inwards opposite the windows, and widening somewhat when forming as
it does the triforium of St. John's Chapel. At the entrance are cases
containing velvet-covered brigandines and canvas-covered jacks, garments
which were much used in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as giving
protection by means of numerous small plates of metal disposed between
the thicknesses of the material covering and lining them, and also great
flexibility. In the cases on the right hand are specimens of chain mail
in form of hoods, coats, sleeves, &c, mostly, if not all, of Eastern
origin. Observe also some bronze swords and other very early weapons.

Round the walls of the two rooms are arranged the various staff weapons
used in England and the continent. In the first enclosure on the left
are cases in which are ancient bronze tools, weapons, and ornaments from
various localities, stone implements and weapons, and a suit of bronze
armour from Cumæ, an ancient Greek settlement near Naples. In the centre
of the enclosure are grouped many varieties of staff weapons of the
fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Among them are boar
spears for the chase and for war, halberds, partizans, bills, glaives,
holy water sprinkles (a staff with a ball with spikes at its extremity),
and the 18 foot pikes of the Civil War period.

The first case on the left contains a fine archer's salade with its
original lining, from the de Cosson collection. A Venetian salade, with
the stamp of the maker of the Missaglia family, a heavy salade for
jousting, a combed morion and the tilting helmet of Sir Henry Lee, K.G.,
Master of the Armouries to Queen Elizabeth and James I. In the lower
case are finely engraved and parcel gilt chamfrons for horses' heads, a
gilt vamplate for the tilting lance belonging to Lord Chancellor Hatton,
an officer's gorget of the time of Queen Anne, and various pieces of
rich armour.