Note 66 — DIALOGUE III. ON THE AGE OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.

Besides this sort of hospitality, there was another still more noble and disinterested, which distinguished the early times, especially the purer ages of chivalry. It was customary, it seems, for the great lords to fix up HELMETS on the roofs and battlements of their castles as a signal of hospitality to all adventurers and noble passengers. “Adoncques etoit une coustume en la Grant Bretagne (says the author of the old romance, called Perceforest) et fut tant que charité regna illecque, tous gentils hommes et nobles dames faisoient mettre au plus hault de leur hostel ung heaulme, en SIGNE que tous gentils hommes et gentilles femmes trespassans les chemins, entrassent hardyement en leur hostel comme en leur propre; car leurs biens estoient davantage à tous nobles hommes et femmes trespassans le royaulme.” Vol. iii. fol. 103.