with an additional degree of interest when it is ascertained in what manner, and to what extent, the various diaperings, powderings, and other methods of adornment were produced.
We have fortunately one specimen, and it is much to be regretted that it is the only one at present conceived to exist, which affords the necessary corroboration to the truth of these remarks.
It was at the first meeting of the Archæological Association held at Canterbury, a session when British antiquities began to assume a definite and scientific complexion, that I became enabled, through the courtesy of the cathedral authorities, to give a minute inspection to the rapidly decaying jupon suspended over the tomb of Edward the Black Prince. From this examination I ascertained, to my own entire conviction, first, that there was a prevalent and systematic mode of working the elaborate ornaments which decorate the military costume of the middle ages; and secondly, that the habits themselves were conscientiously delineated on the sepulchral monument of the departed warrior. With feelings of no ordinary emotion, I pressed forward to handle a garment, that the spirit of chivalry and courage alike had consigned to the protecting regards of posterity. Tor who could allow his fingers to grasp but a fragment of what had once enwrapped that model of regal dignity and magnificence, without carrying his impressions backwards to those scenes which witnessed the prowess of this flower of English knighthood, or without throwing a hasty recollection over the fields of Britain's glory, where he had nobly fought, Crecy and Poitiers?
The exquisite monument of the Prince is partially known by numerous engravings and descriptions, but it may however be questioned whether, as a work of art, it has yet been sufficiently appreciated, but the period is at length approaching, it is ardently hoped, when the value of these works will be better known, when their intrinsic merit as statuary will be acknowledged, and when their evidences of history, personal and national, will, if it cannot excite an admiration and generate a higher taste, serve, at least, to protect them from wanton spoliation. So much ruthless and ignorant destruction has been perpetrated, that, on recounting it, one cannot suppress a sigh, and mournfully contemplate the dishonoured fragments that have been accidentally spared. I have seen these time-honoured memorials of the dead torn
