A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE articulated ^pauli^res, the arms to the elbows by brassarts (arriire bras or rerebraces), the elbows with the advanced details of double articulations, the forearms by avant bras or vambraces, and the hands by plate gauntlets with leather palms and fingers of articu- lated plates. The gussets of the arms at the ' vif de I'harnois* seem to indicate a garment of leather — Ma cuera de antes' of Spanish knights. The body is clad in a hauberk, over which a jupon is worn, with the bottom edge pinked or dechiquet^, and laced upon the right side. Over this is worn an elaborate baudric bear- ing the initials of the wearer, I.S., thrice re- peated, and from which, suspended by two rose-studded chains (one is partly destroyed), is a ponderous sword, 4 feet 4 inches long ; it has unfortunately lost its quillons. On the right side are the remains of a misericorde, at this time an indispensable attribute of the accoutrements of a soldier. Below the jupon appears the hauberk of mail, like the camail in large links and originally gilded. The thighs are covered by cuissarts and upon the front of these defences, about an inch below the hau- berk, is a short fillet checked at intervals and apparently of a piece with the cuissarts. The only explanation that can be offered of these singular additions is that they were features in the armour of Sir John Swinford to meet a special requirement. They have their value in showing that care was taken in this instance to instruct the sculptors to represent accur- rately this peculiarity of an individual suit. The knees are protected by genouilleres, slightly ridged and with single articulations. The legs are cased in greaves or jambeaux, and the feet covered by articulated sollercts, of which the three last members, which would have projected through the stirrup, cover only the upper half of the foot. The rowels of the spurs are gone ; the head resting on a tilting helm — the fashion now established — deeply hollowed out and showing the oc- cularia, and surmounted by the crest : and the feet press against a lion, admirably ren- dered, and with his tail wound round the sword. It must be noticed that the collar of SS, one of the fourteen associated with effigies in the county, appears to be the earliest sculptured example in England. Sir John Swinford died in 1371 ; there is no question of the precise period and subject of the effigy, and the fact therefore remains not only that this knight was entitled to wear a collar of SS, but that the decoration was an established livery collar when Henry of Lancaster was yet a boy, since he was not born until 1360. This at once disposes of the favourite conjecture that the SS collar was first devised by Henry IV. when he was Earl of Derby in allusion to the motto Souverayne. On each side of the alabaster tomb are three sunk circles, containing shields within trefoils. Effigy at Orlingbury, about 1375. This alabaster effigy differs in a very few respects from those at Ash ton and Spratton. It is very delicately carved, and represents a man in a bascinet with the camail, of which the attachment is covered by a foliated coronal or ' prente,' with an ornamental frontlet such as is described in the will of Humphrey de Bohun, died 1321, as'j. petite prente oue foilles dargent oue j. frountele de Saye pur j. bacynet.' It is inscribed in front over the brow 3 1) C n a J E n i , and at the sides are the first four words of the penitential Psalm li., fflifcrtre mti Dens ftcuTil)um [benignita- tem tuam secundum amplitudinem miserationum tuarum dele defectiones meas). The armour for the body is the same as at Ashton and Spratton, the coudieres and genouilleres being edged with a lozengy border, which also ap- pears upon the cuffs of the gauntlets, them- selves further strengthened by gads or gad lings. The jupon sculptured with the arms — a fesse between three lozenges — is deeply fringed at its bottom edge, and the mail hauberk is just evident below it. The baudric is a refined example of the almost endless varieties of this military belt. Extra articulations or reinforc- ing plates are shown on the cuissarts and jam- beaux, which are worked with a lozengy ornament on the hinging seams, and closed on the inside with little hooks, their first appear- ance in this relation. The head reposes on the tilting helm, with the crest, and the dilapidated feet showing the remains of the spurs, on a well-executed lion. Orlingbury was held by a family bearing the local surname from the beginning of the reign of Edward II. to the middle of the four- teenth century. The manor was subsequently divided, and the names of knights of the families of Orlingbury, Loges, Verdon and Thurning occur as holding parts of knights' fees here, or levying fines of the manor up to the end of the third quarter of the century. During the reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV. knights of the names of Simson, Curtys and Wimbish are recorded as more or less connected with Orlingbury. The effigy is clearly of the extreme end of the fourteenth century, but none of the above-mentioned persons are signalized as bearing the arms — a fesse between three lozenges — and the absence of tinctures on the jupon make it impossible to appropriate the coat to any one of the loS
