SPURS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 169 



them, or else those which screw on to the heels 

 of their boots. Clergymen and horse-dealers — 

 extremes meet — often wear black spurs, giving 

 their owners concealed power, w^ith the semblance 

 of humility in one case, and of modesty or desire 

 to mark their subordinate position in the other 

 case. Those worn by jockeys are far prettier. 

 They are made of hard steel, owing to their 

 being so extremely thin and light, and are 

 covered with silver plate, put on in four strips. 

 Electro-plating is no good in this trade, and 

 spurs, to be serviceable, must either have the 

 silver brazed or soldered on ; the former is the 

 old Sheffield plate. In addition to those w^e 

 have referred to, polished steel, gilt and brass 

 spurs are much used, chiefly by army men. 



Here let us impress those who pin their faith 

 in "the good old days" that presentation spurs 

 were never in the past so exquisitely chased as 

 those which a skilled hand can make to order at 

 the present time. Any extravagant person can 

 soon prove this by purchasing a five-guinea silver 

 pair, and then comparing them with those which 

 cost an equivalent sum before the reign of Queen 

 Victoria. 



Concerning the pitch of cheapness ill-made 

 foreign spurs have reached, it would be difficult 

 to say. They are manufactured very roughly — 

 no work being put in — so that even if purchasers 

 give merely a franc a pair, it is quite enough for 

 them. 



Spur-money probably conveys nothing to ordi- 

 nary churchgoers in the twentieth century. Yet 



