In the centre of the room is a case containing gun locks, powder flasks, and other pieces for the furnishing of a soldier’s equipment.  The cannon were made for the instruction of Charles II when a prince.  In the wall case observe with other objects two swine feathers, or feather staffs, having one long and two short blades which can be concealed in the shaft, also a German Calendar sword with the saints’ days marked in gold, and other swords.  Below are two waistcoat cuirasses opening down the front.

In the next enclosure on the right is a mounted figure (XVIII) of Charles I when young.  The armour is apparently of French make, and is very interesting as being a double suit—­that is, it represents the equipment of the cuirassier or cavalryman of about 1610, and then by removing the helmet and the armour for the arms and legs, and substituting the pott and the short thigh defences (in the small glass case) we have the equipment of the foot soldier as seen in the figures of pikemen on the other side of the room.  The small silvered cap and breast and back in another glass case was made for Charles II when prince.

In a table case are a gun and pistol dated respectively 1614 and 1619, made for Charles I when Prince of Wales.  The gun is not quite perfect, but the two weapons are the earliest examples of flint locks in the collection.  Note also a fine wheel lock of about 1600.  The gunner’s axe was used for laying cannon, and has on its shaft scales showing the size of cannon balls of stone, iron, lead, and slag.  It belonged to the Duke of Brunswick Luneburg.  The last enclosure contains a suit (XVII) of richly decorated armour given to Henry Prince of Wales by the Prince de Joinville.  This suit, though rich, is of late and inelegant form, as may be seen by observing the breast and the treatment of the feet.  In the suit of his brother Prince Charles also will be seen an instance of the decay of the armourer’s art, namely, the thigh-pieces, which are marked as though of several pieces of metal whilst being of one rigid piece.

In a small case are unfinished portions of a helmet and gorget, and a gilt and engraved vamplate belonging to a suit of Henry Prince of Wales.

The figures on the opposite side of the room are horsemen and pikemen of the seventeenth century, after which time armour may be said to have ceased to be worn, till at the coronation of George IV in 1820, when the Household Cavalry appeared in cuirasses.  In the table cases in this room are odd portions of armour:  gorgets, gauntlets, cuisshes, &c., daggers, knives, and swords, including good examples of the Cinquedea, or short broad-bladed sword peculiar to Northern Italy.

In the series of wall cases at the end of both rooms will be found several varieties of helmets, including salades, close helmets, tilting helmets; also morions and cabassets and breasts and backs.  Among these observe the fine painted archers’ salade, with vizor; two fine Venetian salades, like the ancient Greek helmets, and bearing armourers’ stamps; sixteenth-century tilting helmets, with side doors for air; spider helmets, &c.  Those on the upper shelves are either false or imitations of real examples.  In the case by the door is a helmet made for and worn by the late Emperor Napoleon III (when prince) at the Eglinton Tournament, in 1839.