In Lyly's "Mother Bombie," 1594, Dromio says, "These old huddles have such strong purses with locks, when they shut them they go off like a snaphance." The flint lock which had succeeded the wheel-lock was itself superseded in 1839 by the percussion principle, invented by Rev. M. Forsyth.

SNOOD. Saxon snôd, headbands for young unmarried

women.

SNUFTKIN, SNOSKYN. A muff. On new year's day, 1600, Lady Elizabeth Seamer, wife to Sir Ric. Knyghtly, gave the Queen "one snoskyn of crimson saten, laide upon with perfumed leather cut embrothered with Venice gold, silver and silke."-Nicholl's "Progresses of Elizabeth.'

66

Nares" gives Snuffkin or Snuftkin, chirotheca hiberna. "Coles" calls it a muff. Manchon, in Cotgrave is translated "snuffekin." So also Manicone in Florio, "a muff a snufkin." One of the lots at Sir Thos. Egerton's Lottery in 1601, was a "Snuftkin" with the couplet:

""Tis summer yet, a snuftskin is your lot,

But 'twill be winter one day, doubt you not."

Cotgrave, 1650, refers to it, sub voce conte-
nance, which word he says means a
"snuff-
kin or muffe," also the fan, also the small
looking glass.

SOCK. The sock was worn by the Saxons over the stocking and within the shoe.

The

curious example, from Strutt, clearly shows

all three articles. He says that such bordered socks are often mentioned, and were much worn by the clergy.

lants that wear socks and clean linen are

66

mentioned in Eastwood Hoe," 1605. See also the "Woman Hater," 1607.

SOLITAIRE (Fr.). A loose neck-tie of black silk, first worn at the court of Louis XV. It was generally affixed to the bag of the wig, as in the cut.

Gal

"Now quite a Frenchman in his garb and air.
His neck yoked down with bag and solitaire."

The Modern Fine Gentleman, 1746.

"But what with my Nivernois hat can compare,
Bag-wig and laced ruffles and black solitaire?"

ANSTEY'S New Bath Guide.

SOLLERETS (Fr.). The overlapping plates which formed the mailed shoe of an armed knight. They fol

lowed the fashion of the ordinary shoe, and were long at the toe (see vol. i., fig. 169), or broad (see vol. i., fig. 223), as fashion varied. See a paper by Mr. James on the solleret, vol. xi., "Jour. Arch. Assoc." The accompanying cut is from a long-toed solleret in the Londesborough Collection.

SOPPYS IN VINO. Cloth of this colour is mentioned in the inventory of J. Carter, 1485, a tailor. Surtees Soc.

SORTI (Fr.). "A little knot of small ribbon peeping out between the pinner and bonnet."- "Mundus Muliebris," 1690.

SOUBISE. A cravat.

"With a shoe like a sauce boat and steeple clocked hose,
And a silken soubise that bob'd up to his nose."

ANSTEY'S Election Ball, 1776.

SPAGNOLET (Fr.). "A kind of narrow-sleeved gown à la Spagnole."-" Mundus Muliebris."

SPANGLES. Small circular ornaments of burnished metal, stitched on various articles of dress. They are first noticed by authors of the time of Henry VII.; and were used by ladies in the reign of Elizabeth to decorate the hair, boddice, petticoat, gown, and frequently to add a glitter to the lace edging of gloves.

SPANNER. An instrument for screwing up the wheellock. In plate cxxv of Meyrick and Skelton's work on armour, are examples of combinations of the flask and spanner.

66

SPARTHE. A battle-axe. Higden, translated by Trevisa, says: the Norwayes brought first Sparthes into Irlond," usum securum qui Anglicé sparth dicitur."

66

"Som sayd he lokede grym and wolde fighte,
He bath a sparth of twenti pound of wighte."

CHAUCER'S Knight's Tale.

"With swerd, or sparth, with gysarme."

CHAUCER'S Romance of the Rose.

SPATTERDASHES. Coverings for the legs, used by soldiers in the latter part of the last and commencement of the present century, which fastened at the sides like gaiters, but were secured more tightly to the leg by straps, and bands under the knee. The gaiters worn by Highland soldiers are still called spats.

SPEAR. These articles may be divided into three kinds -the long war-spear, the shorter spear or javelin, and the hunting or boar-spear. The long spear of the horseman has been noticed before, and engravings of various spears scattered through our pages. The shorter spear did not differ except in length and portability. "Sir Perceval de

Galles," "Thornton Romances," Camden Soc., carries a "lyttille Scottes spere;" and we are told, that

"He wold schote with his spere

Bestes and other gere."

The hunting-spear of the fifteenth century was often an elegantly enriched specimen of art.

SPENCER. A short jacket, or body-coat, said to have originated in an acident to Lord Spencer in hunting (temp. George III.) by which his coat-tails were torn off.

SPETUM. A kind of partizan used in the fifteenth century. See No. 8 of fig. 183, vol. i.

SPLINTS. Small overlapping plates for the defence of the bend of the arm above the elbow, and which allowed of free motion. They are mentioned as early as Edward III.'s time, and are exhibited in the cut. In the effigy at Ash, early fourteenth

century (Stothard) the gauntlets are of splints. Splint armour for the legs, or defences composed of strips of metal or cuir-bouilli, fastened on some flexible material, is common in German effigies, and is apparently shown in the English effigies of Sir R. de Kerdeston, 1337, and Bryan, circa, 1391. Also in the brasses of Cheyne, 1368, and Stapleton, 1364.

No. 1.

Whole breast and back defences of splints were sometimes worn. See the examples engraved in Meyrick and Skelton's work.

The strips of metal overlapped from below upward to enable the body to be bent, and this proved a great draw back when the wearer was attacked with a horseman's hammer or any similar weapon which striking downward, caught in the overlapping plates instead of glancing off. T. Stele in 1506, bequeaths a cotte with splints. SPONTOON. A broad-bladed spear, which was fixed on a long staff, like a halberd. It was carried by the guards of Henry VIII.; and a specimen in the Tower of London is engraved, No. 1.

No. 2. No. 3.

Esponton (Fr.) for officers' half pike, and also the naval boarding pike. The spontoon, which in England differed from the half pike in having a cross bar, was adopted after the rebellion of 1745, when it is noted that at Culloden, Lord Rob. Ker was slain through having driven his half pike so far into his enemy that he could not withdraw it to defend himself. See cuts Nos. 2 and 3 of spontoons of temp. Geo. II. and Geo III. It was carried by infantry officers till about 1800.

SPRIGHTS. Short arrows with sharpened wooden ends, shot out of muskets, and used for sea service.Hewett, iii., p. 684.

SPUR. The earliest form of spur appears as a single goad, like that here engraved from an effigy in the Temple Church (No. 1). See also vol. i., figs. 40, 53, 68. The shanks of the spurs were bent to suit the ankle about this period. The rowelled spur first appears in the fourteenth century, according to Mr. Haines, on the brass of Sir John de Creke,

1325; according to Meyrick, in the reign of Henry III., on whose great seal it is seen, but it is in general a characteristic of the fourteenth century. It was sometimes usual to decorate the spurs with jewels, real or fictitious; and such a spur is engraved, No. 2; it is of brass, the shanks ornamented with three white and three blue stones; others are on the stem and point,

and it is richly chased all over. They were generally used at tournaments. Spurs of gold, and gilt

spurs are mentioned in "Richard Cœur de Lion;" and spurs garnished with diamonds are de

No. 3.

forms of spur is the one with very long spiked rowels, in fashion during the reigns of Henry V. and VI., as