The use of the glove as a challenge, carries us back to the chivalrous days of the armoured knights and ladies fair: the blare of trumpets, the neighing of steeds, the ring of steel as the gauntlet is flung into the lists, and the hush as it is taken up; the lance in rest, the clash of conflict—all, happily, but the romantic picture of the past.

The use of the glove as a gage is very ancient, and it involved the very highest point of honor.

Besides its use in the courts of chivalry, the glove was used in appeals of felony, and in civil disputes as to property. If a man accused of crime took his accuser’s glove on the point of his sword, and in the ensuing combat came out victorious, it was considered sufficient proof of his innocence. The same was true as to disputed ownership of land.

When the sovereign of England was crowned, it was customary for a knight to appear as champion, casting down the gauntlet, and challenging to mortal combat any who dared gainsay the monarch’s right. This ceremony was in use for the last time at the coronation of George IV.

When two knights rode together in combat, it would often happen that one wore in his helmet a dainty glove, a glove far different indeed from the steel one he had so recently taken up, the favor of some fair lady of his love, who was perhaps looking down upon him then. Thus he was for a second time bound to quit himself valiantly by the same token of a glove; a slight thing enough, but one which has ever been bound up with ideas of honor and deeds of knightly valor.