Introductory 15 



not always on the left heel. This carving seems to show that 

 it really was a custom for knights at that period to ride with 

 one spur only, and it has been suggested that it was a custom 

 observed among the Templars. This order took for its badge 

 two men riding upon one horse — as illustrative of their poverty 

 and humility — and it is contended that two men would not 

 want four spurs between them for one unfortunate horse. The 

 Templars certainly took for their badge two men riding upon one 

 horse. But I am not aware that they ever actually carried out 

 the practice in everyday life. Still, the badge may have suggested 

 the idea of one spur. But the custom must have prevailed quite 

 in the early period of the order only, for the practices which led 

 to the suppression of the order in 131 2 were by no means 

 characteristic of either poverty or humility. On the effigies in 

 the Temple Church of Knights Templar, and which range 

 from 1 144 to 1 24 1, there is a spur on each foot in every 

 case. 



I am unable to throw any fresh light upon the matter, 

 but I feel sure that our forefathers did not habitually ride 

 with one spur like butcher-boys. The only suggestion I am 

 able to make, other than that of its being a custom among 

 the early Templars, is that, considering the very early period 

 during which the custom of burying a warrior with one spur 

 only was in vogue — a period when the facilities for making 

 metal implements were in their infancy, and no metal objects 

 with any pretensions to skill in workmanship were so easily 

 come by as they were later — it is possible that when the head 

 of the family died one of his spurs was kept by his relatives 



