noted were the latter for their dexterity in its use, that their name is accompanied in the hieroglyphics by a representation of this weapon. The Egyptian bow was a round piece of wood, from five to five feet and a half in length, either almost straight and tapering to a point at both ends, some of which are represented in the sculptures and have even been found at Thebes, or curving inwards in the middle, when unstrung, as in the paintings of the tombs of the kings."*

The ancient Scythians, Parthians, Cretans, and Thracians were celebrated archers. The Scythian and Parthian bow was much curved or crescent shaped. The Greek bow had a double curvature, as if it was formed of two portions joined together at the handle in the centre; indeed, according to the description in Homer (Il. iv. 105.), it was formed of two pieces of horn. The string was of twisted thongs of hide. The bow does not appear to have been a favourite weapon with the Romans; on imperial monuments it appears in the hands of those soldiers of the Roman army who, by their dress, are distinguished as auxiliaries. The form greatly resembles the Grecian, and was probably constructed in a similar manner, the arrows being also similar to those of the Greeks, headed with bronze. Three-edged arrow-heads have often been found in Roman ruins.

That the bow was known to the ancient Britons is proved by the numerous flint and bronze arrow-heads which have been found. In their hands it was in all probability used more as a weapon of the chase than of war. From the drawings in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and the Bayeux Tapestry we learn that the Saxons used the bow. In certain drawings we find the bow of the Roman form (MS., Harleian, 503, and MS., Tiberius, C. vi.); but in the Bayeux Tapestry the shape is different. The Danes and Northmen held skill in the use of the bow as an indispensable qualification of their warriors.

In England, however, from the twelfth century until some time after the invention of firearms, the bow assumed an importance as a weapon of war which it had never before attained. The form, in its full development, was that known as the long-bow-a piece of yew, ash, elm, or witch-hazel, about six feet in length, almost straight when unstrung, and only slightly curved when strung. The string was either of flax or silk and the arrows were about a yard in length. In a treatise on warfare, written in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the bow is described as a "noble weapon," with which "none other weapon can compare." Two long-bows of the time of Henry VIII. are preserved in the armoury of the Tower.

In the fifteenth century the French appear to have held the yew bow in the highest esteem. A law was passed in the reign of Charles VII., ordering yew-trees to be planted in all the Norman churchyards, so that wood might not fail for the construction of the weapon. It ceased to form the weapon of the royal regiments at the close of the reign of Louis XII. Italian bows used during the middle ages were frequently of steel, shaped

Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. i., p. 202 (ed. 1878).

after the fashion of the Grecian weapon, that is, with double curves and a central handle. These were usually between four and five feet in length.

In Christian art, the bow and arrows form the attribute of St. Sebastian; who suffered martyrdom by being transfixed with numerous arrows.

BOWER. The ladies' chamber or private sitting room in the castles or mansions of the middle ages; it assumed its greatest importance in those of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It appears, from certain passages in old romances, that the term bower was applied indiscriminately to a sitting-room or parlour and a bed-chamber. The medieval bower in all probability suggested the later boudoir, introduced in the eighteenth century.

BOWTEL. This word is met with in old writings in the following forms: BOUTEL, BOWTELL, BOWTELLE, BOLTELL, BOULTEL, and BOTTLE. It was used to designate a round moulding or bead, and sometimes it was applied to a slender shaft or pillar, "but rather," as Professor Willis remarks," as a moulding, than as a diminutive pillar or columnell." As regards the derivation of the term there are differences of opinion, and probably room for doubt; but the most likely and generally accepted one is, that the term was originally boltel, the diminutive of bolt, the shaft of an arrow or javelin. In The Itinerarium of William of Worcester (written about the middle of the fifteenth century) we find the term repeatedly used in connexion with the mouldings of the west door of the church of St. Mary Redcliff, Bristol, thus:

“A chamfer, a bowtelle, a casement, a fylet, a double ressant wyth a filet, a casement, a fylet, a bowtelle, a fylet, a casement, a fylet, a grete bowtelle, &c., &c."*

In the following passage in the carpenter's agreement for desks, &c., for the Beauchamp chapel, at Warwick, the term is evidently applied to a horizontal rod of wood connecting the points of the carved leaves of an ornamental cresting:

"Richard Bird and John Haynes, citizens and carpenters of London, xiii. Febr. 28. H. 6., do covenant to make up in the chappell where the Earle is buried, or where the tombe standeth, a pair of desks of timber, poppies, seats, sills, planks, reredoses of timber, and partands of timber, and a crest of fine entail, with a bowtel roving on the crest," &c.

BRACE. The term applied to a straight or curved piece of timber, used in roofs or trusses in such a manner as to prevent the important members of the construction from altering their positions horizontally. Braces were much used in the open timber roofs of the middle ages, where

The student who desires to follow this subject further should consult Professor Willis's Architectural Nomenclature of the Middle Ages. Cambridge, 1844.

they were treated so as to contribute to the beauty of their designs. The braces usually took their particular names from the horizontal members they supported. We accordingly meet with the terms HAMMER-BRACES, or those under the hammer-beams; PURLIN-BRACES, those supporting the purlins towards their centres; TIE-BRACES, those under the tie-beams; COLLAR-BRACES, those supporting the collars; and RIDGE-BRACES, those occasionally introduced to keep the ridge-piece horizontal, as in the roof of Starston church, Norfolk.

