Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations
History
Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations
Curiosities and wonders; Encyclopedias and dictionaries; Folklore
The figures here given are copied from a curious little bronze,
strongly gilt, which was engraved in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for
1833, accompanied with a description, by A. J. Kempe, Esq., the author
of the letterpress to "Stothard's Monumental Effigies," whose intimate
knowledge in these matters enables him to well authenticate dates; and
he considers this relic may safely be attributed to the early part of
the twelfth century; it was discovered in the Temple Church, and had
originally formed a portion of a pyx, or small shrine, in which the
consecrated host was kept. Our engraving is more than half the size of
the original, which represents the soldiers watching the body of Our
Lord, who was, in mystical form, supposed to be enshrined in the pyx.
They wear scull-caps of the Phrygian form, with the nasal like those in
the Bayeux Tapestry; and the mailles or rings of the hauberk appear,
as in the armour there, sewn down, perhaps, on a sort of gambeson, but
not interlaced. They bear kite-shaped shields, raised to an obtuse
angle in the centre, and having large projecting bosses: the third of
these figures is represented beside the cut in profile, which will
enable the reader more clearly to detect its peculiarities. On two of
these shields are some approaches to armorial bearings; the first is
marked with four narrow bendlets; the second is fretted, the frets
being repeated in front of his helmet, or _chapelle de fer_: all the
helmets have the nasal. A long tunic, bordered, and in one instance
ornamented with cross-lines, or chequered, appears beneath the tunic.
The sword is very broad, and the spear carried by the first figure,
obtuse in the head,--a mark of its antiquity. The shoes are admirable
illustrations of that passage of Geoffry of Malmesbury, where,
representing the luxury of costume in which the English indulged at the
time when Henry I. began his reign, he says: "Then was there flowing
hair, and extravagant dress; and then was invented the fashion of shoes
with curved points: then the model for young men was to rival women in
delicacy of person, to mimic their gait, to walk with loose gesture,
half-naked." The curvature of the points of the shoes in the little
relic before us, in conformity with the custom censured by Malmesbury,
is quite remarkable. One turns up, another down; one to the left,
another to the right; and scarcely any two in the same direction.
THE QUEEN'S SHARKS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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