_Guy's Porridge-pot_ (Vol. ii., p. 55.).--Your correspondent is quite
correct, when he says "neither the armour nor pot belonged to the noble
Guy." He would have been a _guy_ if he _had_ worn the armour, seeing
that it was made for a horse, and not for a man.
What the stout old lady who showed us the "relics of old Guy" in 1847
called "Guy's breastplate," and sometimes his helmet! is the "croupe" of
a suit of horse armour, and "another breastplate" a "poitrel." His
porridge-pot is a garrison {188} crock of the sixteenth century, used to
prepare "sunkits" for the retainers; and the fork a military fork temp.
Hen. VIII.
The so called "Roman swords" are "anelaces," and a couteau de chasse of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The "British weapon" is a hammer at arms temp. Hen. VIII., and "the
halbert" a black bill temp. Hen. VII. The only weapons correctly
described are the Spanish rapiers.
The shield with the "sight" is very curious; it weighs thirty pounds,
and is of the temp. of Henry VIII.
It is impossible to describe the horror of the old lady at our doubting
her version; she seemed to wonder the earth did not open and swallow us
for our heresy.