says that character in Field's play, "A Woman is a Weathercock," 1612; and spangled garters are mentioned in the comedy of "Patient Grissel," 1602. See also the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., vol. i.

GASCONY COAT. The pikemen and billmen of 1577 are mentioned in the levies of that date as wearing coats of watchett, or light blue Yorkshire broadcloth of Gaskonie fashion. This was worn over a doublet and under the corselet.

GAUDICHET (Fr.). A body-covering like the haketon: see vol.i., p. 150. But Meyrick, who gives this explanation, says it may perhaps mean the gorget.

GAUNT (Cloth of). Cloth of Gaunt (Ghent) is mentioned in the "Romaunt of the Rose," 1. 574. All the Flemish cities became famous for this sort of workmanship before 1200.

"Of cloth-makyng she hadde such an haunt,
Sche passed hem of Ypris and of Gaunt."

CHAUCER'S Wife of Bath.

GAUNTLET. The glove of a knight, formed of leather covered with plates of steel. See GLOVE.

The plate gauntlet which succeeded the mail mitten varies in form. In No. 4, the Ash effigy, the hand is pro

tected by splint work. S. H. Littlebury, Stothard, has splint cuffs. In the Bustlingthorpe brass, Waller, the defence is of scale work. No. 1, John of Eltham, Stothard,

has additional side pieces, as also has Sir O. Ingham. No. 2, the Black Prince, like Sir Thos. Cawne and many others. has the back of the hand and wrist protected by one piece of metal, the fingers being articulated. John, Lord Montacute, 1389, Stothard, Sir John Hanley, 1403, and many brasses and effigies, show the large plate divided and jointed at the wrist. Other additions for offence, defence, or ornament also occur, as in the leopard gadlings on the knuckles of the actual gauntlets of the Black Prince, the spikes on the knuckles of his effigy, the lozenge-shaped ornaments, and delineation of the nails, as in No. 3, Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, Stothard. No precise dates can be fixed for any one fashion, but the effigies and brasses figured by the above, Hartshorne and others will supply the best information. See also " Arch. Jour.," vol. xli. Cirotecæ de balayn, gloves strengthened with whalebone and valued at 12d. were among the effects of John FitzMarmaduke, temp. Edward II.-Surtees Soc. "Uno pare de cirothecarum cum condolis de laton (brass knuckles or gadlings) occur in Archbishop Bowet's inventory, 1423.

GAVELOCK. A javelin or spear. In the romance of "Alexander," we are told of the soldiers in the battle-field that there were

"Som with gavolk al to-lonst."1

"A brod gavelock" occurs in the same poem.

Matthew Paris under the year 1256, speaks of the Frieslanders as armed with javelins which they call gaveloches.Hewitt's "Ancient Armour." In Rev. J. Williams' "Dictionary of British Dress and Armour," he gives Gaflach, a barbed or bearded spear, and mentions that the ancient Welsh called the Irish " Gwyddyl gaflach awry."

GAUZE. A thin, open-wove, transparent stuff, of silk or cotton.

GAZZATUM. A fine species of silk or linen stuff of the gauze kind, which is thought to have received its name from the city of Gaza in Palestine, where it was manufac

1 To-lanced, pierced.

tured. Strutt says it is mentioned by writers in the thirteenth century.

GEEL. Gloves of geel skins occur in the Records of the borough of Nottingham. Query if from yeld, Scotch for cattle or sheep too young to bear.

GENOUILLIÈRES (Fr.). Coverings for the knees, which, with the elbow caps, may be considered as the commencement of the coverings of plate with which knights ultimately encased themselves. They first appear in the thirteenth century. They were sometimes richly ornamented. An early example occurs on the effigy of a knight crusader in Salisbury Cathedral, where they appear as small plates over the mailles of the knees, No. 1. No. 2 is copied from that of Sir Richard de Whatton (temp. Edw. II.) in

Stothard's "Effigies;" and a side view of those worn by Richard Lord Hungerford (died 1455), showing the fanshaped edges, from the same work, is given, No. 3.

GETOUN, GUIDON. A small flag attached to the head of a spear or lance. Its derivation, from guide homme, shows it was carried by leaders only.

"A geten gold beten all gleteryng,
And nayles of gold hit for to tak
Upon a grete spere peynted blak,
This spere I spek of was not long,
But whan this geton theron dyd honge,
A fressher devyse coude no man see.

Markham, in his "Souldier's Accidence," 1645,

guidon is the first colours that any commander of horse can let flie in the field." He describes it as three feet deep at the staff, and six feet long, tapering to a point which is split "into two peaks a foot deepe."

GIBET. What Wace, in the "Roman de Rose," calls the gibet is considered to be the mace, and it is carried at the right hand side of the knight to be used when the lance had been broken.-Hewitt, "Ancient Armour."

GIMP. A trimming for dresses made of silk or worsted, covering a cord, sometimes passed through a machine, to give it a twisted surface. See FLY-FRINGE.

A

GIPCIERE. A corruption of the French Gibbecière, a pouch used in hawking.Way, "Promptorium." purse, see vol. i., p. 110. A magnificent specimen of the fourteenth century, similar in shape to the one here engraved, was formerly in the museum of C. R. Smith; it was of cuir-bouilli, and ornamented all over with a foliated pattern, each of the smaller circles in the border containing an eagle. It is represented one-sixth of the

original size. In the effigy of Sir Roger Hillary at Walsall, circa 1400, he wears his dagger stuck in his purse. See" Arch. Jour.," vol. xxxi. A brass at Bruges, Waller, also shows the same custom in civil life. In an old French poem of the thirteenth century, descriptive of the stock of a mercer, he says:- "I have store of stamped purses, red and green, white and black, that I sell readily at fairs." The cut-purse was so termed from the way in which he severed this article from the girdle, where it was constantly

worn.

"From my girdle he plucked my pouch;
By your leave, he left me never a penny:
Lo, nought have I but a buckle."

Hycke-Scorner (temp. Henry VIII.).

An equally fine example of a gipciere of the fifteenth

COBO

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100

century is here engraved, from one preserved in the Louvre. It is of velvet, the central coat-of-arms of coloured silks, and it is bound with gold threads and gold-lace tassels; the clasp is steel, most richly and elaborately chased,

and it was fastened to the girdle by the ring at the top. It was not uncommon to engrave upon the framework religious sentences. See "Archæologia," vol. xxiv., for one inscribed Ave Maria gratiæ plena, Dominus tecum; and the "Jour. Arch. Assoc.," vol. i. p. 251, for one inscribed Soli

Deo honor et gloria, Laus tibi soli, O Domine Crisste: St. Maria Silarla, and the monogram, IHS. It may have belonged to an ecclesiastic. See fig. 163.

66

GIPON (Fr.), also written gypell. A tight-fitting vest; a short cassock."-Todd. Strutt considers it identical with the gambeson. "The gambeson is afterwards called the pourpoint, which was first introduced by military men, and worn by them under their armour; but, in process of time, the pourpoints were faced with rich materials, and ornamented with embroidery, and then they were used without armour. The knight in Chaucer's tale appears in a gipon or pourpoint of fustian, stained by his armour. Before Chaucer's time the word was written jupoun.”. Todd's "Illustrations."