BRACED OR BRAZED. In heraldry, the term used when charges are represented interlaced, as in the accompanying illustration.

(Example—Azure, three chevronels braced in base, or, a chief of the last.) BRACELET. An ornament of gold, silver, bronze, ivory, or other materials, worn on the wrist. Bracelets are of great antiquity, having been worn by the Egyptians, the Jews, and all the ancient nations. Egyptian bracelets appear to have been richly ornamented with precious stones and coloured enamels, and to have been worn by both sexes. In the Leyden museum is a massive gold one, bearing the name of Thothmes III., the supposed contemporary of Moses. The Greeks and Romans wore them largely, as the numerous examples, in gold and bronze, found at Herculaneum and Pompeii, plainly prove. In this country bracelets were favourite ornaments at all periods, the Normans probably affecting them less than the Saxons or the earlier inhabitants. From the twelfth to the beginning of the fifteenth century bracelets do not seem to have been very common, although they never went entirely out of fashion; but in the fifteenth century they came rapidly into favour, and since that time have never lost their hold on female taste. Planché tells us :-" Dion Cassius describes Boadicea as wearing bracelets on her arms and wrists. William of Malmesbury tells us that the Saxons at the time of the Conquest were in the habit of loading their arms with them: brachia onerati; a fashion which the monkish writers assert was borrowed from the Normans, whose customs at that period they greatly affected. In the will of Brithric and his wife Elfswythe an arm-bracelet is mentioned weighing one hundred and eighty mancuses of gold, nearly twenty ounces troy weight; and another,

bequeathed to the queen, weighing thirty mancuses of gold, or three ounces and a half. (Hickesii Dissert. p. 51.) Ethelstan is called in the Saxon Chronicle, the child of the bracelet givers.""

Ancient bracelets were usually in the form of rings, or snakes coiled three or four times round the arm. British bracelets were commonly plain or twisted rods of gold, bent so as to simply clasp the wrist, or in some cases coiled many times round it. Good examples of both these forms. have been found. Of later forms it is unnecessary to speak.

BRACKET. The term commonly and correctly used to designate an article in wood or metal used to support, by means of leverage, anything placed against the face of a wall. The bracket, therefore, practically fulfils the same office as the corbel does in stonework. Gwilt thus describes the term, first giving its derivation from the Latin word brachium, an arm :-"A supporting piece for a shelf. When the shelf is broad the brackets are small trusses, which consist of a vertical piece, a horizontal piece, and a strut; but when narrow the brackets are generally solid pieces of board, usually finished with an ogee figure on their outer side." In this passage the term truss is incorrectly applied; a bracket, properly speaking, can never be a truss.

The term appears to have been written in old documents as BRAGGER and BRAGET.

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BRASSARD OR BRASSART. The name used to designate those portions of plate armour which protected the arms and extended from the shoulder to the wrist, being jointed at the elbow. Planché, in his Encyclopedia of Costume, says that the portion from the shoulder to the elbow is called the "rere-brace," and that from the elbow to the wrist the vant-brace (or, as it is sometimes written, vambrace) from the French arrière-bras and avant-bras." Viollet-le-Duc, however, draws our attention to the fact that we must not confound the arrière-bras and avant-bras with the brassards. He remarks:-"Le brassard est composé de pièces articulées qui tiennent ensemble par des rivets, et qu'il suffisait d'attacher à l'épaule sur la cuirasse close ou sur le colletin, tandis que l'arrière-bras et l'avant-bras étaient des pièces séparées et qui pouvaient être portées l'une sans l'autre. L'avant et l'arrière-bras précèdent de beaucoup le brassard."

The brassart does not appear to have reached its full development before the end of the fourteenth century.

BRASSES, MONUMENTAL. Plates of brass, or the alloy termed "latten" by middle age writers, inlaid on the face of slabs of stone or marble, and engraved so as to represent the features, figures, and the costumes or armour of the personages whose deaths they record. The plates are either oblong sheets of brass, upon which the figures are rendered distinct by elaborately engraved backgrounds of diaper-work; or are cut

to the outlines of the figures and the accessories, and inlaid upon slabs of dark grey marble.

These two different methods form the chief distinction between the brasses of France or Flanders and those of this country. The continental brasses appear to have invariably been in one piece of metal, simply attached to the surface of stone slabs; but those of English manufacture were always in separate pieces, inlaid flush, in their proper relative positions, on the polished slabs, usually of Purbeck marble. Certain examples of what may be distinguished as complete brasses exist in this country, but

they are believed to be of Flemish manufacture. Examples of the English or disconnected brasses are still preserved in great numbers throughout our ancient churches. The mode adopted by the continental artists rendered a great amount of engraving necessary; and accordingly designs were produced of a richness altogether unknown to English workmen. The accompanying illustration, Fig. 1, from a fragment of a Flemish brass (dating about 1375), in private possession, shows to what an extreme