Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/286

Fig. 617. Foot fighter with sword and rectangular shield

Fig. 618. Foot fighter with sword and boce

From Burgkmair's "Triumph of Maximilian," plates 37 and 38, showing the trained fencers of Hans Hollywaks, the chief fencing master to the Court of Maximilian

at this point of that series of bucklers that were formerly to be seen in large numbers in the Tower Collection. According to the inventory of the "Guarde-*robe of the Towre" taken in 1547, after the death of King Henry VIII (Harleian MSS. 1419), originally eighty existed in the "Towre." To-day these are represented by less than twenty. The Windsor Armoury is fortunate in now possessing six of these bucklers, with "gonnes" in their centre. This kind of shield may be described as a round convex buckler made in sections, with a pistol barrel projecting from the centre, and a breech-loading arrangement in the interior. Above the barrel is a small grating through which the bearer might watch his opponent. The pistol was discharged with a match, in a holder fixed inside the buckler, and worked with the right hand. The breech-loading is ingenious; an iron cover comes down over and retains in position the chamber, the diameter of which corresponds to that of a modern 12-bore cartridge. From a notice of another of these bucklers in the "Guarde-*robe of the Towre," it appears that they were originally fringed with green silk and lined with green velvet. The one illustrated from the Windsor Collection is as complete as any of those now extant (Fig. 621). Another example, from the original Tower series, is a specimen which is shown in the Great Hall at Hampton Court. There is yet another in the Hall at Edinburgh