobe" MS. the Hatton suit was not known to have belonged to Sir Christopher Hatton, but was simply called "the armour of an officer of the Guard of Queen Elizabeth." Its decoration follows that of nearly all the known works of this school, consisting of slightly recessed bands deeply etched with interlaced strapwork, etc., gilt. The plain surface in this case is a rich russet brown, which causes the armour to be known in the inventories of the period as "purple armour." The suit has several interesting features. The breastplate is of large proportions, strongly peascod in form, with two laminated plates at its base, and on the right-hand side four staples for the attachment of the lance-rest. The etching of the breastplate shows at the top of the central band the crowned double cipher of Elizabeth of two E's adossés; above this is a strapwork panel containing the figure of Mercury, and at the base of the breastplate is an oblong cartouche with the date 1585. The same theme
