On the Prick Spur 19 



ends of the sides for the attachment of the straps is, in these 

 early spurs, of precisely the same form as that of the present 

 day — a mushroom-shaped or button-like stud, on which the 

 strap can be buttoned simply by making a slit in the leather. 

 But before the commencement of the Christian era this stud 

 disappeared, not to be resumed again for nearly 2,000 years, at 

 all events not until the end of the seventeenth century. This 

 disappearance is curious, as the arrangement is very simple, 

 presents no great difficulty in the making, and is found at the 

 present day to answer its purpose admirably. But the fact 

 remains that from the Roman period of just before the Christian 

 era, all through the Middle Ages, and down to the time of 

 Charles II., this button-like stud is hardly ever met with, and 

 it did not come into universal use till the time of George II. 



In the museum attached to the Etruscan tombs of the 

 Volumnii, near Perugia, there is a bronze spur, which was found 

 either in the tombs themselves, or in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood, and of which an illustration is given on Plate 4, Fig. i. 

 This spur is in a perfect state of preservation, which points to 

 its having lain in the tombs themselves; these are chambers 

 hewn out of the solid rock, and were discovered in the year 1842, 

 when the contents showed little or no signs of damp. The 

 tombs contain numerous cinerary caskets of the Volumnii family, 

 and date from 250 to 150 b.c. This spur presents all the 

 characteristics of the early metal spurs: very short rounded 

 sides, flattened on the inside, and not projecting forwards on 

 each side of the foot more than two inches and a quarter, and 

 with a slight spread only; consequently they were intended to 



B 2 



