STALLINGBOROUGH. (SS. Peter and Paul.)
[Communicated by Mr. J. G. Mann.]
Helmet.
Tradition. Associated with the tomb of Sir Edward Ayscoghe, ob. 1612 (effigy in armour), son of Sir Francis Ayscoghe, brother of Ann Askew, the last of the Smithfield martyrs.
THEDDLETHORPE-ALL-SAINTS. (St. Helen.)
[Communicated by Mr. H. Bocock.]
1. Close helmet, late XVIth or early XVIIth century, with spike. Perhaps funerary.
2. Coat of mail (now missing).
Hanging on a perch on the south wall of the chancel. There are two other perches on which were hung other pieces of the achievement which are now missing.
Tradition. Associated with the monument to Charles Bertie, ob. 1727 (son of Robert, Earl of Lindsey, Lord Great Chamberlain of England), on the north side of the chancel. On this tomb is now lying a crowned and bearded head in wood with a hole in the base. It may be the crest of the helmet. The late Mr. Wilson, sexton, remembered a coat of mail hanging over this tomb, which is said to have fallen to pieces, when removed on the restoration of the chancel.
Crest. A Saracen's head couped at the breast ppr., ducally crowned, or, charged on the breast with a fret, az. (Bertie.)
LONDON
ARTILLERY COMPANY, HONOURABLE.[1]
In the Great Hall of Armoury House there is a complete suit with grand-guard and extra mezeil. This suit is of the finest quality and of about 1560-65 (Fig. 1674). The records of the Company, previous to their removal in the early years of the XVIIIth century to their present quarters, have been lost, and in the subsequent records there is no mention of any presentation or purchase of armour. The suit is deeply pitted with rust marks. The decoration is of deep, flat, longitudinal channels, varying from half to an inch wide, cut square, connected together by channels a quarter of an inch wide, slanting upwards at an angle of thirty degrees. All these channels were once gilt. The grand-guard of two pieces has no decoration, which is explained by the fact that reinforcing pieces were often made quite plain so that the lance glanced off a smooth surface. The suit has nearly all the original brass rivets. There are a few steel rivets. The elbow-cops are in two pieces, and the left one has a pin for a reinforcing elbow piece to protect the elbow joint. The tassets, attached by steel hinges, are laminated and rather long, having the lower portions detachable. The pauldrons are laminated, and the right pauldron is the smaller to admit of the play of the lance. Each pauldron has had a guard, now missing. The breastplate has an attachment for a lance rest, and there is a pin three inches below the left pauldron to the left. In the centre of the breastplate is the bolt for the attachment of the grand-guard. The top of the breastplate is roped with a central ornament. The gussets are roped with the same central ornament. The backplate has a flange turned at right angles, to which is attached an escalloped garde-de-rein decorated with the channelling, referred to above, and roped on the border. The helmet has a plume-holder at the back, on the left of the comb. The knee-cops are roped and channelled. There is no armourer's mark on the suit. The suit has been ascribed to the Greenwich School (vide ante, vol. iv, p. 1), and the best expert opinion is that if it is not of that school, it was made at Innsprück, whence, it is said, armourers came to work at Greenwich. But it is to be remembered that this suit is earlier than all the extant Greenwich suits illustrated in the Jacobe MS.
The Company sent most of their armour to the Tower when they moved into their present quarters early in the XVIIIth century. This armour was never returned. This sole remaining XVIth century harness is by tradition that of an officer of the Company during the XVIth century. The rest of the armour in the Hall
- ↑ The following is not church armour, but it is convenient to insert it here under the heading of its locality, and it is hoped that it may be of use to students, who might not otherwise know of its existence.
