THE WILL OF SIR JOHN DE FOXLE, OF APULDREFIELD, KENT. DATED NOVEMBER 5, 1378.
COMMUNICATED BY THE REV. WILLIAM H. GUNNER, MA.
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A bequest occurs to Thomas Paynel, the nephew of the testator, comprising his dun horse, with a haubergeon, described as " de alto clowour," a term of rare occurrence: a basinet of unusual size (largiorem) with the visor and anentaille. In the Inventory of armour of Louis X., King of France, taken in 1316, and given in Ducange, under the word Armatura, the following items occur.—" 33 hautes gorgieres doubles de Chauibli.— Uns pans et uns bras de roondes mailles de haute cloiieure. Item, uns pans et uns bras d'acier plus fors de mailles rondos de haute cloiieure.— Item, une barbiere de haute cloiieure de chambli.—Item, une testiere de haute cloiieure de maille ronde.—Item, une couverture de mailles rondes demy cloees." The precise import of the term high, as applied to the riveting of mail, has not been ascertained: it doubtless might designate workmanship of high class and of the best quality, but the epithet altus may very probably have denoted some peculiarity in the rivets of the mail, which we have sought in vain to define. The various modes of constructing mail have not, indeed, been sufficiently examined. Examples occur in which the rings are welded and riveted throughout the entire fabric; whilst in ethers the alternate rows only are riveted. Mention occurs of "chauces de fer menu maillies—Haubert safire, menue maillie,"3 as also of the "hauberc dobletin,—haubert doublier—haubert a maille dublc—un hauberk clavez de double maille," <fcc.
Amongst varieties of mail, a specimen, stated to have been obtained in Gloucestershire, and figured in the Journal of the Archaeological Association, vol. i. p. 142, deserves especial notice. In this fragment, composed of rings of unusually large size, the riveting wire in every ring is passed twice through, so that on one Bide of every ring the wire forms a kind of stitch, and on the other its two extremities are hammered down separately, presenting the appearance of double riveting. In ordinary mail each riveted ring shows a Bingle rivet head only, as in the haubergeon figured in Skelton's Illustrations of the Goodrich Court Armory, vol. i. pl. xiv. Sir Samuel Meyrick was of opinion that double maille was composed by the interlacement of rings in pairs, not singly, as in ordinary chain mail; and he has described a remarkable example presented by the effigy of Sir Robert de Mauley, formerly at York, of which the fragments are preserved at Goodrich Court. See the Archaeologia, vol. xxxi. p. 238, pl. iii. Another illustration is found in an effigy in Rampton church, Cambridgeshire, figured by Stothard in his Monumental effigies. We hope that future research may enable us to identify with precision the distinctive mode of riveting which constituted the peculiarity described as " de alto clowour."
