of an assemblage of remarkable objects of antiquity, liberally communicated by the Council of that Society for exhibition at the recent Annual Meeting of the Institute at York[1]. It is of somewhat later date than the Lewis chess-men, and appears to have been carved towards the close of the twelfth, or early in the thirteenth century. The warder is represented in like manner as those Icelandic specimens, with sword drawn, and the shield on the arm. On either side of the piece is an armed figure, emerging from intertwined foliage of remarkable design; these warriors are clad apparently in mail, the rings being expressed by a conventional mode of representation, namely, by rows of deep punctures, with intervening parallel lines. The shield of one of them exhibits a bearing, bendy of two colours, the diapering of the alternate bends being expressed by punctures, and there is a broad bordure, which may be noticed also on several of the pieces found in the Hebrides. The other shield presents a fleur de lys dimidiated, on a field diapered with fretté lines. It may be doubtful whether these were properly armorial bearings, but it deserves notice that one of the Lewis knights has a shield party per pale, the sinister side being fretté. Both shields in the piece here represented have this singularity of form, that their points are cut bluntly off, instead of being prolonged to an acute apex, as usual at the period. There is no appearance of plate-armour; the head is protected by the coiffe de mailles, and the legs by chausses of the like armour. This curious warder measures in height three inches and five-eighths.
In the Ashmolean Museum another interesting example is preserved; a chess-knight, formed likewise as it is supposed of the tooth of the sea-horse, and it is in no slight degree curious as an illustration of military costume. It presents the characteristic features of the earlier part of the reign of Henry III., or possibly the close of the times of King John. On either side of the piece is seen a mounted knight, the intervening spaces being filled up with foliage; one of the warriors wields a sword, whilst the other holds a lance, looking backwards with a singular gesture of apprehension. The most striking feature of their costume is the large cylindrical
- ↑ The thanks of the archæologists there assembled are specially due to Mr. Turnbull, the accomplished Secretary of the Society, for his kind mediation in obtaining this valuable accession to the museum formed at York, conveyed thither by his own hands on the late occasion.
