The Savannah morning news., 1902-07-19
CAVALRY OF VARIOUS AGES.
Peculinrities of Arms and Uniforms
Shown in London Tournament.
From the london Mail

From the London Mail.
The war has proved the value and
the need OF cavalry, and now, opportu-
nifty, the military tournament has, as
a special feature. a pretty historical
musical ride, which illustrates the de-
velopment of the British cavalry since
the days of King Edward Ill, 525 years
ago.
Oddly enough. the earliest British
horesmen did not ride on their horses,
but in armed chariots, as did the races,
who were their relatives and perhaps
their ancestors, in the region of what
is now Persia.
Much later on, when the horseman
was the chief force in war, he was not
a common soldier but a knight, and
then he grew to be SO heavily armored
that the battles, where they were not
merely the sieges of castles, were more
or less only jousts between the
Knights on the opposing sides. But
after King Edward l the great skill
acquired by the English archers, who
were common soldiers, put the knights
into the shade. 1t was the English
archers who won the never-dying glory
of Crecy and Agincourt.
While the archer was developing into
the principal arm of battle shield
money tax enabled the King to pro-
vide himself with a paid army, and
Edward III put his achers upon horse
back.
These old mounted archers. the first
real English caValry-fOr when their
arrows were spent they could use their
bows as clubs in pursuit of the enemy
are shown in the Historical ride" at
the military tournament.
They were strangely dressed, COM
pared either with the knights who pre-
coded them or the men who followed.
They wore helmets, relics of their foot
days, useful for pushing their way
through hedges. Their bodies were
merely covered with a kind of coarse
hop-sacking with a great cross upon
the back, a remnant of Templar times.
Their arms were incased in mail, a
relic of the days of knighthood.
After them the historic ride" shows
how rapidly the cavalry developed. IN
der Edward ~, $50 years or more la
ter, they still wore queer iron helmets;
but they were horsemen's helmets then,
and no longer of service for burrowing
through the bottoms of hedges.
1t Is interesting, however, to note in
these dresses, all of which have been
accurately reproduced for the tourna-
ment, how closely they followed the
fashion of the period. Under James
the cavalrymen wore wigs with long
hair hanging on their shoulders. Under
Charles they wore the well-known huge
felt hats, bigger and more jaunty
than those of to-day.
Still more interesting is it to observe
in these old costumes the development
of the ideas of to-day. One can see in
the cavalry of a century ago the mod
ern idea of mounted infantry, for in that
day the cavalry wore a bayonet. One
can also notice that in all these types
the horsemans sword was not, as is
the case to-day, attached to the horse,
but was slung to the rider, and this
method is to be reintroduced.
But there is one point of development
which is not noticeable. Though the
uniforms become still gayer and more
fantastic, nowhere in the old types of
these FIVE and a quarter centuries is
there any sign of the modern rational
uniform of active service. In fact I'M
til the modern uniform the mounted
archer of Edward III seems to have
been the more serviceably dressed man
for his purpose.