Introductory 9 



are not entirely to be trusted as accurate portrayers of the 

 spurs they depict. Perhaps the most trustworthy source of 

 information, other than the spurs themselves, is derived from 

 effigies ; since a man is more likely to make an accurate copy 

 of a real spur when making an effigy, than the engraver of 

 a brass, who suggests a spur with a few lines only. But effigies 

 are not very numerous, and are so very frequently mutilated. 

 And then in the case of the spurs themselves, how often are 

 they found under conditions which only add to the difficulty 

 of their identification. While those found in museums, attached 

 to suits of armour, are generally open to suspicion ; since it 

 is the foot-pieces which so often are lost, and have been replaced 

 by copies. 



Dredged up from the beds of rivers, fished up from the 

 depths of wells, turned up by the plough, or thrown up by the 

 navvy's shovel, and too often broken in the process — these are 

 the ways in which spurs are most frequently discovered ; rusted 

 and corroded, and generally without one particle of evidence to 

 show how long they have lain subjected to the deleterious 

 influence of water or damp earth. 



Consequently too little is known at the present day of this 

 interesting subject, as is evinced by our seeing frequently in our 

 museums and public collections of armour, spurs arranged upside 

 down — a very common mistake with spurs of the seventeenth 

 century ; and where spurs are attached to suits of armour, they 

 are often of quite a different period, are obvious forgeries, or are 

 attached in a manner not in vogue at the period. 



In the Musde d'Artillerie in Paris, where there is a fine 



