1 66 SPURS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 



and longer necks, and this brings us to the period 

 when the rowel is first noticeable on the great 

 seals. However, rowels are a characteristic of 

 the fourteenth century, and in Henry IV. 's reign 

 to Henry VI., the necks became purposely bent, 

 and enormous spiked rowels were used; "from 

 the heel to the tips of the rowels some were 

 seven inches and a half long." In the sixteenth 



A FOREIGN CROWNED EAGLE PAGEANT SPUR 



(Probably about fourteenth century) 



century, Ripon in Yorkshire was the most cele- 

 brated town in England for the manufacture of 

 spurs. Heavy brass pageant ones, with curved 

 necks, in Henry VIII.'s time, are well worth 

 looking at, and were sure to have been made 

 at Ripon. About this time spurs were worn 

 ornamentally ; they were studded profusely with 

 precious stones, and made of gold or gilt. A 

 pair with exquisite gleaming diamonds in, are 

 said to have been in the possession of Henry, 



